#and humanity

[rainia]

this speaking as a cis person. Nothing brings me more joy seeing people find gender euphoria in becoming a mediocre representation of humanity. And I mean that so genuinely. Local boy finds joy and fulfillment wearing a cargo shorts and t-shirt combo. Local girl has transitioned to look like someone's disheveled aunt, has never been happier. Local person experiences gender euphoria rocking the world's worst bowl-cut. Without a scap of irony, this shit makes me see the wonder and whimsy in just, being a human. An average, person going through their day-to-day, is a wondrous thing? That's amazing. And heteronormativity has stripped these experiences of their joy. Like you're right, wearing a basic girlypop skirt should make my heart sing. Why not? Why are these expressions lesser because they're normal? All this to say. Shoutout to all the basic bitches out there. Yes that polo shirt does make you look like a divorced golfer dad. Yes, that too is kind of a slay, now that I think of it.

[tracesofdevotion]

there’s this phenomenon called the Bystander Effect. in the early 70s, a woman named Kitty Genovese was attacked in the hallway of an apartment. 38 people heard the attack and did nothing to help her - it was thought that because a large group of people witnessed the event, they all thought that it was someone else’s responsibility to intervene.

what I’m learning through school and personal research is that the Bystander Effect is very similar to something called Learned Helplessness.

in the 1950s, there was a study done to examine how helpless animals feel when placed in a hopeless situation. basically, dogs were shocked and punished with no way of avoiding the shocks. they discovered that once the dogs realized there was no way to prevent the shock, the dogs stopped attempting to escape and accepted their fate. they could have avoided the shocks from the beginning by just not going inside, but because there was no other choice they were stuck. they developed Learned Helplessness. the effect is more complex than that, but that’s the gist.

now look at the Bystander Effect. Kitty was dying in the hallway and the other people didn’t help because they likely also felt helpless. they figured their intervention would be futile, so it was probably left to other people. maybe they didn’t feel like a single person in a group of 30+ others would make a difference. they thought that since there was a crowd of people, someone else would have to be the one to take action.

the Bystander Effect is Learned Helplessness. in a large group in a hopeless seeming situation (a situation in which you are helpless) people stop attempting to escape or fix the situation because they think the outcome would be hopeless anyway,

but what happens if you change the situation from a group of 38 people to one of two? the Bystander Effect isn’t nearly as prevalent when the responsibility to act is shared with only one other person. the Bystander Effect happens less frequently when there are a smaller number of people. someone takes the lead.

now imagine this: if we all had the mind set that it was our responsibility, in every hopeless situation, to be the one to act, to help, we wouldn’t have Learned Helplessness in the first place. think of how much stronger and more resilient we would be if we all agreed that it was our personal responsibility to help others.

imagine how many things we could get done or people we could save if we weren't so resigned ourselves. imagine living in a world in which nobody looked at another person and though "that's not my responsibility, someone else will do it."

i want to live in a world where we all look at the horrors and pain and despair and say "that pain is mine. that loss and hurt and grief is all of our loss. that is our responsibility to fix or at least minimize. that person who is dying or lonely or hurting, even if we don't know them: they are our family."

we all have Learned Helplessness because somewhere along the line, we decided the world wasn't our problem.

[not-too-many-eyes]

God I haven't been invested in the DSMP in so Long and the creators and fandom have done so Many Things...a lot I think are Bad, but also holy fuck I am this close to writing a giant meta post on C!Tommy Ending and how that relates to the greater themes of this narrative since Fuck everything finally Clicked but also shit I want to talk about bad pacing and how that can cause problems for a good narrative-

[brainman1987]

My dad's room is warmer than mine is and while I know it's probably because the sun shines directly in his room at sunset and the fan isn't on half the time but I'd like to think that it's warmer because people sit in there and that's where my family hangs out after dinner :)

[texaschainsawmascara]

links to the donations mentioned

https://unrwa.org/

https://www.instagram.com/gazamutualaid

https://campusbailfunds.com

[valtsv]

been thinking about fantasy/scifi rule systems and free will

[yeepof]

I understand that tall men are our POV characters, but surely being like a foot taller than everyone around them would have some occasional consequences

[great-and-small]

My grandfather and my godfather (a beloved neighbor and dear family friend) had a long standing bet- for one dollar- about who would die first. Both of them being slightly pessimistic (in the funny way), they both insisted that they themselves would be the first to die. Any time my grandfather had a health scare, he’d gleefully call up my godfather to boast that he’d be passing “any day now” and he was sure to win the bet. It was a big family joke and they were always amiably sparring and comparing notes about who was in worse shape, medically speaking.

When my grandfather was in hospice care dying of liver cancer, my godfather was quite ill also. It took him great effort to make the journey to see his dying friend. As he came into the room, supported by a family member, he shuffled to my grandpa’s bedside and silently handed him a dollar bill. He was ceding his loss of the bet, as they both knew who was going first. My grandpa had been in quite bad shape for a while and was no longer able to speak but let me tell you he snatched that dollar with unexpected strength and literally laughed aloud. He knew exactly what the gesture meant and he couldn’t help but find the humor within the grief. It was the last time any of us heard my grandpa laugh, as he passed shortly after.

When I talk about my appreciation for “dark humor” I’m not so much thinking about edgy jokes, but rather the human instinct to somehow, impossibly, both find and appreciate the absurdity that is so often folded into the profound grief of life and death. When I tell this story I think it kind of perturbs people sometimes, but it’s honestly one of my favorite memories about two men I really deeply admired. I could never hope for anything more than for my loved ones to remember me laughing until the very end, and taking joy in a little joke as one of my final acts.

[singinginthecar]

south africa was banned in the olympics in 1964, 1968, 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988 & 1992. a total of 8 times. for 28 years they didn't set foot in the olympics. you know why? apartheid. apparently the olympics disagreed with the apartheid regime in south africa. russia & belarus aren't allowed to take part in the olympics this year. you know why? because of their involvement in the war in ukraine. several countries throughout history haven't been allowed to participate in the olympics because of various reason from their involvement in war to human rights abuses. now if the olympics aren't blind to all that... why in the world are they blind to what israel has been doing to gaza for the past 10 months? why is a genocidal apartheid nation allowed to participate in the olympics when any other country in its place would've been banned?

[dreamdropsystem]

ya'll who's up for group meowing

[couldnt-think-of-a-funny-name]

I think we're too harsh on medieval painters because this is legitimately what some poodle mixes look like

[emerald-dragonflame]

I had a vision

[laboratoryrats]

Excellent tutorial to drawing cubby body types

“Some chubby guide for y’all!”

Source: paggiart on twitter

[huecycles]

mama's boy

[cipher-of-the-round-table]

Right, considering the current state of corporate politics on this site, and that it seems that only those affected seem to be actively speaking on the matter, this needs to be dragged out to a wider audience.

This extends to refusing to believe in bogus call-out posts for frankly minuscule thinks such as being horny or kinky, especially if the target is presenting in an ‘unconventional’ manner, (therians, etc.) this double standard where it is seen as ‘degenerate’ for transfemmes to merely exist in certain spaces, yet everyone else is fine to do so is disgusting and part of the reason for the backlash.

PUTTING TERFS DNI IS NOT THE BE ALL AND END ALL, YOU GENUINELY HAVE TO PUT YOUR MORALS OF BEING RESPECTFUL INTO PRACTICE.

REBLOG IF YOUR ACCOUNT IS A TRANSFEM SAFE SPACE.

We need to show these higher ups how much we truly value them.

Edit 1: Changed the wording of the post and decided to put in a reminder.

Edit 2: Further Re-iteration on the wording and format edits.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Expertise can't help you here.