laurenfoxmakesthings

[laurenfoxmakesthings]

[laurenfoxmakesthings]

Seriously, go to the library, it’s filled with weirdos and old people it’s great

[laurenfoxmakesthings]

I think understanding hopepunk is understanding all people have equal value. All of them.

You are everything. And so is everyone else who has ever lived and ever will live. You are special, but not more special than anyone. The others are important, but not more important than you. The fact they are ALIVE makes them have the same value as you and the ones you love.

I'm not saying you'll become like them if you think they are less valuable then you or that those who hurt others shouldn't face consequences or responsability for their actions. I'm saying that thinking another life is less worthy than yours is a bad decision. To be hopepunk, you have to have hope in humanity. Humanity is not humanity without your neighbour or without you. And hope shouldn't be a priviledge.

[laurenfoxmakesthings]

Do you have advice how to not get burned out protesting? Like I just wanna be able to sleep, but ICE is still kidnapping my neighbors

Someone recently shared a zine with me on avoiding activist burnout (it was a very pointed gift), so I am going to transcribe it here and then tag who I believe the original artist was

TIPS FOR DEFYING THE END OF THE WORLD

(from people who were right before)

pg 2-3

In 2000 (when I was 8), I heard about 2012 - THE END OF THE WORLD. I curled up by the radiator and I sobbed. what was the point? why go to school if I was gonna die at 20 anyway? But my mum came in and said, { "But what if the world doesn't end? What if you live? Then, if you quit now, you'll have to catch up."}

And I persisted. And I didn't die.

pg 4-5

And when I was real depressed one time, I told my doctor how overwhelming it felt to try and fix all the world's problems when I'm just one person. Activist burnout. And he said, {"You ARE just one person. So you can't fix it all. But you can pick small things in your small radius and start working on the small wins instead."} And he was right. I've done so much more with less stress since then.

pg 6-7

And now, I look after some folk who are younger than me. They also fear the future. They fear politicians, and they fear hatred, and they fear climate change. They're burnt out. But what if it works out? What if small changes today make tomorrow better? Hope is a tool. Hope is a weapon. Hope is a plant we must nurture.

pg 8

Even if things go wrong, we can at least say we tried. But we hope for more. Because if we can picture it, we can work towards it

@nariarts (I THINK)

I hope that conveys the point well, but to put it simply, you don't need to give 100% 24/7 because that isn't sustainable. The point of community, the point of humanity, is there will always be someone to take the night watch.

going to tag @trans-zines @hopepunk-humanity

[laurenfoxmakesthings]

🚰💧🇮🇳 Tap water access now reaches over 80% of households in rural India! At the time of the government water initiative Jal Jeevan Mission’s 2019 launch, only 17% of rural households had piped drinking water — the project has since seen great gains in providing sustainable water infrastructure and access to safe, clean water. While progress is still being made in some regions, other states have even reached 100% tap water coverage for rural households!

https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/80-of-rural-indian-families-now-have-access-to-piped-drinking-water-8951055/amp/1

[laurenfoxmakesthings]

You Are Not Immortal

You will die one day.

It could be painful, it could not be.

You are mortal.

You could die tomorrow, you could die in eighty years.

Remember this, no choices you make matter.

Yep! So I may as well be silly and whimsical. Life is short so I may as well make the most of it and focus on being happy in the time we do have, instead of thinking about the end.

that isn’t to say I can’t and won’t be unhappy or struggle and fear for the future. But also I’d rather look back on the day I die and think of all of the happiness rather than what I should have done

[laurenfoxmakesthings]

In this video he talks about how you are what you feed your mind which really stuck with me. And he says at the end that he wants to make videos that make people feel so good and hopeful that they get off their phone and things that don't serve the algorithm don't do as well so I just wanted to share this video here.

[laurenfoxmakesthings]

Helpful reminder from Fix the News:

Each day, we wake to news of some fresh new hell. Armed troops in the streets of peaceful cities (again), the latest perversion of justice, rampant grift, economic vandalism, feckless politicians, another venerated institution folding like a cheap tent in a storm. Gaza is a nightmare from which there is no relief, a permanent stain on the world’s conscience, Ukraine stands alone against an implacable invader, and once again, the lobbyists are hard at work sabotaging global efforts to fix the plastic crisis. I’ve often wondered, like many journalists do, whether telling stories of progress in the midst of all this collapse is a dangerous distraction. But then I remember: realistic optimism isn't naïve. It's armour. It helps us face a challenging, sometimes frightening future with resilience.

[laurenfoxmakesthings]

It’s actually SO pleasant to be alive and able to experience all of this and have the ability to simply.. be. HOW ARE YOU ALL NOT JUST ABSOLUTELY ENTHRALLED OVER HOW YOURE SIMPLY EXISTING?! YOURE CONSTANTLY TRAVERSING BILLIONS OF VARIABLES AND VARIATIONS AND OPTIONS AND YOURE BECOMING YOU!! Out of all the possible scenarios, you’ve lived this sort of life and in the future will be a whole other version of you, and YOU are in control of that story!! And there’s so much to enjoy and try and see!! And you can just make anything and are forever learning. HOW DO PEOPLE NOT SEE THE DELIGHT IN THIS!? Are we in the same world?? DO YOU KNOW how mUCH it took to make ALLLL those hundreds of generations before you to live how they could to then give you a chance of life? How many did ‘useless’ things and died with a ‘boring’ life but infact had something that many now would consider absolutely incredible?! All the people who collected random things, who make stories, who helped others, who simply did their part and made a specific few smile, those that worked their ass off to keep people fed, those that tried to invent new things and ‘failed’ with whatever projects they were on but gave birth to concepts and theories that others could have used instead in other things, ALL THE PEOPLE HAVE SOMETHING TO BRING TO THE WORLD AND I FIND THIS BEAUTIFUL!! It’s so very nice to be alive, and it may be hard sometimes - usually for the unfair ways the society around you has chosen to bring you up, but it’s never the end of the world and you constantly have a new chance to do anything again! And guess what?? What’s ‘not much’ to you is a whole lot to someone else. Just because it comes easily to you doesn’t mean it’s any less valuable, it just means that YOU can do it easily. Not all can draw that ‘cringey’ anime character, not all know all the lore to that one obscure game or show, not all can hyperanalyse a specific song or character, or even explain their own emotions or experiences.. and if you can, well.. do it!! DO IT!!! Do what’s easy, do what’s hard, do what’s simple, do what’s complex - DO ANYTHING WHAT BRINGS YOU JOY! You never know what impact it can have on you or others in the long run, and guess what? You don’t need to know!

Hundreds of people died without knowing just how many people adored their work and creations - some spent all their life believing they were a worthless artist/writer only for their works to be sold all over the world and adored. Ain’t Kafka someone who fell prey to such a story? And sure, maybe you won’t be super well known by million, but did you expect Michael Jackson, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Jack Stauber, Picasso, Dostoevsky, Dr Seuss and any other of the millions of examples to simply KNOW they’d be adored and loved by many?? You think they just appeared one day with a beautiful array of work and suddenly millions flocked to ‘em? No! They all started somewhere, began how they could, and it simply managed to gain an audience. The advantage of doing whatever you want for yourself is that eventually people will appear that like what you bring to the world. There’s a huge complex web of all that happens before you make something, and to even doodle holds such a deep connection to what you’ve lived through, desire, and are feeling right now - you simply can not recreate the same exact squiggle because it’ll always carry a different weight to it, and just imagine any piece of art.. you can recreate it a million of times, but would it matter at all when something new can be far more useful??

oh I can keep talking about the whimsy I feel to life, but you get the idea. It’s so wonderful to simply exist, and it’s totally worth it to live just to be able to see how everything plays out.

Will it matter at all in the long run wether or not you doomscrolled for 4 years of your life? Honestly maybe not, and wether you carry that weight forever more is something you choose. You can let go and forgive or you can sit on your ass and cry ‘til your old.

it’s never too late to simply give life a chance. Sure- there are 6 and 10 year old prodigies out there, but how many big-name people created their best works in their older years? 40 year olds, 60.. 70! Are you 70?? Well, then just maybe you’re still only becoming the one you’ll be later on.

It’s also not defined by how many people know you or what you can do. Your value is always there, and not something that can be changed wether you simply wander the world on autopilot or go and do a hundred good deeds. You’re constantly evolving and changing, and life’s just a big collection of phases and choices. Is it anything to whine about? Perhaps at times. But you’re still going to be a valuable individual in the grand scheme of things because no matter what you do, you naturally seep out emotions and ideas and energy and experiences that affect the course of life of others too including your own. You may live a fulfilling life or a sad one, but the dozens of people you met along the way, those you talked to, even just passed by on the street - you’ve left some impact on them, wether it be deep or not I can not say, but we’re all connected. Maybe you can’t recall that one person in a raggedy sweater you say a year ago who was tapping their pen against their leg while waiting at a bus stop, but it still happened and was a point in which both of your lives intersected. You gave half a second of attention to the individual, yet maybe it affected some train of thought - you then thought of how your own shirt is a little old, or how you forgot your pen at home, and then started to think about going to the store sometimes, and once there you thought of something else - it’s subtle, but these things add up to create something much bigger than what you can imagine and realise.

So let me tell you something - If life doesn’t make sense right now, that’s alright. If you don’t know what to do with yourself, that’s alright too. You don’t have to right now. Instead, jot it down somewhere, you can check back on it in any time you want wether it be a month of a year or 5. Maybe it’ll make more sense then, maybe you’ll look back and laugh, or think of how you’ve managed to overcome any struggles you currently have. What I ask of you, is don’t lose your light. Your life is a beautiful thing, and it’d be a pity to lose it before you get a chance to fully see it play out. Things don’t last forever, and it’s most evident over how pain comes and goes . Live more to be able to experience more joys. Make more mistakes so you can learn even more from them. Speak to more people and expand this deep web of understanding and experience with the world. You’re apart of life as it is, and wether you want it or not, you’re loved for being you - even at your lowest, even at your highest. how people view you isn’t a you-problem, it’s just something that happens. It’s not wrong to be a bit different or even ostracised for something others may find disgusting or strange. You’re simply living and that’s enough for you right now. It’s good to simply be. You don’t have to prove to the world you can be super rich or super loud or something fabulous, you’re simply you, and that’s irreplaceable - even if you don’t have a million followers or a cool car or even some big achievement to share about yourself.

I’m proud of you surviving this far, and I’ll always be happy for you when you make steps to live an even happier life. You’re worth it - all the troubles, you’re still worth it. I hope you stay alive for as long as you possible can, and sincerely, may this post remain within your heart and mind for as long as it can too - wether you remember who it’s from, I hope the message subconsciously resonates through you and reaches those who it must.

Everything is always connected. Love life - in all its forms.

[laurenfoxmakesthings]

I believe that joy is an act of resistance.

It's important to be angry about the injustice in the world. It's important to grieve the unforgivable loss of life at the hands of oppressors.

But to let those things bring us to despair is not where action comes from. I believe that hope is vital for imagining a better world, that celebrating our successes keeps us driven to make that better world a reality, and that experiencing the joy of community and love keeps our souls alive so we can keep fighting.

It's my belief that despair leads to isolation, nihilism, and inaction. It drives us to numb ourselves and tune out the atrocities in the world. Or to burn ourselves out feeling like we can't make a difference.

So yes, I'm angry and I'm grieving, but I will continue to be full of joy, hope, and love. Because that's what makes life worth fighting for.

[laurenfoxmakesthings]

Permaculture instructor Andrew Millison visits an epic restoration of the Hawaiian Ahupua'a, the traditional watershed-scale food system of the Hawaiian people. July 31, 2025

[laurenfoxmakesthings]

Ok, I’ve been seeing that I get a lock of flack for using a certain commercial for an example of SolarPunk for my indie game idea.

Look, I get it. Using a commercial as an example of Solarpunk is veeerrry hypocritical. I understand that.

But can you really blame me for using it as an example when it has the best visuals as to what Solarpunk is to a lot of people? It’s just that a stupid corporation has the money to fund such a project that can depict Solarpunk’s aesthetics down to the tee when all of us people who know what Solarpunk means have to rely on themes and messaging to express what the ideology of Solarpunk really is about.

Now please, just spare me from the criticism. I do admit, I made a boo boo. But it’s nothing a good bandage can’t fix so the body can do its job in healing the wound.

[laurenfoxmakesthings]

What’s happening with calling visa? What are they censoring? It’s happening in America? I thought it was just abroad. Why haven’t I heard anything on the news?

It's not on the news because they dont want the wide population to find out and put up a fuss, but people are. I encourage you to be more mindful of whats going on online and the laws that are passed on your accessibility to art and other contents that are in your right to purchase without payment processing businesses interfering.

[laurenfoxmakesthings]

On second thought, I should've asked for some mustard.

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[laurenfoxmakesthings]

i got the horns buddy and all i got was this stupid selfie

[laurenfoxmakesthings]

I don't know exactly how to articulate this but... if you repeatedly show historical fiction women rejecting traditionally female skills/duties and doing swords instead, because swords is obviously the Most Important Thing, you are kind of implying that all the work that has been traditionally done by female hands for millennia was useless all along and not, you know, keeping civilization going. Because it's usually rejected not as a personal preference but as This Is The Important Stuff (male work) and That is The Dumb Useless Stuff (women's work) and that kind of bothers me. The message was supposed to be Vital But Underpaid and Underappreciated, not women's work is insignificant so let's all go do swords.