cosmo-vostok

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“I will not be buying trinkets or little treats during the 2025 recession” you should focus more on not buying into right wing ideology during the recession

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The 2025 Gender Census is now open!

[ Link to survey ]

The 12th annual international gender census, collecting information about the language we use to refer to ourselves and each other, is now open until 30th August 2025.

It’s short and easy, for most participants it takes 5 minutes or less.

After the survey is closed I’ll process the results and publish a spreadsheet of the data and a report summarising the main findings. Then anyone can use them for academic or business purposes, self-advocacy, tracking the popularity of language over time, and just feeling like we’re part of a huge and diverse community.

If you think you might have friends and followers who’d be interested, please do reblog this blog post, and share the survey URL by email or at AFK social groups or on other social networks. Every share is extremely helpful!

Survey URL: https://survey.gendercensus.com

The survey is open to anyone anywhere who speaks English and feels that the gender binary doesn’t fully describe their experience of themselves and their gender(s) or lack thereof.

If you can't wait for survey numbers, you can click here for a public spreadsheet of non-secret info with graphs as it comes in, updated manually a few times per day.

Thank you so much!

[ Link to survey ]

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unpopular opinion: Vimes is kind of drama queen

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idk i dont mean this with as much derision as might bleed out but it is exceedingly clear that some of you were never considered retard-faggots as a child and therefore never subject to the subsequent torments Pure Children would subject Retard-Faggot Children to.

[* the use of these slurs is not reclamatory but is also not pejorative. the use of these slurs is academic, technical, and descriptive.]

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they are barring wikipedia. they are barring spotify. they are barring important news - both national news and world news. they are barring mental health forums and LGBTQ related things and so much more. this is not about protecting children, it has never been about protecting children.

the online safety act is an insane privacy breach, and if that does not scare you then you need to think harder about it. it is going to end up in a massive data leak - all the information is getting collected by random third party systems. can we trust them? no. can we even hold them accountable? no. because the government couldn’t even make their own system to do these age checks.

and i hear you - it is important that kids don’t see porn. but even if all this was about protecting kids, it’s sloppy and useless. it’s easy (for now) to get around with a vpn and the only thing the act doing is censoring things that it shouldnt. if the government wanted to protect kids, they would do something concrete about it - they would be putting more funding into education, for example.

of course the policy isnt called “national surveillance”. they’re not going to call it that. everything will be hidden behind things that people want.

so email your MP, and tell other people that this is WAY more than blocking porn from children - this is the first step towards national surveillance.

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Something terrifying about the way censorship is just straight up happening right now and they're barely trying to pretend that isn't what it is. The UK rolling out the Online Safety Act which forces anyone accessing 'adult' content (including discord, LGBT+ forums, various resources for drug addicts etc.) to share their face and ID with American third party companies, and refusing to debate a repeal in parliament despite 300,000 signatures on their own website to do so. Something fishy going on with Google docs suddenly deleting/restricting content. Itchio and Steam suddenly deleting 18+ games including both porn games and horror games at the behest of Mastercard.

Like. Truly in the past month the censorship is hitting like a truck and we're all just supposed to be fine with it. Like. It's genuinely making me feel sick.

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BEING AN ASSHOLE AS A BRAND

lots of authors have been posting great pieces of advice for up and coming buckaroos and i agree with so much of it. GREAT RESOURCES right now so i thought i would add my own. usually i use words like scoundrel but for meanings sake i will just be direct: dont make being an asshole your brand

let me preface this by saying it should be taken with HUGE grain of salt, you can do whatever you want buckaroo its YOUR art and your personal expression. to be honest i often refrain from ‘advice’ because id rather simply tell what works for me, but i feel like this one is pretty universal.

i am in incredibly rare position to have come up in TWO MAJOR CREATIVE INDUSTRIES and reached ‘traditionally published’ or ‘major film studio contract’ level completely separate from each other, without connections between, and this is ABSOLUTELY a massive factor in the buckaroos who trot long term

there is always a sort of incoming class of buds who rise up, and inevitably a few of them will seem to WANT to make enemies with everyone around them the second they have even the smallest voice. i UNDERSTAND in the sense that we have these legendary jerk artists in our culture. HOWEVER

1 those artists generally let their asshole flag fly AFTER they reached the top and 2 if not, it was a different time, there is simply not enough money in the creative fields for major creative entities to tolerate talented up and coming assholes. it is FINANCIALLY a different timeline now

EVEN SO you can point to a few old big timers who are notorious assholes but i would say its important to consider JUST HOW BIG WOULD THEY BE IF THEY WERE ALSO KIND. what if they were that talented AND watched out for their buds? heres what happened to the 'jerk brands' i trotted up with personally

every single one of them got intoxicated by the identity of being mean or ‘just tellin it like it is’ and then fell directly onto their face. the only ones who escaped were those who started that way on the trot up and IMMEDIATELY pulled it together and stopped and changed course

i know it might seem obvious to many reading this but you would be SHOCKED how many buds thinks it is a COOL IDENTITY to cultivate. some will probably subtweet this haha but listen bud, the directors you trash SEE IT. publishers DONT NEED TO TOLERATE TALENTED ASSHOLES ANYMORE THERES NOT ENOUGH MONEY

important reminder that i am talkin on artists who are PUBLICLY assholes, who trash talk their classmates or their fans. the ones who EMBRACE THIS IDENTITY as a sort of flag to wave because it gets them attention. theres plenty of SECRET assholes who find success, unfortunately. that is other topic

it is also important to say that FIGHTING THE POWERS THAT BE or protesting the scoundrels of the world is not being an asshole. KINDNESS CAN BE STRONG AND DIRECT AND POWERFUL. we need kind, strong buckaroos these days. it is not a weakness to love, and you should speak up for those who need it

so what can be done? what happens if you are reading this post and thinking ‘oh heck i can feel myself falling into asshole trap?’ well as a first reminder you can do anything you want bud, HAVE AT IT because i am not telling you this for MY sake, but if you want some actual advice id say this:

just being kind is MUCH easier than it seems, it only takes a little effort to reach out to your buds, to help, to encourage, to assistant, to talk about how much you liked someones film or song or book. jealousy or frustration are NATURAL feelings, but you dont have to let them run the show.

you MAY have to mourn the times an author couldve reached out for a book event that never happened because you turned them into an enemy. or a record executive read the stuff you said in some interview and pulled the soundtrack slot that was waiting for you on their desk. but IT IS NEVER TOO LATE

YOU can turn those feelings into fuel instead of venom, and GUESS WHAT it will genuinely be great for your art. LOVE is such an incredible driver, even when its manifested from anger or darkness. it takes some work, but i believe its worth it for your heart AND your prospects as an artist. LETS TROT

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if only for a moment

lots of buds ask 'chuck how do you maintain such a positive outlook?' i think practice of gratitude is different for all, so looking for a kind of quick antidote that will rewire your whole brain is rarely the trot. many small steps. its called a practice for a reason. still, maybe my story can help

the first time i remember REALLY thinking about this was when i was a young buckaroo and i got VERY sick. it was a long term, serious trot. anyway i remember thinking, 'i would give anything to not be sick anymore' i would try to quantify it like 'okay here is what i would do' with just wild stuff

eventually i started thinking 'the PASSION that i have for getting better is kind of funny because when i AM healthy i certainly never ENJOY MY HEALTH with that kind of passion. i just take it for granted.' so i made a promise that i would always remember that passion if and when i got better

i DID get better eventually, but that lesson kind of started to slip into other parts of my life. i get in a fender bender and it ruins my day, but there are INFINITE timelines where i died in that wreck, or someone i love did. HOW ABSURDLY LUCKY I AM TO HAVE A  FENDER BENDER

now it is important to remember that some people HIDE BEHIND gratitude in a bad way. the truth is sometimes you get in that wreck and it IS deadly, or you get sick and it DOES NOT get better. it helps nobody to ACT like there is no tragedy. there is. it is not WRONG to hurt and ache and be sad

so i personally think healthy gratitude practice is not a denial of the pain on this timeline it is an acknowledgment. it is not an invitation to sit back because everything is just fine, it is a CALL to step up and help when you are in the position to. to CHOOSE kindness and service

so when i wake up i think 'what a great day to take these blessings i have received and PUT THEM TO USE. great day to work to help those on the rough timelines i have narrowly missed but will someday be my own. when i talk about PROVING love that is literally what means: appreciation through effort

how unfathomably lucky i am to be here, to be a part of this fight, to be blessed with a moment of light on this timeline where i can make change and prove love. i cannot in my wildest dreams think of a greater gift than breathing with a beating heart and an electric brain, if only for a moment

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hey guys just here to say that the new online safety act in the uk has blocked the suicide hotline

this is extremely problematic for very obvious reasons and i have no idea what the fuck this country is fucking coming to

childline has also been restricted

if you're a uk citizen and still haven't signed the petition please do so

even if you're not a uk citizen please reblog to spread the word !!!!!

this isn't safety, it's censorship

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archan tate is such an A+ character because like yeah here is a Very Nice Boy. sweetest guy around, he's a great friend, he does really well in school. he plays violin. and he's a master thief. he will leave an apology note when he robs you! but he canonically Loves To Steal.

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Hate that being myself makes me feel out of place and ‘bad’ and harmful to the trans community. Feeling disconnected from the whole weird shitty discourse where trans men and trans women bloggers are like. Attacking each other for some reason? Thinly veiled lateral transphobia and gender essentialism I guess.

Also disconnected from the cisgender/transgender binary. I consider myself cisgender but not in the typical way that you’d expect! I’m intersex, I have xx/xy chimerism (yes that is where my username comes from), and a detransitioner, closest descriptor I guess would be ftmtf, although I still take low dose testosterone and use they/she/he pronouns, and I do not consider myself binary. I call myself a girl, but I do not think of myself as a ‘woman’. And although I do not identify as being under the transgender umbrella anymore; the lateral disregard and downright HATE that some lgbtqia+ spaces have for detransitioners is really lonely??

Like ‘you’re just like the ex-gays’… that is about the FURTHEST you can get from my lived experiences and you know it. ‘Ohhh you were a theyfab / trender” a) that is transmedicalism and b) what a strange thing to say to an IGM and coercive HRT survivor!

If you think that detransition existing is ‘harmful’ then I think maybe you don’t actually support the freedom of self-expression, and/or bodily autonomy. Consider that MANY of us have similar experiences as you, including societal stigma and also needing access to HRT or GAC. If your first inclination when you see somebody realize that they aren’t trans after all, or that they WERE trans but are not anymore (gender can be fluid) is to cast us out and shame us or mock us and call us ‘mutilated’ or ‘got what we deserved’ or ‘stupid cissy ex-trenders’ you sound no different from a a far-right politician in how they sound abt the queer community. Just saying.

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the whole 'nobody would miss me if i were gone' line of reasoning is so completely and mindblowingly false, it's almost laughable if you take a couple steps back. there's a lady at work who has been there for maybe two or three weeks and has only talked to me a handful of times, ask where the necklace i usually wear went. another person asked where i was cause i wasn't scheduled for about a week. i regularly think of friends who have deactivated their accounts or who i've lost contact with and what id tell them. i still think about people i haven't talked to for years even though i didn't know them well. people still think about you even if you're a passing specter on the street. and that's not even holding a candle to how much the people who are personally involved in your life care. people do notice and care. all the time. it might be hard to see it or remember it but people do care. ily.

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I have 30,000 words on my book!

It’s coming out really nicely

I’m proud of it, I just need to finish it

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BABYYY

i hate when top wildlife predators are just lil babies teeny tiny babies

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