#abstaining

[hugtheteadrinkthekitten]

In case you still don't feel it after reading the above, I find it sometimes helps to take these things to their logical conclusion.

What happens if everyone boycotts except one guy? The company can't make any money and goes bust. They have one customer and they can't make money from that.

What happens if everybody refuses to vote except one guy? Well, he essentially gets to control the entire election. His vote is the only vote that counts.

Clearly, neither of these extremes will literally happen; they're extremes. But hopefully it illustrates how as the number of remaining customers gets smaller that's a good thing for the boycotters and a bad thing for the company, whereas as the number of remaining voters gets smaller that's a bad thing for the abstainers and a good thing for the remaining voters (and therefore a good thing for whichever political party has supporters that are voting).

Finally, if you've read all this and still want to protest by not voting, at the very least turn up and spoil your ballot. If you protest by not turning up you will be written off as lazy. They won't know that you're "protesting". If you spoil your ballot then you cede the little power you have (which I think is a terrible tradeoff as described above) but it does at least get recorded as an abstention instead of "just didn't turn up". (Also, this way you don't get to be lazy and justify it to yourself by pretending you're protesting. You want to protest? Get your arse down to the polling centre. Otherwise you're just pretending.)

But yeah. Don't do that. Vote. My god, vote.

I know the US government acts like a corporation but it’s not.

Not voting isn’t the same as a boycott. Because you can’t bankrupt a government by not voting. All you get by not voting is less control over what the money is doing.

The money comes from taxes, not voting. Abstaining from voting does nothing to reduce the governments ability to get money and spend it on shit.

So yes, sometimes you vote to reduce harm because not voting WILL NOT REDUCE HARM.

It’s not a boycot. Abstaining doesn’t take power from the government. It just reduces the number of people they feel answerable to.

[xtrablak674]

One Day At A Time

[Originally published in Fashion Fag Magazine Volume 2, Issue 5 January/February 1995]

I now love myself.

You heard right, I didn't stutter.

I now love myself.

And I will not share my body with anyone until its RIGHT.

What is RIGHT?

RIGHT is defined by me.

RIGHT may be some guy 1 meet on the train or street.

RIGHT might mean some woman I admire.

I've come to another level in my development.

By saying RIGHT doesn't mean the opposite, which is wrong.

The opposite of RIGHT for me is my past. I live in the present, heading for the future and the past is my staircase. Along the way I have dropped a few things on certain steps, sayin' I would go back and clean them up later. Of late, I've been cleaning house, and I went back down the stairs to pick up those things I left behind, and I advanced several steps. I hope you are with me to share the journey. ☮️

[Photos by Brown Estate]

[guavagyal]

sometimes, I think I'm too hot to be celibate.

[malakkc-poetry]

Certificate of Achievement for my acrostic poem: ABSTINENCE

[shippingandgod]

4 years. Wow. The power of God man. I could not have done it without him.

[nevajae]

What are the benefits of celibacy?

[hisohisoart]

i shall not make yet another au. Not today.

[carltonblaylock]

Abstaining

         Abstaining can mean from many different things. God requires abstaining from some things such as abstaining from things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled, and from blood, from sinning and from all things things God has asked us to do do or partake in.   Deuteronomy 23:21-23 21 “When you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay to pay it; for the…

[sweaterkittensahoy]

I refuse to choose between my first crush and a bisexual king. They should both win everything all the time.

Anyway, someone uploaded Call Me Madam on Youtube if you wanna see Donald be besties with Ethel Merman and fall for Vera Ellen (they dance together!!)

Propaganda

Donald O'Connor (Singin' in the Rain, I Love Melvin)—Cosmo Brown in "Singing in the Rain" is literal perfection and Cosmo, Don, and Kathy are #polygoals. such an insanely talented dancer and just full of the vibes [clips below the cut]

Vincent Price (Laura, Leave Her to Heaven, House on Haunted Hill, The Masque of the Red Death)—svelte, stylish, horrifying, beautiful, wickedly funny, camp and gorgeous and evil. he was an art connoisseur who advocated passionately indigenous art, he was an actual literal gourmet cook, he was so liberal he got greylisted during the mccarthy era for being too rad, he's my favorite muppets guest of all time

This is round 2 of the bracket. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. Please reblog with further support of your beloved hot sexy vintage man.

[additional propaganda submitted under the cut.]

Vincent Price propaganda:

Submitted: this fancam

Submitted: this entire Tumblr page

Donald O'Connor propaganda:

"he's so brilliant in singing in the rain it genuinely makes me so furious he didn't get more awesome leading man parts (or at least more parts playing off gene kelly—they go together like chocolate and peanut butter I swear)"

[ryllen]

Macbeth poster

⚔️👑

[chowadoe]

posted it on twitter so tumblr gets it too. lo-res sonadow BLAST ✋💥‼️💥‼️💥💥💥💥‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️

[wolfsong-the-bloody-beast]

He gets it.

[muffinlance]

From NPR this morning:

President Biden called for term limits and an enforceable ethics code for Supreme Court justices yesterday. The White House said that the proposal would appoint a justice every two years to spend 18 years in active service to the Supreme Court. He also called on Congress to pass binding, enforceable conduct and ethics rules that require high court justices to disclose gifts, refrain from public political activity and remove themselves from cases if they or their spouses have financial or other conflicts of interest. The president also called for a constitutional amendment that would limit the broad immunity presidents now enjoy due to a recent Supreme Court decision.

...Yes please.

Le source: Up First briefing: Trump shooter update; Crypto and the 2024 election

[mayasaura]

Spin the wheel of Locked Tomb characters and answer for who you get:

[mikkeneko]

While writing that Dragon Age 2 post the other day, I made a narrative connection I had never made before.

I was writing about the Templar route, and about how the game makes no bones about how the Templar route is the evil route, it's clearly narratively marked as such. Because the structure of the game sets itself up from the start to make Hawke have some sympathy for the mages: they are the child of a mage and the sibling of a mage. This is an issue that Hawke cannot exempt themselves from having opinions on.

But that said, yes, you can choose the Templar route. You can decide that the tragedy of your family being ripped apart by the mage plight has hardened Hawke's heart against them. You can join forces with the Order that has hunted your family members their whole lives. You can choose to tighten the iron fist, instead of choosing to break it. You can become the ruler of Kirkwall. You can kill your sister.

And then I realized: That's Meredith's story.

Meredith, whose sister was a mage, the sister who died from it and ripped her family apart in the process. Meredith, who hardened her heart against people like her sister and dedicated the rest of her life to punishing others like her. Meredith, who joined causes with the Templar order who made that happen. Meredith, who took over the city.

You can choose to become Meredith. The game lets you do that. But you have to know -- as you climb over her corpse to ascend her bloodied throne -- that it's not a 'good' choice.

[akindplace]

I think when you grow up lacking material things, lacking affection or any form of stability, you end up saving everything for later in a constant fear of running out or you end up being so ashamed of asking people for help, for a job, for any kindness and then ending up being denied, that you don’t dare asking, even if you have financial stability and good relationships in the present as an adult. You end up self-sabotaging in fear of what it might mean to desire something and not have it. The more you want, the more you abstain and the bigger that sort of empty craving gets. Don’t feel guilty for the seemingly enormity of your own needs, because the more you abstain from them, the bigger they get. Don’t let your soul starve. Don’t let yourself run on empty. Don’t let the emptiness grow into a pit. Don’t save happiness for later or for when you “become” a worthy person - you don’t need to earn every little thing, you don’t have to hurt yourself to be worthy of some soothing or any help.