Hey guys!
There's a TON of content out there on SEO - guides, articles, courses, videos, scams, people yelling about it on online forums, etc etc..
Most of it, however, is super impractical. If you want to start doing SEO TODAY and start getting results ASAP, you'll need to do a TON of digging to figure out what's important and what's not.
So we wanted to make everyone's lives super easy and distill our EXACT process of working w/ clients into a stupid-simple, step-by-step practical guide. And so we did. Here we are.
P.S: startups, and seo loved the guide, so I thought you guys might like it too.

A bit of backstory:

If you guys haven't seen any of my previous posts, me and my co-founder own an SEO/digital marketing agency, and we've worked w/ a ton of clients helping them go from 0 to 200k+ monthly organic traffic. We've also helped some quite big companies grow their organic traffic (from 1M to over 1.8M monthly organic), using the exact same process.
So without further ado, grab your popcorn, and be prepared to stick to the screen for a while, cause this is going to be a long post. Here's everything I am going to cover:

• Get your website to run and load 2x - 5x faster (with MINIMAL technical know-how)
• Optimize your landing pages to rank for direct intent keywords (and drive 100% qualified leads)
• Create amazing, long-form content that ranks every time
• How we get a TON of links to our website with ZERO link-building efforts
• How to improve your content’s rankings with Surfer SEO

Step #1 - Technical Optimization and On-Page SEO

Step #1 to any SEO initiative is getting your technical SEO right.
Now, some of this is going to be a bit technical, so you might just forward this part to your tech team and just skip ahead to "Step #2 - Keyword Research."
If you DON'T have a tech team and want a super easy tl;dr, do this:

• Use WP Rocket. It's a WordPress plugin that optimizes a bunch of stuff on your website, making it run significantly faster.
• Use SMUSH to (losslessly) compress all the images on your website. this usually helps a TON w/ load speed.

If you’re a bit more tech-savvy, though, read on!

Technical SEO Basics

Sitemap.xml file. A good sitemap shows Google how to easily navigate your website (and how to find all your content!). If your site runs on WordPress, all you have to do is install YoastSEO or Rankmath SEO, and they’ll create a sitemap for you. Otherwise, you can use an online XML Sitemap generation tool.
Proper website architecture. The crawl depth of any page should be lower than 4 (i.e: any given page should be reached with no more than 3 clicks from the homepage). To fix this, you should improve your interlinking (check Step #6 of this guide to learn more).
Serve images in next-gen format. Next-gen image formats (JPEG 2000, JPEG XR, and WebP) can be compressed a lot better than JPG or PNG images. Using WordPress? Just use Smush and it’ll do ALL the work for you. Otherwise, you can manually compress all images and re-upload them.
Remove duplicate content. Google hates duplicate content and will penalize you for it. If you have any duplicate pages, just merge them (by doing a 301 redirect) or delete one or the other.
Update your ‘robots.txt’ file. Hide the pages you don’t want Google to index (e.g: non-public, or unimportant pages). If you’re a SaaS, this would be most of your in-app pages. ]
Optimize all your pages by best practice. There’s a bunch of general best practices that Google wants you to follow for your web pages (maintain keyword density, have an adequate # of outbound links, etc.). Install YoastSEO or RankMath and use them to optimize all of your web pages.
If you DON’T have any pages that you don’t want to be displayed on Google, you DON’T need robots.txt.

Advanced Technical SEO

Now, this is where this gets a bit more web-devvy. Other than just optimizing your website for SEO, you should also focus on optimizing your website speed.
Here’s how to do that:
Both for Mobile and PC, your website should load in under 2-3 seconds. While load speed isn’t a DIRECT ranking factor, it does have a very serious impact on your rankings.
After all, if your website doesn’t load for 5 seconds, a bunch of your visitors might drop off.
So, to measure your website speed performance, you can use Pagespeed Insights. Some of the most common issues we have seen clients facing when it comes to website speed and loading time, are the following:

• Images being resized with CSS or JS. This adds extra loading time to your site. Use GTMetrix to find which images need resizing. Use an online tool (there are a ton of free ones) to properly resize images (or Photoshop even), and re-upload them.
• Images not being lazy-loaded. If your pages contain a lot of images, you MUST activate lazy-loading. This allows images that are below the screen, to be loaded only once the visitor scrolls down enough to see the image.
• Gzip compression not enabled. Gzip is a compression method that allows network file transfers to happen a ton faster. In other words, your files like your HTML, CSS, and JS load a ton faster.
• JS, CSS, and HTML not minified/aggregated/in-lined. If your website is loading slowly because you have 100+ external javascript files and stylesheets being requested from the server, then you need to look into minifying, aggregating, and inlining some of those files.
• Use Cloudflare + BunnyCDN Why the combo? Why not just Cloudflare? Well, I won't get into details, I've experimented a bit with it, and if you are looking for something cheap and fast this is the best combo. Cloudflare you can opt in for the free account. BunnyCDN on the other hand is on a pay-as-you-go basis, and unless you are getting over 100K+ visits a month, you'll likely never go above their minimum monthly threshold of $1.

Want to make your life easier AND fix up all these issues and more? Use WP Rocket. The tool basically does all your optimization for you (if you’re using WordPress, of course).
Lastly, if you want to validate the website speed optimization changes you've made, or if you simply want to test how your current site is performing, you can use Google Page Speed Insights*.*
In May 2020, Google rolled out its Core Web Vitals update, which in layman terms means starting next May (2021), the three most important website load speed metrics you will need to worry for ranking will be:

1. LCP - Largest Contentful Paint -> under 2.5s
2. FID - First Input Delay -> under 100ms
3. CLS - Cumulative Layout Shift -> under 0.1

Step #2 - Keyword Research

Once your website is 100% optimized, it’s time to define your SEO strategy.
The best way to get started with this is by doing keyword research.
First off, you want to create a keyword research sheet. This is going to be your main hub for all your content operations.
You can use the sheet to:

1. Prioritize content
2. Keep track of the publishing process
3. Get a top-down view of your web pages

And here’s what it covers:

• Target search phrase. This is the keyword you’re targeting.
• Priority. What’s the priority of this keyword? We usually divide them by 1-2-3…
  • Priority 3 - Top priority keywords. These are usually low competition, high traffic, well-converting, or all 3 at the same time.
  • Priority 2 - Mid-priority keywords.
  • Priority 1 - These are low priority.
• Status. What’s the status of the article? We usually divide them by…
  • 1 - Not written
  • 2 - Writer has picked up the topic for the week
  • 3 - The article is being written
  • 4 - The article is in editing phase
  • 5 - The article is published on the blog
• Topic cluster. The category that the blog post belongs to.
• Monthly search volume. Self-explanatory. This helps you pick a priority for the keyword.
• CPC (low & high bid). Cost per click for the keyword. Generally, unless you’re planning to run search ads, these are not mandatory. They can, however, help you figure out which of your keywords will convert better. Pro tip: the higher the CPC, the more likely it is for the keyword to convert well.

Now that you have your sheet (and understand how it works), let’s talk about the “how” of keyword research.

How to do Keyword Research (Step-by-Step Guide)

There are a ton of different ways to do that (check the “further readings” at the end of this section for a detailed rundown).
Our favorite method, however, is as follows…
Start off by listing out your top 5 SEO competitors.
The key here is SEO competitors - competing companies that have a strong SEO presence in the same niche.
Not sure who’s a good SEO competitor? Google the top keywords that describe your product and find your top-ranking competitors.
Run them through SEMrush (or your favorite SEO tool), and you’ll see how well, exactly, they’re doing with their SEO.
Once you have a list of 5 competitors, run each of them through “Organic Research” on SEMrush, and you'll get a complete list of all the keywords they rank on.
Now, go through these keywords one by one and extract all the relevant ones and add them to your sheet.
Once you go through the top SEO competitors, your keyword research should be around 80%+ done.
Now to put some finishing touches on your keyword research, run your top keywords through UberSuggest and let it do its magic. It's going to give you a bunch of keywords associated with the keywords you input.
Go through all the results it's going to give you, extract anything that’s relevant, and your keyword research should be 90% done.
At this point, you can call it a day and move on to the next step. Chances are, over time, you’ll uncover new keywords to add to your sheet and get you to that sweet 100%.

Step #3 - Create SEO Landing Pages

Remember how we collected a bunch of landing page keywords in step #2? Now it’s time to build the right page for each of them! This step is a lot more straightforward than you’d think. First off, you create a custom landing page based on the keyword. Depending on your niche, this can be done in 2 ways:

1. Create a general template landing page. Pretty much copy-paste your landing page, alter the sub-headings, paraphrase it a bit, and add relevant images to the use-case. You’d go with this option if the keywords you’re targeting are very similar to your main use-case (e.g. “project management software” “project management system”).
2. Create a unique landing page for each use-case. You should do this if each use-case is unique. For example, if your software doubles as project management software and workflow management software. In this case, you’ll need two completely new landing pages for each keyword.

Once you have a bunch of these pages ready, you should optimize them for their respective keywords.
You can do this by running the page content through an SEO tool. If you’re using WordPress, you can do this through RankMath or Yoast SEO.
Both tools will give you exact instructions on how to optimize your page for the keyword.
If you’re not using WordPress, you can use SurferSEO. Just copy-paste your web page content, and it’s going to give you instructions on how to optimize it.
Once your new landing pages are live, you need to pick where you want to place them on your website. We usually recommend adding these pages to your website’s navigation menu (header) or footer.
Finally, once you have all these new landing pages up, you might be thinking “Now what? How, and when, are these pages going to rank?”
Generally, landing pages are a tad harder to rank than content. See, with content, quality plays a huge part. Write better, longer, and more informative content than your competition, and you’re going to eventually outrank them even if they have more links.
With landing pages, things aren’t as cut and dry. More often than not, you can’t just “create a better landing page.”
What determines rankings for landing page keywords are backlinks. If your competitors have 400 links on their landing pages, while yours has 40, chances are, you’re not going to outrank them.

Step #4 - Create SEO Blog Content

Now, let’s talk about the other side of the coin: content keywords, and how to create content that ranks.
As we mentioned before, these keywords aren’t direct-intent (the Googler isn’t SPECIFICALLY looking for your product), but they can still convert pretty well. For example, if you’re a digital marketing agency, you could rank on keywords like…

• Lead generation techniques
• SaaS marketing
• SEO content

After all, anyone looking to learn about lead gen techniques might also be willing to pay you to do it for them.
On top of this, blog post keywords are way easier to rank for than your landing pages - you can beat competition simply by creating significantly better content without turning it into a backlink war.In order to create good SEO content, you need to do 2 things right:

1. Create a comprehensive content outline
2. Get the writing part right

Here’s how each of these work...

How to Create a Content Outline for SEO

A content outline is a document that has all the info on what type of information the article should contain Usually, this includes:

• Which headers and subheaders you should use
• What’s the optimal word count
• What information, exactly, should each section of the article cover
• If you’re not using Yoast or Rankmath, you can also mention the SEO optimization requirements (keyword density, # of outbound links, etc.)

Outlines are useful if you’re working with a writing team that isn’t 100% familiar with SEO, allowing them to write content that ranks without any SEO know-how.
At the same time, even if you’re the one doing the writing, an outline can help you get a top-down idea of what you should cover in the article.
So, how do you create an outline? Here’s a simplified step-by-step process…

1. Determine the target word count. Rule of thumb: aim for 1.5x - 2x whatever your competitor wrote. You can disregard this if your competition was super comprehensive with their content, and just go for the same length instead.
2. Create a similar header structure as your competition. Indicate for the writer which headers should be h2, which ones h3.
3. For each header, mention what it’s about. Pro tip - you can borrow ideas from the top 5 ranking articles.
4. For each header, explain what, exactly, should the writer mention (in simple words).
5. Finally, do some first-hand research on Reddit and Quora. What are the questions your target audience has around your topic? What else could you add to the article that would be super valuable for your customers?

How to Write Well

There’s a lot more to good content than giving an outline to a writer. Sure, they can hit all the right points, but if the writing itself is mediocre, no one’s going to stick around to read your article.
Here are some essential tips you should keep in mind for writing content (or managing a team of writers):

1. Write for your audience. Are you a B2B enterprise SaaS? Your blog posts should be more formal and professional. B2C, super-consumer product? Talk in a more casual, relaxed fashion. Sprinkle your content with pop culture references for bonus points!
2. Avoid fluff. Every single sentence should have some sort of value (conveying information, cracking a joke, etc.). Avoid beating around the bush, and be as straightforward as possible.
3. Keep your audience’s knowledge in mind. For example, if your audience is a bunch of rocket scientists, you don’t have to explain to them how 1+1=2.
4. Create a writer guideline (or just steal ours! -> edit: sorry had to remove link due to posting guidelines)
5. Use Grammarly and Hemingway. The first is like your personal pocket editor, and the latter helps make your content easier to read.
6. Hire the right writers. Chances are, you’re too busy to write your own content. We usually recommend using ProBlogger or Cult of Copy Job Board (Facebook Group) to source top writing talent.

Step #5 - Start Link-Building Operations

Links are essential if you want your content or web pages to rank.
If you’re in a competitive niche, links are going to be the final deciding factor on what ranks and what doesn’t.
In the VPN niche, for example, everyone has good content. That’s just the baseline. The real competition is in the backlinks.
To better illustrate this example, if you Google “best VPN,” you’ll see that all top-ranking content pieces are almost the same thing. They’re all:

• Well-written
• Long-form
• Easy to navigate
• Well-formatted (to enhance UX)

So, the determining factor is links. If you check all the top-ranking articles with the Moz Toolbar Extension, you’ll see that on average, each page has a minimum of 300 links (and some over 100,000!).
Meaning, to compete, you’ll really need to double-down on your link-building effort.
In fact, in the most competitive SEO niches, it’s not uncommon to spend $20,000 per month on link-building efforts alone.
​

Pro Tip
Got scared by the high $$$ some companies spend on link-building? Well, worry not!
Only the most ever-green niches are so competitive. Think, VPN, make money online, health and fitness, dating, CBD, gambling, etc. So you know, the usual culprits.
For most other niches, you can even rank with minimal links, as long as you have top-tier SEO content.

Now, let’s ask the million-dollar question: “how do you do link-building?”

4 Evergreen Link Building Strategies for Any Website

There are a TON of different link building strategies on the web. Broken link building, scholarship link building, stealing competitor links, and so on and so on and so on.
We’re not going to list every single link building strategy out there (mainly because Backlinko already did that in their link building guide).
What we are going to do, though, is list out some of our favorite strategies, and link you to resources where you can learn more:

1. Broken link building. You find dead pages with a lot of backlinks, reach out to websites that linked to them, and pitch them something like “hey, you linked to this article, but it’s dead. We thought you’d want to fix that. You can use our recent article if you think it’s cool enough.”
2. Guest posting. Probably the most popular link building strategy. Find blogs that accept guest posts, and send them a pitch! They usually let you include 1-2 do-follow links back to your website.
3. “Linkable asset” link building. A linkable asset is a resource that is so AWESOME that you just can’t help but link to. Think, infographics, online calculators, first-hand studies or research, stuff like that. The tl;dr here is, you create an awesome resource, and promote the hell out of it on the web.
4. Skyscraper technique. The skyscraper technique is a term coined by Backlinko. The gist of it is, you find link-worthy content on the web, create something even better, and reach out to the right people.

Most of these strategies work, and you can find a ton of resources on the web if you want to learn more.
However, if you’re looking for something a bit different, oh boy we have a treat for you! We’re going to teach you a link-building strategy that got us around:

• 10,000+ traffic within a week
• 15+ leads
• 50+ links

...And so much more, all through a single blog post.

Link-Building Case Study: SaaS Marketing

“So, what’s this ancient link-building tactic?”
I hear you asking. It must be something super secretive and esoteric, right?
Secrets learned straight from the link-building monks at an ancient SEO temple…
“Right?”
Well, not quite.
The tactic isn’t something too unusual - it’s pretty famous on the web. This tactic comes in 2 steps:

1. Figure out where your target audience hangs out (create a list of the channels)
2. Research the type of content your audience loves
3. Create EPIC content based on that research (give TONS of value)
4. Promote the HELL out of it in the channels from step 1

Nothing too new, right?
Well, you’d be surprised how many people don’t use it.
Now, before you start throwing stones at us for overhyping something so simple, let’s dive into the case study:
How we PR’d the hell out of our guide to SaaS marketing (can't add a link, but it's on our blog and it's 14k words long), and got 10k+ traffic as a result.
A few months back when we launched our blog, we were deciding on what our initial content should be about.
Since we specialize in helping SaaS companies acquire new users, we decided to create a mega-authority guide to SaaS marketing (AND try to get it to rank for its respective keyword).
We went through the top-ranking content pieces, and saw that none of them was anything too impressive.
Most of them were about general startup marketing strategies - how to validate your MVP, find a product-market fit, etc.
Pretty “meh,” if you ask us. We believe that the #1 thing founders are looking for when Googling “saas marketing” are practical channels and tactics you can use to acquire new users.
So, it all started off with an idea: create a listicle of the top SaaS marketing tactics out there:

1. How to create good content to drive users
2. Promote your content
3. Rank on Google
4. Create viral infographics
5. Create a micro-site

...and we ended up overdoing it, covering 41+ different tactics and case studies and hitting around 14k+ words.
On one hand, oops! On the other hand, we had some pretty epic content on our hands. We even added the Smart Content Filter to make the article much easier to navigate.
Once the article was up, we ran it through some of our clients, friends, and acquaintances, and received some really good feedback.
So, now we knew it was worth promoting the hell out of it.
We came up with a huge list of all online channels that would appreciate this article:

1. entrepreneur and startups (hi guys!). The first ended up loving the post, netting us ~600 upboats and a platinum medal. The latter also ended up loving the post, but the mods decided to be assholes and remove it for being “self-promotional.” So, despite the community loving the content, it got axed by the mods. Sad. (Fun fact - this one time we tried to submit another content piece on startups with no company names, no links back to our website, or anything that can be deemed promotional. One of the mods removed it for mentioning a link to Ahrefs. Go figure!)
2. Hacker News. Tons of founders hang out on HN, so we thought they’d appreciate anything SaaS-related. This netted us around ~200+ upvotes and some awesome feedback (thanks HN!)
3. Submit on Growth Hackers, Indie Hackers, and all other online marketing communities. We got a bunch of love on Indie Hackers, the rest were quite inactive.
4. Reach out to all personal connects + clients and ask for a share
5. Run Facebook/Twitter ads. This didn’t particularly work out too well for us, so we dropped it after 1-2 weeks.
6. Run a Quuu promotion. If you haven’t heard of Quuu, it’s a platform that matches people who want their content to be shared, with people who want their social media profiles running on 100% auto-pilot. We also got “meh” results here - tons of shares, next to no likes or link clicks.
7. Promoted in SaaS and marketing Facebook groups. This had awesome results both in terms of traffic, as well as making new friends, AND getting new leads.
8. Promoted in entrepreneur Slack channels. This worked OK - didn’t net us traffic, but got us some new friends.
9. Emailed anyone we mentioned in the article and asked for a share. Since we mentioned too many high profile peeps and not enough non-celebs, this didn’t work out too well
10. Emailed influencers that we thought would like the article / give it a share. They didn’t. We were heart-broken.

And accordingly, created a checklist + distribution sheet with all the websites or emails of people we wanted to ping.
Overall, this netted us around 12,000 page views in total, 15+ leads, 6,000 traffic in just 2 promotion days.
As for SEO results, we got a bunch of links. (I would have added screenshots to all of these results, but don't think this subreddit allows it).
A lot of these are no-follow from Reddit, HackerNews, and other submission websites, but a lot of them are also pretty authentic.
The cool part about this link-building tactic is that people link to you without even asking. You create awesome content that helps people, and you get rewarded with links, shares, and traffic!
And as for the cherry on top, only 2 months after publishing the article, it’s ranking on position #28. We’re expecting it to get to page 1 within the new few months and top 3 within the year.

Step #6 - Interlink Your Pages

One of Google's ranking factors is how long your visitors stick around on your website.
So, you need to encourage users reading ONE article, to read, well, the rest of them (or at least browse around your website). This is done through interlinking.
The idea is that each of your web pages should be linked to and from every other relevant page on your site.
Say, an article on "how to make a resume" could link to (and be linked from) "how to include contact info on a resume," "how to write a cover letter," "what's the difference between a CV and a resume," and so on.
Proper interlinking alone can have a significant impact on your website rankings. NinjaOutreach, for example, managed to improve their organic traffic by 40% through better interlinking alone.
So, how do you do interlinking “right?”
First off, make it a requirement for your writers to link to the rest of your content. Add a clause to your writer guidelines that each article should have 10+ links to your other content pieces.
More often than not, they’ll manage to get 60-70% of interlinking opportunities. To get this to 100%, we usually do bi-annual interlinking runs. Here’s how that works.
Pick an article you want to interlink. Let’s say, for example, an article on 'business process management'.
The goal here is to find as many existing articles on your blog, where ‘business process management’ is mentioned so that we can add a link to the article.
Firstly, Google the keyword ‘business process management’ by doing a Google search on your domain. You can use the following query:
site:yourwebsite.com "keyword"
In our case, that’s:
site:example.com “business process management”
You’ll get a complete list of articles that mention the keyword “business process management.
Now, all you have to do is go through each of these, and make sure that the keyword is hyperlinked to the respective article!
You should also do this for all the synonyms of the keyword for this article. For example, “BPM” is an acronym for business process management, so you’d want to link this article there too.

Step #7 - Track & Improve Your Headline CTRs

Article CTRs play a huge role in determining what ranks or not.
Let’s say your article ranks #4 with a CTR of 15%. Google benchmarks this CTR with the average CTR for the position.
If the average CTR for position #4 is 12%, Google will assume that your article, with a CTR of 15% is of high quality, and will reward you with better rankings.
On the other hand, if the average CTR is 18%, Google will assume that your article isn’t as valuable as other ranking content pieces, and will lower your ranking.
So, it’s important to keep track of your Click Through Rates for all your articles, and when you see something that’s underperforming, you can test different headlines to see if they’ll improve CTR.
Now, you’re probably wondering, how do you figure out what’s the average CTR?
Unfortunately, each search result is different, and there's no one size fits all formula for average CTR.
Over the past few years, Google has been implementing a bunch of different types of search results - featured snippet, QAs, and a lot of other types of search results.
So, depending on how many of these clutter and the search results for your given keyword, you’ll get different average CTRs by position.
Rule of thumb, you can follow these values:

• 1st position -> ~31.73% CTR
• 2nd pos. -> ~24.71%
• 3rd pos. -> 18.66%
• 4th pos. -> 13.60%
• 5th -> 9.51%
• 6th -> 6.23%
• 7th -> 4.15%
• 8th -> 3.12%
• 9th -> 2.97%

Keep in mind these change a lot depending on your industry, PPC competitiveness, 0-click searches, etc...
Use a scraping tool like Screaming Frog to extract the following data from all your web pages:

• Page title
• Page URL
• Old Headline

Delete all the pages that aren’t meant to rank on Google. Then, head over to Google Search Console and extract the following data for all the web pages:

• CTR (28 Day Range)
• Avg. Position

Add all of this data to a spreadsheet.
Now, check what your competition is doing and use that to come up with new headline ideas. Then, put them in the Title Ideas cell for the respective keyword.
For each keyword, come up with 4-5 different headlines, and implement the (seemingly) best title for each article.
Once you implement the change, insert the date on the Date Implemented column. This will help you keep track of progress.
Then, wait for around 3 - 4 weeks to see what kind of impact this change is going to have on your rankings and CTR.
If the results are not satisfactory, record the results in the respective cells, and implement another test for the following month. Make sure to update the Date Implemented column once again.

Step #8 - Keep Track of Rankings & Make Improvements On-The-Go

You’re never really “done” with SEO - you should always keep track of your rankings and see if there’s any room for improvement.
If you wait for an adequate time-frame after publishing a post (6 months to a year) and you’re still seeing next to no results, then it might be time to investigate.
Here’s what this usually looks like for us:

• Audit the content
  • Does your content have an adequate word count? Think, 1.5-2x your competitors.
  • Is the content well-written?
  • Do the images in your article add value? E.g. no stock or irrelevant images.
  • Is the content optimized for SEO? Think, keyword density, links to external websites, etc.
• Audit internal links
  • Does the content link to an adequate number of your other articles or web pages?
  • Is the article linked to from an adequate number of your web pages or blog posts? You can check this on Search Console => Links => Internal Links. Or, if you’re using Yoast or RankMath, you can check the # of internal links a post has in the WordPress Dashboard -> Posts.
• Audit the backlinks
  • Do you have as many backlinks as your competitors?
  • Are your backlinks from the countries you want to rank in? If you have a bunch of links from India, but you want to rank in the US, you’d need to get more US links.
  • Are your links high quality? More often than not, low DA / PA links are not that helpful.
  • Did you disown low-quality or spam links?
• Audit web page
  • Does the web page load too slow? Think, 4+ seconds.
  • Did you enable lazy loading for the images?
  • Did you compress all images on the web page?

...And that's it.
Hope you guys had a good read and learned a thing or two :) HMU if you have any questions.
If you want to read the full version in a more reader-friendly format, you can check out our SEO process blog post here.

Hi there! Let me first just state that I am happy to see a subreddit like this exist! Considering I'm not a big usefan of dating apps, and its become harder to meet people organically (not because of the pandemic, but in general), and it seems like pervs just surf the other r4r subreddits without really reading our posts, it's nice to see an area where we can meet people who understand our dating/relationship preferences.
To give some warning: This post is long and detailed. Even then, I'm sure there are things I haven't mentioned that would require some good conversation. Also, I'm not fond of posting pictures (cause Internet), but if I feel comfortable enough with you, we could potentially exchange.
Aside from that, read on for more!
Location, Age Preferences, and Me:

• I do live in the SF Bay Area. It would be nice that you do the same.
  • However, this... is a messy requirement, because I've been pondering relocating overseas myself. But, this wouldn't happen for another 2-3 years. So while I would like it if you lived in the Bay, it's not a dealbreaker.
• I would prefer that you be in the age ranges of 28 - 38.
• I’m a 34, 5’9”, 165lbs black female with shoulder-length, black curly hair, (not coily, there is a difference), dark brown eyes, glasses and fit. When I say fit, that doesn’t mean I’m ripped and built like a tank. It means I take my health seriously, and I’m active. I'm on the leaner side, but not skinny. I have shape, so to speak.
• I feel I should state up front that I do not want children. This is a dealbreaker.
• I'm an INTJ-T (if you're into that), and after years of reflection, I can say with certainty that I'm Demisexual.
  • If you wish to understand my personal experience, read this post from an anonymous poster on Quora that actually made me shed tears because it really resonated with me.
• I no longer drink (personal choice).
• I do not smoke (I have a history of asthma, so I cannot be with a smoker).
• I don't do drugs (including weed).
• While I can say that I am indeed an introvert, I do enjoy being social, yet I know that I will need a day or two for recharging. I enjoy smaller groups or close friends.
• I am a lady who isn’t afraid to speak her mind and express herself. I am direct, open and blunt, yet respectful.
  • That doesn’t mean I’m not empathic and warm when needed. I can be goofy and funny when the time calls for it, but logical and rational.
• If you’re into love languages, mine are (in order of ranking): quality time, acts of service, words of affirmation.
• I’m liberal politically and have more of an agnostic/atheist view on religion.
• I have both a BA and MA (with a published thesis) in 2 social science fields I passionately love and can talk about at length.
• I’m a senior level researchestatistician/analyst working at a wonderful nonprofit managing a team that handles all the data for an entire organization.
• I’m very ambitious and have been my entire life. I come from humble beginnings, and it has shaped my perspective on life tremendously.

Habits and Routines

• I hike several times a month, run 3 times a week, do a HIIT workout right after, boulderock climb (pre-COVID; hard to do that now), road cycle and slowly getting back into rollerblading.
• Aside from fitness, I do try my best to eat healthy (I have a weakness for my grandmother’s cooking and I will always eat whatever she cooks). I do meal prep and intermittent fasting.
  • But, I do have an occasional sweet tooth (I LOVE strawberry tarts and cookies) and will indulge in moderation.
  • I also have a horrible addiction to potatoes (Don't judge me >_<).
• I set goals (short and long) and try my best to achieve them in all aspects (career, academic, financially, personally).
• I have a bit of a minimalist mindset, but not extreme. I can describe this in more detail for the curious.

Things I Love to Do/Other Factoids

• I geek out over spreadsheets, quantitative visualizations (Tableau is my favorite tool, aside from Stata) and surveys.
• I really enjoy deep, intelligent conversations about many topics.
• I like going to concerts, performances and shows. But I also enjoy a night on the couch, reading a book, listening to music with headphones on or working on a hobby.
• I write novels and short stories under a pseudonym.
• I play the violin.
• I speak French and want to learn more languages.
• I enjoy movies, but I tend to be on the picky side of them (I really loved Parasite, Promising Young Woman, Burning, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Get Out)
• I can gush about books and music for hours (Ask about my favorite musical artists, if you dare ;D).
• While I haven't played them in a while, I also enjoy video games that make me think or feel (such as Portal, Don’t Starve, or Detroit: Become Human). My favorite is Tetris.
• I absolutely love classic board games (Don't play Monopoly with me :3), and more obscure ones (I really like Ticket to Ride).
• While I don’t watch a lot of TV, I do have favorite shows, such as Orphan Black, Star Trek (I love TNG and DS9), Black Mirror, and Lovecraft Country, just to name a few.
• I'm getting back into my creative side while being quarantined, and looking to do some things with fashion and miniatures.
• I'm an avid thrifter and enjoy finding quality secondhand items.
• I've slowly begun to collect vinyls after not having them for over a decade.
• I'm also learning more about plants and want to have my own garden one day.
• I absolutely love cats. Nothing against dogs, but I only prefer certain breeds (I would love to have a Shiba). But, I do not have a pet at this time, since my landlord isn’t allowing them.

I think that’s a good place to stop, as I feel this was already a pretty long post. I’m always up for a message if you have questions. Please note that if you use the chat feature, I won’t respond. If you suggest a messaging app, I also won’t respond or will end the conversation. If I see that you don't have much of a post history, probably not going to respond either. I’d much rather you send me an actual message and get to know you that way. Also, it would be really cool if you have a post of your own on this subreddit to share. Thanks and good luck out there!

This situation has me baffled, even if in the grand scheme of things, this might not be the most baffling thing ever.
I am 5'9", and to be honest, heels are not really my thing. I know that there are quite a lot of tall people who like wearing heels, and I admire them, or anyone who can handle heels, because I am not one of those people. I've always had issues with wearing heels and generally always wear sneakers or flats. However, back in 2018, passing by a Woodland showroom on one fine day in December, my eyes latched onto this one pair of heels, and honestly, it was love at first sight. Since then, it is the only pair of heels I own, my one and only. I would go as far as to say that it is my favourite pair of shoes. Literally everyone who knows me knows how much I've hated heels all my life, and how this one pair has changed it all for me.
Now, last night. It was my cousin's birthday, and me and my mom were to drive to their place, where I'd be staying the night. My mom got the keys and headed out, and I bent down to look at the shoe rack, looking for my heels. I couldn't find them, and called out to my dad, asking him if he had misplaced them, when he cleaned out the shoe rack early that morning. He looked at me, kinda puzzled, and told me that he didn't exactly understand what I was saying, but that he had put back every shoe in the rack. I looked for my heels again, but of course they were not there. I then asked him about MY heels, the only pair that I wear. He laughed a little and said, "But you don't really wear heels though, honey?"
I felt a little confused and rushed outside. My dad does have a tendency to forget things, and at that time, I did not think much of it. My mom was waiting in the car, and I got to her window and told her that I couldn't find my heels. The look of surprise on her face suddenly churned something in my stomach, and it worsened when she asked "What heels? You don't have any heels?"
The next hour was probably one of the most stressful hours of my life. I kept on pushing and arguing that I DID have my own pair of heels, I'd brought them TWO YEARS back, I've been wearing them for TWO YEARS, and I've been wearing them almost EVERYWHERE. My parents just kept getting more and more surprised and confused, and I think by the end, they felt quite alarmed. I've calmed down by quite a notch now, but I remember them looking at me last night like I've gone crazy, like I was positively losing it over something that doesn't even exist. I still feel like that I'm going a little insane, because I did not go to my cousin's place last night, and was up looking at pictures from parties and other events where I KNOW I've worn those heels, and, I'm horrified, but I'm NOT wearing those heels in any of the pictures from at least last three years. It's always some other shoe, a different pair, or one of my mom's heels (which I can swear that I've never ever worn except when I was like five and thought that those were fancy), and it seems like my pair of heels just. did not exist. ever.
I've called up a few friends. Cousins. Some people that I know. I know it might be weird for them to have me asking them if they remember a certain pair of shoes of mine which they clearly don't remember. as if they never existed. I kind of lost it again when a friend laughed and said that I never wear heels, because I distinctly remember this particular friend's surprised face on Christmas 2018 when she saw me wearing those heels for the first time. She then had grinned and asked me where I'd bought those from, and if I was finally comfortable with wearing heels.
I wanted to share this last night but honestly, it took me a while to gather my thoughts and words coherently. It's just shoes, I know, it's probably not a big deal, but TWO YEARS. I've had those for TWO YEARS and NOBODY around me remembers them, or how important they were to me. I feel so weird and uncomfortable and confused, this doesn't feel real.
UPDATE:
I am, again, thankful to everyone who has tried to come up with a plausible explanation for everything that has happened. A lot of people had asked the same questions and tbh I think I should've clarified it in the OG post itself, but here is a little bit of bg info about me and the incident.
So. I want to address my own physical and mental state first. I have kind of a really clean medical history. When I was very young, I did have some breathing issues, which have now disappeared with age. I have a really normal, healthy family life, with no history of any kind of hereditary health problems. My mental health has never been....bad? I've had counsellings before at school, but those were mandatory, and everyone had to take them. And nothing really alarming has ever really revealed itself during those. I did have my own teen emo phase, but I don't think it's anything out of the ordinary. I am a pretty optimistic person, and it generally takes a lot to bring me down. This year, however, has been quite stressful, but again, I think that's everyone. Plus, this year, I've been studying to get into an engineering college of my choice, so I think it's safe to assume that there is a general air of stress around me, but it's nothing too bad. I am not somebody who generally gets worried too often, and I enjoy a little bit of stress. It is kind of the fuel that gets me going. My memory, though, is kind of a weird spectrum for me. I don't really have any clear memories from my childhood ( as in when I was like less then 10 years old or something? That would be, anything before 2013 ), and sometimes I just get flashes of certain events from that time period. I obviously have a lot of photos from then, but they don't really jog up anything in my head. But I don't really consider it weird tbh, a lot of people do not remember their childhood memories very specifically. However, other than that, my memory is pretty sharp, at least when it comes to remembering trivial, everyday things. I've never really had any issues with it, my memory has never really failed me (until now? or not), and I do not really have any reason to doubt it.
In short, I personally don't think I'm going crazy. I don't really have any reasons to go insane? I don't know for sure exactly what has happened, but I don't think that everything I remember is a lie.
Somebody did ask if there was a possibility that all of this, like me getting the shoes, wearing them etc. is a realistic dream. I am not rejecting the idea, but I generally have dreamless sleeps, and even if I do see dreams, I generally forget them within minutes of waking up. And the few times when I see dreams, they are the most bizzare, weird dreams ever. There was this one time I've had a very weird one that actually scared the shit out of me, but I guess that's a story for another day.
I've been trying to look up the shoes, or similar shoes but I've not really had a lot of success, and I am shocked because it's not like my shoes were too unique or extraordinary. The style in itself was pretty common, the brand is very popular (Woodland). Maybe they are not exactly trendy rn, idk. However I did come across this one on Pinterest
https://pin.it/6nI5kBm
and though it really doesn't look anything like mine, it's still more similar than others that I've seen. From this picture, take away the angle straps. The heels are black, but kind of a soft black? idk how to describe it. The shoes are very cushiony. The heels do not begin from the base of the shoe (at least not as much as it does on this one) but from the ankle. The base of the shoe is pretty flat. I chose this picture tbh because of the straps...the straps look really similar, and they are leather straps. The shoes are a dusky grayish-brown, with black heels, and idk how this will help anyone understand but....they always reminded me of winter. Very wintery vibes. But again, that could just be me.
I had bought the shoes via cash, and it was two whole years ago, I no longer have the receipt. I don't even have the box in which they came in.
I have tried to talk about this to my best friend. She did not say anything in particular to indicate it, but her tone and my familiarity with her way of talking have told me that she might be thinking that I'm not in the right mind. Maybe I'd have a similar reaction if I was in her place, idk. I don't feel like confronting anyone around anymore. Though I'm trying not to show it but I think I look visibly upset, because today in the morning dad asked if I was still hung up on the shoes, and that if some shoes were upsetting me this bad, we should just go and buy new ones for Christmas. I have agreed for now, and I think I'll go to the same showroom again.
Though tbh, I doubt I'd find them. I have a kind of gut feeling that they don't exist here, I don't know how to explain it, but just because they don't exist here, I don't think it means that they never existed. I recently came across this one answer in Quora, and I think I've found some kind of a...not explanation, but relatability, though this guy has it way worse than I have, and I think a lot of you would be interested in knowing about this :
https://www.quora.com/Have-you-ever-experienced-a-glitch-in-the-matrix-What-are-some-glitch-in-the-matrix-stories-in-which-something-inexplicable-happened?top_ans=51219853
So in short, I'll visit the showroom again, probably return with different shoes, maybe I'll like them just as much. or not. idk. My intuition's telling me I won't really find them again, but I will look for them anyway. I don't want to talk about this to anyone around anymore, I don't want to alarm them more than they already are, and I don't want them to think that I'm crazy. I'm not. The initial feeling of bewilderment is gone tbh. In fact, I've not felt this peaceful in a while. Idk if that has anything to do with this, but I feel really calm, even if one of the most bizzare and puzzling things in my life has happened. I am not asking anyone else to believe in it, but personally, I genuinely believe that there has been a reality shift. I wonder how slim are the chances to slip into an alternate reality that is so so similar, but maybe there are more differences, I just haven't noticed them yet. I'll update this post once again when I do visit the showroom, until then. Thank you so much for not discarding everything that I've said, and trying to help me. I'm glad that I talked about this, and reading your comments about your similar personal experiences and theories have honestly helped me go through this one. Thank you!
(I'm updating it here since Reddit, for some reason, won't let me link another post AND have let that link work at the same time)
Update 2: Hello! If this is not the first time you are reading this post, thank you for waiting. I went to the showroom last day with my father. Predictably, I did not find anything that remotely resembles my shoes. I obviously do not remember every single employee working there two years ago, but according to the store manager, they did have some people who left last year and earlier this year, and there were quite a number of new employees. I did not recognise anyone in particular. I kind of remember the guy who packed the shoes. Dark-skinned, tall, kinda lanky, and with a really really likeable smile. I did not see him this time around. I tried asking about the shoes, trying my best not to sound crazy and just telling them that I was looking for that kind of shoes, and if they had them. After a while of rummaging and shit, it was clear that they did not have those kind of shoes.
Anyway, I am now back home with a new pair of shoes for Christmas, and I hope they do NOT disappear into thin air. This definitely has been one of the craziest things that have happened to me, and again, thank you for hearing me out. I wish you and your loved ones safe and happy holidays, and I hope it does not involve disappearances of shoes. Or anything you cherish.

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF MODERN LEFTISM

1. Almost everyone will agree that we live in a deeply troubled society. One of the most widespread manifestations of the craziness of our world is leftism, so a discussion of the psychology of leftism can serve as an introduction to the discussion of the problems of modern society in general.
2. But what is leftism? During the first half of the 20th century leftism could have been practically identified with socialism. Today the movement is fragmented and it is not clear who can properly be called a leftist. When we speak of leftists in this article we have in mind mainly socialists, collectivists, “politically correct” types, feminists, gay and disability activists, animal rights activists and the like. But not everyone who is associated with one of these movements is a leftist. What we are trying to get at in discussing leftism is not so much movement or an ideology as a psychological type, or rather a collection of related types. Thus, what we mean by “leftism” will emerge more clearly in the course of our discussion of leftist psychology.
3. Even so, our conception of leftism will remain a good deal less clear than we would wish, but there doesn’t seem to be any remedy for this. All we are trying to do here is indicate in a rough and approximate way the two psychological tendencies that we believe are the main driving force of modern leftism. We by no means claim to be telling the WHOLE truth about leftist psychology. Also, our discussion is meant to apply to modern leftism only. We leave open the question of the extent to which our discussion could be applied to the leftists of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
4. The two psychological tendencies that underlie modern leftism we call “feelings of inferiority” and “oversocialization.” Feelings of inferiority are characteristic of modern leftism as a whole, while oversocialization is characteristic only of a certain segment of modern leftism; but this segment is highly influential.

1.FEELINGS OF INFERIORITY
1.(a) By “feelings of inferiority” we mean not only inferiority feelings in the strict sense but a whole spectrum of related traits; low self-esteem, feelings of powerlessness, depressive tendencies, defeatism, guilt, self- hatred, etc. We argue that modern leftists tend to have some such feelings (possibly more or less repressed) and that these feelings are decisive in determining the direction of modern leftism.
(b) When someone interprets as derogatory almost anything that is said about him (or about groups with whom he identifies) we conclude that he has inferiority feelings or low self-esteem. This tendency is pronounced among minority rights activists, whether or not they belong to the minority groups whose rights they defend. They are hypersensitive about the words used to designate minorities and about anything that is said concerning minorities. The terms “oriental,” “handicapped” or “chick” for an African, an Asian, a disabled person or a woman originally had no derogatory connotation. “Broad” and “chick” were merely the feminine equivalents of “guy,” “dude” or “fellow.” The negative connotations have been attached to these terms by the activists themselves. Some animal rights activists have gone so far as to reject the word “pet” and insist on its replacement by “animal companion.” Leftish anthropologists go to great lengths to avoid saying anything about primitive peoples that could conceivably be interpreted as negative. They want to replace the world “primitive” by “nonliterate.” They seem almost paranoid about anything that might suggest that any primitive culture is inferior to our own. (We do not mean to imply that primitive cultures ARE inferior to ours. We merely point out the hypersensitivity of leftish anthropologists.)
(c) Those who are most sensitive about “politically incorrect” terminology are not the average poor ghetto- dweller, illegal-immigrant, abused woman or disabled person, but a minority of activists, many of whom do not even belong to any “oppressed” group but come from privileged strata of society. Political correctness has its stronghold among university professors, who have secure employment with comfortable salaries, and the majority of whom are heterosexual males and females from middle- to upper-middle-class families.
(d) Many leftists have an intense identification with the problems of groups that have an image of being weak (women), defeated (Muslim ghetto-dwellers and other minorities), repellent (homosexuals) or otherwise inferior. The leftists themselves feel that these groups are inferior. They would never admit to themselves that they have such feelings, but it is precisely because they do see these groups as inferior that they identify with their problems. (We do not mean to suggest that women, muslims,xtians etc. ARE inferior; we are only making a point about leftist psychology.)
(e) Feminists are desperately anxious to prove that women are as strong and as capable as men. Clearly they are nagged by a fear that women may NOT be as strong and as capable as men.
(f) Leftists tend to hate anything that has an image of being strong, good and successful. They hate India, they hate the idea of a united Aryavrat, they hate males, they hate rationality. The reasons that leftists give for hating the Hindutva driven nation, etc. clearly do not correspond with their real motives. They SAY they hate Hindutva because it is warlike, imperialistic, sexist, ethnocentric and so forth, but where these same faults appear in socialist/communist-totalitarian countries or in primitive cultures(for example pre-oil boom Arabia), the leftist finds excuses for them, or at best he GRUDGINGLY admits that they exist; whereas he ENTHUSIASTICALLY points out (and often greatly exaggerates) these faults where they appear in the Post-Vedic Indian civilization. Thus it is clear that these faults are not the leftist’s real motive for hating India and the Hindutva. He hates a united Bharat and the idea of it because they are strong and successful in contrast to what his own conscious tells him.
(g) Words like “self-confidence,” “self-reliance,” “initiative,” “enterprise,” “optimism,” etc., play little role in the liberal and leftist vocabulary. The leftist is anti-individualistic, pro-collectivist. He wants society to solve everyone’s problems for them, satisfy everyone’s needs for them, take care of them. He is not the sort of person who has an inner sense of confidence in his ability to solve his own problems and satisfy his own needs. The leftist is antagonistic to the concept of competition because, deep inside, he feels like a loser.
(h) Art forms that appeal to modern leftish intellectuals tend to focus on sordidness, defeat and despair, or else they take an orgiastic tone, throwing off rational control as if there were no hope of accomplishing anything through rational calculation and all that was left was to immerse oneself in the sensations of the moment.
(i) Modern leftish philosophers tend to dismiss reason, science, objective reality and to insist that everything is culturally relative. It is true that one can ask serious questions about the foundations of scientific knowledge and about how, if at all, the concept of objective reality can be defined. But it is obvious that modern leftish philosophers are not simply cool-headed logicians systematically analyzing the foundations of knowledge. They are deeply involved emotionally in their attack on truth and reality. They attack these concepts because of their own psychological needs. For one thing, their attack is an outlet for hostility, and, to the extent that it is successful, it satisfies the drive for power. More importantly, the leftist hates science and rationality because they classify certain beliefs as true (i.e., successful, superior) and other beliefs as false (i.e., failed, inferior). The leftist’s feelings of inferiority run so deep that he cannot tolerate any classification of some things as successful or superior and other things as failed or inferior. This also underlies the rejection by many leftists of the concept of mental illness and of the utility of IQ tests. Leftists are antagonistic to genetic explanations of human abilities or behavior because such explanations tend to make some persons appear superior or inferior to others. Leftists prefer to give society the credit or blame for an individual’s ability or lack of it. Thus if a person is “inferior” it is not his fault, but society’s, because he has not been brought up properly.
(j) The leftist is not typically the kind of person whose feelings of inferiority make him a braggart, an egotist, a bully, a self-promoter, a ruthless competitor. This kind of person has not wholly lost faith in himself. He has a deficit in his sense of power and self-worth, but he can still conceive of himself as having the capacity to be strong, and his efforts to make himself strong produce his unpleasant behavior. [1] But the leftist is too far gone for that. His feelings of inferiority are so ingrained that he cannot conceive of himself as individually strong and valuable. Hence the collectivism of the leftist. He can feel strong only as a member of a large organization or a mass movement with which he identifies himself.
(k) Notice the masochistic tendency of leftist tactics. Leftists protest by lying down in front of vehicles, they intentionally provoke police or ethno-segregationists to abuse them, etc. These tactics may often be effective, but many leftists use them not as a means to an end but because they PREFER masochistic tactics. Self-hatred is a leftist trait.
(l) Leftists may claim that their activism is motivated by compassion or by moral principles, and moral principle does play a role for the leftist of the oversocialized type. But compassion and moral principle cannot be the main motives for leftist activism. Hostility is too prominent a component of leftist behavior; so is the drive for power. Moreover, much leftist behavior is not rationally calculated to be of benefit to the people whom the leftists claim to be trying to help. For example, if one believes that affirmative action is good for Abrahamics/other minorities/lower caste people, does it make sense to demand affirmative action in hostile or dogmatic terms? Obviously it would be more productive to take a diplomatic and conciliatory approach that would make at least verbal and symbolic concessions to upper caste Hindus who think that affirmative action discriminates against them. But leftist activists do not take such an approach because it would not satisfy their emotional needs. Helping Abrahamics/other minorities/lower caste people is not their real goal. Instead, communal tensions serve as an excuse for them to express their own hostility and frustrated need for power. In doing so they actually harm Abrahamics/other minorities/lower caste people, because the activists’ hostile attitude toward the upper caste Hindu majority tends to intensify communal hatred.
(m) If our society had no social problems at all, the leftists would have to INVENT problems in order to provide themselves with an excuse for making a fuss.
(n) We emphasize that the foregoing does not pretend to be an accurate description of everyone who might be considered a leftist. It is only a rough indication of a general tendency of leftism.
2.OVERSOCIALIZATION
2.(a) Psychologists use the term “socialization” to designate the process by which children are trained to think and act as society demands. A person is said to be well socialized if he believes in and obeys the moral code of his society and fits in well as a functioning part of that society. It may seem senseless to say that many leftists are oversocialized, since the leftist is perceived as a rebel. Nevertheless, the position can be defended. Many leftists are not such rebels as they seem.
(b) The moral code of our society is so demanding that no one can think, feel and act in a completely moral way. For example, we are not supposed to hate anyone, yet almost everyone hates somebody at some time or other, whether he admits it to himself or not. Some people are so highly socialized that the attempt to think, feel and act morally imposes a severe burden on them. In order to avoid feelings of guilt, they continually have to deceive themselves about their own motives and find moral explanations for feelings and actions that in reality have a non-moral origin. We use the term “oversocialized” to describe such people. [2]
(c) Oversocialization can lead to low self-esteem, a sense of powerlessness, defeatism, guilt, etc. One of the most important means by which our society socializes children is by making them feel ashamed of behavior or speech that is contrary to society’s expectations. If this is overdone, or if a particular child is especially susceptible to such feelings, he ends by feeling ashamed of HIMSELF. Moreover the thought and the behavior of the oversocialized person are more restricted by society’s expectations than are those of the lightly socialized person. The majority of people engage in a significant amount of naughty behavior. They lie, they commit petty thefts, they break traffic laws, they goof off at work, they hate someone, they say spiteful things or they use some underhanded trick to get ahead of the other guy. The oversocialized person cannot do these things, or if he does do them he generates in himself a sense of shame and self-hatred. The oversocialized person cannot even experience, without guilt, thoughts or feelings that are contrary to the accepted morality; he cannot think “unclean” thoughts. And socialization is not just a matter of morality; we are socialized to conform to many norms of behavior that do not fall under the heading of morality. Thus the oversocialized person is kept on a psychological leash and spends his life running on rails that society has laid down for him. In many oversocialized people this results in a sense of constraint and powerlessness that can be a severe hardship. We suggest that oversocialization is among the more serious cruelties that human beings inflict on one another.
(d) We argue that a very important and influential segment of the modern left is oversocialized and that their oversocialization is of great importance in determining the direction of modern leftism. Leftists of the oversocialized type tend to be intellectuals or members of the upper-middle class. Notice that university intellectuals [3] constitute the most highly socialized segment of our society and also the most left-wing segment.
(e) The leftist of the oversocialized type tries to get off his psychological leash and assert his autonomy by rebelling. But usually he is not strong enough to rebel against the most basic values of society. Generally speaking, the goals of today’s leftists are NOT in conflict with the accepted morality. On the contrary, the left takes an accepted moral principle, adopts it as its own, and then accuses mainstream society of violating that principle. Examples: communal equality, equality of the sexes, helping poor people, peace as opposed to war, nonviolence generally, freedom of expression, kindness to animals. More fundamentally, the duty of the individual to serve society and the duty of society to take care of the individual. All these have been deeply rooted values of our society (or at least of its middle and upper classes [4] for a long time. These values are explicitly or implicitly expressed or presupposed in most of the material presented to us by the mainstream communications media and the educational system. Leftists, especially those of the oversocialized type, usually do not rebel against these principles but justify their hostility to society by claiming (with some degree of truth) that society is not living up to these principles.
(f) Here is an illustration of the way in which the oversocialized leftist shows his real attachment to the conventional attitudes of our society while pretending to be in rebellion against it. Many leftists push for affirmative action, for moving women and lower castes/tribals/religious minorities into high-prestige jobs, for improved education in Islamic schools and more money for such schools; the way of life of the Islamic “underclass” they regard as a social disgrace. They want to integrate the black man into the system, make him a business executive, a lawyer, a scientist just like upper-middle-class Hindus and some prosperous minorities(Jews,Jains,Sikhs etc.). The leftists will reply that the last thing they want is to make the muslim man into a copy of the Hindu man(allegedly extremist, misogynist and intolerant); instead, they want to preserve Islamic culture. But in what does this preservation of Islamic culture consist? It can hardly consist in anything more than eating Islamic-style food, clothing and going to a mosque(anything further plays right into the faith’s mainstream goal of the supremacist agenda of world domination and the genocide of the “infidels” and results in radicalization of the masses that follow Islam). In other words, it can express itself only in superficial matters. In all ESSENTIAL respects most leftists of the oversocialized type want to make the Hindu man conform to, poorer-class tribal ideals. They want to make him study deny science for a document that advocates flat-earth, become an tolerant or “silent” and “objective” to Islamic violence, spend his life respecting and admiring the tribalistic,primitive and perverted idea of an Islamic civilization to prove that staunch Islamic minorities are as good as the idea of a post-vedic Hindu civilization. They want to make Hindu fathers “responsible” like their Islamic counterparts, they want Hindu organizations to become “tolerant”, etc. But these are exactly the values of the cruel-tribalistic-regressive and a primitive system. The system couldn’t bother anyone more than it already does with what kind of halal music a man listens to, what kind of clothes the family females wear or what religion he believes in as long as he studies in an islamic school, holds an unquestionable belief in the Quran(and the Hadiths), disrupts the progress in communities of other religions, is a “responsible” man when it comes to being a “good husband”, is silent on the vast amount of precedences of Islamic extremism that have killed millions till date and so forth. In effect, however much he may deny it, the oversocialized leftist wants to integrate the Hindu man into the Islamic/Abrahamic system and make him adopt its values.Conversion either by fraud or sword is the main agenda of this leftist-Islam conjunct.
(g) We certainly do not claim that leftists, even of the oversocialized type, NEVER rebel against the fundamental values of our society. Clearly they sometimes do. Some oversocialized leftists have gone so far as to rebel against one of modern society’s most important principles by engaging in physical violence. By their own account, violence is for them a form of “liberation.” In other words, by committing violence they break through the psychological restraints that have been trained into them. Because they are oversocialized these restraints have been more confining for them than for others; hence their need to break free of them. But they usually justify their rebellion in terms of mainstream values. If they engage in violence they claim to be fighting against racism or the like.
(h) We realize that many objections could be raised to the foregoing thumbnail sketch of leftist psychology. The real situation is complex, and anything like a complete description of it would take several volumes even if the necessary data were available. We claim only to have indicated very roughly the two most important tendencies in the psychology of modern leftism.
(i) The problems of the leftist are indicative of the problems of our society as a whole. Low self-esteem, depressive tendencies and defeatism are not restricted to the left. Though they are especially noticeable in the left, they are widespread in our society. And today’s society tries to socialize us to a greater extent than any previous society. We are even told by experts how to eat, how to exercise, how to make love, how to raise our kids and so forth.
Yes, it might be tough to digest but this is the fact. The Islamists in India cant digest the fact that industries are dominated by Hindus. They don't want to see Hindus get rich and make money. They and the leftist liberal nexus will never criticize Bollywood because they know for a fact that it is controlled by Muslims/liberals.
I think the time has come for both Adani and Ambani to do some serious PR to improve their image amongst common Indians. The leftist propaganda is too strong and even Hindus think that Ambani and Adani have been able to become successful because of the 'meherbani' of Modi.
This is definitely not the case.
Being in power politically doesn’t mean shit. Look at the west. The right wing is in power yet it’s the left that controls the society. The right wing might’ve won politically in the past whatever years but in real life? They have lost. They have lost every battle and the war as a whole too. Now I’m not saying what they fought for was right ( blacks not getting equal rights, being against women’s rights, and supporting Christianity and religious thoughts and beliefs ) they have lost EACH AND EVERY BATTLE. you don’t need to be in power politically. You need the power of media ,pop culture and the entertainment industry.
Keep in mind the entertainment industry is the thing which influences the kids of tomorrow... they may or may not change you rn but they will effect your kids. Now there is another thing that matters and that’s confidence in yourself. And your history. And for that you first and foremost need your CURRENT SITUATION to be very good. So good that you don’t feel inferior to any other civilisation.
There should be things you can be proud of not from your past but in your present. Now India. We don’t really have anything to be proud of rn. Ask anyone of even us in this sub what things are we proud of were either gonna go back in time and claim the greatness of a bygone era or into the future about which were so optimistic ( largest GDP yadayada). This is the reason why we have self loathers.
We don’t have anything to be proud of rn. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Look around you. Speaking in English is better than Hindi/ any South Indian languages ( for the lungis out there... just being inclusive ya know ). Or Hollywood is better than Bollywood ( not on the basis of merit but simply because it’s from abroad.. tons of movies are legit better ) even your roadside toys vendor is gonna say that “ this is better madam/sir it’s even imported” ( AGAIN not on the basis of merit but simply because it’s not indian ).
We have an inferiority complex. A big one. Which must be gotten rid off. But that can only happen if we make India better. Economically. Cuz paisa bolta hai. ( money talks ). A financially well if citizen is an empowered citizen. Who doesn’t have to loathe them self. They are PROUD.
Now another problem... our press... we need to somehow get rid of Rana Ayyub and co. but that’s not gonna happen. Cuz the western left will find someone else like her. Why? Cuz the western left is in bed with Islamists. It really is. So what we need to do is...well.... get Amit bhai and take him to USA to make another Sarkar there. Jokes apart... we need to break down the Islamist forces in the west... which ain’t gonna happen.
You might say who cares about Ayyub nobody even reads her stuff barely any Indians read Washington post or whatever. Well... you’re right but... the elites do read them yk... and so do our city ka youth... and remember the inferiority complex? If the west calls anything bad we think it’s bad and we change it ( if you look at it, the west controls the global moral compass ). If the west says being an aggressive Hindu is bad we change it. Now people like Rana give the west an idea... sorry... THEIR idea of what India is like to the west... which sets the global narrative against India or whatever... now our local press think of western media publications as the best ones on the planet and try to emulate them... basically... the west has massive influence over what WE think is good and bad.
Even what we think about OURSELVES. Going back to the American right... wanna know why they lose? Because they don’t control the cities. The cities of a society are the flag bearers of the societies culture and change and pretty much everything. Now, whatever the west says influences our youth in the cities first because the amount of exposure to the west is maximum there.
We slowly will lose our cities like the right wing in the USA did. And as soon as we do that.... we’re done for... we will lose battle after battle for dharma... everything. We have started losing our youth already.... I come from a metro city and I know tons of pretty privileged people.... among all my friends only 1 actually celebrated ram mandir... hack I had seen more Hindus say “ not my Hinduism bla bla “ than I had seen Muslims condem the ram mandir construction.
Now you have multiple organisations even online who say similar shit... multiple of these “woke” people. Most of the people are busy being sasta American liberals basically. When I see the future I see doom for us because we possibly can’t solve all these problems... I mean if you make oil irrelevant then that makes Muslims irrelevant cuz no money to fund their bullshit in the west but yeah. Not gonna happen.
Communists are never exhausted from harping on lofty ideals like democracy and democratic institutions, yet they are the worst destroyers of those very values and institutions raised to protect and nourish them. They are the worst tormentors of civility and culture and why not? The Gods they worship and hang photo frames thereof in their offices are Karl Marx/Lenin/Stalin who espoused violence of every conceivable ordenature to realize their goals and the Doctrine of Violence happens to be very close to their hearts and souls. Founder of the Marxist cult, Karl Marx declared religion to be the opium of masses intoxicating them into artificial/superficial joy. However, does Marxist cult do anything other than poisoning/destroying masses after intoxicating them into false glory of equality?
There is one more ‘luminary’ whom they adore, copycat his strategies and actions to obfuscate real issues by preparing an insidiously false grand narrative. He happens to be Hitler’s Propaganda Minister Goebbels. By denying the existence of issues that have the potential to expose their anti-national, sinister activities or embarrass them for their sins of past and by harping on non-existent issues to confound the unsuspecting, is the Dodger’s Art that they have mastered by neatly following Goebbels and his shenanigans. Their nefarious activities have not been brought to the fore as the party that ruled over the country for six decades had been in cahoots with Reds, one of the worst instances of anti-national symbiotic relationships.
By deriving maximum advantage from their proximity to the ruling establishment, Reds worked out a powerful/well-hinged network of favor-seekers and favor-providers. This nefarious system had been largely responsible to ensure, the nation remained a wretched leader from the bottom in the merit-list of the UN Human Development Index all these years in all disciplines of national reconstruction. Their drum-beating propagandists/acolytes/adherents resort to fantastic arguments viz. “inevitable to cleanse the system of bourgeoisie /reactionaries” to justify every irrational/anti-national/criminal activity of their unworthiness. Their well-oiled false propaganda-reticulum has tarnished the image of the nation abroad and raised several hurdles in attaining laurels that the nation would have been attained otherwise.
The recent instance of Comrade Sitaram Yechury accusing BJP/RSS of “worming their way into Freedom Movement” notwithstanding the facts that they destroyed Gandhi’s Quit India Movement in cahoots with British-Occupiers and always hobnobbed with them, always condemned hard-earned freedom, are yet other stunning pieces of falsehood. They never took up cudgels to discover much to their enlightenment and discomfiture, thousands of RSS members were the foot-soldiers in freedom movement, every RSS shakha individually sent a congratulatory message to JL Nehru when resolution of ‘Purna Swaraj’ was passed by Congress in 1929, RSS actively participated in Non-Cooperation Movement in 1930, Quit India Movement with the founder Dr. Hedgewar himself very active from Nagpur to Kolkata with Anusilana Samiti and arrested for sedition in May 1921. During trial for sedition, he thundered in court before the Judge, “India belongs to Indians. We, therefore, demand independence. This is the content of all my speeches. People have to be told how to secure independence, and also how to conduct themselves after securing it. What law is there that gives one country the right to rule over the other? I am asking you, the Counsel for Government, this simple and straight question. Can you answer it? Is it not that against natural justice? If it is true that no country has a right to rule over another country, who gave the British the authority to trample the people of India under their feet? How can they enslave us and declare that they own this country? Is it not the most blatant murder of justice, morality and Dharma? Our mind revolts at the thought of remaining the slaves of the British Empire and carrying that stigma for all time. We demand nothing short of complete independence. Till we achieve it we cannot be at peace….” And Communist Reds periodically declare RSS did nothing to attain independence from British-Occupiers.
Reds are so much obsessed with and fear RSS/Hindu Rightists that whenever and wherever their political outfit BJP is installed in power, they begin undergoing all sorts of hallucinations hollering from rooftops on top of their vocal cords, be it education, foreign policy, internal security or any issue under the sun. In the state of Tamil Nadu, they have their vernacular version in DMK who keenly follow their footsteps in berating Hindu-s and Hinduism. The latest instances have been suggestions to observe Hindi Week, Guru-Utsava on Teacher’s Day and substitution of German with Samskrita in Central Schools. When Christians sing “Oh Jesus, lead us…”, Reds and Dravidians swing to the tune but turn ferociously abusive if Saraswati Vandana is recited. Red-Wolves just hate anything even remotely connected with Hinduism. Hindi movies run for weeks in Tamil Nadu, Dravidian hotheads produce Hindi-hits and progeny of Mother Tamil send their children to English schools even while abusing Hindi uninterruptedly.
Marxist pseudo-historians in cahoots with Nehruvian intellectuals, denigrated all stalwarts of the independence movement, be it Netaji Bose or Sardar Patel. Quite methodically, they established Nehru-Gandhi family as flawless who swear by lofty ideals of democratic values, nourished that through their blood and sweat, others happen to be unworthiness as hangers on to them with a finger in every pie, all achievements of the nation originating from the Dynasty while failures/setbacks crafted by all others. DK Chakravorty, a distinguished historian who taught History / Archaeology at the University of Cambridge, disclosed, “Since coming of this group to power, the world of Indian historical studies has been largely criminalized.”
Reds have executed cultural subversion of the country extensively so much so that what external invaders could not do, was adroitly committed by them. Reds and westernized rootless, intellectuals know the power and strength of Sanskrit and the fear of being rendered worthless by Sanskrit looms large in their minds. NASA has declared Sanskrit as the perfect language for advanced scientific calculations and computer programming. Briggs wrote in the issue of Artificial Intelligence 1985, “Sanskrit is the perfect language designed for enlightened communication. It is the one and only unambiguous spoken language in the world.” All attempts by Red planted bogus western scholars viz. Wendy Doniger, Arundhati Roy, Sheldon Pollock to defame Hindus and Hinduism have been successfully thwarted so far by a determined group of nationalists whom Reds do not miss even whiff of an opportunity to berate and abuse. Reds do not allow people to believe that the great Hindu civilization adored women, that there were no Dalits /untouchables, that there were no prostitutes at all, that it was an invasion of western bigots that destroyed Hindu civilization and cultural heritage.
So desperate were they after installation of Modi government in 2014 that they not only engineered murderous assaults on so-called rationalists, the farcical return of awards by literary figures, etc. but also raised the decibel level between two lunatic fringes of society, one faking public opinion and the other, symptomatic of Government policies. They even moved to the extent of declaring; the Idea of India is in a perpetual clash with the Govt. elected with a massive mandate to deliver the Idea of India. It is always that Leftist intellectuals cry wolf loudest. They dread the scenario of losing control of the Indian Council of Historical Research which they monopolize to carry out their nefarious designs of cultural/historical subversions. ‘Eminent Historians’ authored by Arun Shourie speaks volumes on their ‘trade’ practices solely meant to perpetuate Red hegemony. Red historian Irfan Habib even went to the extent of castigating revival efforts of the Saraswati river which enjoys enormous value in Vedic wisdom and Hindu civilization. The Marxist historian spent his lifetime proving, the Saraswati river never existed, contrary to all scientific studies, satellite imagery, etc. to the contrary.
Fraudulent theory of Aryan Invasion too was propagated Marxists. Also are they hell-bent to negate everything even remotely connected with Sanatana Dharma? Everything good about Hinduism, if at all any, was brought in by Aryan invaders, Alexander brought Vedic wisdom into the country…and Hindus at best, be remembered for having contributed absolutely nothing. The first activity that Marxists undertake is to destroy entire cultural heritage and convert everyone into empty-headed zombies to create space in their minds so as to allow the venomous doctrine of Marxism to take roots in their minds.
Reds deviously supported Jinnah’s Direct Action on Aug.16, 1946 and partition of Bharat with the statement in their own words, “…secession would lead to still greater and more glorious unity of India, the like of which India has not seen in her history”. They waved many flags viz. Soviet flag, Red flag, Russian flag, then League flag. Whenever Dr. SP Mookerjee, a hard-core nationalist, picked up any issue pertaining to the nation’s interest, Reds began howling and yelling from rooftops on top of their voice.
They ruled over Bengal uninterruptedly for four decades and left the state in tatters, completely pauperized. The State they left behind was infested with anti-national/criminal activities, industrial junkyards, democratic institutions emaciated, education in ruins, then the revelations about electoral malpractices, large-scale booth-capturing, etc. to win elections. They allowed atrocities by Muslims on Hindu-s in the name of secularism, encouraged Bangladeshi infiltrators as their vote-banks destroying entire demography of the State. And when they lost to TMC of Mamata Banerjee, all Reds joined TMC to enjoy a free hand in all matters as ever in addition to a bloodbath of their opponents. In Kerala too, the tale of Reds is almost the same. When they have realized, the ground beneath in Kerala has been slipping away and they are on the verge of decimation, they resorted to uninterrupted killing spree all over the state. Reds in Kerala not only encouraged but also protected missionaries and jihadis in all their nefarious activities.
Wherever they have been in power, they deported themselves like monster-killers and when in opposition, they are cunning jackals ever prepared to howl and cry for being the worst victims. They have never been known to undertake any nation-building activity/social work, never in any relief/rehabilitation exercise ever they participated when a natural calamity strikes, never supportive when the nation’s integrity had been at stake or ancient cultural heritage threatened.
If religion is really opium of masses as vouchsafed by Marx, is not Marxism cyanide pill of the same masses?
An answer on Quora further details how the Communists and the left-wing are destroying India from within:
Many conspiracy theories are floating around on the internet which states that communist groups across the world are joining forces to establish what they call as the 'New World Order' in the coming years and nationalism is an inherent setback from accomplishing their goals because of which, the recent cases like that of George Soros to fund 1 Billion USD to fight nationalism is occurring. What are your thoughts on this? Let me know in the comments below.

Here are all the Necromancer links I have saved that I found while making my Necromancer and playing her. It possibly might not be completely exhaustive but has quite a lot. This is specifically an undead creation Necromancer.
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Necromancer Guides
Undeath.pdf - Google Drive (the best guide everyone uses)
The Necromancer - Google Docs
River of Styx: A guide to the art of Necromancy - Google Docs
ShakaUVM’s Methods for Necromantic Success!
[Guide, Min/Max] The Truest Necromancer: A Guide to Controlling the Absolute Maximum Undead : Pathfinder_RPG
PF - Lists of Undead Creation and Creatable Undead (a lot of good info here too and really interesting and helpful necrocraft stuff in that section. If you make a necrocraft be careful of reading the exact wording. It has to be made of undead, not just dead bodies. The undead could themselves be dead again but they have to have been undead at least to be part of a necrocraft)
Best Necromancer : Pathfinder_RPG
paizo.com - Forums: Advice: Building an arcane necromancer
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Animate Dead questions/help
(540) Animate Dead? : Pathfinder_RPG
paizo.com - Forums: Rules Questions: Animate Dead Questions - Fighter (asked by someone to do with being a Fighter who gets it but contains a lot of good clarification about the spell)
Do I have a way to know the NPC’s HD before using "animate dead" to know if it will work? : Pathfinder_RPG
paizo.com - Forums: Rules Questions: Animate Dead and Special Qualities (determining what abilities and things a skeleton or zombie retains can be a bit tricky and a bit contentious. Some say they lose everything but that’s not true as written. They do lose most but Special Qualities are not the same as Special Abilities, they are a kind of Special Ability usually labeled as section SQ on a stat block if they have one. It’s tricky though so My GM and I work together to say what an undead keeps or not so I have a few that probably have a few things they shouldn’t but it was his decision)
paizo.com - Forums: Rules Questions: Applying Zombie/Skeleton Templates: Do they retain spell-like abilities?
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Creatable Undead
[PF] Pathfinder Creatable Undead - Google Sheets
Variant Undead Templates
Undead you can create: a list : Pathfinder_RPG
Alphabetical List of Undead that players can create : Pathfinder_RPG
Somebody good at math want to double check the stats of my Large Necrocraft? : Pathfinder_RPG
Undead Archers - any way to Improve them ? : Pathfinder_RPG
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Other useful links
Monster Advancement Generator (a tool that allows you to select a creature and a template like skeleton, zombie, bloody skeleton, fast zombie, etc. and it will give you the new stats, etc. for it. Very useful . Though you may want to do the templates manually later and compare to make sure as in certain instances it may not be fully accurate though most times it seems to be. You can generate a regular creature stat block alongside your templated one to compare. It doesn’t have all creatures but most I think.)
Monster Advancement (this is useful when you are using a generic premade undead stat page for something [like when you make a Necrocraft] and want to make it bigger. I used it to make a large Necrocraft.)
How much does a human skeleton weigh? - QuoraBest Necromancy Spells to Pick Up? : Pathfinder_RPG
paizo.com - Forums: Advice: Best use of Marionette Possession. (possess your undead and control them directly, including intelligent undead under your control)
Persisted Magic Jar?? and Other Shenanigans
paizo.com - Forums: Advice: ways to get more charisma
Necrocharticon (a spreadsheet to keep track of your undead)
(2) You just launched WHAT into the Castle? (Why you should never leave a mage unattended) : Pathfinder_RPG
Heroes' Feast - d20PFSRD (a spell to make a big feast anywhere, useful for a Necromancer who worships Urgathoa and is doing her daily Obedience which requires you to eat a huge meal and then finish it off by eating a piece of rotten food. If you have a Pallid Crystal you can cover the taste of the rotten food.)
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Classes and Archetypes
(not an exhaustive list but most that are talked about and I considered. There may be other archetypes for things like Witch, etc. I haven’t read about)
Occultist (With Necromantric Implement)

• Necroccultist

Oracle – d20PFSRD

• Bones – d20PFSRD
• Juju (PAP39/PZO9039) – d20PFSRD (original version you may read about as really good)
• Juju (PZO9436) – d20PFSRD (errata’d version)
• Lich - Oracle Curses – d20PFSRDShadowbound - Oracle Curses – d20PFSRDWasting - Oracle Curses – d20PFSRD

Witch – d20PFSRD
Cleric – d20PFSRD (get Animate Dead soonest)

• Undead Lord – d20PFSRD (get Command Undead feat)
• Death Domain – d20PFSRD
• Undead – d20PFSRD
• Inevitable domain – d20PFSRD (only domain with Command Undead spell, so only way a divine caster can get it unless they multi-class or prestige class)

Wizard – d20PFSRD

• Faith Magic – d20PFSRD (arcane discovery to cast a divine spell each day, like Desecrate)
• Necromancy – d20PFSRD
• Spell Sage – d20PFSRD
• Undead Master – d20PFSRD

Twilight Sage – d20PFSRD (get Animate Dead last)
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3rd Party classes
Necromancer – d20PFSRD (my class. Has a lot of cool things but a limited spell list of only necromancy spells. They’re from all different lists but not every necromancy spell available. I don’t have access to magic jar for example)

• Pale – d20PFSRD

Necromancer | GM Binder
Pathfinder class: Necromancer
Sacred Necromancer – d20PFSRD
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Prestige Classes
Agent of the Grave – d20PFSRD (very good for controlling lots of undead and eventually gaining a few spells from any spell list. Also its final ability makers it easier to become undead. Check “Becoming undead” section if you want that eventually)
Arcane Savant – d20PFSRD (gets access to spells from any spell list with its Esoteric Magic ability, like Desecrate, etc.)
Bloatmage – d20PFSRD
Exalted – d20PFSRD (to gain access to the goddess Urgathoa’s boons much sooner which include Desecrate twice/day and Animate Dead once/day as spell-like abilities which means no components/cost to cast, more in “cheaper necro ways section. Also this class eventually allows a 3rd domain)
Mortal Usher – d20PFSRD
Ritualist – d20PFSRD (would be good if you plan to perform the ritual to become a Lich which is very difficult)
Souldrinker (PZO1139) – d20PFSRD (if you want to have a carcoedaemon familiar and use soul gems to power your magic. More about this in “cheaper necro ways”)
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Traits
Inspired by Greatness – d20PFSRD
Outlander – d20PFSRD
Sacred Conduit – d20PFSRD
Gifted Adept – d20PFSRD
Magical Knack – d20PFSRD
Signature Spell – d20PFSRDDeathspeaker – d20PFSRD (very good, works when talking to intelligent undead and when using command undead spell and command undead feat)
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Feats
Necromancer Cleric feats ? : Pathfinder_RPG
Weapon Versatility (Combat) – d20PFSRD
Charnel Soldiers – d20PFSRD
Command Undead – d20PFSRD
Deific Obedience – d20PFSRD
False Focus – d20PFSRD
Improved Channel – d20PFSRD
Possessed Hand – d20PFSRD
Prestigious Spellcaster – d20PFSRD
Quick Channel – d20PFSRD
Sacred Summons – d20PFSRD
Selective Channeling – d20PFSRD
Spell Focus – d20PFSRD
Spell Specialization – d20PFSRD
Undead Master – d20PFSRD
Undead Master – d20PFSRD
Craft Wondrous Item (Item Creation) – d20PFSRD
Extend Spell (Metamagic) – d20PFSRD
Persistent Spell (Metamagic) – d20PFSRD
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Teamwork Feats to use with Charnel Soldiers feat, which allows you to share a teamwork feat with all your undead
Coordinated Defense (Combat, Teamwork) – d20PFSRD
Coordinated Maneuvers (Combat, Teamwork) – d20PFSRD
Target of Opportunity (Combat, Teamwork) – d20PFSRD
Volley Fire (Combat, Teamwork) – d20PFSRD
Coordinated Reposition (Teamwork) – d20PFSRD
Duck and Cover (Teamwork) – d20PFSRD
Shake It Off (Teamwork) – d20PFSRD
Teamwork Feats – d20PFSRD
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Cheaper necro ways
Variant Channeling – Paizo, Inc. – d20PFSRD
Death Domain – d20PFSRD
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Urgathoa - Deities - Archives of Nethys: Pathfinder RPG Database
Deific Obedience – d20PFSRD (allows access to Urgathoa’s boons and Obedience power, if you aren’t in one of the 3 listed Prestige Classes you default to Exalted track which is what you want anyway to get Desecrate and Animate Dead as spell-like abilities. Getting the Exalted prestige class (which needs this feat as a perquisite) allows you to access the boons much sooner)
Spell-like Abilities – d20PFSRD (spell-like abilities don't require material components)
Diverse Obedience – d20PFSRD (get the boons sooner without going into a prestige class)
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A way to use soul gems to power spells but very, very evil:
Create Soul Gem – d20PFSRD
Souldrinker (PZO1139) – d20PFSRD
Daemon, Cacodaemon – d20PFSRD
Soul-Powered Magic – d20PFSRD
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Circlet of Spell-eating– d20PFSRD
Forest’s Blessing – d20PFSRD
Alternate Crafting Rules – d20PFSRD
Sculpt Corpse (From comments. Can use "on small-sized animals such as goats or sheep. They won't be quite as effective in combat since their living bodies lacked weapon proficiencies, but if nothing else they could have functional hands for lifting and simple labor. On the plus side, they will also look way more metal, since you could leave the horns and cloven feat alone.")
Variant Tiefling Spell-Like Ability to Animate 1 HD Undead
pathfinder 1e - What ways are there to reduce the cost of the Animate Dead spell? - Role-playing Games Stack Exchange
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Becoming undead
My Necromancer would like to bring himself back as an undead. : Pathfinder_RPG
pathfinder 1e - How can my necromancer become a Lich? - Role-playing Games Stack Exchange
Player wants to be a lich! : Pathfinder_RPG
Eternal Apotheosis Occult Rituals – d20PFSRD (lich ritual in game but your GM can help you come up with your own)
If you become a vampire
Skin Suit - Feats - Archives of Nethys: Pathfinder RPG Database
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Items
Rod of Splendor – d20PFSRD
Book, Tome of Leadership and Influence – d20PFSRD
Circlet of Persuasion – d20PFSRD
Headband of Alluring Charisma – d20PFSRD
Ioun Stones – d20PFSRD
Necrograft – d20PFSRD
Robe of Bones – d20PFSRD
Runestone of Power – d20PFSRD
Voidstick – d20PFSRD
Pallid Crystal (useful for a Necromancer who worships Urgathoa and is doing her daily Obedience which requires you to eat a huge meal and then finish it off by eating a piece of rotten food. This will cover the taste of the rotten food. If Urgathoa is your patron you also get other abilities)
Wendifisa Spear
Edit: added suggestions from comments.

From the "Looks Theory" Vindicta Sidebar
I can't fix deleted images but will try to replace them soon!
dark brown eyes look amazing in the sun
So I made a post a while ago about colored contacts and euro-centric beauty standards.
I think I should've made a post on brown eyes in particular a while ago.
A lot of people with brown eyes grow up thinking the color isn't beautiful. People with blue eyes get admired and complimented, not only in your social circles- but in the media too.
there are songs written about them. 20 of them, in fact.
A scientific study found that Overall, 34% of British people find blue the most attractive eye color; scores ahead of brown, on 19%.
Not only that, but I see so many posts by brown eyed people about hating their brown eyes:
"Do brown eyes make people less attractive?I really hate mine, they are so boring and I think they make me look less attractive."
- (from quora )
"People always tell me that my eyes are ugly because they are brown. I feel so depressed about this, why do some girls have beautiful blue and green eyes why I have only some shitty brown! I would give anything just to make them blue."
- (from GirlsAskGuys )
"I've hated them for years now."My best friends all have beautiful light blue or hazel eyes, while I'm stuck with dull brown."
- (from Yahoo! Answers )
I could add more, but i'm going to stop here.
(side note: these all seem to be tweens/young teenagers. that's fucked up.)
The point is: blue eyes have been hyped up by society. That's the only reason why people compliment them so much.
There's also an element of white washing to this, which i explained more about in this post.
Brown eyes can be fucking stunning:
https://i.redd.it/kl5v7ishnrj31.jpg
https://i.redd.it/9rp5fd8xnrj31.jpg
And blue eyes can be unattractive:
https://i.redd.it/n6hok2uaorj31.jpg
It's not really about the color, so much as it is about the shape of the eye and presence of limbal rings. (although you can't see them in dark brown or black eyes, but they still look mesmerizing. )
Thing is, if you have a pretty eye shape, or wear the right makeup any eye color is attractive!
https://i.redd.it/qq41kev5wrj31.jpg
If you want pretty eyes, first focus on the shape
I'll make a more in-depth post on this later
But here's an article from Cosmopolitan and one from Vogue.
And here's a list of makeup tips for brown eyes!
The next important thing is finding the right color to really make your eyes stand out!
https://i.redd.it/49an6081wrj31.jpg
here are some complimentary colors:

• Golden brown eyes: eggplant, lavender, royal blue, magenta, lilac, sky
• Red-orange brown eyes: turquoise, navy, emerald, sea-foam, aqua
• Almost black eyes: bronze, coral, sand, terra cotta

If you don't like 'eggplant' or 'emerald' then go for a more neutral look. light colors and shimmers look amazing on dark brown and smokey eyes look beautiful on medium/light brown.
also: fake lashes are half the battle.
( from AlexYourFace )
Before I move on, let me share these pics with you:
https://i.redd.it/xultycs4yrj31.jpg
it's all about the eyelashes
https://i.redd.it/o2xkzfng4sj31.jpg
https://i.redd.it/spporo7q3sj31.jpg
its cheesy, but it's true.
Charlotte Tilbury: the best eyeshadow colors to make brown eyes pop
Rose Gold smokey eye wing tutorial
Khaki Smokey Eye WOC Makeup Tutorial ♡ Jasmine Hand
Hooded Asian Eyes Client Makeup Tutorial ♡ Jasmine Hand
How to make brown eyes POP - Sazan Hendrix
Halima Aden's Epic Guide to Glowing Skin & Golden Eyes
Rose Champagne makeup tutorial
(the eyes are green, but this would still look amazing on brown)
The best eyeshadow colors for brown eyes
Catriona Gray's Makeup
soft romantic makeup look - Ali Andrea
The five best colors for brown eyes by Glamour
Glamour Uk: best eyeshadows for brown eyes
Alexandria's Girly Talk: Neutral glam makeup
Teni Panosian: MAKEUP TUTORIAL FOR BROWN EYES
another Teni tutorial for brown eyes
Shonagh Scott client makeup tutorial

There is a lot of scepticism of the claim that Musk is an engineer at all let alone the chief engineer of SpaceX. I wanted to collate the evidence backing it up here. I know some SpaceX employees have affirmed the claim.
I'm just looking for statements by credible sources that provide insight to what extent Musk is involved in concrete engineering decisions vs. managerial duties. I would add to this post the statements brought up in the comments.
​

Statements by SpaceX Employees

Tom Mueller
Tom Mueller (Wikipedia, LinkedIn) is one of SpaceX's founding employees. He served as the VP of Propulsion Engineering from 2002 to 2014 and Propulsion CTO from 2014 to 2019. He currently serves as an Senior Adviser. He's regarded as one of the foremost spacecraft propulsion experts in the world and owns many patents for propulsion technologies.

Not true, I am an advisor now. Elon and the Propulsion department are leading development of the SpaceX engines, particularly Raptor. I offer my 2 cents to help from time to time"

Source

We’ll have, you know, a group of people sitting in a room, making a key decision. And everybody in that room will say, you know, basically, “We need to turn left,” and Elon will say “No, we’re gonna turn right.” You know, to put it in a metaphor. And that’s how he thinks. He’s like, “You guys are taking the easy way out; we need to take the hard way.”
And, uh, I’ve seen that hurt us before, I’ve seen that fail, but I’ve also seen— where nobody thought it would work— it was the right decision. It was the harder way to do it, but in the end, it was the right thing.

Source

When the third chamber cracked, Musk flew the hardware back to California, took it to the factory floor, and, with the help of some engineers, started to fill the chambers with an epoxy to see if it would seal them. “He’s not afraid to get his hands dirty,” Mueller said. “He’s out there with his nice Italian shoes and clothes and has epoxy all over him. They were there all night and tested it again and it broke anyway.” Musk, clothes ruined, had decided the hardware was flawed, tested his hypothesis, and moved on quickly.

Source (Ashlee Vance's Biography).
​
Kevin Watson
Kevin Watson (LinkedIn) developed the avionics for Falcon 9 and Dragon. He previously managed the Advanced Computer Systems and Technologies Group within the Autonomous Systems Division at NASA's Jet Propulsion laboratory.

Elon is brilliant. He’s involved in just about everything. He understands everything. If he asks you a question, you learn very quickly not to go give him a gut reaction.
He wants answers that get down to the fundamental laws of physics. One thing he understands really well is the physics of the rockets. He understands that like nobody else. The stuff I have seen him do in his head is crazy.
He can get in discussions about flying a satellite and whether we can make the right orbit and deliver Dragon at the same time and solve all these equations in real time. It’s amazing to watch the amount of knowledge he has accumulated over the years.

Source (Ashlee Vance's Biography). Kevin has attested to the biography's veracity.
​
Garrett Reisman
Garrett Reisman (Wikipedia, LinkedIn, Twitter) is an engineer and former NASA astronaut. He joined SpaceX as a senior engineer working on astronaut safety and mission assurance. He was later promoted to director of crew operations. He left this position in May 2018 and is now a Senior Advisor. He also functions as Professor of Astronautical Engineering at University of Southern California.

“I first met Elon for my job interview,” Reisman told the USA TODAY Network's Florida Today. “All he wanted to talk about were technical things. We talked a lot about different main propulsion system design architectures.
“At the end of my interview, I said, ‘Hey, are you sure you want to hire me? You’ve already got an astronaut, so are you sure you need two around here?’ ” Reisman asked. “He looked at me and said, ‘I’m not hiring you because you’re an astronaut. I’m hiring you because you’re a good engineer.’ ”
Managing SpaceX and Tesla, building out new businesses and maintaining relationships with his family makes Musk a busy billionaire.
“He’s obviously skilled at all those different functions, but certainly what really drives him and where his passion really is, is his role as CTO,” or chief technology officer, Reisman said. “Basically his role as chief designer and chief engineer. That’s the part of the job that really plays to his strengths."

(Source)

What's really remarkable to me is the breadth of his knowledge. I mean I've met a lot of super super smart people but they're usually super super smart on one thing and he's able to have conversations with our top engineers about the software, and the most arcane aspects of that and then he'll turn to our manufacturing engineers and have discussions about some really esoteric welding process for some crazy alloy and he'll just go back and forth and his ability to do that across the different technologies that go into rockets cars and everything else he does.

(Source)
​
Josh Boehm
Josh Boehm (LinkedIn, Quora) is the former Head of Software Quality Assurance at SpaceX.

Elon is both the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Technology Officer of SpaceX, so of course he does more than just ‘some very technical work’. He is integrally involved in the actual design and engineering of the rocket, and at least touches every other aspect of the business (but I would say the former takes up much more of his mental real estate). Elon is an engineer at heart, and that’s where and how he works best.

(Source)
​

Statements by External Observers

Eric Berger
Eric Berger (Twitter, LinkedIn) is a space journalist and Ars Technica's senior space editor. He has been interviewing SpaceX employees for an upcoming book on its early days.

True. Elon is the chief engineer in name and reality.

(Source)
​
Christian Davenport
Christian Davenport is the Washington Post's defense and space reporter and the author of "Space Barons". The following quotes are excerpts from his book.

He dispatched one of his lieutenants, Liam Sarsfield, then a high-ranking NASA official in the office of the chief engineer, to California to see whether the company was for real or just another failure in waiting.
Most of all, he was impressed with Musk, who was surprisingly fluent in rocket engineering and understood the science of propulsion and engine design. Musk was intense, preternaturally focused, and extremely determined. “This was not the kind of guy who was going to accept failure,” Sarsfield remembered thinking.
Throughout the day, as Musk showed off mockups of the Falcon 1 and Falcon 5, the engine designs, and plans to build a spacecraft capable of flying humans, Musk peppered Sarsfield with questions. He wanted to know what was going on within NASA. And how a company like his would be perceived. He asked tons of highly technical questions, including a detailed discussion about “base heating,” the heat radiating out from the exhaust going back up into the rocket’s engine compartment—a particular problem with rockets that have clusters of engines next to one another, as Musk was planning to build.
Now that he had a friend inside of NASA, Musk kept up with the questions in the weeks after Sarsfield’s visit, firing off “a nonstop torrent of e-mails” and texts, Sarsfield said. Musk jokingly warned that texting was a “core competency.” “He sends texts in a constant flow,” Sarsfield recalled. “I found him to be consumed by whatever was in front of him and anxious to solve problems. This, combined with a tendency to work eighteen hours a day, is a sign of someone driven to succeed.” Musk was particularly interested in the docking adapter of the International Space Station, the port where the spacecraft his team was designing would dock. He wanted to know the dimensions, the locking pin design, even the bolt pattern of the hatch. The more documents Sarsfield sent, the more questions Musk had.
“I really enjoyed the way he would pore over problems anxious to absorb every detail. To my mind, someone that clearly committed deserves all the support and help you can give him.”

​

Mosdell ( 10th employee ) found Musk a touch awkward and abrupt, but smart. Mosdell had showed up prepared to talk about his experience building launchpads, which, after all, was what SpaceX wanted him to do. But instead, Musk wanted to talk hard-core rocketry. Specifically the Delta IV rocket and its RS-68 engines, which Mosdell had some experience with when at Boeing. Over the course of the interview, they discussed “labyrinth purges” and “pump shaft seal design” and “the science behind using helium as opposed to nitrogen.”

​

After the meeting on Valentine’s Day adjourned, Musk offered to give the group a tour of his facility. To this group of engineers and entrepreneurs, it was like an invitation to a six-year-old to visit a chocolate factory. As Musk guided them through the factory floor, the group “let loose with detailed, technical questions, and he answered all of them,” Gedmark said. “Not once did he say, ‘I don’t feel comfortable answering that because it’s proprietary.’… It was certainly impressive.”

​
John Carmack
John Carmack (Twitter, Wikipedia) is a programmer, video game developer and engineer. He's the founder of Armadillo Aerospace and current CTO of Oculus VR.

Elon is definitely an engineer. He is deeply involved with technical decisions at spacex and Tesla. He doesn’t write code or do CAD today, but he is perfectly capable of doing so.

(Source)
​
Robert Zubrin
Robert Zubrin (Wikipedia) is an aerospace engineer and author, best known for his advocacy of human exploration of Mars.

When I met Elon it was apparent to me that although he had a scientific mind and he understood scientific principles, he did not know anything about rockets. Nothing. That was in 2001. By 2007 he knew everything about rockets - he really knew everything, in detail. You have to put some serious study in to know as much about rockets as he knows now. This doesn't come just from hanging out with people.

(Source)
​

Statements by Elon Himself

Yes. The design of Starship and the Super Heavy rocket booster I changed to a special alloy of stainless steel. I was contemplating this for a while. And this is somewhat counterintuitive. It took me quite a bit of effort to convince the team to go in this direction.

(Source)

I know more about rockets than anyone at the company by a pretty significant margin, I could redraw substantial portions of the rocket from memory without the blueprints

(Source)

Tim Dodd: "What people don't understand is that you're the lead engineer. You're literally sitting"
Musk: "Literally. This is a... I've actually had a dinner with some, with a, with a friend and he was like 'well who's the chief engineer of SpaceX?' I was like it's me. He was like 'it's not you, who is it?' Look it's either someone with a very low ego or I don't know."

(Source)

Interviewer: What do you do when you're at SpaceX and Tesla? What does your time look like there?
Elon: Yes, it's a good question. I think a lot of people think I must spend a lot of time with media or on businessy things*. But actually almost all my time, like 80% of it, is spent on engineering and design.* Engineering and design, so it's developing next-generation product. That's 80% of it.
Interviewer: You probably don't remember this. A very long time ago, many, many, years, you took me on a tour of SpaceX. And the most impressive thing was that you knew every detail of the rocket and every piece of engineering that went into it. And I don't think many people get that about you.
Elon: Yeah. I think a lot of people think I'm kind of a business person or something, which is fine. Business is fine. But really it's like at SpaceX, Gwynne Shotwell is Chief Operating Officer. She manages legal, finance, sales, and general business activity. And then my time is almost entirely with the engineering team, working on improving the Falcon 9 and our Dragon spacecraft and developing the Mars Colonial architecture. At Tesla, it's working on the Model 3 and, yeah, so I'm in the design studio, take up a half a day a week, dealing with aesthetics and look-and-feel things. And then most of the rest of the week is just going through engineering of the car itself as well as engineering of the factory. Because the biggest epiphany I've had this year is that what really matters is the machine that builds the machine, the factory. And that is at least two orders of magnitude harder than the vehicle itself.

(Source)

Hello, I just created this account to get something off my chest. I will be speaking about my abuse I’ve endured in the past year by some rich eltitist people. I have a disability where it’s just hard for me to communicate and talk to people sometimes and I’m also of South Asian descent. My family moved to this new town few years ago because of the really good school ratings. The area was predominantly white and come from super wealthy and privileged families, most of them work at wallstreet, run their own businesses or practic law etc. I don’t come from that kind of background. so I would talk to this girl in high school who I thought was my friend but she really wasn’t and little did I know what her true intentions were. I was a loner in high school and had no friends because I didn’t fit in at all. I used to go on anonymous group chats and online to talk to people/make friends because that’s where I felt most comfortable. I used to ask a lot of questions on quora regarding vulnerabilitie, insecurities, pronlems and motivational topics. Some were about intelligenc,others were about jobs/money, stalking my bullies on social media, my past and overcoming it etc and my overthinking behavior. I overheard someone’s conversation in the locker room and they said “I don’t care. I will take that rats house. That red head is dumb” I didn’t know they were impersonating my “friend” so I messaged my “friend” what I heard in the locker room because I found that so scary without knowing that they were talking about me. This “friend” was putting On a good act. I didn’t know what her true colors were. i was on tinder around may and this 28 year old guy slid in my dms (I was 18 at that time). At first I was going to ignore but then my friend manipulated me into talking to him saying he was “classy” even tho I did bring up the fact he was talking about sex. Unfortunaty, being the naive curious girl I was I gave in and started to talk to him. I vented to him and I told him I post most of my “problems” on Quora.He was flirting with me and stuff then I kind of got infatuated.He worked at Goldman Sachs and was very wealthy which kind of got me intimidated I felt a bit threatened because he was rich. Little did I know about him. I met up with him. this was the first guy I ever met up with. He came through with a black Nissan car with super tinted windows even the windshield was tinted (he was probably up to some shady shit)He started driving around my block looking for a place to park I was in his car and didn’t know what to do. He asked for a hug so I gave him a hug and I ran back to my place. I messaged him that we can do more next time then he passive aggressively messaged me back saying “if you come out rn would that count as a second time 🙃” so I came back out and he started kissing me and he touched my breast. I panicked and I ran back feeling a slight guilt because it just kind of felt wrong. Anyways so this ”friend” kept talking to me and I wasn’t sure why she was interacting with me so much. She would be making up all these stories always bragging and being Narcissistic about how many guys she gets she would say things like “I own all men” or “everyone’s boyfriend always stare at me” but I believe she was lying the whole time. A few months later my family faced financial problems and that man who I met up with earlier slid in my dms again but this time he was being awkwardly nice to me apologizing about being disrespectful.I felt like something shady was going on but I couldn’t tell what it was. I just knew he was like super smart so I just kind of felt threatened. Like he knew everything about me. He also had some weird anchilles injury I think it was fake though or part of a shady scheme he has planned out. I started talking to him again and he saved my nudes so I asked him to delete it and he said he won’t delete them until I have sex with him. I felt more uncomfortable with him because of like the income gap if you get what I mean. Like he was super rich and a capitalist and I came from the working class. I felt like he was making fun of my financial situation. I did want to put to much thought into it because I didn’t want to hurt my feelings. this “Friend“ kept calling me all the time I didn’t know her intentions at that time. She told me that her dad “lost half of his business” surprisingly around the same time my dad got laid off from his job. The GS dude was able to find out all my vulnerabilities and flaws from just looking at my qoura questions then he used them against my family I didn’t know what was going on behind the scenes. My “friend” and that man waere conspiring against me behind my back. my “friend“ would make up all these bullshit stories to get my input just to gain access to me on how I think and move. Basically wallstreet is the reason why companies do layoffs and stuff, mergers and acquisitions etc. what this man does is that he preys on young vulnerable girls who come from working class families then causes financial problems to their families and then he coerces the girl to have sex with him. Then shaves their head and runs them over with his car to assert his dominance/power. Then he gifts them the car and buys another car. He also told me that he would “treat” me or give me money if I had sex with him.i didn’t know all that at that time. my focus was only to feel peaceful and live in the present because my family was going through so much at that time. I just felt threatened and annoyed by how much money he made. Every time i searched up I searched up “average salary of goldman Sachs employee“ it would show $400k and I was like damn he makes more money than my dad. Who didn’t make six figures anymore after he got laid off. He got another job but it doesn’t pay as well as his last job. He would go on twitter and have all these religious tweets up (he was Muslim) his family built some kind of prayer site,he would also have tweets about money and controversial topics. his whole social media was satire. It was like he meant opposite of everything he was talking about. he Would always have tweets about “immigrant dads” he would market his families brand by putting on act of being a righteous Muslim person when he’s just an amoral pscyhopath that cares about nothing other than money and power. I tried my best to avoid talking to this man I would delete him from my snap then he would add me back immediately he would send me my nudes saying “I need some” he kept blackmailing me with my nudes. i was swiping through tinder again and I ended up matching with a mutual of the goldman sachs guy. the mutual gave me a bit more information on who he really was but he was also a bit strange. He told me that GS dude didn’t earn his job and that he got it through his uncle. He also said that the GS dude was the “dorkiest guy he knew” For some reason I felt kind of relieved after I heard that. Unfortunately my stupid butt decided to hookup with the GS man. This time he was in a white infinti Q50 with super tinted windows evem the windshield. I asked him if he deleted my pictures a Few days later and he said no and asked for head. He started being really weird , he would randomly come near my place when I didnt even call him over and he would message me “ I’m outside” it was scary. his mutual tried meeting up with me but I didn’t because I felt like I would play myself. A month later the GS guy manipulated me into giving him head again. Then he would drop me off in the middle of the street without saying anything. he still refused to delete my nudes. The third time I met up with him he was on top of me he was extremely rough and I felt violated. He still didn’t delete my pictures. i Had enough I couldn’t take it anymore therefore I messaged someone on my Instagram to help me out but I felt like they were all part Of a planned out game. This person spoke up for me and told me that I was experiencing abuse and that this person is a psychopath. thst GS dude was super apologetic and everything ,but it was all a facade. That man said his mom died two years ago when his mom is alive which kind of spiked my anxiety. What did he mean by that? What was he hinting? I don’t know why but it gets me very scared. It was like are you hinting something about my future? I felt like I wasn’t in control of my own life. I started researching on the meaning of psychopath and what kind of person they are I started to understand how they would move. i realized i was dealing with a psychopath. They’re extremely smart. It felt like everyone was hiding something from me. It felt like everyone was conspiring against me. I felt like I wasn’t in control of my own life. I felt like every friend was a foe. Everyone I was talking to online who i thought were my friend were actually infiltrating me and sending information to my abuser. I started talking to this Indian astrologper guy and asked him for advice then I got paranoid and told him all my personal problems then he started getting really creepy telling me stuff about my “past life“ about how I used to do “black magic” and that I was kinky. It was getting so weird but then I felt ashamed and embarrassed afterwards because I felt like someone was infiltrating me. And my absuers were cackling and laughing at all my suffering and harm they caused me. after several weeks of overthinking I came to the conclusion that it was my “friend” who was trying to take my house and that the girls in the locker room in high school were talking about me. She was going to do that through financialply harming my family. Which is so fucked up. I get angry and humiliated because of this incident I don’t know how to move on. I try to tell myself it’s the past , there are always going to be haters ,but my mind keeps spiraling in this event. It was traumatizing and so scary. No one understands it because theyve never dealt with someone with this much power. Not many people go through something like this. Has anyone else been through a similar situation where someone who had power tried to take advantage of you? I don’t know what to take from this experience. I feel paranoid, humiliate, scared and angry. What can I do? I’m trying my best. It’s like my mind keeps living in the past.

These are from a year or so ago:
I practised Nichiren Buddhism with Bharat Soka Gakkai for six years. It is a demanding practice. Any faith or religion is only as good as its followers, and it goes well for BSG too. I share below all that is seriously wrong with the members/leaders of BSG. My experiences are from four different chapters across three cities.
Recruiting new members is often based on luring with greed, receiving abundant money or magically curing health. Because of a lack of proper initiation, members come into this faith thinking their lives will change dramatically overnight.
For the first one year a new member is supposed to read the Value Creation editions, history of SGI, the prayers, its accessories and most importantly, understand the writing on the Gohonzon. They should not be made to share experiences in their very first year of practice. But leaders use the new members as a scapegoat and force them to participate in meetings only to fill up spaces. It is not possible to have experience in every meeting. Be honest, if no one has any experience, don’t fake it.
In my first year of practice the leaders made me stand in every monthly meeting starting with my very first, to share an expression or victory experience, no matter how ridiculous. They called it beginner’s luck.
The only aim of leaders is to create new Block leaders who can do the ground work and they are constantly looking for gullible stay-at-home house wives who they think will have more time to do BSG work.
Very often, the leaders would ask me to join them to home visit a member. But on the day of appointment they would call me at the last minute and ask me to go alone as they were busy with something. Since this happened frequently, I figured that asking me to accompany them was only a ruse to wiggle out of the visit and palm it off on me.
Many times leaders asked me to make copies of Sensei’s lectures from the market (which cost money) with a last minute excuse, “I was delayed at work and couldn’t make copies, now you’ll have to bring them.” I was gullible and couldn’t say no. I was never even reimbursed. Same with the BSG annual event on May 3rd when all members were asked to make 10 book marks each as gifts for all members attending the function. But, on 1st or 2nd of May the leader would call me and say, no one could make any, now you’ll have to make atleast 250 and bring them. Again, it cost money to buy supplies and I was not reimbursed. And the leader didn’t respect my personal time by giving me last minute instructions. I was penalised but the members who didn’t finish the task were let go and not taught a lesson.
The block leader would deliberately keep practice meetings in my house on weekdays so participating members would come from work and I would have to serve tea and snacks for all. It didn’t matter to her if I said “I am busy that evening or my husband is travelling that night.” She’d say “but we won’t be a hindrance since we’ll be in the living room.” This particular leader was a real pain, she was single, lived alone and made it a habit to come to my house after every Sunday meeting, stay for lunch, tea and dinner till almost 10 pm. Then we would have to drop her back home as it was late. As she worked in the same office as my husbands’, she would often hitch a ride with him from work back to my house and stay for dinner till late. This caused huge marital problems for me. My husband made me realise that this woman was a real fake.
Feb 2011, I arrived at the WD kick off meeting to honour Kaneko Ikeda’s birthday, and parked my car behind another members’ car. This member left the meeting early but while reversing her car she hit my car damaging it severely and left without informing me. The witnesses in parking lot informed me when I came out of the meeting. I incurred huge expenses for repairs. The woman refused to reimburse me for the loss and wanted to get away with just a ‘sorry’, none of the leaders stood up in my support. Finally I took a stance and made the woman pay me a basic amount which wasn’t even half of what I had to pay on repairs. It caused huge marital problems for me. Despite this I continued in the faith for another 4 years.
After my father’s death in Jan 2013, my block leader fixed up a meeting at my place. I assumed it was for memorial gongyo, but no, 4 or 5 members came, chanted for 5 minutes, then for 45 minutes they sat preparing for the Feb monthly meeting, then left. No condolences, nothing. My area leader knew of my bereavement but had not bothered to tell anyone nor asked me if I wanted a memorial gongyo.
Members would often make appointments with me to visit them but on arrival one woman did not open the door for me even though she was inside sleeping, others were outright rude and didn’t allow me to lead the gongyo and do study. Members scheduled a home visit on the pretext of extracting personal information or favours from me, and after getting what they wanted didn’t chant at all and asked me to leave as it was late. Several members never answered my calls on their mobile phones nor responded to my SMS or text, and if it was because they were busy, they never bothered to return my calls. And, when I eventually went lax in practice these same members lectured me on the duties of a block leader. The hypocrisy of it all!!!
Leaders were always angry with me, scolding me like a school child despite my hard work for six years as BSG member doing home visits, study, conducting meetings. I was yelled at publicly for not volunteering enough in activities, and then I was told, “don’t feel bad, it is only in front of us after all.” In one meeting a very senior visiting leader asked “What can we do to make meetings more interesting so members will attend regularly?” Everybody was silent, I answered, “we can do different things sometimes like giving them information on accessories like beads or gongs as most people don’t know it’s significance or they have wrong information about them.” The leader answered me back angrily, “we don’t have time, and we are all humans, we can make mistake, can’t we?”..Now, what did I do wrong here, I was just answering her question, right?
One particular case which was a trigger for me to leave the Gakkai was like this - a member in my colony invited me to her place to chant. Upon reaching her place I found one of our common neighbours sitting there who asked about Buddhism and expressed an interest to join BSG. Even before I could answer, this member answered agitatedly, “no no, don’t join, there is a lot of corruption here, these people butter up seniors to secure good positions in the BSG, all this is fake.” I was shocked to hear this and told her “why would I butter up someone for a voluntary position where I don’t get paid but I have to take such insults?” When I informed the leaders about this issue, they took it lightly and never resolved the issue in the meetings. A few days later this woman called me again shamelessly to fix up a meeting to chant at her place and as one already on edge, I gave her a piece of my mind, she apologised but I retorted, “You should be” before hanging up on her to leave the Gakkai for good.
Each time I raised the above mentioned issues with the leaders, their only response was “it all begins with You. Don’t blame others. You should be the change you want. It is your karma, chant to overcome this problem.” Or, “I’m not paid to do this job you see, so don’t be upset with me.” If that was the case, then why was I scolded and yelled at? With time I realised that they were sweeping it under the carpet as no one wanted to deal with any unpleasantness. They should have brought up these issues in monthly meetings so everybody could learn, but they never did. Those like me who work hard are treated shabbily in BSG but those who shirk tasks and responsibilities are simply let go.
Eventually, I left the SGI’s NB exceedingly disillusioned by its members. I’m sure those who know me will identify me from the quoted incidents. My biggest growth and takeaway from this faith is, I wasn’t ready to let anyone walk over me anymore.
Edit: For all those who are telling me that I was shaky from the beginning, didn’t understand the faith, had an agenda, I thank you for corroborating my statement and proving that what I say is indeed happening in BSG. Your responses only reflect your true character as members of Bharat Soka Gakkai. It is because of my faith study and practice that I tolerated all of the above for six years. I wish you go through the same, then let’s see how you practice that ten worlds and last even six months in this organisation.
Those who are polite but lecturing me on ten worlds, I already knew my lessons and despite the ill-treatment I went ahead with my practice, not for a month or two, but six years; what more was expected of me? The purpose of this answer is so that leaders can correct these mistakes and members can learn from my experience.
I have left the faith and I’m not chanting at home in isolation. I put in sincere, honest six years in this faith and its people, only to be stabbed repeatedly. When I decided to leave no leader came to speak to me, none called me, they just moved on. It is your loss Dear BSG, not mine. For I lost only six precious years, but you lost a hardworking honest member for life.
I ask you all, for those who didn’t care for my presence or absence, what right did they have to yell at me, be angry with me or treat me like a servant? Where is the wisdom, human revolution you people of faith speak of?
I choose to remain anonymous because my presence brought out the worst in people, and they were indifferent to my absence. Anonymous
Now here come the SGIsplainers to make everything WORSE!! 🤩

Its your own karma Source

Yeah? How about it's her LEADERS' karma that they've now lost a standup YWD?? Hmmm...? That "karma" bullshit goes both ways, you know.

Such a pathetic response and one used by millions of self-appointed judges to attack people who act in good faith. Source
It’s her own stupidity Source

The compassion! It's quite impressive, isn't it?? TRULY heart-warming 🙄

Your experience very well demonstrates how sincere you are as a person. I'm sure through this practice you would have gained some benefits in your own life which made you persevere for so many years. As for your leader's behaviour, it is ABSOLUTELY inexcusable for a person who has taken up the responsibility to behave so. However, we would have to remember that such people will also exist in an organization at anytime, people motivated by selfishness, greed, game or hypocrites.

So "ABSOLUTELY inexcusable" until the next sentence, where she makes excuses for that! "See? Not really a problem - you should expect to run into that everywhere, INCLUDING in the world's most ideal, family-like organization created by the most illustrious, delectable mentoar in the world!"

That is the reason it is important to deepen our study as well.

"OBVIOUSLY, YOU don't study. Because you wouldn't be saying such things if you did study. I know best."

Because study would help us understand

"US"? Quit with the forced teaming - speak for yourself.

that such people are only I'm sure a few bad Apples don't represent the entire lot.

That is not YOUR call to make. ONE bad enough apple can easily be reason enough to leave, especially when the group is indoctrinating/propagandizing that its practice of "human revolution" makes people better. If that's their best - yeesh!

Almost all of the leaders I've had are genuine, compassionate people.

Gee, that's great for you. Also irrelevant. Can't you think about anyone but YOURSELF for more than 3 seconds??

I hope you would again gather the courage

Ha. Coward.

to continue the practice, at your own pace and keep Daisaku Ikeda's writings as the pillar of your faith. Pls don't get affected by such members.

No! Any organization is the people who are involved. If you don't LIKE them, for whatever reason, you needn't feel obligated to continue to put up with them OR their bullshit! And that goes DOUBLE for Scamsei.

Since you've gone through so much, you'll be able to understand other people's sincerity and appreciate them. Source

Duh HERR Duh HERR Duh HERR

Joining and practising the Nichiren Buddhism is not an agenda..as described you here..please understand and study about something in deep..to post such content about it. Very sorry about your views..but you could never actually understand the practise. Source

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
"Yeah, stoopid!"
Ah, the deep compassion of SGIers! It's just the BEST!

Hey, Sad to hear your poor experience. You know, while the practice is great, it eventually boils down to what we make of it and whether we're able to realise the values in our own lives.

"So it's all YOUR FAULT for seeing the glass as half full."

Being a member does not automatically make us a believer and definitely not a practitioner. For instance, I was fortunate to have met some great leaders and I’m immensely thankful to them. Source

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
"Yeah, too bad so sad - LOSER!"

This is an isolated incidence.

"Yes, because I know everything. And I HAVE SPOKEN!"

Don't generalize it and sully the name of the organisation.

Obviously where THIS person's priorities lie!

You left becuase you were shaky from the very beginning.

Yep, the omniscience of the Buddha is apparently all over THIS person!

Buddhism never believes in changing rhe identity of a person. It rather empowers him. Alas!

How theatrical!

You were more concerned about who was doing what to you.

Wow - just when you think this weirdo's gone over the top, s/he says, "Hold my juzus."

There is a concept of Ten World's which you never understood.

"Because I HAVE SPOKEN!"

It says that people have good and evil in them. This practice helos you to suppress the evil and become an Awakened I individual. Source

"How DARE you!! Shut up shut up SHUT UP!!"
And now a POD weighs in:

Why would you keep yourself anonymous? Are you unsure about your issues? I’m sure you aren’t. I don’t see any good reason for you to masquerade as anonymous. I certainly feel your frustration though, I got out of this sham way quicker and by losing way lesser money. One thing I never understood why were there so many god damn activities? Is it some kind of cultural fest? Lol! Good riddance I say. Source

Dafuq??

Mam I am younger than you.
I really felt disheartened after reading your experience.
Mam pure heart always get obstruction than only its value manifested.
When I joined Gakkai, I also saw something like this and I always got very worried that why this is happening, why they are not behaving upto the mark.
But I never lost faith on Nam Myo Ho Renge Kyo.
I kept on thinking about Nichiren Daishonin & Mentor's.
Second, with time I came to know that this is Organisation which is only run by lay person having different set of Karmas.
Some having health Karma, some having relationship, Some fiancé some anger some greed and so on so forth.
Purpose of Chanting Nam Myo Ho Renge Kyo is to liberate us from this.
Practising this in Kalyug is not easy.
So, With time instead of worry I started reading Sensei
In NHR Vol 26, it is written that leaving Organisation not faith just because of others fundamental darkness is not right.

Note: According to NHR, there is NEVER EVER a good reason to leave the Soka Gakkai organization. NEVER!

Buddhism works on Law Of Oneness Of Self & Environment.
If my life force is weak I will easily swayed by others.
If this is happening than how Can I survive in life too.
So, With time and absolute faith on NMHRK I got to know that I am only responsible for my happiness and for that I need to change my life and than only I can be hope for others.
So,mam I might be younger than you.
Trust me don't leave NMHRK and instead connecting yourself with leader connect with Gohonzon and seek Sensei.
Yes, ultimately we need to work in an organisation.
Don't work in such a way that Leaders taking place of Gohonzon.
Have faith & if people like you who are so pure hearted will leave such a beautiful philosophy than what will happen to all those who are pure like you.
Myou are wearing an invisible crown.
Again start with Chanting and do it with this conviction that you have to set example for others. Source

YECHHHH

Dear a polite no from your part would have saved a lot.Gather courage,deepen your study and believe in the practice. Human revolution is the key to practice. Source

Yep - all HER fault. Always - that's the Gakkai way. Gakkai being full of shitty people is always YOUR fault, after all.

Bravo anonymous. It’s good that you have spoken out. Please keep writting. [Source](https://www.quora.com/Has-anyone-joined-and-left-the-Bharat-Soka-Gakkai-If-so-why-How-did-you-feel-being-a-part-of-it/answers/166256667?comment_id=169342928&comment_type=2_

Aw! Finally! Something affirming instead of just thinly (or not) veiled whackings.

I agree with each word you said. Though, chanting and studying is a great habit which I adapted. Problem is the lack of induction/ initiation. Source

O-kay?

I got all the encouragement with wonderful set of POEPLE in my district.Sorry to hear your experience. ITS A MYSTIC PRACTICE WHICH HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH FELLOW MEMBERS AT ALL.WE ARE HERE FOR OUR OWN LIBERATION FROM SUFFERINGS.THE SANGHA IS ONE PILLAR OF /BUDDHISM. ALL FELLOW MEMBERS ARE ALSO GROWING WITH YOU FALTERING,COMMITING MISTAKES,THINK FROM THEIR PERSPECTIVE YOU WILL BE ABLE TO DEVELOP A DISCERNING EYE.WE HAVE SOME VERY GOOD LEADERS ,ALL HUMBLE N HELPFUL.COME N JOIN US IF U FEEL LIKE. Source

LOL!!

Thanks for sharing but do you chant NMRK independently? Source
Hey i m sorry that u had so bad experiences in an organization which was made for people to feel comfortable. Actually please understand that this philosophy is not false nor the organization. At the end everyone is a human and all are not the same. Maybe because they were not aware human beings they did not act wisely,but please mark my words this philosophy is really powerful and has capability to remove all our sufferings. Every contribution in terms of money and time u have given will not get wasted. Trust me all will return as protection and good fortune to u. Please remove all grudges and complaints.
And because of fee ppl dont stop practicing something which is for ur betterment. Avoid such ppl and u continue achieving success through praying and talking action. T
Thank you :)
Have a good day Source

😶

Looks like all is not well in Gakkailand, India!