#“those people are allowed to not care because they're rich”

[youjustwaitsunshine]

"he just wants to race!" "he doesn't pay attention to the world around him, he probably doesn't even know politics is something that exists!" "he was told to do this/say this" i dont know how to break it to you but saying that your favourite guy has the spine, brain and agency of a jellyfish is not the grand justification you think it is.

[drdemonprince]

potentially triggering but ultimately harm reductionist statement about how people treat those with suicide ideation below, just a warning!

it's pretty fuckin rich that people tell suicidal people that they're "being selfish" by wanting to die, because it could not be more selfish to expect someone to just continue suffering through a life they do not want simply because their death would make them sad.

the people who say that kind of thing never want to offer any genuine help to the suicidal person that will change their life circumstances in a lasting way. they never want to house them, get them medical care, pay off their debts, introduce them to new friends, nurse them through a years-long trauma recovery process, get them a pet, drive them to a support group every week, buy them their groceries, clean their house, listen to them talk about their tough feelings for the millionth time.

lasting healing within a dramatically different and better life is never what they want for the suicidal person. they just want the person to not do anything that would make them sad. and not look too sad when they are around them, either, because even if they do white-knuckle their way through a painful existence, they are expected to also make it look easy.

but it's funny, isn't it, that by pushing away all thoughts of sadness, all thoughts of suicide, the person who says such a dismissive thing to the suicidal person is revealing how much they are on the brink of despair themselves. if, when faced with a suicidal person, your number one goal is to prevent their suicide for the sake of your own emotions rather than to improve circumstances for the suicidal person themselves, well, your own emotional grip on reality must be quite tenuous indeed. if you think the most important emotionally reality about a suicide is how it impacts you and not the person that has done it, well, you really must think that it's normal to expect other people to just constantly silently suffer for one another.

there's almost a bit of sick envy that i sometimes hear when people claim that they suicidal are "selfish." the statement almost seems to betray that everybody thinks of suicide at one point or another, that everyone has been in enough pain before that they've wished for it to end, but that since they have endured, they expect everyone else to endure the same for them, so that they don't slip into despair again as well.

it's so offensive because it is such a deeply missed opportunity. instead of batting away the statements of a suicidal person as if they were the greatest, most evil taboo, a person could really sit with them in their despair and say hey, I have felt that way too.

If only we lived in a world where acknowledgement of suicide ideation was not so taboo. Even psychologists and psychiatrists treat it as this untouchable thing, they freak out and jump into action and rob you of your body autonomy if you are willing to voice that you have thought of it. but virtually everyone has thought of it at one point or another, and some live with thoughts of it all the time forever but still have basically decent lives that they experience as worthwhile.

the legal apparatus that exists to prevent suicides at all costs have made it too risky for any kind of healthcare professional to allow the frank acknowledgement of suicide ideation to happen. hell, even the protections that have evolved online to supposedly "protect" suicidal people by filtering out content about suicide and redirecting those browsing for information about it to suicide prevention resourcse has, counterproductively, served to make the state of suicidality even more unspeakable. it cannot be spoken about, cannot be posted about, cannot be acknowledged, is not permitted, is never allowed to just be.

and that harms suicidal people so much.

we are so deeply selfish and cowardly in how we approach suicide and suicidal people.

[jokin-around]

I made a Twitter thread about this, but I've been reading early issues of Batman lately and something I've noticed is how differently the contrast between Batman and "Bruce Wayne" is depicted

obviously, in many things today, "Bruce" (ESPECIALLY in fandom) is often depicted as a happy-go-lucky himbo in order to draw contrast with a grim and "tortured" batman

so how does this hold up when you look at older depictions? the answer: it doesn't. in fact it was almost the opposite.

way back in the very first issues of the official Batman title, Bruce Wayne, no matter WHAT he's doing, isn't the one who laughs and smiles, Batman is.

and these are comics that were published BEFORE the comics code authority caused a dramatic shift in tone

Bruce Wayne (or least the cardboard cutout refered to as Bruce Wayne) isn't nessecarily described as grim, but he isn't a very happy person either, he's still a rich airhead, but not so much a "himbo" or even a dedicated businessman, he's depicted as a BORED, uninterested, aristocrat:

this Bruce seems to spend of his time smoking a pipe at home or mingling with other upperclass individuals, that in-between we tend to see MUCH more often in modern comics doesn't seem to exist yet (in part because the batcave Is non-existent which I suspect has given him a bit more privacy as a character)

MEANWHILE Batman, who's investigates murders every other night almost seems to be having the time of his life:

the early comics seem to routinely depict the burgoise as cold, snobbish & bored, in contrast to batman who seems particularly expressive and joyful, for all we know Batman may partially exist as some millionaires weird passtime, but of course Bruce Wayne (the real guy, not the facade) is written as someone who genuinely seems to care due to his own past experiences:

but , with all of that layed out, one can conclude that when ppl say Batman is the "true persona" ect. originally, it wasn't (just) because of his coping or whatever it was because when he wasn't Batman he was forced to live life as a cold, "useless" millionaire:

"what if a rich a guy gave a fuck?" is still very much the base concept here, but what's surprising is how much BITE there is to it

the concept wasn't being proposed because it's like… a plausible thing to happen or attainable on a personal level, but because the rich reliably and consitently do not care

the rich ppl in this book, "Bruce Wayne" included, are not written to be envied as people. they're written to be insufferable. ppl with endless resources who are still somehow unsatisfied with life and choose to do nothing useful or direct with the amount wealth they've accumulated

but ofc it shouldn't be ALL THAT surprising, Batman debuted in Detective Comics in 1939…. ONE year after the great depression, Bob and Bill had more than a good reason to feel a bit bitter

but rolling back to the point of this analysis, whenever I say "let batman be happy" I mean "let Batman enjoy his job" despite the pain, despite the death, despite the murder, despite the hypocritical nature of it all and how problematic it may be because it's a life he also chooses, not just out of compulsion, but because it's hands on, direct & purposeful. it gives him something to do & it gives him a chance to punch a problem in the face (which may be good or bad depending on what that problem is, but still)

that kind of depiction is what set up the groundwork for nearly every deconstruction that's come since but it's so buried in time at this point that lines from characters claiming bruce "loves being batman" seem to ring completely hollow

tbh, I think the old way of depicting Batman can be ( and as been in some media) woven into the way he's depicted today, in the past Batman was an outlet for every emotion Bruce Wayne had to hide elsewhere, a symbol of empathy, fury and passion, for modern Batman, I imagine those three things still hold true, layered on top of an alter ego that allows a modern Bruce Wayne to be weird and damaged and dark.

so uh, ln conclusion, I think batman enjoying what he does to a certain extent is a crucial aspect of his character that's been lost and withered and forgotten about, let him a have a little fun, we can discuss the ramifications of all that when discussion seems necessary

[tangibletechnomancy]

Economic anxiety has a way of bringing out reactionary sentiment in anyone if they're not careful.

It is deeply, deeply frustrating to watch it play out in front of me in leftist spaces such that self-proclaimed leftists are using actual, literal fascist arguments about Real Art vs. Fake Art and Real Labor vs. Lazy Button-Pushing.

These things don't become any less bad when you SAY your enemy is "some rich techbro" while calling broke disabled hobbyists "evil soulless automatons".

The central logic doesn't become true when you SAY you're targeting an inhuman machine while you screech obscenities about a great replacement at its operator.

When you say one minute "there is no unskilled labor, only undervalued skills", it doesn't magically absolve you of saying "nooo, you were supposed to automate away the BAD and DEMEANING jobs with no financial safety net for the workers, not THIS one I consider RESPECTABLE" in the next breath; it only makes you a fucking hypocrite.

"Fair use for me but not for thee" is not a rational position to prevent plagiarism and forgery; it's just a means to codify an ingroup and an outgroup.

"Degenerate art" is always, ALWAYS a reactionary and proto-fascist thing to believe in, even if you wrap it up in other fancy words because you know "degenerate" is a Bad Word. "There is Good Art that makes society better and Bad Art, if you can even CALL it Art at all, that will rot our brains and turn us all into mindless drones if it's allowed to survive" cannot be made into anything but a reactionary position! Period! End of!

"Lazy button-pushers" are EXACTLY what corporations want you to think ANY automation operator is, so they can take credit away from those employees and criminally underpay them. They said the same damned thing about digital artists back in the early days of Photoshop. They say the same thing about overworked VFX artists today. You are DIRECTLY helping them make it worse with this argument.

The same old fucking trick of making you uncertain of your financial future so you lash out at other victims of the system because you "can't take the risk" of coming together to fight the actual enemy? Is working a FUCKING treat on way too many people who pride themselves on Not Being Like That - and it's even worse because a lot of the time pointing this out will get nothing but denial because maintaining pride in a leftist, progressive, pro-labor, pro-human Identity is more important to way too many people than ACTUALLY identifying the root of reactionary sentiment and the strategies used to spread it.

It makes me genuinely feel like I've fallen into a Fox News convention, hearing all these blatantly reactionary arguments and actively self-defeating strategies to Protect Labor.

[gg-university-if]

At Prince Leopold University you are expected to be the best because remember the best are made not born and you are expected to get good or get lost.

Play as a scholarship student at Prince Leopold University attempt to balance attending classes, make rivals, meet lifelong friends and pursue budding romances all the while dealing with the administration of a major university. Or don't.

Getting a place in PLU is hard, getting a full scholarship is harder. You did both. So perhaps it's no wonder why everyone seems to have such high expectations for you, expected to maintain passing grades, attend your club and be a forward face for the school, it's not like it's anything you haven't done before right? But can you pull it off again?

• Play as male, female or non-binary with options to be straight, gay, asexual or not pursue a romance at all.

• Experience a university that takes itself a little too seriously and expects you to do so as well – define your main character's personality, appearance, history and demeanour.

• Choose what scholarship you're on and which club you're in while training and playing like your scholarships on the line – because it is.

• Choose from track and field, music club, student council and drama club.

• Romance a hot-headed high-school rival, the brooding lead musician, the friendly student president who happens to be your brother's best friend, the charming but distant actor or your awkward roommate or the rebel with equally big dreams.

• Focus on or ignore your relationships with your teammates, acquaintances, family and friends back home, school staff and the public.

The Hot Headed Rival A

Aqil/Aaliyah Radwan, 19

The Vice Captain of the PLU Track-And-Field Club and your highschool rival, they are intense and arrogant with the talent to back it up and they'll let you know it.

In the heat of an argument they find that they don't know why they're shouting anymore and that look on your face stirs something they'd rather not discover.

tldr; rivals to lovers and enemies to lovers.

The Brooding Musician H

Hader/Hetti Jasanoff, 19

The moody, brooding leader of the Screaming Diamonds and the PLU music club, they hate those who see their passion as nothing more than a hobby but they'll allow you to prove yourself.

In the midst of a performance they find their heart skips a beat but they don't want to face the music just yet.

tldr; everyone wants the bad boy and everyone likes musicians.

The Brother's Best Friend B

Beck/Belle Torres, 21

The social, spirited and amiable President of the Student Body and your brother's best friend, with much enthusiasm they're taking care of you at university although it's supposedly a favour.

Despite their popularity they seem to have held most people at arms length when asked they simply laugh and talk about their playground love.

tldr; brother's best friend and friends to lovers and the boy/girl next door.

The Distant Actor F

Frédéric/Frederica Jame, 19

The flirty but distant lead of the school play and the aspiring actor in the drama club, they're more than happy to have humour your whims but when you think about it you don't know all that much about them.

Despite that when you're on stage they only have one command "keep your eyes on me."

tldr; master of the mixed message.

The Awkward Roommate R

Rudra/Rania Punyamurthula, 18

Your roommate for this year at PLU, awkward, excitable, intelligent they seem to be unaccustomed to life without someone else around and they're infinitely excited to make their 'first real friend'.

When they're at every practice with snacks, every event cheering you on from the sidelines you get the sneaking suspicion that there's another reason for their enthusiasm.

tldr; roommates to romance and lonely rich kid.

The Singer Who Made It Big Sid

Sid Diver, 19

The lead singer of the other band on campus who seems to have a rocky relationship with both authority and a certain other musician, despite that he seems more than happy to welcome you into the fold as a new friend or maybe more with a laugh, wild grin and a dangerous look in his eyes.

You can't shake the feeling that they're angry and bitter when you hear them singing but in those hidden moments and stolen kisses behind the curtains, they feel different.

tldr; tenor boy and unreplaced departed.

Demo: Click here (word count: 56k)

References: Click here

Ko-fi: tbd

Portraits: tbd

Next update: tbd

[shenanigans-and-imagines]

I really really loved the Asexual!Tav x Astarion fic. I felt so seen. I have read my good share of smut (there is no shame in a good smut fic, even as an ace) but this? This made me feel so many things. I loved it. As for the oneshot/headcanon ideas... Maybe Asexual!Tav wanting to find something sexy to wear for themselves (because damn right, ace people can wear sexy clothes and look amazing doing so) or just Tav and Astarion being silly together. But! Don't feel obligated to write about these! I just wanted you to know that this fic... I have never went to Ao3 so fast to read the last chapter.

Thank you so much! I can't tell you how much it warmed my heart to real this. It genuinely means a lot.

These are both great prompts which I would love to get too eventually. I don't have it in me to write a one-shot right now, but I will gladly spew some random Asexual!Tav and Astarion being silly together.

Astarion x AsexaulBard!Tav Masterlist

Okay, I feel like I need to say it, but after Ace!Tav and Astarion are officially together the flirting only gets worse

Like before there was an agenda; Astarion was testing the waters of their interest while Tav was playing along, enjoying the attentions while not wanting to give a fully false impression

Now with the air clear they're free to flirt because it's just fun

There are no expectations except to make the other laugh or possibly blush

It drives the rest of the party insane

Astarion: If you're looking for inspiration my love, you can always write me a sonnet; something about my eyes shining like diamonds in the moonlight. Tav: Cliche and over done. Besides, how could I compare them to anything less than the brightest ruby illuminated by dragonfire. Astarion: Oh, do go on.

Also feel the need to clarify that this Tav grew up on the streets and so has come to the conclusion that stealing from the rich is okay

They have very willingly played to a crowd of merchants, allowing for Astarion to rob them blind

Astarion: *presents them with a necklace* Tav: Please don't tell me you spent money on this. Astarion: Not at all. I got it at a wonderful five finger discount. Tav: In that case, I accept.

If they ever attend a party and Ace!Tav isn't performing, you can find them near the buffet table

I've said before in previous headcanons, I don't think Astarion is one for dancing; he's become more open to it after he and Tav get together, but there is a difference between a private lesson with his love and being in public

This leads him to make the rounds gathering as much gossip as he can before reporting back to Tav

Meanwhile Tav, once starving bard/artist, will never turn down free food and will stay planted at the buffet table the entire night; plus you know the best gossip comes from the wait staff

Basically they're a couple of messy bitches who are obsessed with the tea and yes are, in fact, talking about you

That all being said, Tav is still the moral compass; help kids when you can, only steal from those who can afford it, avoid murder if possible etc, its the pettiness they indulge it

Certainly they're a theatrical couple, prone to distracting banter and petty theft, but it's plain enough to see how deeply they care about each other

[piratecaptainscaptainpirates]

I love how Stede and Ed are allowed to be imperfect.

On the surface, Stede sounds so unsympathetic. He's some rich guy who abandoned his family to become a pirate. His self-esteem is so lousy that he genuinely believes other people could never value his prescence, and because of this he hurts them when he leaves. But we get to know him so well, and he's treated with so much care by the narrative. He's allowed to be bitchy and and make bad choices, but he's also kind and sweet and smart. He's our romantic hero and he's imperfect.

And Ed. There's often a temptation with less thoughtful pieces of media to depict characters like him as one-dimensional victims. Ed is a victim of abuse and is in a very intensely depressed and suicidal place at the start of season 2, and he's allowed to be something other than the perfect victim who people who've never been in those situations imagine. When people in real life are deeply depressed and suicidal like Ed was, they do often hurt the people close to them. It doesn't make them irredeemable, but it happens, and I love how the show never tries to make Ed into the perfect image of long-suffering silence, or completely excuse his actions, or villify him for them. He wasn't in his right mind and he shouldn't be treated like a monster, and he needs to apologize, and those two things don't contradict.

I love how they're allowed to make mistakes and take steps back. I love that Stede tries to cling to the image of himself as a "real, proper pirate" to get attention even though we know how much kiling Ned freaked him out, and I love that Ed has trouble trusting that Stede will choose him over piracy. They're messy and complicated and they're allowed to panic and overreact.

They just feel like real people, complicated and beautiful and layered. It's what makes their struggles and their love feel so relatable.

[gaiuskamilah]

Hey drop the Poppy opinion babe (please!)

CW for mentions of in-canon racism, harassment. also i've only read the first QB book so i don't know how things played out in the second one.

i think one thing choices players sometimes forget is that yes, while the nature of the game of makes it so you typically self-insert as the MC, you are ultimately not the MC and this isn't wholly your story. the writers are in charge of the story, and they have a narrative in mind. the problem with poppy is that so many entered queen b with a pre-conceived image of her in their heads and got mad when canon showed otherwise. because suddenly then, she wasn't the funny just mean girl you wanted to become an LI, she became a full-on racist, classist, misogynist bitch who didn't care that her rival was sexually harassed. in my opinion, to deny her these traits is to misread queen b and misread poppy's character.

reiterating: poppy is a racist, classist, misogynist bitch who didn't care that her rival was sexually harassed, and in the context of queen b, it makes perfect sense. queen b is satire. you are not supposed to blindly root for poppy or for MC who is "taking her down" (more on the latter later). it's set in an university, a historically exclusionary institution that for the longest time has dictated what ontology is, often to the benefit of the (white, european) ruling class. belvoire itself is a mockery of universities, where majority of the people who attend are rich, where they form alliances between themselves to get ahead in life more than they already are, where they hold each to such disgustingly weird standards to protect their own status quo. these old money families and these institutions are racist, they are classist, and they are threatened by anyone who doesn't wholly fit the ideal image of who should be a member. that is why MC and zoey are ostracized by the rest of belvoire - they're new money, their blood isn't blue enough, and in zoey's case, it's no doubt it's partially because she's Black.

poppy exemplifies being raised in these institutions and blue blooded families. she is old money, she is racist and classist towards anyone beneath her, she only cares for people as a means to her end, she is a misogynist who doesn't care that her rival was sexually harassed, and she holds everyone impossible standards of beauty, even herself. she's blonde and blondness has long been associated with wealth and the upper class, which hasn't exactly been a very open group of people. these are neutral statements; i am simply describing how she is in-canon. these institutions allow for people like her to come into being and into power, and to deny her those traits and demand that her bacchanalia plot with zoey be removed so you can continue fantasizing about her in peace is to miss the point of queen b, as queen b is fundamentally criticizing people like her.

in the latest choices secrets: revealed, chelsa stated that she never intended for poppy to be an LI because then she would have to be redeemed, and she simply isn't a character where that seems plausible:

and i agree. if you want to romance someone like poppy, or whatever picture in people's minds were of poppy, characters like becca davenport are right there. queen b isn't the place for it because of the book's satirical nature. i think that getting mad (if there are any people who got mad) that poppy isn't a "true" LI is to not give justice to the vision that chelsa, a Black woman, had for the book.

now, do i personally think stanning poppy is bad, or that poppy is a terrible person? well, poppy already is a terrible person. again, a neutral statement. however, i find her a good character in which she was used by the writers to exemplify everything wrong in archaic institutions - she serves her function well as that. it's similar to how i think miranda priestly from the devil wears prada is a good character in which she embodies everything wrong in the fashion industry and how it holds women to impossible standards and pits them against each other; she is terrible, and that is the point. you are meant to appreciate and know that she is terrible without stripping those features of her character away. you are not supposed to be upset that anne hathaway left her terrible boss behind, you are supposed to be happy that she stopped stripping away and molding herself into an image that conformed to a fucked up, exclusionary image of womanhood and fashion. that a lot of people seem to miss this point and just view the devil wears prada and queen b (and mean girls!) as "yass girlboss slay" stories is concerning to me. big win for capitalist feminism and i hate it.

related here is the queen b MC and how she is postured as someone who will "take poppy down". one thing i liked is that in the book 1 finale (at least how it turned out for me), MC is framed as someone just as bad as poppy, and this makes sense. no matter if you played her as a good girl or a bad girl, she is still someone who works within the institution, playing the rules of the game, and someone who upholds the legitimacy and power of the institution. a ruler is still a ruler and being queen still means that you hold a significant amount of unbalanced power over others. you still maintain the status quo, which is an inherently exclusionary one. nothing fundamentally changes; the only difference is who's on top, and that's a very shallow way to make progress, if any.

another related topic is how queen b is actually pretty good in showing how living in and being raised in these institutions is to the detriment of those in it, which also criticizes the very nature of the institution of the family. i think it also does well in stories like veil of secrets and crimes of passion 2 where archaic old money families serve as antagonists. but that's for another time lol.

tl;dr uwu-ifying poppy is to miss the point.

[thesmpisonfire]

okay im here with actual headcanons this time, no misclicks fortunately

soulfire

bad is the pillow of the group because even while freezing cold he's still somehow the warmest, so he is buffered by the whole team. he's always got an arm around someone (usually pac), wings covering as many people as he can and tail wrapped around anyone farther away. pac, tubbo and tina are usually the ones situated close to him

tina and bad are usually the ones make food or drinks that aren't alchoholic. tina obviously brews a bunch of tea during the day and theres not a lot of food but they make do with the crops and resources they have. now that the greens have merged, forever helps out now too as well as fit!

since they couldn't go home before the bounty hunting nerfs, everybody still managed to flock to each other. or at least anyone who wasnt being tracked. and when it was finally time for every to rest, they all curled up in a hole and made it as warm as possible for the new wolves joining them

they have a specific corner for sleeping in and, once everyone is awake or those who aren't can be moved, tina always makes sure that the bedding is fixed. now she has bagi to help her :]

pachalo

because i can never stop thinking about it: bad's collar was handmade by pac but was originally a bit of a joke gift considering the joke about bad being soulfire's guard dog. unbeknownst to the rest of the team, bad wears it constantly underneath his bandanna, expertly hidden. pac's the only one who knows and teases bad lightly for it

before purgatory there were very few people who got to see bad's hair, much less be able to touch it. but now the list of people allowed to touch it has pac added to it

bad likes to rest his head on pac's chest to hear his heartbeat, to make sure he's alive and to pick up on nightmares. he's very careful of where he puts his horns

fitpachalo

fit sometimes, mostly when they've exhausted their energy, bridal carries bad or pac back to base to get proper rest. this happens less with bad cus he's cautious of his energy. the first time it happened though it spooked him completely awake because he was so flustered, pac laughed at him (albiet very sleepily)

considering bad and pac are the more teasing by nature, they make it just a tiiiny bit of a game to see who can fluster fit more. pac is usually the winner 9 times out of 10

when bad gets growly, fit is the only other team member aside from maybe tubbo who's allowed to come near pac. the downside of this is that bad proceeds to get growly over fit as well. -screamingallium

YEAAAA

Under read more bc it got long :]

About the soulfire one where they can't go back home and have to huddle together somewhere, there's actually a secret nook in Soulfires old farm!! Bad made some ghost dirt blocks and hid a small room with emergency chests and a fireplace in case of need. They all huddle there when they can't be safe at home <3

ALSO YEAAAA SLEEP CORNER. At first the new members from green find it weird that they're that rich but all sleep together on a bunch of mattresses and pillows, but soon they notice its because they feel safer and comfier and warmer (even if it's just an illusion) when they sleep on a pile <3

Now to pachalo.

Omg the fucking leash thingnsnfnekgsocksfm yesyes. They know this thing will only last 2 weeks and they're gonna get freaky with it‼️‼️ pac doesn't mind bad being the mad dog but he loves to tease and wait for when bad gets too blood thirsty and he goes "don't make me leash you, bad"

It usually makes bad worse :]

Hgghhhhhh okay so in brazil we have a word called cafuné, cafuné is when you caress/play/scritches someone's hair with lots of care. Pac making cafuné on Bad and listening to him purr <3

Also aaaa bad making sure pac is alive and he will stay alive the entire night... The fear something will take Pac away from him on his sleep bc nothing is sacred in Purgatory

FITPACHALO FITPACHALO

Bad being a flustered mess when Fit just YOINKS him is such an imagery. He immediately tries to squirm away like a cat but eventually gives up

Pac is the KING of making Fit flustered, but Bad and Fit tag team to make Pac a flustered mess

Those are HIS humans (or partially humans) NOW!!! GET AWAY!!!

[birdsareblooming]

im so tired of having to defend myself on both sides

like. ok. i'm queer right. bi, demigender, aro, etc. also you know a girl, demi or not. all the time i have to defend myself from american christians who via mistranslations and misinterpretations spread by horrible leaders for generations have been led into a cult-like hierarchy that tells them to hate me when hate for us isn't in their book or supposed to be in their ways.

i'm also "christian". i hesitate to use the full term because of how bad american christianity has gotten. but i believe in the same god nontheless. every day i feel i have to defend myself from queer people as well

like. i so get it. as i have just established american and european christianity has gotten so fucked up and literally off-script that i'm shocked we haven't gotten another 95 thesis and a completely new branch. it's awful horrible and people who believe in such ideas should not be in power. to the point where calling myself a christian feels wrong. at least in america.

i need ya'll to have some nuance.

firstly the understanding that those who hate queer people, non-white people in any form, women, whatever else. isn't even in the text they follow. people have misused it since it was written. preaching just the verse saying wives should care for their husbands and not the one right after saying husbands should love their wives. taking out verses referring to god's "womb." about adam might not even being a man, as in, more likely nonbinary, the verse about david getting an errection when hugging johnathan. changing verses about cleanliness into women and men not wearing the same cloths. changing verses about cultural codes and allowing a world where people have to resort to prositution into verses condemning homosexuality. [X]

like. you know the matrix. was written as a trans metaphor. then a bunch of alpha sigma grindset rich white boys took it and appropriated it, misinterpreted it, used it to boost themselves and hurt women. it's like that. those people don't make the matrix a bad movie, they just don't know it's a trans metaphor. and trans people who enjoy the matrix are like. normal and cool.

as you can see i am passionate about this. i have all this stuff memorized not only to defend my queerness but my christianity as im doing now.

there are queer christians. there are certainly poc christians as right now, south america and south africa have the highest christian populations, to the point where they're sending missionaries to america.

again i'm asking for some nuance. when i see posts basically saying "the christian god is dumb" or "satan was right actually" and blantent misinformation about what the bible says. like those kind of posts hurt my heart. my god made me queer and loves me for it, i believe in a kind god, most good christians do. i feel like other religions don't get this treatment and it's just to spiritually piss off your catholic parents.

speaking of, in doing so you seem to forget about other abrahamic religions.

i once saw a post criticizing something directly from the old testament, out of context of course. saying god was cruel and the belives were flawed and all this due to one verse. people tend to forget, or not know, that the "old testament" is the tenoch. slightly different book order, same writings.

christians, muslims, jewish people, worship the same god. different names for god, some god, same base. if you make jokes about christianty willy-nilly, you're going to accidentally hit someone else. and even if you don't, you may hurt someone still.

it doesn't hurt because i think it's "sacrilegious" or i think you're going to hell. it hurts because my community doesn't care. my community doesn't see the nuance in people and decided a specific religion is the enemy. a specific group of people is the enemy. ive been marked as the enemy

it's casual jokes to you, to me it's making fun of my god

listen, by all means make fun of the assholes. i make fun of them every day. millionaires who use privet jets than preach and love to overlook the many verses condemning the rich and saying rich people don't go to heaven. people saying that as a woman of god you shouldn't enjoy sex. weirdos online and irl that seem to think patorizing random people will get them to church. dumb white people. it's great. fuckn. mormons and jehovah's witness leaders who are straight up running a cult based on a thread of the original intention. and it's funny because they're the assholes.

but don't attack the base religion itself. understand that the religion isn't inherently harmful, certain branches, beliefs, misinterpretations, and leaders certainly are. but please be kind to the people who are normal

before you make a post saying you're gonna. i dont know 'kill the uncaring god' that you're hurting people like me, any abrahamic religion, anyone who believes in a god possibly. also that's basically my parent, it's like you're insulting my awesome mom to my face bc my older sibling sucks. like thats just mean to her for no reason.

i'm just. tired. im stuck in the middle and i hate that i have to make this post because like. this is my home and my people and im tired of seeing this shit from my peers and family. just. have nuance. care about people. don't just say shit about a religion if you don't know its true.

im tired.

[n3xii]

there is nothing esoteric about wealth

There is something profoundly cruel about telling people that the reason they're poor is because of their mindset- that the reason they can't afford basic needs like food, health insurance, transportation, mental health care, education, and etc is because they didnt think good enough.

not only because it's condescending, but because its nothing we haven't heard before: we have all heard that the reason poor people are poor is because it's a emanation of a personal failure. they didnt work hard enough, they didn't invest in the right stock, they didnt hold themselves accountable enough for their own spending habits. or better yet, the reason they are poor is because they lacked the intelligence, cleverness, and thirst for financial freedom that the wealthy has.

its always been especially menacing when they attach spiritual morality or exaltation- the reason you're poor is because you're faith is lacking, or you karmically earned your fate as a result of a past life, you didnt trust god enough.

whats new is that this this idea of poverty being a personal failure is being repackaged through the terminology of manifestation- you are poor because you manifested it. your mindset allows the reality of poverty to exist.

Yesterday I watched a video about how to obtain financial freedom at a young age. The woman in the video was herself, young, wealthy and free. she believes she achieved this freedom through and work and manifestation. (and totally not related at all, the video was sponsored by a very reliable and safe app that claims if you keep it running in the background for 24 hours a day you might make 30 dollars a month. that's totally not the impetus to making the video at all. )

her advice was the mundane, typical ''start an online business, do drop shipping, invest in real estate, become a landlord, stop saving money and invest it instead.'' but she centered the video around something interesting- she said: ''stop persisting in the poor girl mindset''- the reason we are poor is because we aren't affirming the right things, we're poor because we portion our paychecks each month to save money on the side, we're poor because lack the lucky girl mindset and therefore we have made ourselves unlucky.

how barbaric.

she then spoke a good lot of time discussing how doing our own work is a waste of time and money- instead, we could be paying employees to do the work for us while we sit back and relax as the passive income flows to our bank accounts. what she said was actually the lowkey version of ''your labor alone is not enough to produce sustainable income; you have to exploit the labor of a large group of people in order to achieve your desirable paycheck.''

The mass produced content of ''how to achieve financial freedom at so and so age'' is massively based on the metaphysical idea that you manifest your own reality, so- if you are poor then its because you believe you are. whats distinctly manipulative about this is that it shifts the blame from the systematic, hierarchal reason behind your poverty onto yourself. you are to blame- not the series of calculated, money-hungry decisions made by those who actually have power over you to keep themselves rich and to keep you poor. you are poor because your thoughts affirm you are, not because the people at the top have the ability to hoard their wealth and spend it stupid ventures that ultimately refund their own bank accounts. certainly not because capitalism is doing exactly what it was designed to do in the first place. no, thats not the convenient answer, thats not the repackged, pretty ''you have the power to change your reality in a broken system'' answer people want to hear. the truth is, the system isnt broken, its doing exatly what it was designed to do. you do have the power to change your reality, its just not the way they're willing to admit.

you want to be rich? you want to be in the top? thats determined by one factor and one factor alone: your willingness to exploit and fuck over large amounts of people.

thats it, thats all. there is no intellectual or metaphysical secert, there is nothing esoteric about wealth. the only quality the people have at the top that you do not possess is their ability to smile as they kill.

[lazaruspiss]

Begging for jaydick headcanons because I'm also a Jaydick hoe 🧎‍♀️🧎‍♀️🧎‍♀️

where do i begin. horny? horny probably.

Dick bottoms like 90% of the time but as far as any dom/sub things go those two are the switches to end all switches. both need to be told they're a Good Boy while getting the soul fucked out of em and both need to dote on the other and remind them how much they like (love) them.

i think they'd also both have a bit of a sadistic streak, but Dick is the only masochistic one. i don't think Jason would be too big on being roughed up in a sexual context, i just can't picture it. no physical roughness, no particularly intense degradation, but that just means Dick has to get creative lol. though on the subject Dick also wouldn't /like/ feeding his own sadism.

i have a fair few sadist Dick thoughts based of off the times in canon where he hurts someone, recognizes that he enjoys it, and express at least some level of disapproval towards himself for feeling that way. no one really talks about how Dick does seem to, yknow, like fighting. not bc he's some angry violent asshole or bc it's violence for the greater good, but just bc it scratches the ever persistent adrenaline need in his brain.

hmmmm. Dick getting fed up with Jason being too thoughtful. we're gonna tread a tiny bit into projection territory but stick with me. when someone spends too much time being used by people or constantly shaping themselves around what others want it can kinda fuck up their head. when someone approaches without wanting that, without wanting them to shape themself around what they want, it can be a shock. Jason so aggressively wants Dick to be independent and true to himself that it's something they fight over, bc Dick's entire life has revolved around serving others and Jason can't just uproot all that by telling him his entire life is a lie and that he should reevaluate everything about himself and everyone around him. ok yeah im having flashbacks to the jaydick thing i wrote forever ago. (x)

they can both cook and take turns planning meals, with one making sure to call/message the other if they get busy with something so that they can adjust their plans around whatevers happening. i can also see cooking being a bit personal and intimate to them. Jason sticks to eating shitty fast food most of the time and never really cared about proper meals when he was on his own, but now he has someone to come home to. someone to eat with. he cares a lot about cooking well because he wants to show without words just how much it means to him to have Dick around. Dick has been shown to cook for people when they come over, so i think it'd just feel like basic courtesy to him. some sort of standard politeness to feed and welcome his guests if he can. he wears himself thin a lot of the time and doesn't tend to make an effort to cook when it's just him, but when he does cook he enjoys it. repetitive motions, straightforward instructions, relaxing sounds and smells, cooking is fun. seeing Jason gorge himself is also very heartwarming, and more filling than any meal.

theyd have a mutual agreement to, /if/ they have kids, raise them non-religious. between Jason "possibly catholic but also died and so it's complicated" Todd and Dick "my religion is Batman" Grayson, they really don't wanna pass on any of that to any theoretical kids.

on the subject of child rearing still: i think Dick would be against sending them to any kind of private school. he had a very not good time there and thinks that if theres gonna be a chance for their kid to be picked on either way than he'd rather not waste the money. if anything he thinks private school would be worse, because all those shitty rich kids know each other and each others parents and he'd really prefer his kid not being beat up and called slurs bc of who their parents are. he'd rather homeschool if their schedules allowed it but he recognizes that would be too impractical. Jason would have more mixed feelings, bc there can be a bit of an advantage in the long run from having gone to a reputable and recognizable school, but he also isn't sure it's worth having an argument about when chances are the kids gonna learn all the important stuff from them anyways. there is a very tense conversation to be had before enrolling their baby in kindergarten.

they have a few too many conversations about theoretically having kids for guys who don't have the guts to just go for it. waiting for an orphan to drop in their laps like theyre fuckin batman. idiots.

they're a bit worried about the Titans' reaction but the worst that happens is Wally giving an exaggerated sigh as he gives Donna her well earned 50 bucks. everyone saw it coming, and you two are hopeless. Wally is excited to be Dick's best man for realsies this time, and Jason is on the receiving end of a few too many shovel talks. by the time Roy gets to him it's turned into

Roy: yeah i dont need to say it do i. blah blah hurt him and ill kill you and all that. congrats on the boyfriend.

Jason: oh cmon, i thought you would at least have some faith in me.

Roy: bros before hoes, sorry man.

Jason: ... excuse me?

Gar's version of a shovel talk is just turning into a grizzly bear and doing the "ive got my eyes on you" gesture. anyways Bruce is invited to the wedding on the condition that his assigned seat is next to the Riddler and he has to pretend that Brucie has gotten real into riddles lately. he has to laugh at Eddie's jokes under the threat of never being allowed to contact Dick or Jason again. Jason suggested it bc he thought it would be funny, Dick rolled his eyes but agreed bc it means Bruce can't corner him to berate him about his life choices.

[intosnarkness]

80. “How can you think I’m anything but hopelessly in love with you?” Kanej

(1 2 or make up your own) (ask)

Kaz knows what he is.

He knows who he is, mostly. But he also knows what he is.

And he is not a good man.

There are some who might try to dissuade him of that notion - people who mistake punishing rich assholes for their hubris with being some kind of crusading do-gooder. People who can't tell the difference between doing a favor, and earning a boon. People who don't understand how the world works on supply and demand, and Kaz works for profit.

There are a few of those.

But Kaz doesn't care much about them. If someone looks at him and sees something good, they're not very good at looking.

And then there’s Inej.

Beautiful, dangerous, deadly Inej. Who sees him- really sees him- and stands, unflinching, by his side.

He doesn’t deserve it. He doesn’t, and he never will.

“When are you going to tell her?” Jesper asks, over the third or fourth bottle of wine in the Van Eck manor. Wylan is out of town, and Kaz has been here too long, drank too much. They’re both on the floor of the sitting room, their backs against the stuffy, stiff couches. It’s better down here.

He doesn’t want to have this conversation with anyone, least of all Jesper.

“It’s not that easy,” Kaz says, not meeting his friend’s eyes

“It’s exactly that easy,” Jesper huffs. “You look her in the eye, and you say ‘Inej, I have three emotions: revenge, greed, and overwhelming lust.’ And then you tell her which ones you feel for her.”

Kaz rolls his eyes “I will leave.”

“You won’t,” Jesper waves one of his hands at him lazily, and he’s right. Kaz knows he’s right. They’ve spent too many years together for Jesper not to be able to see Kaz’s drunken tells. He keeps catching himself laying the back of his hand over his cheek, feeling for the warmth that floods his face when he’s had too many. He’s in no state to head back to the slat tonight.

“I have told her,” Kaz breathes, ignoring the noise of disbelief that Jesper makes. “I’ve told her every way I know how.”

“Calling her an investment isn’t romantic, you Kerch bastard,” Jesper sneers. “No other group of people think that calling your lover prosperous is a good idea. Idiots.”

Kaz has the distinct feeling that Jesper has had this argument before. Probably many times. He wonders idly what Wylan says in bed that causes this level of frustration in his friend.

“What should I do?” Kaz says, taking the bottle of wine and finishing it off in one gulp. “Start writing romantic drivel about her eyes and her hair and my heart?”

“What heart?” Jesper scoffs, and Kaz doesn’t flinch because he’s right. He’s right and it’s good to be reminded of it.

But it does hurt, and the wine is gone, and Kaz needs to get out of this conversation before he does something stupid like start talking about Inej’s laugh.

He could absolutely write romantic drivel about her laugh.

“Good night,” Kaz says, hauling himself to his feet. Jesper protests, but Kaz just heads to the guest room they keep on the ground floor for him, a sweet consideration that allows him to break in easily when he needs to, but also spares him the stairs when he’s far too unsteady to take them.

There’s a pen and paper on the desk in his room, he assumes in case some kind of commerce emergency breaks out and he needs to draft a contract. Instead he takes the stack of paper and sits on the bed, staring at the unbroken white expanse of it.

Dearest Inej, he writes. How could you think I’m anything but hopelessly in love with you?

It feels terrible. It feels like opening a wound and bleeding onto the paper. Inej doesn’t want his blood. He crumples the paper and tosses it in the fire.

He’s not going to do this, not in writing. Not tonight. If she doesn’t know, she’ll have to find out another way. He throws the rest of the paper in after the letter, pulls off his boots, and goes to sleep.

He doesn’t dream of her. And if he does, he’ll never admit it.

[nico-esoterica]

What's going to happen is that 'fame' and 'celebrity' the way we think of it will be further democratized but also.. gatekept. As in.. it's going to become a niche to be super rich and invested in the super rich opposed to it being a mass spectacle. I think people will get so turned off by the ostentatiousness of it that they're only going to care about rich people if they're genuinely interesting. It'll be out of place unless you're putting it to good use. And anyone who's into fame for fame's sake as an audience will have that be a niche interest.

The uber famous will be an interest opposed to a goal. Leo shifting to Aquarius.

It's what I felt would be the best tactical business move for Kim and her SKIMS brand because of its loaded Scorpio Rising w/ placements there. For a while, companies have believed that attempting to hit the zenith point of mass appeal. They've done that through broadening a niche market best case scenario where its seams breaking allow for new customers to flood it through interest/curiosity (often caused by virality). Like with what happened to Stanley cups.

But for many brands, artists, and entertainers/influencers, mass appeal will be read as ingenuine or insincere to many people.

Because when you attempt to appeal to everyone, you run the risk of your message seeming contrived opposed to universal. We're tired of performative sincerity because we know that it's honest when it isn't trying or expected to do well. Fake news and stories were always abundant but in the era of quick-to-publish content creation where personal stories (exacerbated by GRWM tales and drama) aren't intimately shared anecdotes anymore but are engagement farming strategies we're now seeing through, our distrust in the media is more resentful now than ever. Especially when you include the propaganda pushed by Pa|estine's co|onizers that younger generations have been primed through years of media ingenuity and cleverness being how millennials, z, and alpha communicate to one another. You can't trick us in our own house.

What'll rise out of all of this will be the rebirth of small and intimate communities that individuals will thrive in. And any 'fame' that results in a mass effect will appeal to that individuality within us all. Especially to those who've felt pushed to the margins, rejected, left behind or not taken seriously, discarded, abandoned.

This is the era of the Reject and Special Interest. But the former must believe in themselves to take advantage of it. You are never rejected without your permission.

[crownmemes]

Politician Sentences, Vol. 7

(Sentences from various sources for politicians and/or muses in political spaces. Adjust phrasing where needed)

"We're all puppets. I'm just the puppet who can see the strings."

"How did they manage to get so many snobs in one place?"

"Do the consequences of attacking outweigh the potential benefits?"

"I'll happily look into the matter myself, but it is going to have to wait a few days."

"When people are afraid to do their job right, they're certain to do it wrong."

"If you'd cared from the start, none of this would have happened."

"Do you ever think about your legacy? The mark you leave behind after you're gone?"

"Do you know how many years of my life I've given to my country?"

"You don’t have friends; you have admirers."

"People respect you. They just don't like you."

"Truth begins in lies."

"You must forgive my bodyguard. His instructions are mine."

"It's a bad idea to get into a power play with somebody who holds the power."

"You don't think that's a little paranoid?"

"Are you intentionally trying to get me to dislike you?"

"Our media is no more truthful than yours."

"You can portray me as a rich bastard in the press all you want, just as long as I stay rich."

"I did not ascent to this position by being stupid."

"I know you'll find this hard to believe, but my own public charm is a result of cultivation."

"I apologise for being so high-strung lately."

"You are uniquely talented in many areas, but office politics is not one of them."

"Know what your enemy is afraid of. That's power."

"The worst thing you can do in this business is overstay your welcome."

"You think I have a hypocritical attitude to hypocrisy?"

"Never presume to understand what I want."

"Your lack of understanding does not obligate me to explain."

"You have the luxury of not caring about your image, but I do not!"

"You value history, but you don't care about the people living in it."

"Can you honestly tell me you've never done anything hypocritical?"

"Art is simply politics' sweeter tongue."

"The question is not 'Is it a game?'. The question is 'Who sets the rules?'."

"When a man shakes my hand and says he's going to do something, I expect him to follow through."

"Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what's right."

"I don't forget anything - or anyone."

"What the hell has my country done for me?"

"I know people hate me, consider me evil, but it is my detachment - my indifference to suffering - that allows me to be effective."

"This would be a very good time to offer me a bribe."

"Change is frightening, especially for those in power."

"You don't have to be a tyrant, but if you don't want to be consistently cruel, you have to be sufficiently brutal at least once to establish authority."

"Is the yelling designed to scare me? Because I'm not sure what it is I'm supposed to be scared of."

[theconcealedweapon]

TW: Pedophilia

Children are rarely taught the reason why they can't consent to sex, which is because of a power imbalance.

And that's because understanding how power dynamics lead to abuse would cause people to dismantle those power dynamics.

If it's well known that the desire to be seen as mature makes children easier victims of predators, the logical response would be to stop normalizing the use of mature as a compliment or immature as an insult. If it's well known that predators take advantage of children being expected to obey, the logical response would be to stop expecting children to unquestioningly obey adults. If it's well known that children who are treated like shit on a regular basis are more likely to trust a predator who seems less abusive in comparison, the logical response would be to stop normalizing treating children like shit.

If people understand that a power imbalance makes consent invalid, then they'd understand other situations when consent is invalid. For example, it's impossible to consent to working for a poverty wage or to being searched by the police.

It would also be impossible to compare marginalized groups to pedophiles. If people understand that a power imbalance is what allows pedophilia to happen, then there'd be no possible way to compare LGBT people to pedophiles, since being LGBT cannot possibly give someone more power. People would realize that clergy members, who children are expected to obey, are the ones who have the power to abuse children.

And the ruling class don't want that to happen. They don't want adults to lose their power over children and to instead have to treat children like people. They don't want people to recognize the abusive patterns that rich people and the police have. They don't want to lose their ability to weaponize pedophilia against marginalized people.

So they don't teach children the real reason why children can't consent to sex. They instead say that it's because "it's the law" or because what children want doesn't matter. Or they use a dismissive answer like "you'll understand when you're older".

And that makes it much easier to continue treating children like shit while pretending that the people who care about children's rights are the predators. That makes it much easier to label any deviation from the norm as pedophilia while giving a free pass to actual pedophiles.

Also, if children don't understand the reason why a rule exists, they could feel like they're being controlled and rebel against it.