stilltilting

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Not a single person in this mall appears merry.

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I think my pronouns are who/whom

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A bunch of children testing the boundaries only to find there are none is the state of the whole world now.

When I was a kid my friend owned a very popular forum filled predominantly with preteens, most of whom had met on Neopets. So anyway my friend went on vacation and for whatever reason left no one to moderate the forum, and when the kids inevitably started testing limits only to find there were none in place then all heck broke loose. What still stands out to me were all the pictures of my friend that she herself had, perhaps naively, featured on the home page that were reposted again and again by the users; my friend’s teeth bashed in, nazi symbols on her forehead, aggressively crude phrases about her body written over them…

And then I think about the bizarre hard right the nation and the world have taken and see the same thing happening: a bunch of children testing their boundaries only to find there are none. Some of the kids from the forum set up a new forum “where they could be free of all the oppressive rules” and poached nearly the entire original forum’s membership. Even those who were indifferent or sympathetic with my friend moved over because, well, that’s what everybody else was doing.

Something to think about. Especially since those kids are now my age and can vote and run for office.

[stilltilting]

This whole thread has killed me

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When I looked at her I wanted both to touch her and watch her from a distance, to hold her and hide from her, to kiss her and ask her to forgive me—

Amal El-Mohtar, from The Honey Month; “Day 1: Fireweed Honey”

[stilltilting]

Maybe the god of this universe isn't so much benevolent or malevolent but simply curious and creative.

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“My imagination makes me human and makes me a fool; it gives me all the world and exiles me from it.”

— Ursula K. Le Guin

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A tyrant cannot rule by fear over a people who have none.

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As someone who has traveled the road from belief to unbelief and back again multiple times in my life, this quote has always resonated with me.

“I don’t believe in God, but I miss Him.”

— Nothing to Be Frightened Of by Julian Barnes

[stilltilting]

“Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.”

— Eugene Debs, address to the court on being sentenced for sedition