starryoak

[starryoak]

The long-tailed tailor

A crafty and fluffy kobold, skilled with a needle and thread! She’s up for grabs; her auction can be found here: https://ych.art/auction/195240

[starryoak]

hey i found this in the corner of your room

[starryoak]

For a bit of a left-field materialist moment, people have been mentioning recently (due to an ACX post) the fact that people in the ancient world did not have PTSD from war. I think this result is quite robust; war was a nigh-universal part of life for many people, writings about war and its aftermath were the most popular topic of writing around, and we have robust documentary evidence about every other negative impact of war that people did experience. Certainly someone in the ancient world had some equivalent, but if it was at all as common as it is now it would have been discussed, and probably even named and addressed as part of martial culture. Instead its a complete ghost.

I do feel like reaching towards "martial culture" as the explanation is a bit weird though? It plays a role, for sure, I do agree that a society that raises someone to know that killing and fighting is Good, Actually, is going to be better mental prep for said activities. But a lot of societies today, and way more within "modern war" memory, had martial cultures! Virtually all societies fighting in WW1, where PTSD was first widely observed, had very similar values to the Romans; fighting is noble & good, and it is right to kill for your country. Those values just broke down in the conflict itself. And I think this too is giving the past too much monoculture; wars like the Second Punic War or the Thirty Years War had intense levels of population mobilization, which meant they were tapping manpower from every sector of society, and a lot of those individuals or communities had their own values that were less martial (think Jewish communities in Europe, for an example). And those wars don't show much new evidence. That evidence could be lost, its the kind of evidence that would be lost ofc, but it still points in that direction.

And its weird to point to culture when technology seems like the way bigger cause? Its why we called it shell-shocked after all! War in the older days was very concrete and typically concentrated. You marched at more-or-less peace for months, saw an enemy, arrayed for battle, and fought right up against a guy in front of you. If you won it was on your own strength against dudes in eyesight swinging metal; if you lost you ran away or were dead and so don't get PTSD. I can see how this isn't a recipe for flashback triggers, it wasn't that different an environment from your day to day 99.9% of the time. Meanwhile modern war is massively loud explosions, people randomly dying next to you, and in contexts like trench warfare or counterinsurgency its constant levels of awareness for the idea of metal cracking your skull in every direction. And we do get reports of PTSD-style symptoms from earlier WW1-style conflicts like the Russo-Japanese War. I think war-based PTSD is in some part a literal noise issue, and modern war is much louder.

Both probably play a role, but I think technology is the main one. War is now a factory for breaking one's sense of place in the world, almost by design (that works better for killing the enemy), so it really isn't even that surprising.

[starryoak]

Spring moo-d! 🐮💐🍓

[starryoak]

Last two backgrounds I did for @hollowedkingdoms \ o / Dirtmouth and Deepnest~

If you like DnD, go check out their project!

Higher res will be on my DA and Twit soon!

[starryoak]

Just an ancient Egyptian waifu here.

If a certain song comes to your head, you might need therapy.

[starryoak]

Yes man brain rot is real guys

[starryoak]

she told me everything's gonna be okay

[starryoak]

thanks for the comments and asks saying i'm being mean for very mildly saying i don't like when people make social decisions based on horoscopes.

your behavior has made me realize i should be "meaner": horoscopes are fake.

the position of planets and balls of gas did not in any way impact your personality or destiny. it has nothing to do with what kind of people you are compatible with, despite what an app or magazine told you.

i think sincere belief in horoscopes shows a concerning propensity to trust pseudoscience and a susceptibility to confirmation bias.

i'm pretty tired of having to tiptoe around this kind of thing and include disclaimers. if you genuinely think you shouldn't be friends with someone because of the date they came out of a uterus, you're being a clown.

[starryoak]

[starryoak]

[starryoak]

she

[starryoak]

Not to be atheist on main again, but like: I really do think this wing of tumblr, as a whole, is getting way too comfortable with being reflexively pro religion. I've been to mass, as a child and as an adult. I'm grateful I was not raised religiously because I can say this for certain: the things that get taught in mass are often hateful and deplorable, and it it is not uncommon for children to develop a deeply harmful relationship with those teachings.

I simply do not doubt that a great many lesbians required to attend mass during their formative years would have developed traumatic guilt and self loathing as a result.

[starryoak]

Another chibi commission! For Togaryuman on FA~

[starryoak]

I am going to personally bring back New Atheism out of sheer fucking spite at every asshole who's still whining about how it's okay to hate atheists because some of them are mean online

[starryoak]

Young friends

★ My DeviantArt

★ My Twitter

[starryoak]

A few weeks ago you made a post about circumcision, saying it should be made illegal and that there's no reason to do it in America. Hi. I'm Jewish. What you are asking for is government enforced antisemitism. What you are asking for is a way to erase a huge part of our culture and traditions. As someone who advocates for minorities, I'm sure you understand how this comes across. I am begging you to remember jewish people exist. I understand why you feel the way you do, and I agree that in a lot of cases American Christians are circumcising their children for no good reason and it can definitely hurt the child later on, but it's not true that there's never a good reason to do it and it definitely should not be made illegal. Just because we're not a majority religion doesn't mean we don't exist.

Your children are not your property. You do not get to subject them to nonconsensual surgeries period. People can get voluntary surgeries for religious reasons when they are old enough to understand. I have heard plenty of Jewish people support bodily autonomy for Jewish children. You are using your religion as a shield.

This shit legitimately pisses me off to hear as someone raised in a fundamentalist catholic cult. I have a lot of opinions on religion that I won't get into, but it makes me so upset to hear the legitimate physical harm to children who were forced into religion, that constantly gets excused as "religious freedom". It's sick and I'll never support it as long as I live.