#or take priority so i can keep functioning

[antirepurp]

i think my website could use an article on the beauty of sonic heroes both in its sincerity to being a fun game that's meant to last you a while and how terrifying metal's entire fucking deal is in the context of such a "power of friendship yeah cool!!!" setting. i wish i had infinite time

[svnflowerkae]

How LADS boys reacts to Caleb's return

So...first time ever doing this type of thing and since I can't sleep and my mind keeps me on thinking about this...here we go! Also sorry if thare are typos/errors.

tw: MC can be read as reader, gn!reader, angsty, comfort, they boys are MAD (esp Zayne), mention of death, grieving, time skip (based on the story events).

Sylus has been worried all day about you. He knew something off but he never insisted on letting you talk before you were sure. You've been pacing in his living room for awhile, your phone in your hands. You couldn't believe that the Official Linkon City Hall contacted you to confirm that Grandma and Caleb were officially dead. You whole life was falling about again, right in front of you, again.

As you put stop to go in circles, Sylus carefully approached you. He didn't want to make things harder than they were already were but he couldn't bear seeing you suffering. As he hugged you, you started to sob uncontrollably, trembling in his arms. Sylus kissed your head, swaying the two of you, trying to calm you.

"It's okay, sweetie. I'm here, let it all out". His hand caressing your check. His thumb taking away a few of your tears. You were so shocked that even if you wanted to talk, tell everything to Sylus, you couldn't. It's like your voice disappeared.

Sylus continue to kiss your head, caressing your face and giving you lots and lots of comfort. After a while you fell asleep on his chest.

Sylus didn't really knew Caleb and he just knew, from you, that you two were very close friends. He knew though that something was off and he was going to investigate it. If this Caleb was really going to be back he would make sure he never hunted you again.

Rafayel the day he was aware of the possible of Caleb was on the defensive side. You talked about him a few times and Rafayel saw how you grieved about his death. Countless nights and days passed by before you could get yourself together, even a little bit to be a functioning human again. And countless were the nights and days were Rafayel spent his time beside you, even if that meant not painting at all. You were is first and for most priority and, at that time, he certainly couldn't leave you all alone.

At the news, Rafayel made sure you were always by his side. His protective side coming off and scaring everyone who was approaching you. He barely showed this side of him, but in this case? In this case he couldn't let a stupid, foolish human to be near you again, not after what he saw.

"Miss bodyguard, what about I paint something for you?" Rafayel asked, his cheerful self trying to make you smile. Your eyes were watching the distant sea, completely lost in your thoughts. But Rafayel didn't have to wait for an answer. Posing his head on your thighs he looked at the most precious thing in his life: you. Caressing your thighs and hands, Rafayel never stopped to stare at you and when you turn your gaze to him a smile was on your face. Your hands messed up Rafayel'a hair. A playful pout on his face.

But for Rafayel that was enough to know you acknowledge he was there for you.

Xavier and you were cuddling on the couch, watching a film they were making on TV. Not to lie, it was a bit boring and Xavier was about to sleep when he heard a small sob coming from you. At first he was confused but then saw you with your telephone in hands, reading a message.

If weeks prior the Linkon City Hall had texted you that Grandma and Caleb were officially deceased, now, there was a possibility that, at least Caleb, was alive. You hoped for that dearly, your heart aching at the possibility of seeing your best friend. Xavier saw you were blocked on that screen for a long time, tears streaming down your face as your body subtly twitched.

Xavier hugged you, his head on the crook of your neck. He wasn't very good with words and he knew little to nothing about this Caleb and your relationship with him. You barely talked about the accident, too hurtful for you. Xavier kissed your cheeck many times, even biting it lovingly to make you calm down. He wanted to make sure you knew he was there with you and for you.

Whoever this Caleb was, Xavier would do anything to protect you. At the end, he was your Lumiere.

Zayne knew this moment was coming, it was inevitable but after seeing you destroyed after the bomb accident he couldn't let him hurt you again. How could Zayne forget how you barely eat and sleep? How could he bear the sight of his loved one suffer again?

You been quiet for days, always going to the Hospital Zayne worked for. He knew you did this especially when something was not right. Zayne shift ended a few minutes ago and he let you into his studios. You two were in complete silence, the only sound in the room were you and Zayne chewing on your food.

Zayne felt so sorry but at the same time he was controlling himself. Seeing your face calmed him down a bit.

"How are you feeling?" He asked. He wasn't one to show easily his emotion, but he too, knew you since when you too were little. He didn't gain an answer from you, but, that was an answer for him. He tried to talk to you, comforting you but you seemed in another space. Getting up, Zayne sited on the chair next you. His hands now were taking yours, leaving kisses here and there. You sniffed and, after a long time, you finally looked at him. A small smile appeared on your face. Zayne smiled back.

If it was true that Caleb's was really alive, he would make sure that he could never be near you again.

[fixyourwritinghabits]

The Quick Guide of Taking Care of Yourselves

RIGHT ANYWAY, semi-functioning again. Here's some generic tips for Americans (and beyond) in these trying times.

Limit Your Social Media News Consumption

Seriously, you need to set specific times to be aware of what's going on, and then you need to put down your phone. Many of the things that are happening are beyond your control. Doomscrolling is paralyzing. Do not fall into despair loops. This helps no one and it especially does not help you.

Make a channel in your Discord group for dumping things in and leave it to that. Find ways to plug into your local community - talk to your local library, check your local subreddit, pay attention to local events. But you also must give yourself a break from all of the above for your own mental health.

Pick a set time at night and put down your phone. Don't scroll through it before bed, don't start scrolling the second you get up. Form firm habits that allow you to rest and take care of yourself. It's important to be aware of what's happening, but it does not require your constant attention.

Do Things For Yourself

In addition to making art, it's important to find ways to keep yourself grounded. Take a class you're interested in. Go to that book club. See if there's a local group into that hobby you want to start. Need to brush up on your technical skills? See if there's some online classes that you can take (and get a certificate for!).

Don't over-commit (I say, having signed up for three different activities this year), but it is vital to take time to do things for yourself to stay grounded. Having other things to focus on is going to help. I'm taking a strength-building exercise class and German lessons, and having to focus on squats and gendered nouns for certain hours of the day has been so helpful in keeping me going. Give it a try.

(You don't have to try German, just to be clear. I just think it's a neat language.)

You Do Not Have to Constantly Rearrange Your Priorities

I donate monthly to my local animal shelter. That's still going to be an important thing to do. I reblog things I don't have the funds to contribute to myself. That's still useful to do. I'm still going to pay for my patreon subscriptions, because I am supporting people I like and want to succeed.

There are some things you can do. If you are in a position to cancel Amazon Prime, you should probably do that. But some people can't, because they don't have a more reliable way to get certain necessities, and that's fine. If you're in a position to close your Meta accounts, that seems like a good call. However, while I've currently got mine locked down, I need my Instagram for professional reasons, and it's my only point of contact for certain people. I hate it, but I've made the decision to keep using it. There's no morally perfect options out there.

Think Local and Connect with Community

You cannot do anything about most of the terrible things happening. You can, however, make connections to the people around you and find ways to support yourself and others. You can find places to volunteer. You can participate in your local political groups and keep up-to-date on protests and political action. You can keep pressure on your local politicians with phone-calling and letter campaigns. Making connections to others will help you find ways to feel useful and help, even if it doesn't feel like you can.

Most importantly, though, MAKE SURE YOU ARE SAFE. If you're a vulnerable minority in a deep red state or desperately need to keep your head down at your job, you need to make decisions that are best for you. You cannot help others if you yourself are also drowning, and that is okay.

There are still some small things everyone can do. Boycotts of certain products and companies (shout-out to all of Canada, keep it up and I hope for nothing but the best for y'all) is something you can do that doesn't put you at risk. Stay connected to like-minded friends. Stock up on masks and get your vaccines. Have an emergency-prepared plan in cases of natural disasters (always a good plan).

Hang in there. Sometimes you'll spiral, everyone will. But keeping your head above water and building steps to pull yourself up from those holes will be essential.

[foolish-fran]

Dahlia Hawthorne's name was based on the short story "Rappaccini's Daughter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, about a young woman who was poisoned by her own family and became poisonous herself as a result. I finally got my hands on the book, so I wanted to read it through the lens of "what does this story say about Dahlia?"

Thoughts:

- Beatrice Rappaccini is a beautiful young woman, the daughter of an affluent scientist and the member of a noble family that has fallen into ruin. She has spent her entire life in an idyllic garden of flowers, which was once prosperous and thriving, but has fallen into decay and disrepair as the years have passed. This reflects how Kurain Village was once prosperous, but the village and Fey Family's reputation has crumbled since DL-6.

-It's clear from her dialogue that Beatrice knows nothing of life outside the garden. She is incredibly sheltered, having never left the garden before and knowing nothing of worldly things outside of her small bubble. Similarly, most spirit mediums in Kurain (Pearl and Iris in particular) have never left Kurain Village, growing up sheltered.

-Beatrice is beautiful, delicate, and virtuous, but anything she touches, whether plant, animal, or human, will decay and die by poison. She doesn't *want* to be this way, but her nature cannot be changed. Even when she attempts to take an antidote to her poisonous breath, it fails.

-The author goes out of his way to depict Beatrice not as a monster but as a product of her environment. Beatrice does not *want* to be dangerous, but she was *made* this way by her father, who kept her confined to his garden and used her as a pawn for his own schemes. Her father Giacomo Rappaccini raised her not as a daughter but as a tool, a pawn, a weapon for his own plans and experiments, and turned her into who she is today. Cough cough Morgan Fey

-There is a beautiful purple flower in the garden that Beatrice considers her "sister”. The two have an almost symbiotic relationship, with the protagonist noting that Beatrice and her “sister” seem as if they could be two sides of the same coin. Sounds like Irissss

-The protagonist of the story, Giovanni Guasconti, is a young man who falls in love with Beatrice despite her lethal nature. Through it all, he is desperate to believe in her, hoping against hope that the relationship can work out and that Beatrice is truly good despite the deaths he’s seen her cause. Hmm, a man who wants desperately to believe in people even at the cost of his own life….Feenie?

-Giovanni’s mentor, Baglioni, holds a longstanding grudge against the senior Rappaccini, and Beatrice by extension. He fears for Giovanni’s safety if he keeps seeing Beatrice, but his main priority is seeing Rappaccini fall for the sake of his own revenge. He's a good person, an intellectual with years of experience in the field of science. But his anger consumes him and leads him to harm both Beatrice and Giovanni, seeing them as tools in his plan rather than anything else. Godot?

-When Beatrice asks her father why he made her poisonous, he responds that the poison can function as a defense mechanism. If Beatrice is poisonous, than nobody can hurt her. It's better to be dangerous yourself than to be vulnerable to danger. It’s just like Dahlia!

-This whole exchange:

“”Wherefore didst thou inflict this miserable doom upon thy child?”

“Miserable! What mean you, foolish girl? Dost though deem it misery to be endowed with marvelous gifts, against which no power nor strength could avail an enemy?” Reminds me of how Morgan and the Feys saw spirit channeling as a gift, but Dahlia and Iris seem to see it as a curse

[avelera]

Some Viktor (Arcane) Musings:

The thing is, I think Viktor must have told Jayce about his illness at some point in S1 before Viktor collapsed and ended up in the hospital

The reason being that it's literally impossible to ignore how much Viktor's health deteriorates in the 6-7 years between 1.03 and 1.04. There's no way he could not give Jayce some clue of what's going on with him.

But, for my own purpose and that of the fics I write, my thought was that Viktor maybe... downplayed the severity.

For example, my take is that if you have this fissure illness, you generally don't live past 30 in the undercity and Viktor knows this. He must have had some sense of a timeline, because his headlong rush to secure a legacy indicates the he knew he probably wasn't going to die of old age.

This, I think, he would be upfront with Jayce about. That they have to advance Hextech to the point where it's making breakthroughs in disciplines other than weightlessness and teleportation if Viktor has any chance of living a long life. Jayce would be on board with this fully, I think. Magic can do anything so if they're fast, and dedicated, chances are they can find something that will also improve biology too.

But, I think Viktor lied or played down how short of a time he actually had. Like, he told Jayce he probably wouldn't die of old age without Hextech intervention, and Jayce took that and like any sheltered, naive Piltie from a good family he thought, "This is awful, Viktor might never see 80!" Thinking that Viktor might, without intervention, only live to see, like... 60.

I also headcanon that once you start coughing up blood, it's a bit like TB, you don't have much time after that. So in 1.02/1.03, Viktor is driven to make a legacy for himself knowing he doesn't have a lot of time, but he might even still be fooling himself to think he's got more time than he does because of his move to Piltover. He has cleaner air here, better nutrition, better sun exposure, an easier life, etc. If the life expectancy in the underground for this disease is 25-30 or less, why should he maybe see 40 in Piltover?

But then... tragedy strikes. He starts coughing blood sometime during the time skip. His health rapidly deteriorates, and he doesn't tell Jayce that this means he's probably only got a few months to a few years left. He basically allows Jayce to keep living with the illusion that Viktor has limited time, because that would be unavoidable to realize just by looking at him, but still maybe decades remaining.

What compounds the problem here is that Viktor also tends to obfuscate his need for rapid intervention by posing them as the needs of the undercity which goes straight over Jayce's head. He tells Jayce they need to focus on new uses for Hextech to help people in the undercity now, it can't wait, they're running out of time, and goddammit Viktor, stop hiding your needs behind altruism, just be selfish, just tell Jayce that you're not talking about the undercity, you're talking about yourself and he would have dropped everything to help you!

Because this is Viktor's biggest flaw: he lies to himself and he lies to Jayce about why he's pursuing science at such a breakneck pace, and I don't even think he knows he's doing it. He's become so accustomed to the idea that he's not allowed to be selfish, not allowed to pose his own desperate desire to live as a priority, that he keeps fucking couching it in the needs of others so Jayce has no way to know just how desperate Viktor really is because Viktor doesn't admit it even to himself.

And this becomes a bigger problem writ large when Viktor creates his cult to "cure" other people because he can't fucking function if he's not posing his self-serving desires as things that also help the group. Babygirl, what is wrong with you?

So now instead of just perfecting himself in very scientifically troubling ways, he feels the need to spread around the cure that he made for himself to others to justify it, even if it doesn't fit them and in fact is horrifying to give the same solution to a bunch of people and fix things they never asked to be fixed.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Zuck’s gravity-defying metaverse money-pit

Tomorrow (Oct 31) at 10hPT, the Internet Archive is livestreaming my presentation on my recent book, The Internet Con.

Think of everything that makes you miserable as being caught between two opposing, irresistible, irrefutable truths:

"Anything that can't go on forever eventually stops" (Stein's Law)

"Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent" (Keynes)

Both of these are true, even though they seemingly contradict one another, and no one embodies that contradiction more perfectly than Mark Zuckerberg.

Take the metaverse.

Zuck's "pivot" to a virtual world he ripped off from a quarter-century old cyberpunk novel (reminder: cyberpunk is a warning, not a suggestion) was born of desperation.

Zuck fancies himself an avatar of the Emperor Augustus (that's why he has that haircut) (no, really). The emperors of antiquity are infamous for getting all weepy when they run out of lands to conquer.

But the lachrymosity of emperors has little causal relationship to the anxieties of tech monopolists! Alexander weeps because he just loves a good conquest and when he finishes conquering the world, he's terminally bored. That's not Zuck's problem at all. When Zuck attains monopoly status, his company develops an autoimmune disorder, as his vicious princelings run out of enemies to destroy and begin to knife one another.

Any monopoly faces these destructive microincentives, but tech is exceptional here because tech has the realtime flexibility and speed that brick-and-mortar businesses can never match:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/19/twiddler/

Sociopaths with tech monopolies are worse for the same reason that road-rage would be worse in a flying car: adding new capacity to indiscriminate self-destructive urges turns ordinary car crashes into low-level airburst warfare:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/28/microincentives-and-enshittification/

The flexibility of digital gives tech platforms so much latitude to break things in tiny increments. A tech platform is like a Jenga tower composed of infinitely divisible blocks. The Jenga players are the product managers and executives who have run out of the ability to grow by attracting new business thanks to their monopoly dominance. Now they compete with one another to increase the yield from their respective divisions by visiting pain upon the business customers and end users their platform connects. By tiny increments, they increase the product's cost, lower its reliability, and strip it of its utility and then charge rent to restore its functionality:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/24/cursed-bigness/#incentives-matter

This is the terminal stage of enshittification, the unstoppable autocannibalism of platforms as they seek to harvest all the value created by business customers and end users, leaving the absolute minimum of residual value needed to keep both stuck to the platform. This is a brittle equilibrium, because the difference between "I hate this service but I just can't stop using it," and "Get me the fuck out of here" is razor-thin.

All it takes is one tiny push – a whistleblower, a livestreamed mass-shooting, a Cambridge Analytica – and people bolt for the doors. This triggers the final stage: the "pivot," which is a tech euphemism for "panic."

For Zuck, the pivot got real after a disappointing earnings call triggered a mass sell-off of Facebook stock, history's worst one-day value incineration, which lopped a quarter of a trillion dollars off the company's market cap:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-12-19/dramatic-stock-moves-of-2022-led-by-meta-dive-nordic-flash-crash

This was when the metaverse became the company's top priority.

Now, in my theory of enshittification, the step that follows the pivot is death: "Finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/#hey-guys

Many people have asked me about the conspicuous non-death of Facebook! That's where I have to fall back on Stein's Law: "Anything that can't go on forever eventually stops." Facebook can't continue to annihilate value, alienate its workers, harm the public, hemorrhage money in support of a mediocrity's cherished folly forever. Can it?

Admittedly, it sure seems like it can. Facebook's metaverse pivot has thus far cost the company $46,500,000,000. That is: $46.5 billion. That's even more money than Uber torched, seeking to maintain the illusion that they will be able to create monopolies on both transport and the labor market for driving and recoup the billions the Saudi royal family let them use for the con:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/11/bezzlers-gonna-bezzle/#gryft

Don't worry: the Saudi royals are fine! They cashed out at the IPO, collecting a tidy profit at the expense of retail investors who assumed that a pile of shit as big as Uber must have a pony under it, somewhere:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/19/fake-it-till-you-make-it/#millennial-lifestyle-subsidy

Uber has doubled the cost of rides and halved drivers' wages, using illegal gimmicks like "algorithmic wage discrimination" to squeeze a little more juice out of the nearly exhausted husks of its workforce:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/12/algorithmic-wage-discrimination/#fishers-of-men

But Stein's Law hasn't been repealed. Drivers can't drive for sub-subsistence wages. Do that long enough and they'll literally starve: that's what "subsistence" means. We lost a decade of transit investment thanks to the Uber con, at the same time as traditional taxi drivers were forced out of the industry. Uber can't be profitable and still pay a living wage, and the fantasy of self-driving cars as a means of zeroing out the wage-bill altogether remains stubbornly, lethally unworkable:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/09/herbies-revenge/#100-billion-here-100-billion-there-pretty-soon-youre-talking-real-money

Which means we're at the point where you can get off a commuter train at a main station and find yourself stranded: no taxis at the taxi-queue, no busses due for an hour, and no Uber cars available unless you're willing to pay $95 for a ten-minute ride in a luxury SUV (why yes, this did happen to me recently, thanks for asking).

As more and more of us are exposed to these micro-crises, the political will to do something will increase. This can't go on forever. "Don't use commuter rail" isn't a viable option. "Walk three miles each way to the commuter rail station" isn't viable either. Neither is "Pay $95 for an Uber to get to the station." Something's gotta give…eventually.

"Eventually" is the key word here. Remember the corollary of Stein's Law: Keynes's maxim that "markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent." Sure, anything that can't go on forever eventually stops, but that is no guarantee of a soft landing. You can't smoke two packs a day forever – but in the absence of smoking cessation, the eventual terminus of that habit is stage-four lung cancer. Keep hammering butts into your face and your last smoke will come out a crematorium chimney.

Zuckerberg hasn't merely blown a whole-ass Twitter on the metaverse with nothing to show for it – he's gotten richer while doing it! In the past year, his net worth increased by 130%, to $59 billion, thanks to an increase in Facebook's share-price, driven by investors who stubbornly remain irrational, keeping the Boy Emperor solvent long past any reasonable assessment of his performance.

What are these investors betting on? One possibility is that the rise and rise of Facebook's share-price represents a bet on technofeudalism. Since the Communist Manifesto, Marxists have been predicting the end of capitalism. That end seems to have come, but what followed capitalism wasn't socialism, it was the return of feudalism, an economic system where elites derive their wealth from rents, not profits:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/28/cloudalists/#cloud-capital

Profit is the income you get from investing in capital – machinery, systems, plant – and then harvesting the surplus value created by workers who mobilize this capital. Capitalism produces massive returns for its winners – in the Manifesto's first chapter, Marx and Engels just geek out about how productive and dynamic this system is.

But capitalism is also a Red Queen's Race, where the winners have to run faster and faster to stay in the same place. Capitalism drives competition, as other would-be winners pile into the sector, replicating the systems that the current winners are using and then improving on them. This is why the prophets of capitalist end-times like the FBI informant Peter Thiel say that "competition is for losers."

Capitalism's "profits" stand in contrast to the feudalist's "rents." Rents are income you get from owning something that other people need to produce things. The capitalist owns the coffee-shop, but the feudalist owns the building. When a rival capitalist opens a superior coffee-shop and drives the old shop out of business, the capitalist loses, but the rentier wins. Now they can rent out an empty storefront in the neighborhood everyone's coming to because of that hot new cafe.

Feudal and manorial lords also made their fortunes by extracting surplus value from workers, but these rentiers don't care about owning the means of production. The peasant in the field pays for their own agricultural equipment and livestock – control over the means of production is necessary for worker liberation, but it's not sufficient. The worker's co-op that owns its factory can still find the value it produces bled off by the landlord who owns the land the factory sits on.

The jury's still out on whether American workers really see themselves as "temporarily embarrassed millionaires," but America's capitalists have a palpable, undeniable loathing for capitalism. The dream of an American "entrepreneur" is *PassiveIncome: money you get from owning something capitalists and/or workers use to create value. Digital technology creates exciting new possibilities for rent-extraction: a taxi-operator had to buy and maintain a car that someone else drove. Uber can offload this hassle onto its drivers and rent out access to the chokepoint it created between drivers and riders, charging all the traffic can bear. This is feudalism in the cloud – or as Yannis Varoufakis calls it, cloudalism.

In Varoufakis's Technofeudalism, he describes Amazon as a feudal venture. From a distance, Amazon seems like a bustling marketplace of manic capitalism, with sellers avidly competing to offer more variety and lower costs in a million independently operated storefronts. But closer inspection reveals that Amazon is a planned economy, not a market.

Every one of those storefronts pays rent to the same landlord – Amazon – which determines which goods can be offered for sale. Amazon sets pricing for those goods, and extracts 45-51% of every dollar those sellers make. Amazon even controls which goods are shelved at eye-height when you enter the store, and which ones are banished to a dusty storeroom in a distant sub-basement you'll never find:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/06/14/flywheel-shyster-and-flywheel/#unfulfilled-by-amazon

Zuck's metaverse is pure-play technofeudalism, Amazon taken to the logical extreme. It's easy to get distracted by the part of Zuck's vision that will convert us all into legless, sexless, heavily surveilled low-resolution cartoon characters. But the real action isn't this digitization of our fleshy wants and needs. Zuck didn't spend $46.5B to torment us.

The cruelty isn't the point of the metaverse.

The point of the metaverse is to rent us out to capitalists.

Zuck doesn't know why we would use the metaverse, but he believes that if he can convince capitalists that we all want to live there, that they'll invest the capital to figure out how to serve us there, and then he can extract rent from those capitalists and start earning "passive income." It's an Uber for Cyberpunk Dystopias play.

Zuck's done this before. Remember the "pivot to video?" Zuckerberg wanted to compete with Youtube, but he didn't want to invest in paying for video production. Videos are really expensive to produce and the median video gets zero views. So Zuck used his captive audience to trick publishers into financing his move into video. He fraudulently told publishers that videos were blowing up on Facebook, outperforming boring old text by vast margins.

Publishers borrowed billions and raised billions more in the capital markets, financing the total conversion of newsrooms from text to video and precipitating a mass extinction event for print journalists. Zuck kept the con alive by giving away (fewer) billions to some of those publishers, falsely claiming that their videos were generating fortunes in advertising revenue. These lucky, credulous publishers became judas goats for their industry, luring others into the con, the same way that the "lucky" guy a carny lets win a giant teddy-bear at the start of the day lures others into putting down $5 to see if they can sink three balls in a rigged peach-basket.

But when we stubbornly refused to watch videos on Facebook, Zuck stopped spreading around these convincer payouts, and precipitated a second mass-extinction event in news media, as the new generation of video journalists joined their predecessors in Facebook-driven unemployment. Given this history, it's surreal to see publishers continue to insist that Facebook is stealing their content, when it is so clearly stealing their money:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/04/saving-news-big-tech

Metaverse is the new Pivot to Video. Zuckerberg is building a new world, which he will own, and he wants rent it to capitalists, who will compete with one another in just the way that Amazon's sellers compete. No matter who wins that competition, Zuckerberg will win. The prize for winning will be a rent increase, as Zuckerberg leverages the fact that your "successful" business relies on Facebook's metaverse to drain off all the value your workers have produced:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/18/metaverse-means-pivot-to-video/

This can't last forever, but how long until Zuck's reality distortion field runs out of battery? That's the $46.5B question.

The market can certainly remain irrational for a hell of a long time. But the market isn't the only force that regulates corporate outcomes. Regulators also regulate. Europe's GDPR is now seven years old, and it plainly outlaws Facebook's surveillance.

For nearly a decade, Facebook has pretended that this wasn't true, and they got away with it. Mostly, that's thanks to the fact that Ireland is a corporate crime-haven with a worse-than-useless Data Protection Commission:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/15/finnegans-snooze/#dirty-old-town

But anything that can't go on forever will eventually stop. Facebook has finally been dragged into EU federal jurisdiction, where it will face exterminatory fines if it continues to spy on Europeans:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/07/luck-of-the-irish/#schrems-revenge

In response, Facebook has rolled out a subscription version of its main service and its anticompetitive acquisition, Instagram:

https://about.fb.com/news/2023/10/facebook-and-instagram-to-offer-subscription-for-no-ads-in-europe/

For €10/month, Facebook will give you an ad-free experience across its service offerings (it's €13/month if you pay through an app, as Facebook recoups the 30% #AdTax rents that the feudal Google/Apple mobile duopoly extracts).

But this doesn't come close to satisfying Facebook's legal obligations under the GDPR. The GDPR doesn't ban ads, it bans spying. Facebook spies on every single internet user, all the time. The apps we use are built with "free" Facebook toolkits that extract rent from the capitalists who make them by harvesting our data as we use their apps. The web-pages we visit have embedded Facebook libraries that do the same thing for web publishers. Facebook buys our data from brokers. Facebook has so many ways of spying on us that there's almost certainly no way for Facebook to stop spying on you, without radically transforming it operation.

To comply with the GDPR, Facebook must halt surveillance advertising altogether. There's no way to square "spying on users" with "you can't surveil without explicit consent, and you can't punish people for refusing."

And of course, "not spying" isn't the same as "not advertising." "Contextual advertising" – where ads are placed based on the thing you're looking at, not who you are and what you do – is hundreds of years old. Context ads underperform surveillance ads by a slim margin – about 5% – but they're vastly more profitable for publishers. That's because surveillance ads are feudal, controlled by rentiers like Facebook, who own vast troves of the surveillance data needed to run these ads. Traditional ad intermediaries (agencies, brokers) took 10-15% out of the total advertising market. Ad-tech companies – the Google/Facebook duopoly – take 51% out of every ad dollar spent.

Eliminate surveillance ads and you torch their feudal estates. Facebook will always know more about someone reading a news article than the publisher – but the publisher will always know more about the article than Facebook does:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/05/save-news-we-must-ban-surveillance-advertising

There are rents under capitalism, just as there are profits under feudalism. The defining characteristic of a system is what happens when rents and profits come into conflict. If profits win – for example, if productive companies beat patent trolls, or if news publishers escape Facebook's rent-extraction – then the system is capitalist. If rents win – if investors continue to bet large on the metaverse as its losses pass $50 billion and head for the $100 billion mark – then the system is feudal.

Anything that can't go on forever will eventually stop. The question isn't whether the platforms will eventually become so enshittified that they die – the question is whether they will go down in an all-consuming fireball, or whether they'll go down in a controlled demolition that lets us evacuate the people they've trapped inside them first:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/09/let-the-platforms-burn/

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/30/markets-remaining-irrational/#steins-law

Image: Diego Delso (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Puente_de_las_cataratas_Victoria,_Zambia-Zimbabue,_2018-07-27,_DD_10.jpg

CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

[wisteriasymphony]

What about Adrien has inspired you to put him in less than ideal situations or make him be rotten? Like why him/what keeps bringing you back to put him in those situations?

Spite.

Canon has a tendency to give him the emotional range of a wet napkin, take every avenue they can to strip him of agency, and delight in lampshading his sort of status as an eventual trophy* by likening him to a damsel in distress.

Fanon has a tendency to run with this, actively ignoring his less savory tendencies and taking the most boring routes possible to characterize him**. He is stupid, he is blind, he is whipped, he's just a sweet boy who loves Marinette so much but is too much of a fucking idiot to notice, isn't that adorable? Adrien protection squad, what a smol bean Sunshine Boy is, isn't it so sad how he gets fucked over so often because he's just such a sweet PERFECT sunshiney adorable castrated flawless cupcake baby boy—

[Cue table flip]

...I subscribe to a very simple, yet very effective principle when characterizing in order to give foundational depth (oxymoron half intended). The Rule Of Gap Moe basically states that when you push one trait or aspect of a character, the more satisfying it will be to subvert it.

Taking a boy who's built up as the perfect opportunity to deconstruct the archetype of the Dream Boyfriend (which is.. his entire existence in both canon and metacanon? Rich, Hot, Nice, Famous, Entirely and Secretly In Love With You?), only to refuse to do so, is a choice that aggravates me to no end.

Chat Noir, given the fact that most of his fanbase is 20 year olds who crushed on him in 2016 and never grew out of it, does not fucking count. All of his subversions of Dream Boyfriendism are either palatable or serialization growing pains not meant to be taken seriously***. There is nothing difficult to love about him.

...So?

Give him something you have to contend with.

Adrien is a loser in a very ornate closet of perfectness. He's deeply maladjusted from years of masking, and has constructed very elaborate delusions in his head of right or wrong ways to act—Don't rock the boat, keep your hands to your sides, walk exactly this fast because you mathematically derived it one night when you were twelve so Papa would never cane you for falling short of perfect again. He is deeply clingy, and underneath his mask of sugar glass lies a very emotionally turbulent, bitter young man. His years worth of functioning just to survive will one day snap and, in lieu of striving anything else, he will default to seeking nothing but a string of monetary pleasures and dopamine boosts because his only methods of regulating himself were imposed by abuse. Breaking out of his cage will, in essence, do to his system of repression what a pipe bomb would do to a water tower. He will do some very stupid, awful, self-serving things, and if we're lucky he'll say something incredibly unhinged in his never-ending internal monologue that we can gawk at for a moment.

The thing about all of this that separates it from, say, a normal Chat Noir anti-hero arc is that it inherently means Adrien will do some things we will not particularly agree with. That's interesting. Nowadays, that sort of "it's fun to see them make mistakes" is relegated to thought-terminating-cliches in sugar posts to dismiss any exploration into character choices, criticism or otherwise. This is why I make Sillynette unnecessarily cruel, too. Their flaws stick out like sore fucking thumbs. It's a little more complicated to like them that way.

And I think it's worth it.

*Which, granted, is a writer issue and not a Marinette issue. The reason this whole thing pisses me off is very much also due to the fact that a lot of really stupid shit occurs because Marinette has been written to make 'getting the boy' her priority just so she can fuck up. Cue S4 Finale Cue Ephemeral.

**Chameleon is another instance in which a very delicious possible ideological schism between Marinette and Adrien is effectively forgotten about in service of shippies, and only remembered in service of salting.

***Chat's harassment problem is equal to Marinette's stalking problem in this regard. They're formula jokes that have since soured, but because of misogyny or Marinette getting more focus or whatever, the latter is acknowledged more than the former.

[huellitaa]

reset, recharge, rewind!! ⊹˚. ♡

──★ ˙ ̟🎀 reasons we need recharge days

reduced likelihood of future mental health crises

improves your mental, physical, and overall health

to avoid burnouts

feel more empowered, capable, resilient and able to bounce back from hardships

boosts your productivity and overall executive function

more hours worked ≠ productivity !!!

the same as our physical bodies need rest and recovery by sleep, our mental states need rest and recovery too sometimes. the healthiest and most successful people are the ones who take the time to care for themselves first. you should always always always be your top priority, no matter what happens. <3

you cannot pour from an empty cup. you cannot burn if you've dwindled down the flame. you cannot be a pearl if there is no oyster.

──★ ˙ ̟🎀 when is it time for a mental health day and to take the time to recharge?

when you feel yourself in a repeated pattern of irritability or negative emotions in your school or workplace

when you find yourself more unable to focus and distracted more easily

when you are seriously lacking sleep

when you find yourself falling back into old habits

reset days sound great in theory, but how exactly does one execute them in a way that leaves them feeling refreshed and recharged for the future?

🧸𓂃 ࣪˖ 1. what leaves you energised?

if you haven't already made one, i'd highly recommend making a list of things that make you happy, have a good day, energised, relaxed, refreshed, etc, and a list of things that do the opposite. this is then so you can figure out what does and doesn't make you happy, give you energy, and so on, and figure out what to indulge in and what to avoid to keep yourself not burnt out and working harder for longer instead of overworking yourself.

🧸𓂃 ࣪˖ 2. detox!

detoxing from everything is a perfect thing to do on a recharge day. whenever i detox i feel like a brand new girl and so clean and fresh, and i have a post on this here 🫶💗 even if you aren't feeling particularly down or if nothing has happened and you just decide to take a random recharge day to boost your energy, detoxing and pampering urself is always always always the way to go! <3

🧸𓂃 ࣪˖ 3. journal, obviously

as the no.1 girl journalling advocate of course i had to put this in here. i have a whole pinterest board full of these for when i need them and have specific prompts for specific emotions (should i make a post on this?) and it helps me so much. think of it like you're having an interview with yourself and a look into your own emotions so that you can get to know yourself and your circumstances better for future reference, too.

🧸𓂃 ࣪˖ 4. errands

as much as i hate to admit and as hard as it is, compiling a list of all the things that have been on your mind and that you've been procrastinating and getting them done in a time period throughout the day when you feel comfortable can be very helpful for lifting the metaphorical and emotional weight off of your shoulders. knowing you have time to just relax for a little while and that you've gotten everything you need to do done already is a massive relief for me and the feeling of utter refreshment that comes with having a clean slate with nothing nagging at you in the back of your mind is priceless.

🧸𓂃 ࣪˖ 5. detective work: analysis!

along with the journalling, if your recharge day was brought on by a series of negativity in your life, i think it especially helps to analyse the period of time leading up to said recharge day and think ab what made you feel like you need some time off to recharge. did anything happen, were there any events that could have triggered it, big or small, how you felt, and so on; write it all down or just lay and think about it quietly and think about how you can tackle it in future and come up with a way to deal with that. reset days are the perfect time to learn from ur mistakes and ensure that you can know what to do if and when they strike again in the future.

🧸𓂃 ࣪˖ 6. self-respect

most importantly, please respect the fact that you are only human and need ur rest. it's not your fault for getting overwhelmed or needing to take a day to rest. as long as you are doing the best you can, you're going exactly the pace you need to, and you are at the exact place you need to be, whether it feels like it or not. not constantly working does not mean you have failed, does not mean that you are weak, or anything like that. please take care of yourself and have enough self-respect to honour your own needs and emotions. you're doing amazing bae 💗✨

──★ ˙ ̟🎀 journal prompts:

๋࣭♡ has there been any possible events or recent situations that may have caused a mental health spiral?

๋࣭♡ do any of these events link back to an event that affected you in the past?

๋๋♡ what are some things you dislike right now in your life?

๋࣭♡ how do they make you feel and why?

( also see: girly girl's guide to journalling and ultimate journalling index)

all my love 🫶💗🎀

[wendigoruble]

Franco Barbi HCs - Revisited 🍼

[Random HCs about Franco, sfw addition]

Franco is short. I'll still die on this hill. I personally say he's 5'5 at the most, 5'3 at the least.

He has a tumby. I think he's slightly more heavy set if that's not evident by my art. Not that I don't like thin build Franco I just see him being a thick fridge.

He loves savory foods along the lines of crawfish, oysters, and gumbo. I think he'd also have a good fondness for muffaletta, and it's probably a go-to when he can't decide what he wants to eat.

He also really likes American Chinese food since that's probably what he became accustomed to upon leaving New Orleans.

Sucks his pacifier when stressed but sucks his thumb to go to sleep.

He has an oral fixation and will just put things in his mouth. It's mostly managed with cigars and his pacifier, but he might get caught chewing on random things (as long as said things won't kill him).

He's a drooler. He always has a little bit of dribble that he'll need to wipe away on his sleeve.

Despite his drool, he has chronic dry mouth. Those little dribbles aren't enough to keep him quenched.

He's a nose picker, and he'll sometimes do it until he bleeds, then he'll be upset that he's bleeding,

Personal hygiene is extremely low on his lift of priorities, mainly because he was never taught it growing up so he just doesn't care. This results in him just covering himself in copious amounts of cologne.

Along with having poor hygiene, he also doesn't do laundry because he views that as 'women's work'. He would rather wear the same thing over and over or just buy new clothes than wash them himself.

Also, he just likes nice things. He likes buying expensive suits, he likes looking good, he loves flaunting his wealth and where he comes from.

Franco is a heavy drinker. He's basically a high functioning alcoholic and he can barely stay sober at all. It's a shield/coping mechanism for both his mental and physical health issues. He, of course, also samples his own product when in need.

He's very mobile for someone who has such deformities. He can run, break down doors, slide over the hood of cars, click his heels, and perform very deft take downs on people with ease.

He's a lot smarter than people give him credit for. Sure, he's extremely impulsive, but he's also very resourceful and aware of what's happening around him.

[celaenaeiln]

Where Dick's compartmentalization came from and how it affects the family

What's special about Dick, is that people far older than him see him as an equal because he's able to understand them and keep up with them, and that takes a massive toll on his mental health. He's been acting like a mother, brother, and partner to people twice his age from childhood.

The thing that really hurts is that when Dick's parents were gone, he didn't get angry. He just got really, really sad. And even though he was sad, all he wanted to do was help Batman-help Bruce. He just wanted to help this sad, older man. So at a time when he was grieving, he couldn't even properly grieve because Batman was grieving harder than him. He put his feelings on the back burner so he could fix Bruce.

Dick is not happy right now. Not because of Bruce's response but he's just feeling overwhelmingly sad because his parents have died. Yet look at the way he acts. He forces himself to pretend he's happy to alleviate Bruce's guilt, stress, anger over the case he's in. He didn't want to be another thing that makes him sad. That's horrifying behavior for a child of 8.

What really astonishes me is that Dick was a child with the maturity of an adult-meaning-he delicately handled Bruce's feelings while being careful not to overstep and yet still adjusting his behavior. He never tried to lash out Bruce. Ever. He got mad once at Batman when everything became too much but once Batman revealed himself to be Bruce, he never let his anger out on him. Or anyone.

And that makes me so sad because this is a child.

Look at his size compared to batman-tiny!

But this small boy controlled his emotions so his guardian wouldn't feel hurt when he was the one grieving makes me want to cry.

Here's another version of Batman and pre-robin Dick that showcases Dick's emotional maturity from a small age.

In Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder-Dick's parent's died from a gunshot and Batman kidnaps Dick at the circus, before his parent's bodies have barely gotten cold.

Dick's response to the new situation and his parent's passing?

"No. Don't go there. Not now."

I can practically feel him compartmentalizing through the screen.

"Yes, Sir. I'll be brave."

He doesn't get a break. No matter the retelling of Dick's orgin story, Dick puts himself together to take care of the man that is supposed to be taking care of him.

But just as much of a toll this takes on Dick, it has a signifcant effect on Bruce too. Bruce cannot function if he knows that Dick isn't okay. I don't remember where but somewhere in the comics Bruce admits to resenting Dick for having amnesia. For not being with him. By him.

His reaction to Dick not remembering them?

The panel-where Dick screams at Bruce with tears in his eyes-it seems as though Bruce has them too. He's so heartbroken. His eyes are glistening with unshed tears.

In Road to Dark Crisis, Dick tells Jon

This is so true but the difference between Bruce and Dick is that while Bruce does it for his kids, he has no one to take care of him. So Dick stepped at an age far too young for it to be okay. I mean even therapists struggle with taking care of their patients problems and usually they're around the same age the patient. But Dick? No experience he took the entire job on his shoulders. Not only that but Dick acts as the whole family and titan's family therapist.

Tim

Tim goes to Dick about everything-every single one of his problems because they have such a good relationship. He tells him about his dad.

Not to mention the main thing he does for Tim

He puts his feelings and priorities on the back burner so he can take care of other people.

Jason

He takes care of Jason's emotional well-being. He tell him he's proud of him and validates him instead of putting him down like Bruce does.

Donna and Roy

The biggest reason why everyone loves Dick is because he accepts their mistakes and works with them and loves them instead of punishing them for it. They don't get that from anyone else. Especially Bruce.

That's another reason why he's so good with kids. It's because he has been designated to playing the role of the parent his entire life. So he gives them everything he has, welcomes them with open arms, takes care of them and makes them feel fixed. Even if it's at the cost of his own well-being. So that's why they fight but in the end also why none of them can let go of Dick. They need him.

[sweetfirebird]

The Department of Education trying to bring back segregation

and other problems, jfc

(And by the Department of Education, I mean Vought and Project 2025 and the Heritage Foundation and Curtis Yarvin and every other asshole who wants vassals instead of citizens.)

June 11, 2025 --this one is time sensitive!

So the Department of Education quietly slipped a new proposed rule onto the government regulations site for public comment, as they are required to do, and they have used some… interesting… language to hide what they are actually doing here.

The title is Priorities, Requirements, Definitions, and Selection Criteria: Evidence-Based Literacy, Education Choice, and Returning Education to the States

Posted by the Department of Education on May 21, 2025

And it says it’s about “Choice” and “Returning Education to the States” but when you break it down, what it is actually about is, at heart, eliminating federal protections for all students and bringing back resegregation in fact if not in name.

Yeah. That’s right.

A breakdown and an action to take behind the cut

There are three main proposed “priorities” in this proposed rule. The first is about changing literacy standards. American literacy is actually a problem, but I will leave this section to be commented on by educators. I suspect this priority was placed at the top by the Department of Education to disguise the shit that follows it.

The second proposed priority is about “choice.” It claims it is about giving parents more opportunities to choose charter or private schools, or homeschool, or set up things like Education Savings Accounts. Sounds good, right?

Except it is not about choice. Poor families and working-class families will not have the choices that wealthier families will have—but they will be paying to support those wealthier families anyway.

To start: this funding could just go to public schools. Why try to direct it to charter and private schools? To give a financial break to the wealthy. Working-class families aren’t going to be able to afford most of these “options.” Homeschooling requires a parent to be home all day. They can’t afford that. Private schools are pricey and tend to be farther away from neighborhoods than a local public school. Yet these working-class families’ federal tax dollars will be paying for already financially comfortable kids to go to schools and not improving their own local schools.

This sets up a situation where all the families who can afford it flee the public schools. The public schools, underfunded and underpopulated, either continue to run but badly, or close. The neighborhood around the school suffers. The children from those schools get worse educations, tend to do worse in life, stay in those neighborhoods in low-wage jobs, and in turn, their children can’t afford the better educations. It’s a doom cycle.

This is going to happen mostly to districts that serve the working poor, which means non-white people by and large. And it will keep them poor. This is intentional. When we had a functional Department of Education, it worked to combat this. Not well, but it did.

Meanwhile, this proposed priority also encourages families to set up “Education Savings Accounts” with help from state, city, or local funds. So again, poor districts will obviously not be able to afford this. In addition, most working-class families do not have the extra money to spare to keep putting into an account like this. If your family has enough money to put into such an account, then you probably don’t need the help. This is a meaningless gesture. Better help would be scholarships, student loans being what they were before Reagan, and better spending on public schools.

Your local and state tax dollars would AGAIN be going to mostly fund the educations of people who do not need the financial help, while your children receive the bare minimum.

It’s a wealth transfer and it makes the poor even poorer in the long term.

Also in this shitshow of a proposal is a lot of talk about trade schools and practical education. Blue collar jobs are awesome and America needs more skilled and trained workers. But who do you think is going to get steered toward those jobs? It’s not the kids going to the 20k-a-year private school.

This part of the proposal also has some truly terrifying coded language bullshit about “patriotic education” and “classical education.” It does not define either term. I suspect patriotic means “indoctrination to Trump/conservative values” and that classical means “white guy literature and whitewashed history.”

This horrible proposal that claims to be about choice also says some charter schools should focus on special needs and disabled children. Guess the disabled kids get isolated from everyone else. And as you should know from American history, “Separate but equal” is a lot of nonsense that has NEVER been equal.

This section is not explicitly about segregation or a wealth transfer, but it sets up situations where that happens.

Then we get to the last proposed priority, the “return to states” portion. And I will be very clear here—this part is about resegregation.

The Department of Education exists in large part to level the playing field, so to speak. To ensure that richer states and poorer states are still educating their children to some sort of standard. It is responsible for desegregating schools, for encouraging girls to play sports, for ADA compliance, and a lot of other things.

Shifting control of education standards from the federal government to the states means that some states (like Louisiana, which is already moving to do it) will revert back to pre-Civil Rights Era standards.

They claim this part is about saving money, but the clear and obvious rebuttal for this is that *under the previous standards set by the Department of Education, America became a superpower, with world-class institutions and research that benefited from a diverse, educated population.* We made money that way. We made A LOT of money that way.  

But of course they know this. They also know that most poor states (like Louisiana, ahem) will fall behind quickly, so yeah, they want to keep their white working poor in poverty forever as well. This move is racist and sexist but it’s also classist as fuck.

The language is sneaky, but it’s all there.

So, until June 20th they have to read public comments on this. They will accept form letters but I think those count more toward numbers than in making a substantiative point. Either is good though. We just need as many people commenting as people.

I am going to include a link to the proposed regulations so can you read them for yourselves. I’m also going to do a small form letter—BUT form letters as part of campaigns do mean less to them. They mean *something* because the number of comments matter, but a bunch of identical letters has less of an impact on the argument. So… use it as a template if you want but zhuzh it up a bit. Add stuff, especially if you are an educator, or a librarian, or work with children. You are the experts here. Use that.

Hell, if you are a historian of segregation, use that too.

In your comments, be respectful. Rude stuff will just get tossed out. You can comment anonymously or not, your choice.

Regulations.gov

Go to the link. Read the regulation. In the upper corner is a button to comment. Comment limit is 5000 characters. Include the docket number in your comment: ED-2025-OS-0020-0001

It will then ask for what your comment is about and give you a dropdown menu. I selected Civil Rights.

It will then ask a little bit about you: are you an individual or a corporation etc. Your name and zip code, if you want to be anonymous or not.

Then you submit.

Then, share this around. We have about a week left to do this. Comment period ends 6/20/25

Letter template (feel free to ignore it, add to it, subtract from it, talk about other parts of the proposals. Whatever.):

I am writing about the proposed regulations in docket ED-2025-OS-0020-0001.

The proposed priorities in this regulation are deceptively worded attempts to lower the education standards in America that will affect mostly poor, minority, and disabled students while also directing money away from public schools to charter and private schools that are already funded by the families of students.

These proposed regulations set up situations of de facto segregation under the guise of “choice.” Where, without federal government authority and funds, states and local municipalities are meant to channel what monies they do have toward funding already-funded charter and private schools, while defunding public schools. This transfer of wealth essentially dooms those public schools to either closures or lower quality resources, which then dooms most of their students to dimmer futures in lower-wage jobs, which then continues onward to affect their children and those neighborhoods. All the while, their tax dollars are going to fund private schools that are out of their reach.

The options then presented of homeschooling or Education Savings Accounts are also mostly out of reach for working-class families—but not the wealthier families already paying for their children to receive a better education. These are meaningless gestures that will exacerbate a cycle of poverty and low education, not help American students learn and to help grow their communities.

The proposed regulations also contain intentionally vague language on curriculum, such as “patriotic education” and “classical education.” In a time when schools are struggling to meet basic needs, adding undefined courses such as these is unnecessary and a waste of money and time. These courses also veer very close to the language of government indoctrination. America is not North Korea.

The final proposed priority hides its goal of segregation under the title “states’ rights.” It would eliminate federal protection for minority students, women, and disabled students. It would allow individual states to regress back to the pre-Civil Rights Era. This is not only cruel but it’s bad economic policy. It will not save America money. It will cost America money both in the lawsuits required to bring our education department back up to the standards that once made America what it is, and in tax revenue. Neighborhoods and states with a less educated population make and spend less money, and therefore pay less in taxes. An undereducated population also does not innovate—something else that once made America great.

These proposal might have been intended to save money in the short term, but in the long term, they will destroy America’s future.

[shini--chan]

Can I have yandere Germany and Prussia with a reader who is hyper sexual? BUT she hates them so she kinda finds another way to keep herself uhhhhh occupied- I am sorry if this is too straight forward!

Yandere Hetalia (Germany, Prussia) - Nymphomaniac

Trigger warnings: sexual disorder, gore, non-consensual operations, sexual punishments

Prussia wouldn't tolerate such behaviour at all. At first, he'd just think that this is you being hedonistic because your mind has been poisoned by modern bullshit. As such, you would just be locked away in the house. Cold showers and sparse meals for you for the next few weeks. If you like being naked so much, why not take all your clothes away. Additionally, he would fetch your flings and kill them in front of you. Perhaps he'd slit their throat(s) so that all their blood would spray on you. The thought here would be to shock you out of your hypersexuality. 

Should that not work, then he would mark it as an addiction and treat it as such. That would mean a field trip for the two of you. No other people in the radius of a few kilometers and you would be reliant on him. Thus, you could learn to love him and trust his judgement. Also, with you being so focused on survival, you would have the time or energy to indulge in your addiction 

If all that fails, then he would have you sterilised. There wouldn't be a word lost about it towards you, and the most warning you would get would be only getting water for 24 hours before that. Chances are, that you would be even that lucky - he could have your stomach emptied at the hospital or also order you to be bound to a head. Siring children wouldn't be a priority and castrated pets are more agreeable and easier to handle anyway. 

With Germany, it could go several ways. Should he become the sole subject of your libido, then he would be overjoyed. Both of you would travel along a downwards spiral where you would feed into each other's behaviour. Welcome to hell. Ludwig wouldn't be above using your addiction to make you bow to his wishes and forcing you to stay with him. 

Should you sleep around…well. He would have a breakdown and you'd be locked in his cellar. The dude would be sent to the other side of the country and you'd be shown the breakup text. If he'd catch you red handed, then he would beat the offender black and blue. You would be shackled to a wall and put in a chasity belt. In the case that he'd be feeling particularly wronged, he would put a vibrator in you and leave it running for two days or three. That should surely put you off sex for a while. 

Else, a lobotomy might be on the table. It would pain him to erradicate your personality, yet sacrifices would have to be made so that the two of you can be in a functioning relationship. Of course, maybe the threat of lobotomy would scare you into behaving. Speaking of threats, he could also go the route of telling you that the lives of your loved ones are on the line if you don't stop being a slut. Somebody's life, or your pleasure, which would it be? 

[dare-to-dm]

I get a little miffed when I see people criticizing common scenarios in games like D&D such as killing bandits for being "violent" or "problematic" and suggesting that people can/should play D&D in a more non-violent way.

I agree that it is very possible to do and I'm cool with people playing games they own however they want to. But the reality is that most of D&D's mechanics were designed specifically with combat in mind. You look at any given class, and that's what the bulk of their abilities are for. For pretty much everything else, you have a "skills" system that functions, but is not developed with much depth. Most of the toys you get to play with are there to simulate fantasy violence. And part of the fantasy in such a game is that you can solve problems, save the day and be a hero with violence. Enjoying that fantasy doesn't make you a bad person, and if you don't enjoy that fantasy, you might be better served playing a game with a different design philosophy and priorities.

For comparison, imagine it's a hot summer day and you're watching some kids play outside. It's your job to keep them entertained, healthy and safe. So you want them to play a game that's going to get them physically active, have fun and cool off.

So you set out a big bin of water balloons and super soakers and a hose and tell them they should all get wet. If those kids pick up the super soakers and the water balloons and start shooting each other and playing war, it would be weird of you to then chastise them for simulating violence. After all, that's basically what those toys are explicitly designed to do. And sure, you could explain to the kids that they could instead choose to spray themselves with the hose or pop the balloons by sitting on them or whatever. There are definitely possible ways to use those toys that don't involve pretending to be violent. But if that's such a dealbreaker for you, you probably shouldn't have bought those toys in the first place. Like, you could have set up a sprinkler or a Slip'n'Slide or an inflatable pool instead. Choose the toys/the game that's designed for what you want.

And don't assume that just because I would relish taking someone out "execution style" with a super soaker that I would approve of the same thing in a non pretend situation.

[theoryofthemultiverse]

hehe its okay I understand:D thank you for the stuff u put out though they're really good

And because of that, I’ll gladly continue to make more stuff :>

Always makes me happy when I see all the likes in the morning, you guys help me start my day!

Hoyo‘s Doctors Love Languages ♥️

Synopsis: What’s likely to be their love language?

Characters: Baizhu, Dr.Ratio, Il Dottore

A.N: I hope we can fundamentally agree that the Bordeaux heart in the title is one of the prettiest. Also keep in mind that these are just assumptions what I have on them, and what they are more likely to have than the other love languages :)!

•:--•:♥️:•--•:♥️:•--•:♥️:•--•:♥️:•--•:♥️:•--•:♥️:•—:•

Baizhu 🐍

Quality time and acts of service

Loveable man spends long hours in the pharmacy every day, sees patients tends to their problems, looks for function of certain limbs so I believe he gets a lot of general human contact through his job. So therefore I feel like he would still enjoy cuddling for sure, but it would be his priority.

Same goes for giving gifts and words of affirmation. He surely likes giving you gifts and telling you how good you’re doing at something, but to him personally, there are just things he values so much more!

Like when the two of you spend the evening or morning together simply talking while drinking tea. Or if you decide to join him for meditation before the pharmacy opens up in the morning. If you listen to him telling you about some patients he encountered today, it all adds to his liking for quality time with you.

And if you connect it with little acts of service, like helping him sort herbs, or bringing him something he needs while in an examination with a patient, he will be in love.

Dr. Ratio 🎓

Physical Touch and Quality time

I honestly wished he could give words of affirmation but I feel like he is bad at it. (Please teach him a few vocabularies on that part) Because it might be a little too obvious, but even though you’re not his student, he still has a hard time finding things affirm them with. So all in all, a rare occurrence to hear very affirming words from him, but at least you can be sure you’re one of the only ones that ever got them then :,)

When it comes to gifts and acts of service I can see him liking it to some point. He sees meaning in a gift that comes from you if you put your thoughts and heart into it. As well as he likes you doing some acts of service for him, but acts of service are likely able to go into the ‚could you solve that equation for me‘ which he would know is something he can’t ask, so he is good about it.

But physical affection and quality time? Oh lord.

It might just be my thinking, but I believe this man is touch deprived. (I mean the only touch he really gets is the book and the chalk- which definitely don’t do the job) So when you offer to cuddle him or take a bath with him, he is over the moon.

And if you connect that with quality time as well then you even manage 2 things in one go! Cuddling while talking, listening to each other, or simply staying silent while reading a book. It really helps him recharge with you by his side.

Il Dottore🧪

Gift giving and Acts of service

Wouldn’t find much use for physical touch and words of affirmation. If you want to cuddle and get a little bit of affirmative words he’s not going to deny your wish but it’s visibly hard for him to come up with something to say that is not making you feel worse, so personally i advise against that :,)

When it comes to quality time though he is unsure, because if you come into his lab and ask him about everything he is doing and what this and that machine does he can’t help but enjoy that time spent with you and proudly show you everything around the room.

But that’s still nothing against gift giving and acts of service. Let’s say you’re out and about and suddenly stumble upon an ancient relic in one of Sumerus markets. You take it back to him and he’s going to be all over it and love you for bringing (gifting) it to him. Basically like you brought a new toy he can tinker on home with you which also connects to acts of service.

Let’s say you know your way around his lab and the way he likes to work, so when he is gone somewhere to maybe conduct an experiment, you already put out a few papers and a pen to spare him of the action upon his return, and while it may be just a small action, he really greatly appreciates you for it.

[sparkly-sediment]

tf2 headcanon nsfw

tw butts and stuff

eats pussy:

Medic

He’s methodical about it and def gets pleasure from the results of his work rather than the work itself

The voices say he licks more than sucks

Works in intervals like an athlete. Devours then savors, chugs then sips

Might nip at the inside of your thighs tho

preferences lean more towards bush as he always loves a challenge.

If you had a really big bush he would casually floss with it like “oh hold on I have something in my teeth” and then keep going

Uses his knowledge of pressure points for evil and maintains rigid German eye contact throughout I fear

Solid 8/10 but if you don’t like the freaky shit he says or are autistic (so dislike the eye contact) 6-7/10 but always messier than Spy

Spit dripping legs shaking

Spy

He’s pretty good at it but if you aren’t madly in love with him it feels kinda icky

JUST HIS VIBE. HIS CANON VIBE. I DON’T WANT THAT NEAR MY 🐱

fanon vibe tho 😏

His mouth is so dry and it’s clear he learned this as a business venture

Eats in the slow way brother cherishes a build up and edging perhaps

Very smug about it definitely condscending and if you like the teasing vibe then great!! But it will be there regardless he’s just like that 😔

Takes it very seriously though. He is on a mission and it will not be complete until you finish minimum of twice

Some emotional distance afterwards. Aftercare really isn’t a priority and if you hang out after he immediately smokes a cigarette and responds in grunts

6/10 score brought down by low emotional availability ty

Unless you’re Scout’s mom then 10/10 woman will see god and it will look like her man

sniper

Love is a sacrament best taken kneeling

Devours you like a madman left to starve in the bush. The type of shit to give you flashbacks during dinner. Sitting at the table and suddenly you have to breathe and crane your neck 😩

Also enjoys a bush but prefers you to be most comfortable with it + shaved pussy he will engulf

Frantic? Starts off wide and exploratory but then locks in and he’s holding your legs open and going wild

He’ll finger you during which is definitely a nice touch, but tbh he’s good enough it isn’t even necessary

Thinks making out after is hot and is good with aftercare. He wants it too because unlike some people *COUGH HACK* he wants to feel that connection

Definitely into being a bit dominant but honestly? Pet his hair and tell him how good it feels and you’re bound for life

9/10 I think he may he awkward before.

Like when you have food and someone else starts staring like “why are you looking at me like that” but in this situation you are the food

He has a hard time approaching the subject at first and will probably just ask if he can go down on you without much prior romancing

He has an anxiety disorder 💔 but that’s the only disordered function 😏

will hold hands during

Heavy

You will see celestial beings during and after

First off, Heavy absolutely eats pussy, though his partners are typically men. He does Not care what the grooming is because if you’re at the point he wants to do this to you it will be DONE

He’s grown he don’t give a fuck

Takes eat literally lmao look how big his mouth is!!! Half the reason it’s so grand is the size of his tongue 👅 😛

Heavy is more sensitive than the others. More nurturing. He likes pleasing a woman and by god does he know how to do it

Very rare for someone to unlock this event though and he has to be kneeling on the ground with you on a bed or something because of how tall he is

Don’t make him hang off the bed babe he’s 6’5

8/10 (thick man fingers aren’t always hot)

Engineer

You know how sometimes after you cum you’ll have period cramps? Or that uncomfortable squeeze? I feel like after oral from him you’d get that. Just a premalition

It’s good. It’s decent. Not every man is a sex god but as long as you communicate with your partner and genuinely try it’s gonna be okay

He’s so into himself omg so the more vocal you are the better he thinks he’s doing ie. the better he feels

Spit. Slurp. All that ooey gooey pleasurable but nasty shit. Not to kink shame girl I would be into it too but you would definitely have to go clean up with a wet washcloth minimum

I feel like he’s REALLY good at fingering like exceptionally so. He’ll find the spot that makes you gasp and writhe and work it!!

The sensitive hands of an empath 😌

Head game not strong tho 😔

5/10 depending on his mood

7/10 if he’s drunk

Demo

The best of them all?

Demo listens really well. He wants to you enjoy yourself just as much as he does, and he knows he’s about to have a great fucking time

All over the place. Squeezes your boobs and suckles. So good. Too good. You become slightly weirded out by how well he latches but before you dislike it he moves on

His hands roam while he goes down on you and he’ll give your hand a reassuring squeeze on occasion

Panting against your inner thigh and locks in

Uses his hands during and will sink up the curl of his fingers with his tongue

You will smell a little yeasty from all the beer on his breath 😬 always go pee after sex, but if any part of him touches your vagina, you need to pH balance immediately

You’ll be walking funny 😩😩😩 enjoys hanging out after. He needs emotional security too!

His favorite activity after is to lay together and drink ❤️

10/10

Doesn’t eat pussy:

Scout

HEAR ME OUT. he doesn’t want to

Kinda guy to keep his macaroni salad separate from his meat. Doesn’t mix foods, doesn’t eat pussy, and is barely literate

It’s a hard life out here

Scout definitely has potential but it just isn’t fully realized. Very much going to be whipped into shape by his first serious girlfriend and he will be grateful for it!!

Wants to be a macho sex guy making the gals scream and tweak, but he simply is not

Fool in an endearing way so maybe he’d try if you asked and lick your thigh for a second

Pokes the labia major with his tongue thrice and goes “Heh, did you cum? “

You didn’t.

Pyro

In my head, they are not freaking

Thank you 🙏🏻

Unknown

Soldier

He might. There’s something wrong with him but he might

Either eats pussy like a rabid animal OR thinks it’s gross (also thinks blowjobs are gross I just know it would go both ways) hands are okay though

Tbh I don’t think you’d want him to eat you out 😭

Does the head things where he shakes like he’s in a watermelon eating contest

[herrscherofmagic]

emergency sketch commissions

i have very big bills but nobody wants to hire me, so my continued existence in this world is imperiled.

please feel free to give me some money and i'll eventually try to repay you with a sketch + timelapse.

for examples of my work, feel free to view my instagram page here.

$25/$45 USD for 1/2 characters respectively.

final product includes the character sketch, along with a timelapse of the drawing.

No backgrounds; complex character designs will be simplified; no mecha, gore, furry, NSFW.

i can't make pretty, complex illustrations like all the other artists out there offering commissions. but i can sketch pretty well, i guess.

quick gestural sketches with simple values & composition and reasonably-accurate anatomy are what i do best.

however, given my present life situation, I CANNOT make guarantees of quality or timeliness.

as much as i'd love to make a living with art, the silly little thing called "being mentally ill in a shitty economy" does not allow me to do so. as a result, i still need to keep searching for employment, and that will take priority over my ability to immediately work on these sketches.

but if commissioned, I WILL make the sketch and deliver a final product. I just can't guarantee when that'll be. Hopefully I'd be able to do them all by the end of June or July... assuming I'm actually able to afford the cost of living by then, that is.

this is one of my last few resorts; i'm just hoping to afford rent by the start of next month so i have an extra few weeks to get hired at a real job.

to make a commission, please contact me via DM (Instagram preferred, Tumblr also acceptable) and ask for a sketch commission. Once we agree on the commission terms, I'll provide a random number (i.e. 472398), and you can make a one-time donation on my Ko-Fi including that random number in the message. That way, there's a "receipt" of your commission.

i know Ko-Fi has a proper commission function, but I don't have the willpower to even try and make a formal set of commission terms for that. So i'm relying on quick & dirty informal commissions, but i still want it to be clearly recorded for both parties' record-keeping. if you want a commission, we'll have proof that you paid for it via your own unique number attached to your specific donation.

please feel free to share this post as far and wide as you wish.

I have very low expectations for this, in all honesty, but I'd be grateful if even just one single person were to help me out. The more people that contribute, the better for my short-term safety & health.