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the thing about the panic about kids absorbing harmful ideas from books is that the most harmful ideas are also the ones that are most prevalent in the broader culture. a lot of the adult fantasy i read as a preteen and teenager had really strongly conservative ideas about What Men And Women Are and how they're functionally different species - which is also the premise of thousands of jokes, at least several very popular movies & songs, and just how a lot of people in the world talk. books can embed themselves pretty deeply in your mind, and there's maybe something different about the kind of influence they have because of the individual work of interpretation, but a lot of the things that are "bad lessons for kids" (bad way of talking about books anyway) are larger problems about society.

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*dipping a dart into an unlabelled flask and loading it into my crossbow* you better not try anything stupid because i don't even remember what this one does

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a brief look into my twisted world

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this video kills me they literally look like they're reading ancient scrolls

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Ame to Kimi to E01

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honestly i never thought the phrase “i want that twink obliterated” was like a sexual thing. like when i read the phrase i imagine “a meteor like the one that killed the dinosaurs is summoned from the heavens and hits the twink in question” type situation

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i keep the wedding band from my girlfriend's ex-husband on my keychain

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the brass ring of unimaginable swag, 2025

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I am gently taking your hands and begging you, BEGGING YOU, to understand that humans are not inherently harmful to the planet. We are animals who are part of the ecosystem. We belong here. This is our home. We belong here. You belong here. Yes, you belong here.

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Here is a skill that many of us are going to need for survival: how to tell if someone is offering to let you lie.

The tip-off phrase is "If [circumstance] was true, then we/I could do [helpful thing.]" This is not a guarantee that the person is offering, but it should tell you "I am being informed of a way to improve things."

Your confirmation phrase is "What documentation would that require?" This is essentially asking them "if people come asking me to prove this, will I be able to? Or will they not come at all?"

The answer you are hoping for with the confirmation phrase is "Just tell me if it's true, and I'll put it on the form." Note that this is not a direct instruction to lie, because they can't tell you that.

If they didn't mean to extend an offer to lie or this is a situation where they can't, then they'll list off something like your paystubs or your birth certificate. Your response back in that case is "Thanks, I'll tell my friends who qualify." This clears you of any concerns that you may have been considering lying.

The more complex answer is when they answer by giving you a form on the spot. Your job, in this case, is to scan the form and see if what they are asking you can be meaningfully verified by an official source.

Things that can be verified by an official source include, but are not limited to, your age, legal sex, income, veteran status, and place of residence. It's not generally a good idea to lie about these on official documents.

Be smart, and be practical. Do what you need to in order to stay alive, and keep an ear out for the people offering to help you do so.

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Art by Julia Peng

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the amount of single use plastics that our society produces is actually so upsetting to me because all those petrochemicals could have instead been used to power my terrible machines

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