Muhammad Lotusflower is a Toronto-based Wikipedia user interested primarily in contributing to pages about rap music. He has contributed ephemera to the English-language Wikipedia pages for several dozen notable rap artists. These have included several whom he counts as colleagues and personal friends, namely Shad, Prince Po, Thirstin Howl III, A.G., Diamond D, Big Mike, Young Bleed, Guilty Simpson, Myka 9, Brother Ali, Pacewon, Young Zee, El Da Sensei, Shady Blaze, More Or Les, Mega Ran, D-Sisive, Noah23, Jesse Dangerously, Keysha Freshh, Height Keech, Coins, Dan-e-o, Haviah Mighty, Chokeules, Ron Nelson, and the late Tame One, as well as several with whom he has performed, namely Dres, Chali 2na, Masta Ace, Tragedy Khadafi, Rah Digga, Jeru The Damaja, Fatlip, Michie Mee, Maestro Fresh Wes, Chip Fu, Rittz, Blueprint, ESG, Grap Luva, Lords of the Underground, Das EFX, Timbuktu, Ghettosocks, and Wordburglar.
Lotusflower has also worked on the entries for Ghostface Killah, who is his personal favourite rapper, and DJ Premier, who is his personal favourite rap producer, along with both Rakim Allah and Scarface (who are Ghostface Killah’s main rivals for the title of Lotusflower’s favourite rapper), both Raekwon and Method Man (both of whom he reveres, and who have in common with Ghostface Killah that they are members of the legendary Wu-Tang Clan), both Big Boi and André 3000 (who together comprise OutKast, which is Lotusflower’s favourite rap group), and both Cee-Lo and Big Gipp, who are two of the four members of Goodie Mob, a group which together with OutKast is among the flagship institutions of the Dungeon Family.
In addition to all of the above, Lotusflower has contributed to the Wikipedia pages for many dozens of other rappers, including a great many he admires and a small number of whose work he is less fond. The complete listing of rap artists whose Wikipedia pages Lotusflower has worked on includes all those mentioned earlier in this article and all of the following:
Nas, AZ, Black Thought, Pharoahe Monch, Kool G Rap, Big Daddy Kane, Redman, Busta Rhymes, Freddie Gibbs, Mos Def, Devin The Dude, CL Smooth, Too Short, E-40, Mystikal, Roc Marciano, Queen Latifah, Suga Free, Casual, Saafir, Beanie Sigel, Freeway, Treach, Percee P, Ice Cube, WC, Bizzy Bone, Monie Love, Aesop Rock, Bubba Sparxxx, Jean Grae, Joell Ortiz, Paul Wall, Juvenile, Big K.R.I.T., Killer Mike, Benny The Butcher, Lyrics Born, Sauce Money, Jaz-O, Beans, Divine Styler, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, Chubb Rock, O.C., Cormega, Polo G, Trick Daddy, Starlito, Yelawolf, Gunplay, Common, Mick Jenkins, King Tee, Vado, Vince Staples, MC Eiht, Godfather Don, Kokane, Bahamadia, Blaq Poet, Fat Trel, AMG, Sticky Fingaz, Big Pokey, Grafh, Fabolous, Hell Rell, Bumpy Knuckles, San Quinn, Husalah, Turf Talk, Keak Da Sneak, Sauce Walka, Ali Vegas, Ras Kass, Maxo Kream, Sada Baby, Doseone, Edo G, Sir Mix-A-Lot, Illogic, Ocean Wisdom, Father MC, Zaakir, Murs, Mase, Red Café, Ja Rule, Chi-Ali, Big Reese, B.G., 2 Chainz, Mack Maine, Murphy Lee, Roots Manuva, Blak Twang, JT The Bigga Figga, 42 Dugg, Coo Coo Cal, Craig G, Bronx Style Bob, Kurious, Dave, Rodney P, The Last Emperor, Ahmad, Tobe Nwigwe, Wax, Rich Kidd, Fashawn, Breeze, Lil’ Wyte, Papoose, Reks, Brotha Lynch Hung, Boom Bam, E-A-Ski, DaBaby, The Grouch, Mad Skillz, Juicy J, Lord Jamar, Pressa, Buddy, Anik Khan, Vinnie Paz, Apathy, Diabolic, R.A. the Rugged Man, Reef the Lost Cauze, Lawrence Arnell, Beneficence, Invincible, Evidence, Slaine, Rich Brian, Jazz Cartier, MC Bravado, Sha Stimuli, Danny Boy, Sabac Red, Mister CR, Candyman, Zuby, Baby No Money, Asher Roth, Hesta Prynn, Russ, Tom MacDonald, Nova Rockafeller, Remedy, Joe Budden, and Yeat, as well as the rap groups Backburner, the Lost Boyz, The Beatnuts, Digable Planets, Above The Law, Yaggfu Front, Daara J, Cella Dwellas, Rhyme Asylum, Clipse, Poor Righteous Teachers, Smif-N-Wessun, Tha Alkaholiks, Channel Live, Blackalicious, Lord Tariq and Peter Gunz, Sporty Thievz, The Comrads, the JuJu Mob, and Army of the Pharaohs, along with the departed likes of Tupac Shakur, Black Rob, Guru, Fred the Godson, Big Hawk, Young Dolph, King Shooter, Gift of Gab, Takeoff, Grand Daddy I.U., and Sean Price.
Among the rap artists Lotusflower admires but has not yet contributed to the Wikipedia pages for are DJ Quik, Z-Ro, Young Dro, Twista, Tonedeff, Grand Puba, Lord Finesse, Inspectah Deck, Chubb Rock, Peedi Crakk, Ka, Xzibit, Aesop Rock, Meyhem Lauren, Jadakiss, Styles P, Boosie Badazz, Diverse, Tela, and MC Solaar, as well as the rap groups De La Soul, UGK, A Tribe Called Quest, 8Ball & MJG, Digable Planets, Camp Lo, The Goats, the Outsidaz, and M.O.P. (among others) and the departed likes of Big Moe, DMX, Heavy D, Lord 3-2, and MF DOOM.
Among the rap artists Lotusflower admires who do not yet have personal Wikipedia pages are Witchdoctor (with whom he has worked), The Legend Adam Bomb (another colleague of his), Breeze Brewin, Kev Roc, Andy Cooper, Phoenix Pagliacci, Playboy Tre, Fabo, Bonshah, Ultra Magnus, Donny Yonder, Tribe One, Slaughter Rico, Kingpen Slim, Mikkey Halsted, Kur, Skizza, Big Sant, Killa Kyleon, Fraction, Roshin, Bruiser Wolf, Daniel Son, Tree, Lex The Lexicon Artist, Che Ruben, Blackboltt, DaVinci, Humpasaur Jones, Notion, J. Morris (who is also known as Your Favourite Lightskin and as Dynamic), Slick Mason, Prowess The Testament, Lex Talionis, Buggsy, 3-Card, Whitefolkz, I Am Joseph, Napoleon Da Legend, MisterE, Nostic, Savilion, Orijin, The Egyptian Prescription, Bear Witnez, Illvibe, GT Garza, Nish Raawks, Steve Be, Es, Jay Bizzy, Emotionz, Dopey Ziegler, Ginzuintriplicate, Knamelis, Stina Bomb, Rel McCoy, Ty Farris, Sleep Sinatra, Syntifik, Longevity, Cashus King, Speak The Rebel, Robscure, JBrawny, Elete, Adam Walsh, Big Daddy Rap Beast, Ghost Dog, Monsoon The Groovulator, Nolto, Cam James, Mad Dukez, Fresh Air, B. Green, Eyeda Sophia, Mark Jordan, Casper Marcus, Skitsofrenic, Homebwoi, B1 The Architect, RationaL, 1 Stop Hip Hop, Tragic, Eddie Conner, Young Stitch, Frank Deluxe, LeZeppo, Big Lo, G Fam Black, Clubber Laing, Kehmak, G-Holy, King EnZee, Jay Nice, Thought Provokah, AD, Seven Da Pantha, Lotek, RMC Mike, BFB Da Packman, Chippass, Yowda, Ngajuana, Dapper Don of 151 Feva Gang, Rappin’ Larry, the now-retired likes of T-Love and Samantha Duke, and the departed King Kahali, among others.
Along with DJ Premier, Lotusflower’s favourite rap producers are Pete Rock, Organized Noize, Rick Rock, Black Milk, The Legendary Traxster, RJD2, Clams Casino, Mike Dean, Large Professor, KLC, Bink!, DJ Burn One, Ant, Earthtone III, Blockhead, DJ Dahi, Frank Dukes, Jake One, Harry Fraud, Buckwild, Noah “40” Shebib, Rockwilder, Marco Polo, J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League, The Beatnuts, Just Blaze, Statik Selektah, Sir Jinx, DJ Pooh, The Bomb Squad, DJ Muggs, The RZA, DJ Toomp, N.O. Joe, Speakerbomb, Cardo, DJ Khalil, Prefuse 73, Jel, Sean C & LV, Easy Mo Bee, The Trackmasters, Cool & Dre, Jahlil Beats, Tha Bizness, Joe the Butcher, DJ Quik, Diamond D, DR Period, The Hitmen, Cory Mo, Beanz N Kornbread, Darrell “Digga” Branch, Nick Peace, Big E, Trakksounds, Kyduh, The Stereotypez, Fresh Kils, Digs, Notion, Myer Clarity, J.W. Friedman, Klopfenpop, Red Dot Beats, Abstract Artform, Iceberg Theory, Bigg Sproxx, Emperor Bohe, Mikal Kermit Hill, Mozart von Robot, Skywise, Zilla Persona, Rsonal The Beatchef, Disco Vietnam, Best Kept Secret, Block Beattaz, KT Kravitz, C-Loz, and the departed Pimp C.
Lotusflower occasionally makes edits to English-language Wikipedia pages unrelated to rap music. He has a particular interest in editing Wikipedia pages about a wide cross-section of human individuals, living and departed, out of an interest in cultural diversity and a variety of other kinds of human diversity; this in turn is because of his avid interest in studying human nature and the human condition. These have included several of his friends and colleagues in endeavours unrelated to rap music, including Zuhdi Jasser, Raheel Raza, and Denis MacEoin, as well as The Mountain Goats (who are his favourite band), Delroy Lindo (who is perhaps his favourite living and working male actor), Tom Wilkinson (another contender for that title), Willem Dafoe (a third), Sam Moore (who is likely his favourite soul singer ever), James Baldwin (who is among his favourite novelists and public intellectuals of the twentieth century), Ta-Nehisi Coates (who is his favourite living and working public intellectual), Christopher Hitchens (who was an important influence on his early intellectual development), Sheila Heti (a personal friend of his by whose unconventional writings he is fascinated and moved), Mahmoud Muhammad Taha and Bawa Muhaiyaddeen (who are his two favourite Muslim theologians), Asghar Farhadi (the director and writer of his favourite film ever made), and all of the following:
Barack Obama, Jalāluddin Rumi, Paul McCartney, Beyoncé, Chaka Khan, Mr. T, Martin Scorsese, Michael Caine, Alan Rickman, Pete Postlethwaite, Bill Nighy, Timothy Spall, Lorde, Feist, Joni Mitchell, Cornel West, Joe Pesci, Kirsten Dunst, Brad Pitt, Will Smith, Paul Thomas Anderson, “Weird Al” Yankovic, Steven Soderbergh, Anthony Hopkins, Ed Sheeran, Ethan Hawke, Al Green, Ann Nesby, Chadwick Boseman, Daniel Kaluuya, Angela Merkel, Tony Blair, Semei Kakungulu, Thích Nhất Hạnh, Charles McDew, Khushwant Singh, Craig David, Ray LaMontagne, Douglas Murray, Thomas Sowell, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Neko Case, Léa Seydoux, Liv Ullmann, Aimée Lou Wood, Ini Kamoze, Jackie Wilson, Paul Bettany, Boris Johnson, Thomas Vinterberg, Ridley Scott, Joseph Ratzinger, Peter Hitchens, Michael Gove, Tufail Ahmad, Kiese Laymon, Tanika Charles, Anthony LaPaglia, Basia Bulat, Paul Schrader, Charles S. Dutton, Junior Kimbrough, R. L. Burnside, John Lee Hooker, Isabelle Adjani, Lupita Nyong’o, Spencer Wiggins, Bobby Hebb, Ray Liotta, Mary Margaret O’Hara, Leonard Earl Howze, Joaquim de Almeida, Heidi Julavits, Leanne Shapton, Tate McRae, Katherine Langford, Sam Elliott, Lisa Loeb, Margaux Williamson, Pamela Sheyne, Michael Oakeshott, Wilfred Reilly, Stéphane Charbonnier, Boris Nemtsov, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Rosaria Butterfield, Elie Mystal, Hamed Abdel-Samad, Robert Pollard, Dorothy Dandridge, Rachael Price, Thandiwe Newton, Grover Norquist, Kumail Nanjiani, Charles Hodges, Andraé Crouch, Shirley Henderson, Roger Scruton, Tashbih Sayyed, Kanan Makiya, Naser Khader, Olivia Rodrigo, Frédéric Bastiat, Hisham Kabbani, David Oyelowo, Jessica Watson-Oyelowo, Vanessa Carlton, Dariush Mehrjui, Natan Gamedze, Mink Stole, Capers Funnye, Timothy J. McGrew, Alan Bates, Franklin Bruno, Suhaib Webb, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Kelefa Sanneh, Harry Dean Stanton, David Paymer, Michael Gambon, Bala Muhammad, Tony Williams, Robert P. George, Rainn Wilson, Ali-Asghar Shahbazi, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Sidney Flanigan, Abdullah Yusuf Ali, Dylan Gelula, Broti Gupta, Alma Pöysti, Hayley Squires, Alejandra Caraballo, Toomaj Salehi, Rod Dreher, Yirgalem Fisseha Mebrahtu, Sohail Ahmed, name, David Hare, Nicole Farhi, Zoe Leigh Hopkins, Xi Shengmo, Amber Midthunder, J. K. Simmons, Amy Smart, Diane Warren, Robert Hayden Mounce, J. I. Packer, Bob Xi-Qiu Fu, Demi Lovato, Dwight A. McBride, Jonny Lang, Bonnie Zimmerman, Rosaria Butterfield, Victor Davis Hanson, James Hong, Paul Foster, Julius Cheeks, Hughes Oliphant Old, Fran Tarkenton, Raam Reddy, Amir Jadidi, Voddie Baucham, Kathleen Wynne, Haluk Bilginer, Hassen Chalghoumi, Gao Zhisheng, Pádraig Ó Tuama, Robert Conquest, Mohammad Tawhidi, Catherine McKenney, Sarah Jessica Parker, Bilge Ebiri, Amanda Marshall, Sarah Idan, Juliano Mer-Khamis, Kehlani, William Devane, Jaimz Woolvett, Emanuel Ax, Yoko Nozaki, Azali Assoumani, Mike Tomlin, Alysha Brilla, Christina Hoff Sommers, Chen Guangcheng, Saycon Sengbloh, Bernard Lewis, Tunde Olaniran, Geri Halliwell, Emily Whitehurst, Ty Dolla Sign, Ali A. Rizvi, Lindsey Graham, Arthur Kennedy, Irwin Cotler, Walter E. Williams, Blu Cantrell, James Rebhorn, Maikel Nabil Sanad, Mahmud Jamal, Ibn Warraq, Jason Isbell, Simon Russell Beale, Mark Steyn, Ibram X. Kendi, Allie Beth Stuckey, Charlie Ruggles, Zaid Shakir, Lisa Nandy, Lucy Dacus, Jenn Wasner, Andrew Roberts, Nile Gardiner, Liz Kendall, Allen B. West, Camille Paglia, Frederick Knight, Coleman Hughes, Jane Campion, Jenny Lewis, Oscar Isaac, Somaya Ramadan, David Bentley Hart, Vikram Briggs-Meredith, Hussein Bikar, Steve Sarowitz, Spooner Oldham, Ahmed Subhy Mansour, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Yair Lapid, Taryn Manning, Rob Brown, Hamza Yusuf, Aoife O'Donovan, Alexei Navalny, Kenneth Minogue, Dave Sharma, Zigaboo Modeliste, Dawud Wharnsby Ali, Deirdre McCloskey, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Malinda Kathleen Reese, Fatima Robinson, Bonnie Tyler, Allison Bailey, Sarah Tuttle-Singer, Peter Bogdanovich, Suzanna Son, Tarek Fatah, Lia Thomas, Chloe Cole, Maajid Nawaz, Benny Cassette, Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson, Robert Spencer, Oriana Fallaci, Nadia Bolz-Weber, Ahmad Mushaddeq, Emily King, Oscar DeGruy, Peter Robinson, Nabeel Qureshi, David Horowitz, Peter Collier, Nupur Sharma (and Nupur J. Sharma), Eregowda, Kristie Greene, Christopher Cross, Kathy Shaidle, Usama Hasan, Mufti Abu Layth, Dennis Prager, Allen Estrin, Sophie B. Hawkins, Dan Bern, Órlaithí Flynn, Faye Dunaway, Bari Weiss, Ingrid Bisu, Hannah Georgas, Wax Mannequin, Melanie Lynskey, Yoram Hazony, Mark Palmer, Walter Mondale, Natalie Wynn, Jacob Tobia, Ivan Passer, Jasna Đuričić, Debra Killings, Milena Canonero, Neil Bell, Sturgill Simpson, Nonie Darwish, Alykhan Velshi, Michael Parenti, Frank Pavone, Bat Ye’or, Tom Courtenay, Sarah Shahi, Emile Mosseri, Wafa Sultan, Adlai Stevenson, Fadi Elsalameen, Phil Vischer, Dan Andrews, Yvette Cooper, Lori McKenna, Gough Whitlam, Lou Barlow, Joan Shelley, R. B. Greaves, Alvin Gladstone Bennett, Jesse Plemons, Lela Rochon, Doly Begum, Tiffany Villarreal, Jerome A. Cohen, Solomon Yue, Gary Barnacle, James Si-Cheng Chao, Abdullah Mohammad Saad, Azmeri Haque Badhon, Pamela Martin, Marc Rebillet, Joe Rogan, Matt Taibbi, Glenn Youngkin, Winsome Sears, Dario Hunter, Steven Blane, Daniel Hannan, Chaim Kanievsky, Murray Lightburn, Guy Gilbert, Yaakov Moshe Hillel, Susannah Fielding, Walker Hayes, Yusef Lateef, Hosea Williams, Thunderbolt Patterson, Michael Frayn, Alan Ayckbourn, Anjelica Huston, Mandy Moore, Mel White, Glenn Loury, Penelope Wilton, Demi Adejuyigbe, Barney Pilling, Harry V. Jaffa, Dave Rubin, Kathleen Stock, Daniel Pipes, Abdol-Hamid Masoumi-Tehrani, Melanie Phillips, Fethullah Gülen, Elizabeth Harper Kucinich, Maryam Khatoon Molkara, Bradford Young, Devendra Banhart, Chuck Colson, Clarence Thomas, Joe Lieberman, Tim Keller, Stefanina Moro, Alan Dershowitz, Uri Avnery, Gretta Vosper, Abdal Hakim Murad, Andrew Sullivan, Millicent Fenwick, Deragh Campbell, Isabel Oakeshott, Yossi Klein Halevi, Frank Gaffney, Conor Cruise O’Brien, John Bolton, Will Hutton, Charles W. Mills, Amy Goodman, Simon Rex, Your Smith, Rooney Mara, Dennis Haysbert, Natalie Bassingthwaighte, Nick Nurse, Lucy Schwartz, Namgyal Rinpoche, Jean-Luc Herbulot, Elsa Zylberstein, Joe Bataan, Boubacar Boris Diop, Red Grammer, Donnie Simpson, Sarah McLachlan, Big Rude Jake, Vincent Lingiari, Manmohan Singh, Adam Serwer, Hans Küng, Leo Strauss, Liz Mair, Shirley Robin Letwin, Andrew Bolt, Sohrab Ahmari, Niall Ferguson, Charles Gayle, Willie "The Lion" Smith, Sarah J. Maas, Pallo Jordan, Daniel Jonah Goldhagen, Richard John Neuhaus, Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, Nat Hentoff, Colin Brazier, Dehenna Davison, Yusuf Estes, Razib Khan, Neil Astley, T. L. Barrett, Zubin Varla, Frank Patterson, Jonathan Kay, Abdallah bin Bayyah, Farahnaz Ispahani, Zanny Minton Beddoes, Chokwe Antar Lumumba, Kenza Fourati, Alessia Cara, Seymour Martin Lipset, Ellis Rabb, Sally Kellerman, Madelyn Cline, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Ramasimhan, Josh McDowell, Fazl'ollah Mohtadi Sobhi, Calvin Richardson, Anne Hidalgo, Ghorban Tourani, Dabbs Greer, Josh Hartnett, James C. Bennett, Martin Desmond Roe, Charles Mudede, İlker Başbuğ, Hazel Scott, Naheed Nenshi, Salome Bey, Pellom McDaniels, Troy Perry, Matthew Vines, Haïm Korsia, Zinedine Soualem, Spencer Ackerman, Ezra Klein, Audrey Assad, Sara Groves, Priti Patel, Sam Gyimah, Atticus Ross, Francis Bebey, Jennifer Condos, Craig Cardiff, Trevor Phillips, Rama Yade, Dan Wootton, David Lammy, Elizabeth Holmes, Sinéad O’Connor, Edward Feser, Sean Bobbitt, Muhammad Khan Sherani, Caron Wheeler, Peter Mandelson, Frederick Forsyth, Jeff Chang, Josef Joffe, Ja'Ron Smith, Richard Grenell, Peter Arcidiacono, Daniel Hale Williams, Constance Langdon-Davies, Virginia Ramey Mollenkott, Robin DiAngelo, Elizabeth Price, Jennifer Lee, Cayetana Álvarez de Toledo, Jack McElhone, Alessandra Stanley, Tarif Khalidi, Annamie Paul, Stromae, Dana Loesch, Michael J. Gorman, Kemi Badenoch, Robert B. Powers, Ed Milliband, Serge Moati, Michel Houellebecq, Amita Kuttner, Pierre Poilievre, Ahamefule J. Oluo, Faustin-Archange Touadéra, Mehdi Hasan, Lynda Carter, Dwyane Wade, Arooj Aftab, Emma Raducanu, Kuk Harrell, Dion Beebe, Josh Thomas, Antony Blinken, Evan Ryan, Scott Peters, David Blunkett, Marie Harf, Jen Psaki, Tony Perkins, Jonathan Isaac, Told Slant, Jim Loach, Aaron T. Beck, Roland G. Fryer Jr., Danielle Smith, Masoud Kimiai, Ilan Kapoor, Jessica Mulroney, Megyn Kelly, Shannon Bream, John Beck, Steve Chrisanthou, Todd Walton, Jerome “New Jack” Young, James Loney, Flora Saini, Otto Rogers, Matthew W. Bullock, Inaya Folarin Iman, Mercy Muroki, Alexandra Phillips, Kirsty Gallacher, Eshy Gazit, Tyrone Mings, Ned Bouhalassa, Neal H. Pogue, Shelley Winters, Peggy McIntosh, Tove Ditlevsen, Edith Eger, Esther Béjarano, Ben Simmons, Terry Crews, Colm Ó Cíosóig, Tariq Ramadan, Caroline Fourest, Nana Akua, Roger Hawkins, Eli Cohen, Bella Hadid, Bruce Franks Jr., Rasheen Aldridge Jr., Billy West, Macarena Achaga, Shingoose, Natsume Sōseki, Richard Landes, Gregg Alexander, Kelly Lee Owens, Dua Lipa, Des'ree, Hussein Ibish, Todd Snider, Musa Cerantonio, Glennon Doyle, David Dorn, Francis Lawrence, Zhavia Ward, Russell Thornton, George Lakey, Margaret Bloodgood Peeke, Alice Pike Barney, Declan Meehan, Lena Herzog Misetski, Elizabeth Olsen (and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen), Anna Gunn, Katrina Swett, India Oxenberg, Brandon Tatum, Jack Brewer, Afua Hirsch, Ben Goldsmith, Ricky J, Jacynthe Carrier, Philip DeFranco, Wendy Brown, Javed Ahmad Ghamidi, Alfred Bitini Xuma, Pranati Rai Prakash, Kakarla Subba Rao, Brian Pittman, Mauree Turner, Inocencio Arias, Enuga S. Reddy, Bruce Coville, Christopher Paolini, Isabel Webster, Henri de Miffonis, J. Anthony Allen, Lucas Jade Zumann, Heather MacDonald, Pete Hegseth, Rod Duncan, Mustafa, Alvin Greene, Jacky Rosen, Kevin Hines, Nicholas Soames, James Hormel, Steven Choi, Patrick Deneen, Richard Décarie, Linda Martín Alcoff, Xu Yafen, Amy Wax, Sendhil Mullainathan, Arvo Tuominen, Jensen Karp, John DiMaggio, Kevin Olusola, Scott Moe, Giannina Facio, Aline Wirley, Amanda Nunes, Jordan Peterson, Harmeet Dhillon, DJ Frank E, Jordan “Infinity” Suecof, Quentin “Mr. Oizo” Dupieux, Siraj Wahhaj, Harlan Crow, Geert Wilders, Anne Marie Waters, Paul Weston, Éric Zemmour, Philippe de Villiers, Giorgia Meloni, Roald Dahl, Glenn Greenwald, Muna El-Kurd, Lauren Southern, Eli Valley, Casey Black-DeSantis, Ted Cruz, Dick Harpootlian, Lee Greenwood, Candace Owens, Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, Chaya Raichik, Brandon Straka, Andy Ngo, Alastair Crooke, Wolfgang Dietrich, Kyle Smith, Dan Bongino, Akira the Don, Douglas MacGregor, Oren Hazan, Derek Sloan, Fayez Sayegh, Hassan Nasrallah, Donna Laframboise, Tareq Al-Suwaidan, Ben Garrison, Jeremy Corbyn, Norman Finkelstein, Carlos Latuff, Peter Nygård, Claude Jutra, Nick Adams, Jack Posobiec, Costin Alamariu, Muhammad Hussein Yacoub, Francis Parker Yockey, and the bands TLC, Haim, Zhané, The Oh Hellos, Crooked Still, The Dandy Warhols, Dr. Dog, Smash Mouth, Lawrence, Muna, 7 Year B—-ch, and The Sheepdogs, as well as Jesus of Nazareth, whom Lotusflower regards as a Manifestation of God, and who is of course one of the most influential and significant personages in human history.
Lotusflower has also worked on a variety of other English-language Wikipedia entries, especially those of matters pertaining to his five major areas of interest: religion, geopolitics, history, the cinema, and music. These have included the entries for open theism, theistic finitism, the Baháʼí Faith in Madagascar and in Kiribati, the Bahá’í festivals of Ridván and Naw-Rúz (and the main page for Baháʼí Holy Days), the list of Bahá’ís (and the list of converts to the Bahá’í Faith), Vajrayana Buddhism, the Rastafari movement (and Judaism and Rastafari), Sikhism by country, the list of converts to Sikhism, Hinduism in Wales, Ethiopian philosophy, the Remonstrants, critical race theory, Black conservatism (and 1776 Unites), the Intellectual Dark Web, the Center for Inquiry, the Amman Message, the Q Christian Fellowship, the Republican Party, Fat Possum Records, Nonesuch Records, Furman University, the Manhattan Institute, the David Horowitz Freedom Center, Glenstal Abbey, Hartford Seminary, Yeshiva Darchei Torah, Young Americans for Freedom, the International Free Press Society, the Free Speech Union, the Henry Jackson Society, Novara Media, GB News, Prager University, Messianic Judaism, Neturei Karta, Concerned Women for America, Ashley Madison, the Israeli “Nation-State” Law, Filipiné people in Israel, Hinduism in Israel, religion in Nepal and in Tonga, the films The Grand Budapest Hotel and One False Move and The Exonerated, the novels Big Trouble and The Zucchini Warriors, the songs “Ain't No Love in the Heart of the City” and “A Thousand Miles” and “Together Again” and “Groove Is In The Heart”, the 93rd and 94th and 95th Academy Awards, the Academy Award for Best Director, the Academy Award for Best Film Editing, the list of Black people who have won or been nominated for Academy Awards, the list of actors with two or more Academy Award nominations in acting categories, the Triple Crown of Acting, the 9th Canadian Screen Awards, the Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance, the television show Parks and Recreation, Slate Star Codex, Commonweal magazine, and the South Asian religions of Sanamahism, Kiratism, and Sarnaism, among others.
Lotusflower’s life and worldview have been profoundly influenced by his encounter with the Baháʼí Faith, although he is not officially enrolled as a member of the Bahá’í community, having been formally enrolled only between the years 2009 and 2016. Lotusflower is passionately devoted to ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, and has maintained a keen interest in the details of His life, His Writings, and His teachings since the year 2003. Lotusflower frequently writes and speaks on the internet in support of the equality of rights and dignity for out and partnered LGBTQ+ members of the Baháʼí Faith, which is currently denied by the official institutions of the religion. Among Lotusflower’s contributions to Wikipedia has been material about the Reform Bahá’ís and the Unitarian Baháʼís, two covenant-breaking sects about which he has written as part of the entry on Baháʼí divisions. Lotusflower also intends to do considerable work on the Wikipedia entries of the ex-Bahá’í dissidents Ruth White, Mirza Ahmad Sohrab, and Fazl'ollah Mohtadi Sobhi. Lotusflower does not consider himself an ex-Bahá’í – he maintains a private personal faith in Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and frequently attends Bahá’í devotional gatherings. Lotusflower’s favourite works of Baháʼí literature are The Hidden Words, Paris Talks, and The Promulgation of Universal Peace. Among his favourite figures from Bahá’í history are Enoch Olinga, Louis George Gregory, Thomas Breakwell, George Townshend, Corinne True, Clara Dunn, Bey Sa’d, and William Sears. He is an affiliate of the Bahá’í-inspired arts collective FRMWRK.
In addition to his involvement with the Bahá’í community, Lotusflower has longstanding ties to the Unitarian Universalist movement. He attends services at the First Unitarian Congregation of Toronto on a semiregular basis. He is also an admirer of Hazrat Inayat Khan and a supporter of the ideals of the Inayati branch of Sufism. Lotusflower’s beliefs are out of harmony with classical theism in that he is a finitistic theist, with faith in the omnibenevolence of God but not in His omnipotence. In line with both the Baháʼí teachings and his own independently derived principles, Lotusflower has by lifelong habit abstained from drinking alcohol.
Lotusflower is a vocal opponent of the global jihad ideology, especially of the ideology of Hassan al-Banna, Sayyid Qutb, and Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, as well as of Daesh, Al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, Al-Shabaab, the Taliban, Hizb ut-Tahrir, Tablighi Jamaat, the Islamic Defenders Front, the Patani United Liberation Organization, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Wagdy Ghoneim, Safwat Hegazi, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, Muhammad Hussein Yacoub, and the whole corpus of extremist, supremacist, and terrorist thought within the religion of Islam. He is a supporter of numerous Muslim groups and individuals arrayed against these ideologies, especially but not exclusively Muslims who believe in the right of the State of Israel to exist, including the Muslim Reform Movement, the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, Salim Mansur, Tawfik Hamid, Abdul Hadi Palazzi, Mithal al-Alusi, Tahir Aslam Gora, Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury Irshad Manji, Bassam Tibi, Qanta Ahmed, Saad Eddin Ibrahim, Ahmed Aboutaleb, Soheib Bencheikh, Zuhdi Jasser, Raheel Raza, Maajid Nawaz, Tufail Ahmad, Hisham Kabbani, Naser Khader, Hassen Chalghoumi, Tarek Fatah, Ahmed Subhy Mansour, Husain Haqqani, Mohammad Tawhidi, Usama Hasan, Farahnaz Ispahani, Mufti Abu Layth, Noor Dahri, Saïd Djabelkhir, Muhammad Al-Kabour, Omar Qudrat, Jalal Zuberi, Ahmad Vanya, Abdirizak Bihi, Tehmina Kazi, Farid Ghadry, Hasan Mahmud, Farzana Hassan Shahid, Zainab Zeb Khan, Munir Pervaiz Saami, Jamal Hasan, Sherkoh Abbas, Oubai Shahbandar, Amna Farooqi, Zeba Khan, and the late likes of Abdurrahman Wahid, Bawa Muhaiyaddeen, Farag Foda, Naguib Mahfouz, Rashad Khalifa, Fazlur Rahman Malik, Tashbih Sayyed, Courtney Lonergan, Nurcholish Madjid, and Mahmoud Muhammad Taha.
Lotusflower has written and spoken in defense of the rights of persecuted Baháʼí communities and of other persecuted religious minorities, including Hindus in Pakistan, Sikhs in Afghanistan, and Muslims in China and in Myanmar. He has consistently defended the rights of Ahmadi Muslims, of people who were once Muslim or were born Muslim but choose in conscience not to be, of persecuted Christian communities, of Sevener Nizari Ismaili Muslims, of Yazidis, of Yarsanis, of Mandaeans, of Shabaks, of the Imazighen (especially in relation to their indigeneity to Kabylia), of the Kalasha indigenous people of Pakistan, and of adherents of Gafatar. He is a supporter of the causes of Baloch nationalism and Kurdish independence, and supports the cause of Chukwuemeka Ojukwu in relation to the Biafra War of the late 1960s. He has also been vocal in defense of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (in contradistinction to the 1990 Cairo Declaration), and in opposition to the Pakistani blasphemy law and to the Iranian Revolution of 1979.
Lotusflower is a moral universalist, and although he is a democratic socialist, he is on the anti-totalitarian, anti-Stalinist Left. He is a supporter of the Euston Manifesto, and was a signatory to the publicly accessible online version that was made available contemporaneously with the manifesto's official publication in 2006. He also supported the motion "We Should Not Be Reluctant To Assert The Superiority of Western Values", as affirmed by Douglas Murray, Ibn Warraq, and David Aaronovitch as part of a debate sponsored by Intelligence Squared in 2007. Lotusflower supports the non-governmental organizations Watsi, Freedom House, the Council for a Community of Democracies, the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, the Institute for the Secularization of Islamic Societies, the Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel, and the Arab Council for Regional Integration.
On matters ethical and political, Lotusflower is an admirer of the late likes of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Coretta Scott King, Bayard Rustin, Rosa Parks, Charles Malik, Abdus Salam, Martin Buber, Victor Frankl, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Jawaharlal Nehru, John Lewis, Adam Clayton Powell, Fred Shuttlesworth, Maya Angelou, Song Jiaoren, Peng Chun Chang, Eugene V. Debs, Jean Jaurès, Henry M. “Scoop” Jackson, Abebech Gobena, C. T. Vivian, Charles McDew, and Abraham J. Twerski. He also admires Claudette Colvin, whom he considers the greatest living American citizen as of 2022.
Lotusflower supports a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and has written and spoken in defense of dissenting Palestinian voices such as those of Khaled Abu Toameh, Bassem Eid, Rami Aman, Muhammad Zoabi, Bassam Tawil, and the late Aziz Shehadeh. Lotusflower supports the Abraham Accords and the similar normalization agreements reached in 2020 between the government of Israel and its counterparts in Morocco and Sudan. He also supports the Muslim Leadership Initiative organized by Yossi Klein Halevi and Abdullah Antepli, which aims to build bridges of understanding and mutual acceptance between Muslims and Zionists. He has harshly criticized Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Leila Khaled, Rasmea Odeh, and the late George Habash, and has written critically of George Galloway, Ali Abunimah, Noura Erakat, Yousef Munayyer, Linda Sarsour, Richard Boyd Barrett, and other anti-Zionist activists, especially those who try to anathematize Muslim supporters of Israel.
Lotusflower has published material expressing opposition to Vladimir Putin, the Irish Republican Army, Chinese Communism, Hoxhaism, Hindutva, the Kim dynasty, Juche, Chávismo, Jair Bolsonaro, Viktor Orbán, and Rodrigo Duterte. He has been particularly vocal in opposing Recep Tayyip Erdogan, charging the latter with endeavouring to destroy Kemalism and re-Islamize Turkey. Lotusflower is a frequent and vociferous critic of Donald Trump and Mike Pence, but has also praised aspects of Trump’s foreign policy record.
Lotusflower is an admirer of Bernie Sanders, but a critic of Jeremy Corbyn; he has opposed Sanders’ choice to employ Linda Sarsour as a campaign surrogate, and has criticized many of Corbyn’s allies and supporters, including John McDonnell, Seumas Milne, Owen Jones, Gilad Atzmon, Abdel-Bari Atwan, Jewdas, and George Galloway. He has expressed particular opposition to the longtime association of both Corbyn and Galloway with Press TV, and is among those commentators who have alleged that Corbyn’s relationships to Hamas, Hezbollah, the Irish Republican Army, Black September, and Dyab Abou Jahjah mean that he is effectively a terrorist sympathizer. He feels the same way about Galloway with regard to the latter’s connections to Hamas, Hezbollah, Bashar Assad, and the late Saddam Hussein.
An admirer of John Stuart Mill and Alexis de Tocqueville, Lotusflower is a wholehearted supporter of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. He is, however, an opponent of the mainstream interpretation of the Second Amendment, and supports gun control. Lotusflower believes more strongly in the freedom of speech than is commonplace on the contemporary Left, and thinks well of the arguments presented in On Liberty and Areopagitica. He took the side of Charlie Hebdo, Jyllands-Posten, and Salman Rushdie in the respective controversies that erupted over each of them with regard to the freedom of speech in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
With regard to depictions of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, Lotusflower takes the position that it should always be permissible to depict the Prophet and to create or display cartoons or other artistic representations of Him without fear of social opprobrium or physical or legal punishment. He was harshly critical of headmaster Gary Kibble of Batley Grammar School in the United Kingdom when the latter disciplined three subordinates for showing cartoons of the Prophet at the school in 2021. He regards as essentially fascist the effort by Muslim militants to extend to any non-Muslims, inside or outside the majority-Muslim lands, the traditional Islamic prohibitions on depicting the Prophet or on doing other things which violate conservative Muslim mores, pieties, and sanctities. He has likewise been harshly critical of Haredi Jews who have attempted to influence the Israeli legal system to prohibit non-Haredis from operating as they wish in the country on the Jewish Sabbath and on Jewish holidays, as well as of Hindutva activists who commit violence against Muslims in India or try to prosecute non-Hindus or liberal Hindus for acts which violate conservative Hindu mores, pieties, and sanctities.
With regard to racism in Israel, Lotusflower has been harshly critical of the decision of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel to deny the right of immigration to Israel under the Law of Return to the Lemba Jews of Zimbabwe, the Abayudaya Jews of Uganda, the Igbo Jews of Nigeria, and the Sefwi-speaking Jews of Ghana, as well as of the ongoing hostility to African immigration to Israel on the part of both the government and certain elements of the Israeli public. He takes a keen interest in the lives and rights of Vietnamese, Hindu, and Filipiné people in Israel. Among the Israeli public figures Lotusflower has condemned include Michael Ben-Ari, Miri Regev, Ayelet Shaked, Avi Maoz, Bezalel Smotrich, Naftali Bennett, David Amsalem, Itamar Ben-Gvir, Avigdor Lieberman, Oren Hazan, Yoav Eliassi, and the late Meir Kahane. He has harshly condemned Lehava, the Deir Yassin massacre, the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre, and the price tag attack policy. He has also vocally opposed the current Israeli marriage laws, according to which secular civil marriage and many varieties of interfaith marriage are prohibited there by law.
With regard to the presidency of Barack Obama, Lotusflower generally supported Obama’s domestic policy agenda, but vociferously opposed many of his foreign policy initiatives, especially his solicitude for the Muslim Brotherhood (of which Lotusflower is a vociferous opponent), his failure to support the Green Revolution in Iran in 2009, and his entry into the Iranian nuclear deal. Lotusflower has supported various Iranian and Iranian-American dissidents, including Amir Taheri, Azar Nafisi, Roya Hakakian, Masih Alinejad, Sohrab Ahmari, Heshmat Alavi, Amil Imani, Mahyar Tousi, Hassan Daioleslam, and Arash Irandoost, among others.
Lotusflower supports the worldwide establishment of universal healthcare, the legalization of all drugs for use by consenting adults, the legalization of sex work, legal abortion, and a CANZUK agreement. He is a supporter of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, and contends that the government of the United States of America should immediately grant clemency to Mumia Abu-Jamal and Leonard Peltier, both of whom he regards as illegitimately incarcerated political prisoners, as well as to Assata Shakur.
Among the living and working writers whose work Lotusflower regularly reads are Hanif Abdurraqib, Mike D'Angelo, Brittney Cooper, Tressie McMillan Cottom, Jia Tolentino, Jamelle Bouie, DeRay McKesson, Jamil Smith, Lindy West, Laurie Penny, Charles M. Blow, Jayson Greene, Jessica Hopper, Fredrik deBoer, Samhita Mukhopadhyay, Wesley Morris, Sally Rooney, Jeet Heer, Elie Mystal, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Kiese Laymon, Kelefa Sanneh, Adam Serwer, Jeff Chang, Tom Breihan, Sean Fennessey, Amanda Dobbins, Shea Serrano, Anupa Mistry, Camille Dodero, Jenn Pelly, Caitlin White, Andrew Nosnitsky, Meaghan Garvey, Ayesha Siddiqi, Lindsay Zoladz, Rawiya Kameir, Amos Barshad, Evie Nagy, Rembert Browne, Jeff Weiss, Barry Schwartz, Hunter Harris, Craig Jenkins, Hannah Giorgis, Tom Ewing, Rob Harvilla, Claire McNear, Oliver Wang, David Toop, Jack Hamilton, Claire Lobenfeld, Andrew Barber, David Tompkins, Jordan Sargent, Rob Sheffield, Larry Fitzmaurice, Willy Staley, Charles Hughes, Jayson Buford, and his friends Carl Wilson, Maura Johnston, Ann Powers, Chuck Eddy, Sheila Heti, Steacy Easton, Chris Molanphy, Joe Tangari, Nate Patrin, Sasha Chapin, Elamin Abdelmahmoud, and Susannah Dainow.
An Ashkenazi Jew as a matter of racial and ethnic background (having been raised in the small left-wing Jewish denomination known as Reconstructionist Judaism), and someone whose skin pigmentation is white, Lotusflower is an intersectional feminist and a student of critical race theory, and is interested in the work of Ijeoma Oluo, Ibram X. Kendi, and the late likes of bell hooks, Manning Marable, Audre Lorde, Stuart Hall, Derrick Bell, and Charles W. Mills, among others. He generally agrees with the popularizers of critical race theory about the ways in which whiteness and white supremacy function as a system of institutionalized oppression of people of colour in both the West and the Global South. He is also a student of the philosophy of Malcolm X, Fred Hampton, and the Black Panthers, although he disagrees with virtually every foreign policy position the Panthers ever publicly took. Lotusflower has been vocal and public in his opposition to the white supremacists Richard B. Spencer, Jason Kessler, David Duke, and the late likes of Revilo P. Oliver, Ernst Zündel, Willis Carto, Lincoln Rockwell, Jean Raspail, and Francis Parker Yockey, among other prominent contemporary racists, fascists, and white nationalists. He aspires to be what critical race theory refers to as a “white abolitionist”.
Although the majority of writers Lotusflower reads are politically aligned with the intersectional feminist ideological Left, he also frequently engages with the work of centrist, centre-Right, and Rightist commentators, such as Fareed Zakaria, Sam Harris, Neil Bissoondath, Kenan Malik, Rex Murphy, Brendan O’Neill, John Anderson, Julie Burchill, Bill Maher, Rod Dreher, Victor Davis Hanson, Theodore Dalrymple, Richard Kemp, Bruce Bawer, Hernando De Soto, Simon Deng, Walid Phares, Brigitte Gabriel, Rod Liddle, Robert Stacy McCain, Matt Taibbi, Ibn Warraq, Douglas Murray, Mark Steyn, Andrew Sullivan, Robert Spencer, Nile Gardiner, Andrew Bolt, Niall Ferguson, Michael Gove, Andrew Roberts, Wafa Sultan, Bat Ye’or, Bari Weiss, Daniel Pipes, Frank Gaffney, John Bolton, Melanie Phillips, Daniel Hannan, Yoram Hazony, Nonie Darwish, Dennis Prager, Mark Humphrys, Bethel McGrew, Dumisani Washington, Richard Waghorne, Mark Durie, and the late likes of P. J. O'Rourke, Roger Scruton, Kenneth Minogue, Conor Cruise O'Brien, Oriana Fallaci, Christopher Hitchens, Michael Oakeshott, and Kathy Shaidle.
In particular, along with his research into critical race theory, Lotusflower frequently studies the work of Black conservatives, including Robert Woodson, Larry Elder, Thomas Chatterton Williams, Chloé Valdary, John McWhorter, Kmele Foster, Thomas Sowell, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Coleman Hughes, Glenn Loury, Allen B. West, Wilfred Reilly, André Archie, John Wood Jr., Dumisani Washington, and the late Walter E. Williams.
In July 2022, Lotusflower took a particular interest in the Conservative Party leadership election in the United Kingdom, studying the policy positions and public statements of Sajid Javid, Rishi Sunak, Tom Tugendhat, Suella Braverman, Penny Mordaunt, Nadhim Zahawi, Liz Truss, Priti Patel, and Kemi Badenoch. In the British Labour Party, Lotusflower has been supportive of Chuka Umunna, Liz Kendall, Trevor Phillips, David Lammy, and a Blairite agenda in general.
Although he is not a Christian, Lotusflower is a student of the contributions of Christians and Christianity to the history of thought, and has read and studied certain works by C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, and John Gresham Machen. He has an ongoing interest in the writings of evangelical Christian scholars and commentators such as John Piper, D.A. Carson, N.T. Wright, J.D. Greear, Michael Nazir-Ali, Edward Feser, Tim Keller, David Bentley Hart, Allie Beth Stuckey, Rosaria Butterfield, Phil Vischer, Neil Shenvi, Thabiti Anyabwile, Voddie Baucham, Susannah Black, Alastair Roberts, Bethel McGrew, Derek Rishmawy, Brad Littlejohn, and the late likes of John Stott, R.C. Sproul, and James I. Packer, as well as in the work of Maggie Helwig, Lois Miriam Wilson, Nadia Bolz-Weber, Jemar Tisby, Latasha Morrison, Matthew Vines, the late James H. Cone, the late Rachel Held Evans, and others on the Christian Left. Lotusflower is an admirer of the Reverend William J. Barber II. Although he is committed to the Bahá’í view of Jesus, Lotusflower occasionally attends services at churches affiliated with both the Anglican Church of Canada and the Anglican Network in Canada, as well as with the Fellowship of Evangelical Baptists. He is also a friend and supporter of the Metropolitan Community Church. Additionally, Lotusflower is interested in contemporary Christian music, including the work of Leigh Nash, The Oh Hellos, Sara Groves, the ex-Christian songwriter Audrey Assad, and the now-disgraced Chris Rice.
Outside the ranks of the contemporary commentariat, Lotusflower admires the work of the late writers Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Gabriel García Márquez, W.H. Auden, Toni Morrison, T.S. Eliot, Elmore Leonard, Kahlil Gibran, and Fernando Pessoa. He enjoys the work of the novelist Tom Robbins and the book Big Trouble by Dave Barry.
Lotusflower is a friend and fan of John Darnielle and an ardent fan of and frequent listener to the music made by Darnielle's band, The Mountain Goats. He is also a fan of soul, funk, blues, reggae, R&B, pop, indie rock, folk, jazz, and country music, including of The Meters, Stevie Wonder, Pharaoh Sanders, Maceo Parker, Phoebe Bridgers, Paul Simon, Willie Nelson, Carly Rae Jepsen, The New Pornographers, Anthony Hamilton, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Sleepy Brown, Paul McCartney, Youssou N’Dour, Esmée Denters, Maisie Peters, Julien Baker, Maggie Rogers, Swamp Dogg, Charles Gayle, Lorde, Chvrches, Iron & Wine, Dolly Parton, Beach Bunny, The Beths, Joan Shelley, Lee Fields, Amel Larrieux, Burning Spear, Aloe Blacc, Amerie, Lori McKenna, Chris Stapleton, Ashley McBryde, Colin Meloy, Kacey Musgraves, Mahmoud Ahmed, Guided By Voices, Bill Callahan, Steven Page, James McMurtry, D’Angelo, Brandy, Monica, Faith Evans, Tamia, Syl Johnson, Ann Nesby, Charlie Wilson, Anthony Braxton, Ahmad Jamal, Les Nubians, Craig David, Spoon, Beck, Vanessa Carlton, Jewel, A.R. Rahman, Ciele, Honeyman and the Brothers Farr, Jelena Ćirić, Disco Vietnam, Maya Killtron, Cassie Noble, Nikki Satira, Basia Bulat, Jenny Lewis, Lucy Dacus, Tanika Charles, Hannah Georgas, Haim, Emily King, Zhané, Lucy Schwartz, Des’ree, the Reverend T.L. Barrett, and the late artists Bill Withers, Lee Moses, Curtis Mayfield, Solomon Burke, Wilson Pickett, Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, Dusty Springfield, O. V. Wright, John Prine, James Carr, Son House, Charley Patton, Robert Johnson, Ma Rainey, Lead Belly, Bessie Smith, Sharon Jones, Charles Bradley, Johnnie Frierson, Nick Drake, Édith Piaf, Jacques Brel, Desmond Dekker, Toots Hibbert, Sugar Minott, Prince Far I, Charlie Whitehead, Howlin’ Wolf, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Bobby Marchan, Professor Longhair, Eugene McDaniels, Levi Stubbs, Rufus Harley, Big Bill Broonzy, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Mississippi John Hurt, Little Richard, Sonny Boy Williamson II, Frankie Lymon, Charles Aznavour, Donald Byrd, Little Walter, Albert Ayler, Ornette Coleman, Sun Ra, R. L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough, Yusef Lateef, R.B. Greaves, and Larry Ifediorema, among a wide variety of others.
Lotusflower is a cinephile, and is enthusiastic about the work of the living and working filmmakers Richard Linklater, Wes Anderson, Wong Kar-Wai, Mike Leigh, Greta Gerwig, Rian Johnson, Asghar Farhadi, Atom Egoyan, Joel and Ethan Coen, Paul Thomas Anderson, David O. Russell, Noah Baumbach, Spike Lee, Jonathan Glazer, Jafar Panahi, Jim Jarmusch, Aki Kaurismäki, Todd Haynes, Spike Jonze, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Nicole Holofcener, David Mamet, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Martin Scorsese, and Steven Soderbergh, as well as the late likes of Billy Wilder, Ingmar Bergman, Akira Kurosawa, Abbas Kiarostami, Kenji Mizoguchi, Yasujirō Ozu, and Edward Yang, among others. His favourite film of all those he has ever seen is A Separation.
Outside the realms of acting, screenwriting, and directing, the film artisans whose work Lotusflower has enjoyed include the cinematographers Roger Deakins, Robert Richardson, Edward Lachman, Paul Sarossy, Robert Yeoman, Chris Menges, Ellen Kuras, Dante Spinotti, Vittorio Storaro, Emmanuel Lubezki, Łukasz Żal, Jarin Blaschke, Phedon Papamichael,Sławomir Idziak, and Dion Beebe; the film score composers Mychael Danna, Terence Blanchard, Jon Brion, Jô Hisaishi, Jonny Greenwood, Daniel Pemberton, David Holmes, Howard Shore, Cliff Martinez, Carter Burwell, Craig Wedren, David Julyan, Thomas Newman, Gustavo Santaolalla, and Angelo Badalamenti; and the film editors Dody Dorn, Sandra Adair, Barry Alexander Brown, Thelma Schoonmaker, Tariq Anwar, Pietro Scalia, Valdís Óskarsdóttir, and Barney Pilling, as well as the late likes of Sven Nykvist, Bernard Herrmann, Vilmos Zsigmond, Elmer Bernstein, Conrad L. Hall, Harris Savides, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Dede Allen, Anne V. Coates, and Sally Menke.
Lotusflower avidly supports the careers of several hundred notable actors. As of July 2023, the number of living and working actors of whom Lotusflower is a fan, counting only those with Wikipedia entries, is [number]:
Steve Buscemi, Ray Winstone, Saoirse Ronan, Isabelle Huppert, Patricia Clarkson, Brian Cox, Emily Watson, John Malkovich, Nicole Kidman, Robert Wisdom,
Kōji Yakusho, Alfre Woodard, Gina McKee, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Rade Šerbedžija, Stellan Skarsgård, Peyman Moaadi, Tilda Swinton, Ving Rhames, Issey Ogata,
Mathieu Amalric, Paul Bettany, Ann Dowd, David Thewlis, Catherine Keener, Clive Owen, Alfred Molina, Jeffrey Wright, Emily Mortimer, Shohreh Aghdashloo,
Eddie Murphy, Gong Li, Ralph Fiennes, Virginie Ledoyen, Elsie Fisher, Tracy Letts, Luis Guzmán, Charlayne Woodard, Michelle Williams, Homayoun Ershadi,
Lois Smith, Samantha Morton, Anthony Anderson, Richard Jenkins, Elle Fanning, Henry G. Sanders, Tony Shalhoub, Ruth Negga, Naomi Watts, Marion Cotillard,
Dylan Baker, Harry J. Lennix, Philip Davis, Timothy Spall, David Morse, Loretta Devine, Sally Hawkins, Juliet Stevenson, Jonathan Pryce, Don Cheadle,
Julie Walters, David Strathairn, Anna Paquin, Daniel Auteuil, Kate Winslet, Lesley Manville, Giancarlo Esposito, Donald Sutherland, Imelda Staunton, Chow Yun-Fat,
Taraji P. Henson, Miki Manojlović, Kelly Macdonald, Molly Parker, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Jamie Bell, Sarah Paulson, Barry Keoghan, Brenda Blethyn, Mahershala Ali,
Cate Blanchett, Giancarlo Giannini, Haley Bennett, Daniella Farinacci, Sarah Peirse, Jessie Buckley, Richard E. Grant, Naseeruddin Shah, Mary-Louise Parker, Billy Connolly,
Michael Gambon, Anna Friel, Tim Roth, Obba Babatunde, Sarah Gadon, Julianne Moore, Bill Heck, Djimon Hounsou, Song Kang-ho, Gabriel Byrne,
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Vicky Krieps, S. Epatha Merkerson, CCH Pounder, Andre Braugher, Javier Bardem, Robert Carlyle, Billy Crudup, M. Emmet Walsh, John Turturro,
Emilio Echevarría, Thomas Kretschmann, John C. Reilly, Paul Giamatti, Judi Dench, Joe Pantoliano, Chris Rock, Maggie Cheung, Ben Kingsley, Toni Collette,
Héctor Elizondo, Guy Pearce, Irène Jacob, Bob Gunton, Idris Elba, Wendell Pierce, Michelle Yeoh, Chi McBride, Jennifer Ehle,
Clancy Brown, Bruce McGill, Jesper Christensen, Joaquim de Almeida, Eddie Marsan, Ciarán Hinds, Elizabeth Berrington, Franka Potente, Colm Feore,Bill Nighy,
Edward James Olmos, Rachel McAdams, Carey Mulligan, Liev Schreiber, Jesse Plemons, David Warshofsky, Glynn Turman, Hayley Squires, Anthony Head, Viola Davis,
Aldis Hodge, Laura Dern, Christopher Walken, Trevante Rhodes, Jürgen Prochnow, Colman Domingo, Demián Bichir, Gary Lewis, Abbie Cornish, Danny Glover,
Michael Stuhlbarg, Dan Hedaya, Brendan Gleeson, Michelle Pfeiffer, Clarke Peters, Tatsuya Nakadai, Riz Ahmed, Daniel Craig, Walton Goggins, Sandra Oh,
Stephen Dillane, Keith David, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Ed Harris, Bruce Greenwood, John Hawkes, Peter Dinklage, Elias Koteas, Ian MacShane, Nien-Jen Wu,
Fanny Ardant, Amy Adams, David Hemblen, Robert De Niro, Fionnula Flanagan, Julie Christie, Earl Pastko, David Suchet, Bruce Dern, Mark Ruffalo,
Olivier Gourmet, Hugo Weaving, Tahar Rahim, Kimberly Elise, Fisher Stevens, Len Cariou, Saïd Taghmaoui, Steven Yeun, Waris Ahluwalia, James Frain,
Michael Peña, Samara Weaving, Thandiwe Newton, Paul Raci, Abraham Attah, Russell Hornsby, Elliott Gould, Alan Alda, Frank Langella, J.K. Simmons,
William Fichtner, Terence Stamp, Jeff Goldblum, Ana de Armas, John Lithgow, Sarita Choudhury, Leila Hatami, Gene Jones, Richard Schiff, Adèle Exarchopoulos,
Irma P. Hall, Jane Adams, Seema Biswas, Wood Harris, Jo Yeo-jeong, Carrie-Anne Moss, Diane Lane, John Lone, Sergi López, Chloë Sevigny,
Denzel Washington, Uma Thurman, Greta Scaachi, Ludivine Sagnier, Aurélien Recoing, Mykelti Williamson, Billy Bob Thornton, Olivia Williams, Wesley Snipes, Al Pacino,
Vivian Wu, Anthony Mackie,Aaron Eckhart, Forest Whitaker, Stockard Channing, William H. Macy, Ryan Gosling, Adam Driver, Eric Bana, Victoire Thivisol,
Imogen Poots, Viggo Mortensen, Hill Harper, Cedric The Entertainer, Vince Colosimo, Sanaa Lathan, Celia Weston, Harvey Keitel, Taye Diggs, Michael Shannon,
Tobey Maguire, Angela Bassett, Tom Bennett, Kati Outinen, Jude Law, Reese Witherspoon, Omar Epps, Gillian Anderson, Campbell Scott, F. Murray Abraham,
Alan Ford, Julianne Nicholson, Michael Wincott, Lucas Black, Peter Mullan, Rachel Weisz, Laurie Metcalf, Željko Ivanek, Rosemarie DeWitt, Patrick Stewart,
Melissa Leo, Laurence Fishburne, Ian McKellen, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Derek Jacobi, Scott Glenn, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Javier Cámara, Glen Powell, Barry Shabaka Henley,
Larenz Tate, Mekhi Phifer, Alison Lohman, Victor Garber, Zooey Deschanel, Robin Wright, Sam Neill, Bryce Dallas Howard, Leonor Watling, Benedict Wong,
Jennifer Jason Leigh, Paul Dano, Topher Grace, Chris Cooper, Jesse Eisenberg, Stephen Rea, Michael B. Jordan, Eileen Atkins, Madhur Jaffrey, Lena Endre,
Ellen Barkin, Jack Black, Edie Falco, Gabrielle Rose, Mads Mikkelsen, Cara Seymour, Jeremy Irons, John Boyega, Peter Sarsgaard, Maura Tierney,
Isla Fisher, Joan Plowright, Anne Hathaway, Kevin Tighe, Emma Thompson, Edward Norton, Sonia Braga, Mackenzie Davis, Carmen Maura, Zoe Wanamaker,
Robert John Burke, Shahab Hosseini, Jerry Winsett, Florian Lukas, Candice Bergen, John Carroll Lynch, Sean Patrick Thomas, Parker Posey, Isabella Rossellini, Rooney Mara, Bob Balaban,
Josh Hamilton, Illeana Douglas, Tim Blake Nelson, Jennifer Coolidge, Meryl Streep, Pernilla August, Chris Eigeman, Jeffrey DeMunn, Mary Kay Place, BD Wong,
J. Smith-Cameron, Jacob Vargas, Kate Mara, Doug Hutchison, Courtney B. Vance, Sandrine Bonnaire, Tiffany Haddish, Eric Stoltz, Piper Perabo, Peter Simonischek,
Julie Delpy, Danny De Vito, James Nesbitt, Sylvie Testud, Emmanuelle Béart, Geneviève Bujold, Rachel Blanchard, Brittany Snow, Thora Birch, Laura San Giacomo,
Callum Keith Rennie, Kristin Scott Thomas, James Spader, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Steve Zahn, Archie Panjabi, Simon Baker, Nonso Anozie, Kelly Brook, Shu Qi,
Krister Henriksson, Oleg Menshikov, Jasmine Trinca, Isaach de Bankolé, Elizabeth Debicki, Rodrigo de la Serna, Ériq Ebouaney, Bel Powley, Gael Garcia Bernal, Florence Pugh,
Jeff Bridges, Rebecca Hall, Tatiana Maslany, Lupita Nyong’o, Joan Allen, Élodie Bouchez, Henry Czerny, Mark Boone Jr., Emily Blunt, Larry Pine,
Rose Byrne, Vincent Cassel, Griffin Dunne, Jessica Paré, Helen Mirren, Hong Chau, Morris Chestnut, Monica Bellucci, Maggie Smith, Zhang Ziyi,
Rachel Griffiths, Audrey Tautou, Russell Crowe, Barkhad Abdi, Christopher Eccleston, Famke Janssen, Dennis Quaid, Omar Sy, Zhao Tao, Richard Roxburgh,
Kenneth Branagh, Rhys Ifans, Ken Watanabe, Connie Nielsen, Daniel Brühl, Lennie James, Ian Hart, Blythe Danner, Eva Green, Jamel Debbouze,
Nick Nolte, Ellen Burstyn, Brian Blessed, Tang Wei, Bonnie Hunt, Maria Bello, Cynthia Erivo, Lola Kirke, Rosario Dawson, Emmanuelle Devos,
Brian Tyree Henry, Jewel Staite, Missi Pyle, Diego Luna, Sandra Hüller, Maria de Medeiros, Vlad Ivanov, Eva Mendes, Joanna Kulig, Sophia Loren,
Sergei Bodrov Jr., Véro Tshanda Beya, Jon Tenney, Noah Taylor, Maribel Verdú, Meagan Good, Valerie Mahaffey, Wallace Shawn, Hayley Atwell, Tom Hardy,
Joachim Król, Bill Irwin, Lily Franky, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Matthew Lillard, Linda Cardellini, Steve Martin, Taryn Manning, Christopher Walken, Joey Lauren Adams,
Christina Ricci, DJ Qualls, Annette Bening, Rosemary Harris, Miranda Richardson, Frances O'Connor, Stephan James, Rob Brown, Hope Davis, Stanley Tucci,
Kingsley Ben-Adir, Raymond J. Barry, Nabil Rajo, Marcello Fonte, Bill Paterson, Gemma Arterton, Jessica Chastain, Filippo Timi, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Hugh Grant,
Edward Fox, Fernanda Montenegro, Charles Dance, Reg E. Cathey, Amy Ryan, Carlos Jacott, Martina Gedeck, Roxane Mesquida, Anna Faris, Hafsia Herzi,
Olivia d'Abo, J.B. Smoove, Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Agnès Jaoui, Catherine Deneuve, Alice Krige, Hiam Abbass, Lily Gladstone, Kayli Carter, Pascal Greggory,
Allan Corduner, Rosamund Pike, Jane Horrocks, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Janet McTeer, Gretchen Mol, Vera Farmiga, Mary Page Keller, John Hannah, Rhona Mitra,
Jim Broadbent, Thomasin McKenzie, Lou de Laâge, Jessica Barden, Jacqueline Kim, Fu'ad Aït Aattou, Johannes Krisch, Moon So-ri, Kate Dollenmayer, Hélène de Fougerolles,
Maria Schrader, Saul Rubinek, Stephen Root, Laura Elena Harring, Martin Compston, John C. McGinley, Robin Tunney, Liane Balaban, Heather Matarazzo, Tina Majorino,
J. D. Williams, Gary Farmer, Bria Vinaite, Carice van Houten, Maury Chaykin, Graham Greene, Vincent D'Onofrio, Michael York, Harold Perrineau, Allison Williams,
Zhao Shu-zhen, Anamaria Marinca, Wes Studi, Marcia Gay Harden, Paprika Steen, Simon McBurney, Pam Grier, Erika Christensen, Mindy Kaling, Jacki Weaver,
Julia Stiles, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Karen Gillan, Kelly Reilly, Carmen Ejogo, Sterling K. Brown, Lorraine Toussaint, Samuel L. Jackson, Wayne Knight, Katie Holmes,
Hugh Jackman, Daryl Hannah, Heather Graham, Derek Luke, Kate McKinnon, Anna Deavere Smith, Kristen Wiig, Colin Firth, Barbara Hershey, Da’Vine Joy Randolph,
Oprah Winfrey, Elisabeth Moss, Mae Whitman, Joy Bryant, Brie Larson, Josh Brolin, Rob Morgan, Elizabeth Olsen, Tom Hanks, Jamie Foxx,
Antonio Banderas, Natalie Portman, Juliette Binoche, Brooklynn Prince, Alexander Siddig, Marisa Tomei, Ben Foster, Gary Oldman, Youn Yuh-jung, Paul Dano,
Kate Bosworth, Natalie Canerday, Thomas Bo Larsen, Drew Barrymore, Cynda Williams, Scoot McNairy, Dakota Fanning, Michael Beach, Will Patton, Danny Huston,
Tuppence Middleton, Brooke Smith, Sam Waterston, Kurt Russell, Christine Lahti, Stephen McHattie, Damian Lewis, Eli Goree, Natasha Lyonne, Eamonn Walker,
Sophie Okonedo, Tom McCamus, Aunjanue Ellis, Clifton Powell, Nicole Ari Parker, Loren Dean, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Don McKellar, Brenda Fricker, Vondie Curtis-Hall,
John Corbett, Kristin Booth, Allison Janney, Gayle Rankin, Rainbow Sun Francks, Jason Statham, James Urbaniak, Shawn Hatosy, Judah Friedlander, Julie Bowen,
Kelly Lynch, Cathy Moriarty, Clifton Collins Jr., Timothy Olyphant, Gabrielle Union, Jeff Daniels, Lonette McKee, Earl Billings, Melissa Leo, Corey Hawkins,
Judy Davis, Richard Ayoade, George Wendt, Haley Lu Richardson, Peter Capaldi, Yuya Endo, Ariane Labed, Jack Lowden, Stephen Graham, Jena Malone,
Andrea Riseborough, Vanessa Kirby, Denise Gough, Molly Hagan, Dermot Mulroney, Michael Jayston, André Holland, Sonoya Mizuno, Clayne Crawford, Alex Hassell,
Lara McDonnell, Vincent Lindon, Eszter Balint, Molly Gordon, Everlyn Sampi, Aislín McGuckin, Guey Lun-mei, Kerry Condon, Bob Stephenson, Peter Friedman,
Marin Ireland, Linus Roache, Mark Addy, Tunde Adebimpe, Ginnifer Goodwin, Alan Tudyk, Merritt Wever, Tovah Feldshuh, Martin Roach, Maynard Eziashi,
and Hannah Hoekstra.
There are also at least 24 living actors Lotusflower supports who do not have Wikipedia entries, namely April Grace, Carla Valentine, Bob Burruss, Giselda Volodi, Holmes Osborne, Altagracia Guzman, William Wise, Ksenia Devriendt, Ída Mekkín Hlynsdóttir, Julia Blake, Dave Turner, Rira Kawamura, Ilinca Manolache, Alicélia Batista Cabreira, Seidi Haarla, Yuri Borisov, Marya Membreño, Ana Cristina Ordóñez González, Orion Lee, Susannah Flood, Yu Hewei, Ana Scotney, Violet Young, Burcu Gölgedar, Carly-Sophia Davies, Guslagie Malanga, and Joséphine & Gabrielle Sanz.
He also appreciates several living and working actors who were mentioned earlier in this article – Delroy Lindo, Willem Dafoe, David Paymer, Anthony Hopkins, Ethan Hawke, Anthony LaPaglia, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Kirsten Dunst, Shirley Henderson, Brad Pitt, Isabelle Adjani, Léa Seydoux, Sam Elliott, Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson, Penelope Wilton, Melanie Lynskey, Simon Russell Beale, Tom Courtenay, Oscar DeGruy, Ingrid Bisu, Haluk Bilginer, Katherine Langford, Neil Bell, Jasna Đuričić, Anjelica Huston, Deragh Campbell, Oscar Isaac, Alma Pöysti, Amy Smart, Amber Midthunder, Queen Latifah, Mos Def, Method Man, Busta Rhymes, and Mandy Moore.
Additionally, Lotusflower seeks to offer respect to the following actor who are now retired: Charles S. Dutton, Daniel Day-Lewis, Zelda Harris, George Dzundza, Rebecka Liljeberg, Diana Scarwid, Mia Farrow, Gene Hackman, Joe Pesci, Jack Nicholson, Michael Caine, and Liv Ullmann. He acknowledges the gifts of several others who have been disgraced due to public scandal – Kevin Spacey, Terrence Howard, Jason Mitchell, Columbus Short, Johnny Depp, Adrien Brody, Casey Affleck, Lakeith Stanfield, and Charlotte Rampling.
The list of actors Lotusflower admires who have departed for the realm of the Spirit includes at least 155 names: Max von Sydow, Toshiro Mifune, Tom Wilkinson, Ian Holm, John Hurt, Jack Lemmon, Chaim Topol, Sidney Poitier, Edward G. Robinson, Lupe Ontiveros, Nelsan Ellis, Yaphet Kotto, Dennis Farina, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Heath Ledger, Alan Arkin, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Earl Cameron, Al Freeman Jr., Christopher Plummer, Dooley Wilson, Bob Hoskins, Nigel Hawthorne, James Gandolfini, Paul Newman, Omar Sharif, Esther Rolle, Katrin Cartlidge, Jeanne Moreau, Erland Josephson, Gordon Pinsent, Antony Sher, Seymour Cassel, Bibi Andersson, Om Puri, Richard Harris, Bill Nunn, Natasha Richardson, John Gielgud, Sam McDaniel, Ned Beatty, Sydney Greenstreet, Claude Rains, Rupert Crosse, Raúl Julia, Bruno Ganz, James Caan, Ian Bannen, Hal Holbrook, Brock Peters, Albert Finney, Carl Reiner, Eli Wallach, Charles Tingwell, Richard Widmark, Setsuko Hara, Carlo Battisti, Hume Cronyn, Danny Aiello, William Hutt, Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant, Markku Peltola, Chishū Ryū, Ulrich Mühe, Oliver Reed, Charles Durning, Machiko Kyō, Barbara Stanwyck, Carole Lombard, John Cazale, Peter O’Toole, Mako, Gena Rowlands, Bernie Mac, Robert Mitchum, Ben Gazzara, John Wood, James Garner, Jean-Pierre Bacri, Abe Vigoda, Michel Piccoli, Wilford Brimley, Orson Bean, Brian Dennehy, River Phoenix, Billie Whitelaw, Brittany Murphy, Powers Boothe, Kumar Pallana, Ingrid Bergman, Marlon Brando, Lauren Bacall, James Stewart, Robert Guillaume, Matti Pellonpää, Anna Karina, Giulietta Masina, J. T. Walsh, Alec Guinness, Denholm Elliott, Rip Torn, Danielle Darrieux, Cicely Tyson, Philippe Noiret, Alain Delon, Marcello Mastroianni, Robert Forster, Richard Farnsworth, Emmanuelle Riva, Bill Paxton, Richard Pryor, Helen McCrory, Paul Winfield, Haing S. Ngor, Russell Means, Diahann Carroll, Irrfan Khan, Thomas Jefferson Byrd, Charles Grodin, Clarence Williams III, Suzzanne Douglas, Nell Carter, Lung Sihung, Chief Dan George, Laird Cregar, Ronit Elkabetz, Ed Asner, Gregory Sierra, Tony Sirico, Michael K. Williams, John Bluthal, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Franco Interlenghi, Olympia Dukakis, Michael Constantine, Tom Wilkinson, Alan Rickman, Pete Postlethwaite, Chadwick Boseman, Alan Bates, Dabbs Greer, James Rebhorn, Harry Dean Stanton, Charlie Ruggles, Michael Gambon, Andre Braugher, Ali-Asghar Shahbazi, and Heavy D, among others.