#bc without capitalism I'd agree

[zillyblog]

Seriously. Think about who would really benefit from a lack of copyright laws.

The indie artists who can afford to make some charms and stickers?

Or the huge corporations with enough money to buy adverts, screen time, movies and series and toys and books and anything imaginable PLUS billions of eyes from socmed and global news networks?

Like. Who do you really think is going to get more mileage here? It's not the little guy.

i do think a lot of indie artists' opposition to piracy and support for copyright is an extension of the western mindset of the temporarily embarrassed millionaire. these artists dream of one day hitting it big and owning the products of their labor but the vast majority of them will never be in a position of benefiting from copyright and are far more likely to be screwed over by it

[leviathan-supersystem]

this what if the world was made of pudding thing is making me insane bc to me. a communist. one of the most reprehensible things about capitalism is that people die every day due to an artificial scarcity of resources. if youre not trying to come up with a solution to the problem of disabled people dying for no reason what are you even trying to come up with a solution to?? what's the point of dreaming of a world beyond capitalism if in the world beyond capitalism anyone who can't self sustain themselves dies???

the thing is, a lot of the antiwork crowd is trying to imagine a better world for disabled people, they just suck really bad at it. like they noticed society's obligation to perform labor, and the flawed nature of existing systems to evaluate disability in relation to that obligation, causes harm to disabled people in the here and now, and they went "well it's simple then! we simply hold that NO ONE has any obligation, nor should be compelled via any incentives, to perform labor. problem solved!" and then they called it a day and didn't spend the 10 seconds to think "hey wait a second don't some disabled people specifically need other people to perform labor in the form of care for them, and doesn't an ethical framework which holds that labor should never be obligatory or incentivized kinda leave those disabled people without reliable care, and also is so limited as an ethical framework that it can't even definitively say that someone is in the wrong when disabled people die because communities don't perform the labor of caring for them or create systems of social incentives or obligations to ensure that labor is performed"

honestly i would be a lot more forgiving of them having a shoddy and short-sighted ethical framework if they didn't make a habit of dogpiling and smearing anyone who doesn't agree with their absurd fringe ideology as "supporting forced labor".

i'd also be more forgiving if they didn't lean so heavily into right-wing mccarthyist red scare rhetoric any time they pull this routine on a marxist, "aaaaugh the red communist menace will have your elderly grandma working in the cobalt mines at gunpoint till she dies while the jackbooted commissar laughs over her broken body, yes my fellow patriotic god fearing americans feral anarcho-nihilists, we must do whatever we can to thwart this terrible marxist scourge!"

also when they do this whole dogpiling smear campaign routine they lean very heavily on accusations of ableism, which is some truly egregious hypocrisy considering their own ideology's major shortcomings when it comes to ensuring the well-being of disabled people.

[lostbetweenvampiresandmusic]

I'd love to request something then 🥰. A David & Dwayne x fem!reader. She lives alone in Santa Carla after escaping her family and she has a hard time adjusting, bc she's introvert and insecure about herself (chubby, scars due to abusive and SH past etc etc). The boys are attracted to, her darkness if that makes sense (I hope it's fine!!). The boys wanna take her it with them, & David & Dwayne eventually realizing she's their mate? (fluff is fine, even a bit more if you're fine with that!)

I hope you like this! After finishing this, I realise I kind of strayed away from your prompt, but I hope you'll still enjoy it!💜

-------------------------

The room was quiet. Dark. Cold. I sighed as I turned around in my bed, pulling the blankets over me again. Tomorrow I'd really have to call the water company and the electrician. I had bought this place on a whim, needing to have something to call my own, and I hadn't paid any attention to the details mentioned in the listing.

I wish I had now, now that I felt like my toes were freezing off. Still, I thought as I curled up in myself, it was still not as bad as it was before.

It was hours later when I woke up, the sun high in the sky already. I sighed, grabbing a warm sweater and some thick socks to keep myself warm. I quickly brushed my teeth, deciding to ignore breakfast until after I made the necessary phone calls. I took a deep breath as I walked to the landline, thankful that that one was, in fact, working. Silently, I repeated the rehearsed frases in my head.

"Hi, do I speak with the company? I need some help, because the thing isn't working in my new house."

It would be something like that, I figured. Nothing too complicated. Just two easy sentences. I could do this. I picked up the phone, dialling the number for the watercompany. It rang.

Once. Twice.

Please leave a message after -

Frustrated, I dropped the horn on its hook, redialing the number. This time, I had more luck getting an answer.

"Yeah?"

"You're the watercompany, right?" I asked, my voice more unsure than I would have liked.

"Yeah."

"My house isn't connected, it seems. Can that like - maybe, I don't know, ehm - be fixed? I mean," I laughed, although it was more out of awkwardness and despair than out of actual joy, "I'd really like to have some water here."

"Yeah."

I sighed, giving more of my information. All the guy on the phone said was yeah, as if he had never learnt to speak another word whatsoever. Still, I had been told that someone would be by this afternoon. I then rang the electrician, who was way more pleasant on the phone. He was in the area, offering to come by within the hour.

I'd agreed readily.

The electrician, Henry, a man who reminded me of my late grandfather, was done quickly. It had been a matter of some cables not connecting well, and now I was the proud owner of a house with a working light bulb. Small victories, and all that.

"So, what made you decide to move to the murder capital of the world?"

"I needed a fresh start - wait, did you say murder capital?" I asked with a frown as I walked him to the door.

He nodded. "Lots of people end up missing or dead. We don't know why, but it happens. Hence the name."

"Crap... that's why the house was so cheep."

"Maybe," the man chuckled, "but despite there being some truths to the disappearances, I doubt you'd be in any danger. You don't seem like a party animal to me."

I nodded. "So, as long as I stay clear from parties I'd be fine?"

"Most likely, yeah. Anyways, don't stress about it too much. You're young, go to the boardwalk some time, and enjoy yourself."

He had been gone for less than ten minutes, or some guy from the watercompany rang the doorbell, and went to work without saying much to me.

It was hours later when he was done, but I had water. And electricity. I could cook, shower, bathe - I sighed as I let myself fall on the couch, I was too tired to do any of those things. There had been too many people today, and I just needed some desperate alone time just for me. I was really thankful now that I'd bought some frozen pizzas on my way here, and as I turned the oven on, I couldn't help but wonder if moving here, leaving home and all it's miseries behind, if it was worth it.

"Someone moved into the old Emerson place," Paul stated as he entered the cave. He had a plastic bag in his hand, and couple of boxes with Chinese filling it.

"So?" David looked at him.

"Just thought you should know," he shrugged. It didn't matter much, but every since that night, a couple of years ago, they avoided that area of town as much as they could.

"As long as they don't go digging in the backyard, we have nothing to worry about, " Dwayne shrugged.

"She doesn't seem the type."

"You stayed long enough to stalk her?" Marko chuckled, shaking his head.

Paul threw a carton box towards him, grinning as it hit his head. "Nope, I just don't think that this quiet thing would go outside."

I woke up late the next day. I had only been here for a few days, and I had not once woken up before noon. Before, I always awoke around six thirty, doing my chores and other things that needed to be done. Never, not ever, had I been able to sleep in. So why was I able to now?

Was it because I finally had a place of my own? I finally experienced freedom? Or was i getting sick?

I shook my head, taking a deep breath as I got up. Today, I needed to make a trip to the boardwalk. I needed some paints for my rooms, and maybe it would be good for me to actually leave the house for once. Not that I necessarily liked the idea, but I also knew that interacting with others would be good. If only for a little while.

I spent the rest of the day getting ready. I picked some loose-fitting clothing, warm enough for the autumn breeze that was blowing coldly over Santa Carla. I pulled on some black leather boots, brushing my hair quickly as I decided to forgo any makeup for today. This wasn't going to be a long trip.

It was nearing sunset as I entered the boardwalk, the place more crowded than I would have liked. People were everywhere, pushing and moving, tugging others along. I had no choice but to let myself drift along with the crowd, slowly making my way away from the stream when I saw a small hardware store located near what seemed to be a videostore.

I was thankful to no longer be stuck in the crowd and pushed the door to the store open, right into someone's face. I froze, staring wide-eyed at the man in front of me. He was tall, an almost scary look on his face as he looked at me, his brunet hair falling down his face.

"I- I am so sorry, I didn't-"

He looked at me, causing me to feel flustered. He truly was rather handsome. Too handsome for me, I knew that. But still, one can dream, right?

"It's fine," he said, his voice deeper than I'd expected. I looked after him as he left, shaking my head slightly as I tried to remove his image from my brain. I quickly picked some paints - a dark blue and ocher yellow, a colourmatch I'd loved for ages - and paid for them. I left the store, walking down the boardwalk to the entrance.

It was getting busier and I just wanted to go home. I walked further, the plastic bag with paint cans in my hands as I heard the rumbling engine of a motorcycle behind me.

"You need a ride?"

I looked up and saw that it was the guy I'd run into in the hardware store.

"It's alright," I said quietly, not sure if he heard me.

"You sure? There are not too many houses around here, and it's not a good idea to be out alone in the dark."

I shook my head, remembering how former classmates repeatedly reassured me that I didn't have to worry about that because kidnappers and rapists would pick someone prettier. Assholes that they were. I sighed, looking at the guy.

"Why would you offer me a ride?"

He shrugged. "Why not? Besides, it's already getting late, and I imagine you'd rather be home before morning."

I looked at my watch and realised he was right. "Thank you," I said gratefully as I got on the back of his bike with his assistance. I introduced myself, but he didn't respond with his name. Instead he drove off, straight to my home.

"How do you know where I live?" I asked him confused as I got off.

"This was the only house for sale in the last couple of weeks. And since you're new-"

"Am I that obvious?"

"No," he gave me a small smile, "we just come down to the boardwalk almost daily. We know everyone's faces, just not yours. Not yet."

"Maybe you will," I said quietly, quietly wondering what it was that made me say this. As if I'd ever go back to the boardwalk while it was so busy at night.

"I'll see you around, love," he said, stepping back on his bike.

"Wait, what's you're name?"

"I'm Dwayne."

With that he drove off.

"And?" David looked at Dwayne as he entered the cave last.

"She's sweet. Harmless." He couldn't help but grin. "There's something about her."

"Yeah?"

"She's not just another run away. There's something more. Like she's seen things that she shouldn't have."

David nodded. "You think it is her?"

Dwayne thought about it. For days, the two of them had felt the pull of a third and final mate bond. The bond was forming quickly and steadily, and soon, they'd be able to follow their gut feeling towards their mate. But for now? Dwayne nodded.

"She seemed more level-headed than us, but I am quite certain she can live like we do."

"Maybe I'll meet her tomorrow," David shrugged, standing up. "If i come to the same conclusion as you, we'll need to make her ours."

I groaned as I opened my fridge. All day, I had been working on painting my room, forgetting the necessity of making a trip to the grocery store. Now it was night, I had yet to eat dinner, and all I had in my fridge was an old bottle of coke.

"Guess I'll go to the boardwalk..." I mumbled, taking my paint spattered clothes of and quickly changing into something clean. I didn't stop to look in the mirror before I went, a thing I would regret later on, I'm certain. At that moment, it didn't matter. I needed food, and the only place I was going to get that at this hour was the boardwalk.

It took me about an hour to get there, and I had just enough luck on my side that the Chinese place was still open and serving as I entered. I greeted the owner, placed my order, and sat down on a bench, waiting for my order to be called.

"So you've been painting all day, hm?" I looked up, seeing two men in front of me. Dwayne and some other guy.

"How did you know?" I frowned slightly.

"You've got a blue streak on your cheek."

I tried to stand up to go to the bathroom to clean myself up, but found myself unable to do so as the guy went to sit down next to me. I shoved over a bit, feeling just the slightest hint uncomfortable.

"How do you like Santa Carla?"

"I don't know, it's okay, I guess?" I shrugged.

"You haven't had a chance to see it?" Dwayne asked. I shook my head.

"I've got a lot to do at home, and-" I shook my head. It didn't matter.

"And what?" The other guy, who had yet to introduce himself, looked at me.

"I just don't like crowds," I decided quickly before asking his name.

"David," he said, "and what if we can over you Santa Carla without the crowds?"

"Good luck with that," I muttered, sceptical. As if that was ever going to happen.

"No, you'll see," Dwayne chuckled, "David's right. How about we pick you up tomorrow and show you around?"

I was quiet for a moment, before nodding. "What time?"

"Ten. Things will have quieted down here."

Time passed quickly, and as I woke up the next afternoon, I couldn't help but wonder why i had agreed to this date. I had liked the conversation we'd had, sure. But to go on a date? Later that evening, David had even explicitly called it that, and I hadn't even corrected him. And then a date with the two of them?

I didn't mind that, truly, they were both incredibly handsome and as far as I could tell with how little I know them, kind and somewhat sweet - but still. It was a bit, odd, wasn't it?

The rest of the day, I worked on decorating my house, making sure I was ready to go by ten. I'd opted to wear a dress, liking the way it flowed around my legs. Despite the warmth of the evening, I decided to wear a black cardigan on top, completing my outfit.

"Damn," Dwayne grinned as he saw me, causing me to smile shyly. David stood behind him, waiting on his bike.

"You look nice," he said as he offered me a seat. I got on behind him, and we made our way to the boardwalk.

Just as he had promised, like they'd both promised, the boardwalk was practically empty tonight. I didn't know how they'd done it, but it felt incredible. No crowds to drown in, no people pulling you one way when you wanted to go another... I let the two of them guide me over the boardwalk, taking me on rides. We talked about everything, from favourite colours to deepest fears, from hobbies to pet peeves - it was incredible to get to know them, to see them and to let them get to know me.

Even though I had only known Dwayne for three days and David for two, I felt like I had known them all my life, like they were a missing piece of the puzzle I called myself.

As they said goodbye when it was close to sunrise, I couldn't help but melt in their arms as they both pressed a soft kiss on my cheek.

Yeah, I decided quietly. This was it.

In the days that followed, I kept hanging out with them. They'd stop by sometime during the night, taking me to the boardwalk whenever most of the crowds had left. I had met their friends, Paul and Marko, and I had a hard time admitting to myself that I actually enjoyed their company.

I had known them for a month when they took me to their place, this strange yet almost magical cave. It was there that they told me what they were.

I hadn't known what to do, so I hadn't done anything. It was a horrifying thought, but then again, a part of me truly loved them. A part of me couldn't live without them. So, despite refusing to drink and become one of them, I did accept them.

It just took me a day or two. Three.

But once I did accept it, our bond grew only stronger. No longer could I imagine not spending the night with them. No longer could I stand the thought of not seeing them. I stayed over at their place, sleeping between them almost as often as they stayed at mine. We talked, more deeply than before, them answering as honest as they could when I asked them about their immortality.

It was then, five weeks after I learnt what they were, three months after I met them, that i decided to become like them. I was theirs, and I couldn't live with the thought of letting them wake up one day without me. Nor did I want to wake up without them.

So, when David offered once again, I drank, sealing my fate as their mate.

[who-is-page]

(Im sorry for all of the asks about this- I know the whole community is arguing rn so maybe it’s a lot)

I also get don’t reality check people bc it would hurt them. but some people are treating something seemingly impossible(?) like physically shapeshifting like it’s an agree to disagree with belief. “there’s no proof that it’s real or fake so it could be capital R Reality Real u never know.” but that rlly messes with me bc isn’t it scientifically impossible? so why can’t you say it’s not real? I understand not to say it to those experiencing delusions and that they have their own reality… but. how is it different than saying “the earth is not flat” even if a bunch of flat earth earthers believe it. bc it’s like scientifically impossible and not true. bad example but u get what i mean. It feels like we need to believe in the possibility or the “truth” of physical shapeshifting and if u are honest and say it’s impossible then that’s bad. its just confusing to be met with an unclear answer rather about how this actually might be real than a straight forward yes or no. it seems impossible to me, but when i see a community and all of these websites and guides about it.. a thought of “what if this is real-how could i not believe them” does somewhat creep into my mind. is it genuinely ableist to think that people who believe in this are experiencing something mental health related or are just ignorant and young or something?

If it confuses the fuck out of you and messes with your sense of reality, I'd advise doing what I do and just block p-shifters on sight. That's something I'll say straight off the bat: if it makes your brain feel like it's starting to melt and you're starting to consider things that you can already smell are going to land you in a heap of trouble five years down the road if you fall into them, GTFO! That's my motto. Real winners #quit.

I don't personally think it's ethically wrong to say "it is scientically impossible to physically shapeshift." This is my stance, but there's probably plenty of people in the alterhuman community who disagree; where you stand on if it's right/if it's wrong to make that statement is something you'll have to decide for yourself. For me, I think it's important to draw hard boundaries between reality and unreality for safety reasons-- because god knows we already have plenty of danger to focus on in shared-reality to keep us occupied as a community, we don't also need to include collective worries about things like "spontaneous green pyrokinetics" (to paraphrase one of the P-shifting books on my shelf) and AWTOK as well. I tend to view physical shapeshifting the same way I view the 'falling of the Veil/we'll regain our Trueth Froms and take over the tri-state area world!' and similar sorts: fun to entertain in fiction, probably not a good thing to be convincing other people of in practice.

I'm also not wholly equipped to answer the ableism question, I'll be the first to admit. Thoughtcrimes don't real and you're technically allowed to think whatever you want in your head. But I can say that if you start outwardly treating people, including individuals who self-identify as p-shifters, like they're dumbass kids or like they can't make coherent decisions because you personally believe that they're young and ignorant or have something mental health related going on that's affecting them, then you're going to be ableist. Don't do that. That's about as much as I can confidently say without feeling like I'm overstepping into territory I can't talk on.

[maniacpixiedreamboy]

ok ok so ive never watched a playthru or played it myself but in mouthwashing, does jimmy display symptoms of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder? bc some people call him psychotic/schizophrenic when referring to the horrible shit he does and as someone who has severe depression w/ psychotic symptoms (and schizophrenic family) it does not feel great lol.... considering how bigoted fandom spaces are in general it doesnt surprise me. but idk at least if there's some basis for this in the game and its not just usual fandom head canons being ableist I'd understand

curious as to your thoughts on this! i know this is probably not ur area of expertise but i am interested in seeing what u think

hiii! (You should def play it or watch a playthru I think you’d enjoy. Jimmy is so….i love him I just ignore the fandom.)

I’m gonna preface this w I don’t have any sort of psychotic symptoms (that I know of lol.) but like. I get where the fandom is coming from? But I don’t agree w the him experiencing psychosis/BPD symptoms/etc = him being a bad person. His life + experiences + their hyper capitalist reality + his closest friend brushing his warning signs under the rug just snowballs and makes him worse and worse. I have such a love hate relationship w Jimmy bc like. Yes he did a very bad thing. But also like! It didn’t have to be that way! If he got help the game just. Wouldn’t happen. But also like! Even without his symptoms he’d be a bad guy which is something to keep in mind.

he canonically hallucinates in the game. Personally I think Jimmy has some sort of schizophrenzia (or general psychosis? Not sure. I’m not a psychologist.) + npd + bpd.

it’s really heavily implied he’s someone who never got help for his issues and his closest friend (Curly) constantly downplays his issues (which makes Jimmy worse. I think Curly insists Jimmy is ‘normal’ and just insists he needs sleep/water/vitamins/etc which just makes things worse.

Mouthwashing is also set in like a hyper capitalist world where mental health is like. Not a concern at all really. Even the psych evaluations that happen in game are really only to ensure everyone can do their job. And the only tool given to solve issues within a crew is a gun.

Pony Express (the company in the game) only allows employees 5 hours of break (yes this includes sleep time). So like. Jimmy is not only facing mental health problems but also + isn’t sleeping enough at all + stuck on a ship in space. Basically. He’s not doing good.

I think there’s a lot to be said about mouthwashing + capitalism and lack of mental health resources/discussion.

[pleucas]

this is said with no malice towards you i love your art!! i like you!!

also not capitalizing chuuya's name even tho i have better humor than this

this is going to be loooong but i never read a more stupid ask….

i don’t hate skk bcs i use my brain and see that they’re actually good and a fun ship when someone isn’t ruining it. what i hate is most skkers being unfunny towards Dazai and the continuous mischaracterization of him just to make chuuya look better (mostly chuuya stans but also dumb Dazai stans are guilty of it)

and no Dazai isn’t the worst and chuuya doesn’t deserve better in fact i think yall can’t handle a person with mental illness and a fake persona he clearly put on people always demonize him so i think saying he’s the worst and chuuya isn’t proves my point. they both EQUALLY did the same bad things Dazai isn’t more toxic than chuuya it’s more like Dazai is the one who’s going back to a toxic ex (mind u chuuya was ready to hurt or maybe even kill some of the ada members people Dazai obviously cares for)

the skk hater? who loves chuuya and hate Dazai because they know chuuya’s character will never be as important or as impactful on bsd universe as Dazai’s noted.

if you love chuuya and hate Dazai your opinion about Dazai is immediately invalid like i think they just know no bsd character can be better written and more interesting than Dazai he's what keeping bsd good (and Fyodor i liked him in the last chapters even more)

imo if chuuya keeps appearing he'll just get boring🤷‍♀️ because most of his storyline is over

Dazai on the other hand always entertaining and deep and there’s a reason he’s involved in everything and never forget everything he did for chuuya stormbringer would be nothing without Dazai helping chuuya from the shadows and chuuya knows it but i guess people will still makes him the bad person in skk when he’s the one trying to change and be better person

also Dazai is someone who’s storyline is still on going as well as we know almost nothing about his past or what actually goes on in his brain i can say three things about his backstory and that’s it.

sorry for rumbling i can’t take that level of stupidity

pls don’t block me im not evil…..

holy shit we got cross-ask beef. this is insane

i'm gonna lowercase Both their names because i think this is the reasonable next step. LOL. & i'll also ramble a bit to match ur freak!

i will strive to clarify that me agreeing that dz=worst chuuya deserves better was, as i specified, "on a generalized scale" — on a very, very, VERY surface level this is a jokey way i've seen a lot of skkers talk about their relationship. more of an inside joke atp ig? idk. srry if that wasnt clear

but i do think it's valid to dislike a ship because you don't like one half of it. i totally get how dz's character can piss ppl off, esp if ure missing lns and mangas (which rimu wasn't, but they watched the anime first so the precedent was set). i found the first part of their thesis to be pretty funny actually, just (again) taking it at face-value.

it's also understandable that they try and dissect dz then miss the mark by a mile LOL. but again, can't be blamed if you hate the guy and thus don't read into him too much, which i think is a reasonable way to consume media... probably more reasonable than me. hence why i didn't respond with my own thesis paper. overall idk man it's not that deep, i've been having fun with rimu and i'd advise y'all to also be silly w/ ur Budgeted RPF Dead Author Yaoi, it'll make things a lot better

abt what you've said, i think dz and chuuya can't exist as true characters w/o each other, unless you fundamentally change their truth. a lot of their good & bad (& inbetween) sides are exposed through their relationship, which i believe is asgr's very interesting way of employing "show-don't-tell." i don't think chuuya's storyline is over, because dazai's isn't, and vice versa. this doesn't mean i don't think they have their own arcs, just that these arcs Must involve the other — if dz's main conflict is good/bad + the mafia, chuuya is his biggest amiable tie to it, and if chuuya's conflict is his self + power, dz must be there for corruption. there's more to say there, but again i don't want to feed rimu's claims of us all being dormant essayists LOL

we got dz glazer and rimu, D1 dz hater. and cheese anon.

[notyouraryang0dd3ss]

hello! 🐎 anon here. I'm not Dutch lol but close enough, I'm German. The average person isn't quite as tall as over there but literally no one looks at you twice for your height unless you're like 1.90+ meters. anyway what I came here to rant about was that I keep seeing ts releasing new variants of her album, with one extra song or fucking voice memos or whatever it is she's doing. And oh my god how does she not feel embarrassed for ripping off her fans like that. I'm loosely into kpop and even they have more shame when it comes to albums. At least with the group I mainly follow there's usually three versions of the album (lately a digital version and US/UK/Europe exclusive albums too, which is just greedy bullshit imo). for each version there's a different photobook with idk maybe 40-70 pages?, there's stickers, sometimes random other shit and of course the collectible photocards of the group members. And then they all get released the same day and you know its a cash grab lol but at least you get something for your money (25ish euros per album, 3-5 when you buy them second hand later without the photocards. yes thats crazy) and you know there won't be any random other versions appearing after the album dropped. so I just feel like paying money for music and pretty pictures and stickers even though then you own the cd multiple times is of course still a waste of resources, but at least you get something that isn't just EXACTLY the same thing + 1 new song. at this point I'd just like to say fuck capitalism.

i sooooo agree abt the kpop album releases bc kpop groups releasing multiple versions of the same album makes more sense to me because its usually in diff languages (japanese, chinese) to appeal to a wiser audience (and their new us/uk/etc is probably inspired by taylor’s greedy ass). and sooo true kpop albums come with so much content it (almost) justifies the price (it used to before inflation exploded in USD)

HOWEVER

taylor is fucking crazy. i think its hard for vultures to be ashamed! that woman is the epitome of why girlboss capitalism is never going to free us. where’s the NFT anon because if taylor could sell her albums as NFT’s she WOULD

[terezicaptor]

can we go back to them exchanging letters. i feel like it would make more sense if they exchanged letters again and decided to 'start over' in a sense. it would also make more sense if they exchanged letters thru like idk. a new mailing system or something. where you have to buy stamps bc capitalism. and fred sent tubbo letters bc the bears aren't allowed onto the bunny side of the island or something..

for me i really think this is the only answer i'll be happy with if they keep the frubbo thing going. i've seen some fed!tubbo + fred related ideas floating around that are really cool in theory but i can't imagine them working in canon. first, the admin doesn't realistically have enough time to pull off something complicated with fred. second, if fred is involved in any way at all with bringing back or "fixing" tubbo i guarantee viewers and at least some characters are going to give him way too much credit no matter how the plot is intended to be taken by tubbo and the admin.

i'd also love to see tubbo pointing out to fred that what they have isn't the kind of partnership that makes a real relationship work. or to have him start trying to get information out of fred again. there are ways to do that without being manipulative so long as fred doesn't shut him down. i'm pretty happy tubbo died before fred showed up on valentine's day because if the two of them went on a date without fred explaining properly what's been going on i would have been way too irritated to enjoy it.

don't agree with everything you said (I think fed tubbo with Fred could lead to rly fun angst personally) but ur so real all the same.

I want the lore to make sense again. Pleek

[heart-wit-strength]

My sincere condolences to you for your favorite gay pirate show having the plug pulled out from under you. :(

A counterpoint/question to what you and others have been saying about the matter and others like it recently, though: what if, instead of such cancellations and shenanigans being due to insinuated and/or overt homophobia, misogyny, racism, xenophobia, and more, they're INSTEAD motivated by a growing prejudice by major companies and outlets against anything even remotely punk, anti-authority, anti-democracy, and/or anti-capitalism in nature?

I only bring up the possibility because it seems to be the one common thread I'm seeing of shows like OFMD, Owl House, and others like them getting shortchanged even as other diversity-celebrating programs like Harley Quinn, This Is Us, Stranger Things, Wednesday, and more remain largely unfettered in their creative budget and expression, at least from a behind-the-scenes standpoint. I'd love to hear YOUR thoughts.

Could be possible, and I agree what you say on the anti-authority/capitalism common pattern. I don't keep up much on the behind the scenes production but don't think we've received much on why exactly they cancelled it without a single reconsideration, especially given the show's great success, it's off. Ofmd is one of the shows that's not been subtle and particularly went explicitly wild with diversity among lgbtq+ and pocs. As for Toh being deemed "off-brand" for Disney bc of representation as Dana has stated and implied multiples times doesn't set right. So I wouldn't see why it wouldn't be a part of the reason.

The other ones you state I haven't seen a lot of them yet so not sure I can emphasize very well on why only certain categories of representation gets targetted more than others, but I think I get the idea of the point.

[baroquespiral]

hello. i saw a video featuring aella then saw your twitter through it. i immediately stopped watching the video as i do not agree with many of their takes, but i would like to understand them without watching a video about kinks through the lens of the political compass. could you possibly explain what gender maximalizing is, what a gynocratic traditionalist is, and what the sphere you operate in is called? Thank you. (there was an article when i looked it up but im not going on medium)

wait what video with Aella am I in lol. anyway most of the things in my Twitter bio are at least partly a bit, do not represent any kind of relevant external movement or phenomenon, and you are not going to find explained anywhere else anyway so. "gender optimizationist" is a kind of contrarian response to the formerly popular position of "gender nihilism", a framework that tried to decentre the discourse of innate identity in justifying/accounting for gender fluidity, transition etc. by basically adopting the maximally deflationist position that gender is entirely an ideological construct covering material oppressive systems but letting people identify & do whatever they want with it is truer to the premise of its abolition than restricting specific behaviours and identities as actually existing "gender". I actually do find this useful to bring up when TERFs claim stuff like "trans people believe in innate gendered souls or what role you fit determines your gender" etc. but still think it concedes too much so my own position of "gender optimization" is like, gender is real at least insofar as something we consciously construct, people's identities aren't less objective than their historical origins and we can and should continue the project of shaping and rebuilding it until we make it something that can accommodate the maximum of everyone possible (and leave exits for people who don't want it)

"gynocratic traditionalism" is not entirely compatible with this and while I didn't take either completely seriously I used to struggle with this more before I got into Thelema and clarified my spirituality & ontology in a lot of ways. for completely personal poetic/psychosexual reasons I was simultaneously inclined to read gender as actually real in a metaphysical/spiritual sense, albeit one that doesn't map to biology or patriarchal gender roles and mostly derives from reading The White Goddess by Robert Graves way too young. almost nobody remembers it now but that book was part of the broader "matriarchal antiquity" trend, a huge influence on Wicca and the New Ageier side of second wave feminism, and argues that the original religious/magickal tradition was the essentially henotheistic worship of a Great Goddess of life, death and nature, who was self-sufficient but produced for her own pleasure a secondary male god who dies and resurrects with the agricultural cycle. human gender is then a reflection of this higher metaphysical order, with woman as the superior term in the hierarchy, and the "warrior" dimensions of masculinity being descended from a form of sacrificial kingship ritually representing the life-death cycle of the Goddess' lover. I'd basically argue the "gender optimizationist" position relative to left queer theory but this relative to right-wing mythopoeic traditionalist accounts of gender, which as an intensely capital-R Romantic personality I did at least get the appeal of and offered it as a "feminist" alternative to. people like RFH have kinda picked up the baton of that now although I have some obvious issues with her framings. I used "gynocratic" instead of matriarchal bc one of the interesting things about Graves' version of this hypothesis is it doesn't actually focus on motherhood and reproduction as much as the wombyn TERF stuff; for instance instead of the more famous Wiccan "maiden/mother/crone" formulation for the Goddess' three aspects he uses "maiden/nymph/crone", implying that the default adulthood stage wasn't necessarily settling down and popping out babies but a freewheeling sexuality where reproduction was an individual choice supported by the community, controlled by abortifacents etc. should probably clarify that, after quite a bit of going back and forth on it and my Twitter presence was designed to be plausibly deniable in either direction, I am pretty much a low-Kinsey bisexual cis guy who socialized into predominantly queer, especially trans spaces mostly just due to neurodivergence and general nonconformity. a lot of my weird gender politics is subtly in dialogue with MonetizeYourCat-era Tumblr stuff (imo the more honest version of today's mainstream heteropessimism) about whether it's even possible or ethical to exist as that you didn't mention them but just to have on record re: the other stuff in the bio, "presuppositional leftist" applies the idea of presuppositional apologetics to my left commitments in the sense that they're not premised on any descriptive claim about reality but rather presuppositions of why politics would even matter to me in the first place, and "Canadian materialist" is a joke on Canadian idealism. my Substack bio is more up to date with where I'm at now but I like keeping the Twitter one around bc every now and then someone has a really funny reaction to it I don't really have a "sphere I operate in" so much as I float around the edges of different subcultures, study them and make friends with people I find interesting. currently I feel like I'm kind of in tpot, kind of in the "irony left" and kind of in parapolitics/esoteric "schizoposting". and also trying to carve out a niche in the online subcultural arts scene: my major passion project rn is my indie press and in particular our serial fiction journal (new issue coming out this month!) featuring two of my novels

[cdroloisms]

is it weird that i think c!wilbur wouldn't have been able to help himself and make them start the war again eventually? bc while he recognises the harm he did c!tommy i don't think he ever acknowledges what he did to c!dream. without that, idk if he'd ever be able to resist the urge to push them back into conflict but with extra c!inniterisms driving him.

i mean ... ? like how do i say this

first of all, i dont think c!wilbur was driven by c!inniterisms necessarily in inconsolable differences. i mean sorta but like ... like look c!tommy is his kid. always was always has been. people ask why c!wilbur chooses c!tommy over c!dream and it's like. i mean, no shit. that's his kid. like sure does c!wilbur superficially choose other people over c!tommy sometimes, for sure. but at the end of the day if the danger is losing tommy there's like nothing he won't do you know like ... [keysmashing] sorry it's like. c!wilbur can't lose c!tommy, and his relationship with c!tommy is so fundamentally important with understanding both characters.

and as for like. dragging c!tommy into some kind of conflict eventually, well. that's why he leaves innit. like i wouldn't even categorize it as being about conflict, it's about the fact that he capital n Needs tommy and tommy won't ever leave him of his own volition and their relationship from the beginning !!! from the very beginning !!! has been extremely unbalanced and involved hefty amounts of c!wilbur making c!tommy go against his every instinct and pressuring him to act in the ways that c!wilbur wants him to and just straight up hurting the kid--like, c!tommy needs to be away from c!wilbur and c!tommy won't leave on his own so c!wilbur is the one that goes in boundless sands. in a lot of ways, it's kind of the most he can do as far as harm reduction goes, towards c!tommy for sure but even for c!dream as well? like shit man he's already rewritten their whole identities.

idk like i dont think that Recognizing What He Did To c!Dream is really gonna do shit for either of them, personally. c!wilbur's issue isn't his inability to recognize the harm he's done, and c!dream is just flat out delusional about c!wilbur lmao c!wilbur telling him "hey dude i'm sorry" would literally probably just make c!dream sink deeper into the feeling that he's Successfully Tricked c!Wilbur Into Being On His Side! he's got Leverage (tm)!!! and whatever.

i agree that c!wilbur staying wouldn't really be good for c!discduo like, at all, but i wouldn't say it's strictly just because he would idk eventually "give into his impulses and goad them into a fight" i guess? like as much as i am like number one "it all goes back to c!wilbur" truther, c!discduo are characters with agency and they've individually made decisions that led to the fracturing of their relationship in ways that weren't directly caused by c!wilbur, though i would argue that c!wilbur's death was the catlyst for a whole fucking lot of it. c!discduo reconciliation can't happen through c!wilbur, i'd say inconsolable differences in itself kind of proves that (because as clumsy as it was, c!wilbur did seem to be trying to End It right, for c!tommy's sake, so c!tommy would feel Safe with the discs gone and c!dream's leverage finished with) (but of course, the way it got carried out just kind of proves that c!wilbur can ummm threaten c!discduo into compliance in ways that ummm. sure were!) especially when you consider how the finale still happens with c!dream and c!tommy having conflict (cough because c!tommy relapsed after boundless sands cough) that wasn't triggered by the discs, right, cuz c!dream has no idea they're still existing. but along that same vein, id argue that c!wilbur kind of proves he idk wants to be done with it and does probably the best he could've done for the discduo conflict in that moment by leaving, because the last thing c!dream OR c!tommy really needed was his presence? idk

[biracy]

(Rbs off bc this is really personal and not attempting to Be Smart) The problem I keep personally having with the "actually no one is Neurotypical" thing (which in sheer terms of "capitalist productivity" or whatever I agree with), is that the problems that I have usually do not arise from being unable to be capitalistically productive, they're almost all social problems. Maybe I'm wrong, but I still feel like even in A World Without Capitalism I'd still feel unable to make conversation with people in my age group or nearly unable to ask anyone, including, like, my parents, for things that I want and/or need. What, then, is the difference between me and my mother, or me and my brother? What, then, is the similarity between me and my father, or me and his mother before him? I'm not saying it needs to be Innately Neurological or whatever (another common attribution for SM is early childhood trauma, but can I be real I don't think I had that either), but I have difficulty understanding it in a way that doesn't completely dismiss the thing I experience, because I'd definitely still have to talk to people and ask for things in the post-capitalist leftist commune. I guess the solution here is "no one is fully sociable Literally All Of The Time, which means the archetypal neurotypical is not real", which I guess is true, but I think that needs to come with the piece that really my mom's "social battery" drainage and my "social battery" drainage are not comparable and that I am, whether it's based on nature or nurture or trauma or me creating the problem for myself by experiencing it or what, demonstrably "different" from almost every person I've ever met in a way that impedes far more than my ability to Be Capitalistically Productive. I don't even work right now and I'm still miserable sorry

[realcleverscience]

I appreciate the thought out response.

I completely agree that there's too much hype about what AI can do *right now*. A lot of it is being deployed before it's really ready, and there are still some significant challenges to be overcome.

That said, I frankly have kind of thrown in the towel and have resigned myself to it for three main reasons:

free market - Companies are quickly adopting it and then quickly realizing what a mistake it was. A lot of companies have scaled back their AI ambitions and are waiting for the tech to mature a bit more.

I think a lot of the necessary maturing is going to happen relatively soon. So even those instances where ai is being used now and it just kinda sucks - I expect major improvements to happen soon to massively reduce that issue. (again, the rate and scale of improvement are a big part of what makes this such a game changer.) and to be clear, ai products may still be worse than human designed ones in the near future, but if they aren't "shitty", it could still be useful. e.g. lots of people love ikea even though the quality isn't remotely like hand-made furniture. Sometimes worse quality is fine if it means financial savings.

Lastly, I think it's largely a losing battle. History has shown that technologies that reduce costs are generally accepted and flourish, even at the expense of quality, at least in the "short" term. That said, there are exceptions to that pattern. For instance, in areas of life and death, the economics of innovation tend to be more conservative. This is why fields like medicine, architecture, and weaponry tend to evolve slowly. So I could see us putting up a fight about the need for humans in certain fields, but I also think that it'll be a short amount of time till AIs start to help (with significant improvements) to such fields, soon working alongside humans, and eventually replacing them. Basically, even for important and conservative fields that may evolve slower than most, I expect AI will quickly take over there as well - again, bc the rate of improvements suggests ai will achieve basically superhuman abilities in just a few more years. So yes, let's not implement ai too early; but at the same time, I think we need to recognize that ai is coming for those jobs, and even if they're not ready for it today, they will be very soon.

I would also end by saying that having ai and robots do all the jobs is, in theory, awesome. I don't want to work my day job and robots could bring down prices tremendously, making things a lot more affordable. There are just two issues: A. Can they do the jobs? That is, can they do them well - at least as well as the average person? I'd say that for most tasks today they can't - but in 3 years? 5 years? Pretty sure they will. B. Stuff may get more affordable, but without a job, it's not clear how people will afford anything. In our current capitalist system those without a job are at risk of homelessness, starvation, etc. But if we had a different economic system, that wouldn't necessarily be an issue. I love the idea of robots doing the essential work and leaving humans to do work we want to do - as long as people still have what they need to thrive. I know the US just elected trump and so seems to shun the concept of 'socialism', but I think that as ai starts to raise unemployment, we're likely to see a lot of people start to rethink that. (at least I hope so.)

But basically, I think ai development is generally good. I don't want to fight ai. I want to fight the systems that would abuse ai the same way they abuse people now (capitalism, authoritarianism, nationalism, etc.).

Left: AI meme from 1 year ago. Right: AI today.

And honestly, this was already largely solved for months already. Doesn't mean every generation is perfect, but it's now usable - and a threat to jobs.

And this is the trend across every industry AI is touching, and particular major LLMs: major improvements every few months. Some estimate it as roughly doubling in ability every 6 months. But even if it was closer to moore's law of doubling every 18 months, that would still be a mindbendingly quick pace (just as our transistors today are mindbendingly tiny). We are rapidly approaching the point where every doubling in ability produces ever greater amounts of economically useful works - and which therefore also threatens the jobs of large slices of the population (esp as robotics, thanks to AI, has also sped up tremendously).

~

Politics & Economics: On our current path, this will lead to the rich getting richer and the poor and getting poorer. Especially right now under the current administration. We need to start planning and implementing a transition to a new economic model in a world with little to no need for human labor, particular to produce essential human needs or services.

[actualbird]

I read as much as I could and I just can't believe how accurate you are in your analysis! This comes from a person with a bachelor's film degree, with specialisation in scriptwriting and script editing, so when I say you're absolutely incredible in your writing I even have some authority to say that as a fact! 😂❤️ (Vyn's "I have two degrees" moment is living in my head rent free). You're the only one blog on Tumblr I have notifications on for and genuinely get excited when you post!

I'm not sure if you mentioned this but I think the hardest part about their relationship would be how impulsive Marius is, while Luke always takes a step back and thinks it through, planning things ahead. I can easily imagine them arguing quite a bit because of this. But hey, that's just my opinion 🤷‍♀️

P.S. I sent like an ask a few days back (might even be weeks at this point) and you haven't responded to it? If Tumblr ate it, I can resent it, if you need more time to answer it just please say so, because I've got a few asks get lost in the Tumblr void in the past! ❤️🌺

wahhh, hibiscus!!! you are so sweet!!! (つ﹏<)･ﾟ｡

im....ridiculously glad that u both enjoy my analyses and find them accurate, ESPECIALLY, given ur background omg. im mostly just going crazy at canon information with a shovel, digging DEEP into what we have to answer burning questions i have in my mind. what i end up finding isnt Absolute or The Perfect Answer, but i do like sharing what i get at the end, along with the deranged digging process of how i got there, HAHA

OHHHH MAN YEAH THAT IS VERY INTERESTING!!!! i agree with ur opinion very much!!! marius, while he is smart and does think ahead, is much more impulsive than luke who has planned for probably every single worst case scenario possible KJBKSJFG. DEFINITELY, this is an argument point for them, because neither of them are like....wrong

there are times where going with the flow is more suitable. same way that there are times where being prepared is more suitable.

i actually explore marius' impulsivity in my one marluke fanfic "making out with your bro for fun and for profit" where marius just does or says SO MANY THINGS without thinking and then luke busts into the room and says HEY! CONSEQUENCES, ASSHOLE!

also, oh my god, did you read my mind?? because for ch4 of my other marluke fic "got james bond as a bodyguard over here, lucky me", i was planning for another go of marius doing things without thinking and luke going HEY! CONSEQUENCES!!! but this time....much angrier. like, it's gonna be a whole Argument. capital A. im very excited to write and post it >:3c

but huh, now this is making me think that i want to write something where marius is actually in the right zone. where overpreparing gets luke into trouble and it's marius' turn to get his ass. That's Equality!

EDIT: THO, i do think that, by virtue of being in a relationship with each other, theyll learn to balance each other out. they wont drastically change, itll just be like....luke doesnt worry as much about every detail, marius takes a few more moments to think something through. a relationship, among other things, is about putting in work to make all parties better. a relationship is always, always about growth.

(also!!! i havent gotten an ask from you lately!! the last thing you sent me was a submission screencap from the RRG puzzle which i havent posted bc kjfbgkj im tryna figure out how to fix my submissions. i think ur ask did indeed get eaten by tumblr omg. i'd love to see it, if u could resend!!)

hope you have a nice day :DDD

[edda-grenade]

yes hullo i'd like to hear more about feral verse it sounds G R E A T

@lesquatrechevrons replied to your photoset  “when you’ve just awoken from millennia of slumber and trying to figure…”

I am Delighted by this (as per usual, that art, her glee his ‘oh fuck but also cute but also no’ also she’s so Strok.  gold a++++) and I’d love to know more! Take this as a formal and kind request to see how you see All The Evens play out in this universe, plz *chinhands with starry eyes*                   

STRAP IN :DDD

the basic conceit of feral verse is, as mentioned, that a) solas wakes up like 16 years earlier than in canon, and b) saar’s family wasn’t attacked by an arvaarad troop when she was 17-ish, so she’s still with them by the time she’s 21

and then she finds this strange forest sprite of an elf who is capital W Weird but also A MAGE HOLY SHIT YES TEACH ME

(fun fact, solas goes from WHAT NO ABSOLUTELY NOT to ASK ME ANYTHING in the span of like 3 days. saar’s persistent. and, lbr, he’s drowning on his own)

so these are the big inciting incident changes, and everything else basically flows from there. solas gets progressively pulled into saar’s life despite his best efforts, her vashoth community, the dalish clans with whom they trade and on occasion travel with, mercenaries and surface dwarves and the list goes on. and, like the world and its people do in canon during da:i, it gets under his skin

he teaches her magic and she teaches him whatever random shit he for some reason doesn’t know. it’s very much a give and take, with him being knowledgable about magic, spirits, the fade, and her being knowledgable about this new world that he’s only seen through fragmentary memories (yeah, ngl this verse is also fueled in part by me being grossed out by how often solavellan gets written into a creepy teacher/student dynamic all like, ohhh hahren, ohh da’len BUT I DIGRESS)

far more importantly, saar keeps a running list in her head, ‘reasons solas is most likely not an elf but a sprit/elf hybrid, demon/elf hybrid, some kind of abyssal creature taken physical form, abyssal creature Forced into physical form, escaped blood magic experiment, etc.’ to the point where when she eventually Does find out who & what he really is it’s almost a letdown?

solas: i am fen’harel, ancient not-god of rebellionsaar: fuck, really? my bet was on escaped tevene blood magic experiment, now i owe my mom a new knifesolas: …………excuse me, what

there’s still a looot of stuff where i’m working out the details of how and when but the trajectory then is that saar eventually finds out basically everything the inq also knows by the end of trespasser, MEANWHILE solas goes through his usual crisis re: His Duty but the point is. the point is. eventually, they end up on the same page: the veil needs to come down—but slowly.

bit by bit they want to let magic bleed back into the world to some day end up in a future that isn’t arlathan restored exactly as it was, but a better version of it, with magic and spirits but without the godkings and the slavery and all the terrible shit solas tried to seal away the first time

that’s the plan, anyway.

and they set out to make that happen, scraping at the veil, finding places where spirits get twisted into demons and, idk, cleansing them or smth, this part is still very vague in my head (though i’m def gonna incorporate that live-action thing with the mask of fen’harel somehow)

and then, one day, they figure out where solas’s fucking focus is. the orb.

EXCEPT they’re not the only ones after it—corypheus gets his hands on it, meanwhile the mage-templar war is happening and it’s all a big fucking mess and they barely manage to track him to the conclave to try and get it back before he does something terrible and we all know how that goes

the conclave goes up in flames, the breach appears, saar wakes up with the anchor in her hand. and then, when cassandra takes her to the temple and they meet varric and cullen and solas, solas introduces himself

and saar is like WAIT WHAT.

and she gets him alone at the first opportunity to be like, why the fuck are we pretending we don’t know each other??

and he admits that he panicked, maybe, a little bit, in the aftermath of the explosion? but the thing is: they’re both mages, neither of them human, which already puts them at a disadvantage. second, cass & co think saar murdered the divine, she’s the one with the mark and solas is the only one who seems to know anything about the mark, if it was known they came here as a unit it’d make them look GUILTY AS ALL HELL

also, like. technically. they are planning to bring the veil down. just not all at once

tl;dr: da:i happens, but saar and solas are in cahoots and have to pretend they didn’t know each other beforehand, cue shenanigans (& PINING, pls, these two fuckers trying to pretend they’re not in love? hilarious)

and like, obviously this set-up changes A Lot of the character dynamics, i’m working on that, but also pls imagine every fucking instance of solas dropping Hints and Clues bc he can’t fucking help himself and meanwhile saar knows and has to maintain pokerface

vivienne: solas has basically no history and i find that just a tad suspicious, don’t you agree?saar, knowing full well why his backstory is paper-thin and wouldn’t hold up to proper scrutiny for a second: UHHHHHHhave you considered maybe he really is just a feral little forest man, they don’t tend to feature prominently in. like. history.solas, later that day: ‘feral little forest man’, REALLYsaar: you ate a raw rabbit once with your bare handssolas: vhenan, we shared that rabbit

[clarz-cc-archive]

answered June 6, 2020

Q: Hello I've been observing the discussion that you have going on here and I just wanted to say thank you. I really appreciate how you always try to include different points of view and sometimes even play "the advocate of the devil". But i also wanted to ask something. Having all these discussions and stuff don't you feel that as humans we will never agree and will always be fighting about things? Bc that's how i feel lately. What is not hurtful to one group of people will be hurtful to others and there's also many cultural aspects to consider in everything. And it's not even about the real world stuff like racism homofobia etc but like online and fandom stuff etc. If we fight on such a trivial level how can we expect to be united in the real world. For example when BTS were having the concert in Ryadh there was this project of emailing bh bc supposedly the government of the country was violating human rights because of religious beliefs etc but then army that are actually Muslim were hurt by it and saying that that's not true. There were many points to that discussion many feeling hurt and i was like what's the truth?? Am i making judgements based on my culture that are inconsiderate to others circumstances? How do i know? Do i even have the right to have an opinion on this? And it's like that with pretty much everything on Twitter which makes me think "does this even equate to anything in real life?". I've been seeing twitter communists and socialists yelling about how capitalism is wrong and i freaking agree. However, at the same time i live in a country that did experience communism and that is still recovering from the communistic rule (and is right now on socialistic journey but on the right wing of things 🤦‍♀️) I feel like many people yelling about those topics do it to be cool and edgy but when it comes to truly think about it they come up with Utopias that can also be dangerous in many aspects. Anyway. I feel like I'm ranting without topic 🤦‍♀️ what i mean to say is that world is global with social media, trade and stuff but we as people often aren't. We are deeply rooted in our cultures that are so different in regards to religions, traditions and experiences. And considering that, lately i feel like no matter what we do there's always will be someone hurt and that makes me feel powerless. Is this normal? And I also know that I'm speaking from the place of privilege too in comparison to many other positions and that's another point in many discussions ...

A: all i can say is "yeah." YEAH!! i'm abt to get real philosophical here, but allow me to go on what appears to be a tangent for a second: even though i knew it was wrong intellectually, i thought for a long time that there was going to be some hypothetical point in my life where i'd be Okay, like that eventually i would get old enough that i'd reach a life stage where i mostly knew what to do, and where i felt competent, and where i trusted myself. then i turned 30 and felt absolutely NO CLOSER to that hypothetical point, and it was this moment for me of realizing like "oh. no one knows what they're doing, and no one has the answers, and i'm never gonna have them either." life is so complicated, and the world is so complicated, and i think for me getting older has just been this continuous process of realizing just how complicated it is, in ways that i never expected it to be, and i'm sure i'm gonna keep realizing it and that i know absolutely NOTHING yet! in my view, all of life is just about TRYING. everything looks hopeless, and we feel doomed to failure, and we WILL fail, spectacularly and frequently, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't TRY to make things better, and hope that maybe, as a species, we are crawling very slowly toward a future that is even marginally better than the past.

the way i see it, there are people who see how complicated life is and they react by doubling down, by shutting out everything that might make their world more complicated and just pretending that everything is fine and they know they're right; there are people who see those complications, feel hopeless, and give up and stop trying; and there are people who see the complications, probably still feel hopeless in the face of them, and yet choose to get up and be fucking hopeful anyway, because fuck that. one of my favorite poems is by jack gilbert, and in it he says "We must have the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless furnace of this world." everything SUCKS and everything is COMPLICATED, but recognizing and confronting those complications is BRAVE and RADICAL and CHOOSING to find gladness and joy where we can in the face of the overwhelming shittiness of the universe is stubborn and nonsensical and also so necessary. we can TRY to have the conversations, and try to do the work, and try to hope for something better, and be glad anyway. i have no idea if i answered your question. but i think you're doing GREAT!