irairaptero

[irairaptero]

okay so I've been playing a bunch of No Man's Sky, a game whose main unique feature is its mind-bogglingly huge universe of procedurally generated planets, most of which have still never been encountered by human players. when you make first contact with an undiscovered planet, it starts out with a random name. just today I've discovered Snesfin, Inkiew, and Roranbu-Anuki. but a minute ago I landed on a planet with, and I must stress this again, the randomly-generated name of:

[irairaptero]

so can we start hunting down white liberals now or what

[irairaptero]

when the subject of "why do people believe things that are seriously wrong and harmful" comes up it feels like you kinda hear one of two perspectives:

"oh, that's easy! it's because they're fundamentally Bad people who want to hurt others and choose their beliefs to justify that! :) hope this helps"

or

"they just don't have access to the same information we do. look at this person who was raised in a cult! don't you feel sorry for her?"

and like, yes, fine, some people were in fact raised in cults, but what i wish people would understand is that the bulk of it is just normal human flaws, like:

they want to believe stuff that makes them feel smart and cool and like they've figured everything out (you also do this)

they want to believe stuff that makes them feel like their emotions are justified and grounded in reality, and that the people they want to hurt deserve to be hurt (you also do this)

they form conclusions before they've processed all the relevant information, and cling to that first impression even when new info comes to light (you also do this)

they pick up beliefs from the people around them because they want to be liked and fit in, not because the beliefs are good or true (you also do this)

they come up with reasons that the stuff that benefits them (and the people they like and identify with) is actually overwhelmingly best for everyone and obviously the right thing to do (you also do this)

they pay more attention to stuff that supports what they already believe and avoid looking in places that might show them otherwise (you also do this)

they listen to people who talk like 'one of them' and ignore others (you also do this)

they come up with reasons to dismiss people with conflicting viewpoints as obviously in bad faith or ignorant or a shill or evil (you also do this)

they fail to take their own beliefs seriously sometimes, and take their beliefs way too seriously other times, in a selective way that lets them do the things they already wanted to do (you also do this)

the very ways they construct the ideas of 'knowledge' and 'wisdom' and 'belief' and 'understanding' are biased so that what they don't want to believe comes under lots of scrutiny and what they do want to believe receives less (you also do this)

you, dear reader, are presumably right about everything and were correct to die on every hill you've ever died on, but the difference between you and someone who's wrong about important stuff doesn't look like "well they're inherently evil and i'm not", it probably looks like a combination of:

natural environment (they would have been exposed to different information than you regardless of their choices)

being in the right place at the right time (your particular profile of flaws and virtues happened to be what was needed to lead you to the right conclusions, they had the opposite experience)

random luck (you doubled down on what felt right to believe but wasn't, but it turned out to be inconsequential, or even right for different reasons, while they doubled down on what turned out to be a horrible mistake distorting their entire worldview)

you do less of the things in the previous list, and over time the difference between you and them adds up

and, look, i also do these things. the nicest and most thoughtful people i've ever met do these things. if you meet someone who never does any of these things, i dunno, give them a fucking medal or something.

i know you're doing your best. we're all doing our best.

[irairaptero]

might seem like a harmless quirk but once you start typing in exclusively lowercase you can never capitalize anything again outside the designated midsentence Gay Emphasis Zones or anyone following you for longer than a week will think you’re about to commit murder

[irairaptero]

Boyfriend tells me I’m banned from fixing things around the house now >:(

[irairaptero]

life actually gets better when you leave the house consistently btw like im serious

[irairaptero]

the transition im crying

[irairaptero]

The best part of the recent surge of people picking up knitting amd crochet and learning from youtube tutorials instead of learning from their parents who learned from their parents who have passed the tradition down for generations is the fun ways people have adapted their crafts, like with the crochet girlies who are technically correct when they yarn over, insert hook, yarn over again and pull through except instead of holding the yarn with their left hand and manipulating the hook with their right they're like, flicking or throwing the yarn like English style knitters it's so fascinating to watch

[irairaptero]

Accidentally sent 'happy prude month!!🎊🥰🥰' to my asexual friend and now im gonna dunk my head in cement to become unrecognizable

[irairaptero]

If it keeps you from killing yourself it's not stupid. This applies to anything btw.

[irairaptero]

At the gate for my flight home from visiting friends and there's a woman here with a service Shiba Inu. No pics because he has a Do Not Disturb vest and taking pics of strangers is illegal but I need to stress how ON DUTY this animal is. Ears up. Eyes doing Lazer scans of everything. Examining everyone who passes within 10ft like a security guard. Ass planted on her feet. I have never seen a dog with such intense chivalric guardian energy before. He has tiny eyebrows and they are FURROWED with concentration.

[irairaptero]

anyway happy pride to trans people who CAN'T "just book the hrt appointment and transition" for any reason. money or fear or family or work or laws or medical contraindications or just plain not feeling ready yet. you're not less trans for it, you don't deserve to feel ashamed, it's never gonna be "too late", you can take as long as you need to figure it out. happy pride 🩵🩷🤍🩷🩵

[irairaptero]

Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, 11x14

[irairaptero]

I like the fact that the two most well-known uses for lithium are treating people who are bipolar, and making batteries, which are also bipolar but in a completely different way.

[irairaptero]

it's my earnestly held belief that every human person holds within them an invisible timer that counts up from the last time they stuck their feet in a body of water and the higher that number gets the more sludge builds up in their brain and in their heart

[irairaptero]

[irairaptero]

whoever made the decision to make umpires wear cameras... you are a legend

this is genuinely the funniest thing i've ever seen