#but i know this site has no reading comprehension skills

[communistkenobi]

prefacing this post by saying that I am a big enjoyer of “this site has poor reading comprehension” jokes on here, but I think there needs to be better and more precise language about this sort of thing that isn’t bound up in like, the ability to parse text, which is always going to be tied to class and ability. I’m not saying every joke about this site not being able to read is classist/ableist, and I don’t think anyone is making any grand ideological proclamations when dunking on a stupid reply to their post, but the backing behind that kind of joke is, ultimately, “haha you’re an adult that can’t read.”

And aside from some potentially troubling baggage, I don’t even think that’s what’s going on in the first place! I think the more precise (but admittedly less catchy) term for “poor reading comprehension” is something along the lines of chronic incuriosity, or a rigid adherence to normative thinking. if you see a post saying, for example, women shouldn’t have to wear makeup to be viewed as human beings, and the comments are filled with “actually you can just wear some winged eyeliner and foundation it’s not that hard to wear makeup and also women love makeup stop gatekeeping,” what is happening is not a failure to comprehend the text in front of them. these responses are not made in ignorance, as in, they are not the result of a failure to understand the sentence they just read. these responses stem from a refusal to challenge base assumptions, and reacting emotionally to the mental dissonance this causes (probably something along the lines of “I think of myself as progressive but this person is challenging something I like doing and this threatens my weak political instincts”). These people are rejecting the opportunity to analyse the habits and behaviours they previously assumed to be non-political (eg, wearing makeup), and then externalising that rejection as a defence mechanism. That is not a failure to read a sentence, that is a demand to be intellectually coddled, which is very different.

Again, I’m sure people are already aware of this. I enjoy being a hater, and having people constantly swarm your posts with ridiculous and hysterical replies is incredibly frustrating (speaking from a lot of personal experience here lol). This is also not me saying you have to do the coddling and explain to them that they’re being ideologically incurious about the world, you don’t have an obligation to do any of that. but I think framing a person’s failure to be curious about their own biases as “they don’t know how to read” situates the problem as an issue of ignorance or lack of technical skill, instead of the much more prevalent problem of people refusing to be challenged or reconsider things in their life they didn’t think about before. Calling these kinds of people ignorant is just letting them off easy

[olderthannetfic]

Getting this off my chest:

Back from a small fanfic hiatus, and I am absolutely flabbergasted by all of the fic authors now practically begging their readers to READ THE TAGS.

I’ve been seeing this warning written in summaries, in author’s notes, highlighted in all caps in the actual tags. I’ve read so many apologies written by authors in the comments in response to people chastising the author for writing what they wanted to write, for what they tagged correctly — for what essentially comes down to nothing more than having had other people actively ignore their tags or read despite them.

And there seems to be this bizarre, somehow largely accepted idea that it is the creators job and responsibility to beseech their readers to ‘use caution’ and to ‘stay safe’, to ‘be mindful of their health’…

I am beyond confused here.

Since when??? did exercising the most basic form of common sense and acknowledging one’s personal yeas and nays, likes and limitations, become some other random stranger’s burden rather than one’s own? And especially a random person who tagged their work correctly??? Does no one remember how to harness their own powers of discernment and self-regulation???

This little jaunt back onto ao3 has been unlike any that I’ve ever experienced before. What. Happened?????? Who is this new, apparently severely emotionally unstable and obstinately tags-reading resistant audience everyone has come to focus on?

It all feels so out of touch. The basic concept of ao3 is for the reader to seek out what they want, not what they don’t want. And to actually read. But there seems to have been an extremely strong shift away from reading. On ao3. A site built specifically for reading and writing. (And other fandom artistic pursuits, but not my focus, atm; though I’m sure whatever this is has crept steadily into all spaces there.)

Plummeting reading comprehension must be somewhat to blame; the popularity of fanfic amongst younger and wider audiences, as well. But… young people have always been there, as far as my own experiences go, and it was never like this. It’s as if too many readers don’t know how to make good or even practical decisions for themselves anymore, that they’ve lost the skill of choosing, and now believe that they must consume everything that passes before them; — that they have, for some reason, adopted the belief that any turmoil or dislike or discomfort felt within themselves is harm purposely being done to them by the author.

Idk. Idk, idk, idk. It’s just such a bummer to see how much nervousness and distress has entered the community. Authors notes and comments used to be hilarious fun, or a peek into someone else’s real-life world, used to be casual and full of personality, whereas nowadays, there seems to be an underlying hesitancy and distrust, a sort of growing divide between writers and readers, groups which, until recently, very much were not mutually exclusive.

--

Idiots have been around forever. The more you cater to them, the more entitled they get. It's best to shut that shit down fast and use no warnings that indicate a willingness to entertain stupid complaints.

[edenfenixblogs]

I respect your opinion that screenshotting is a normal part of discourse, however, that behavior is restricted to online communications and has only recently become normalized in certain communities, which does not mean that it is normal. I cannot understand that you think my comment about how Jews can function as white in certain contexts has led you to remark the following (forgive me if I mistake you): "I don’t hate you. But I am scared of you. I am scared that you hate me and my people, because so many people do and have shown that they do." Please reconsider your position on deleting both posts, and I offer you my promise that I will never speak to anyone on this site on any issue ever again, as I have very rarely ever used this site for that reason. I respect your feelings regarding virulent hate that you've received in comments, but I am a very private person, and I do not like having my blog name across parts of tumblr that I do not frequent. I only responded when your post came across my dash by chance because the statement that Jews are emphatically not white struck me as ludicrous insofar that it suggests that there is a kind of immutable Whiteness that *is* real. In the course of my response, I have been called an "ass" by your followers; a lifelong reader, my "reading comprehension" has been insulted by one excessively pleasant Jennifer; I was told that "race as a social construct is very much real" by someone in Germany, as if I don't know that after living my entire life as a woman of color in America. I have been, in short, utterly baffled and horrified by my communications with all of you. My comments were not intended to be a statement on antisemitism, or whether Jewish pain is real (of which I believe you accused me), or whether Jewish people can be considered "other" in this century or centuries past, but that is how they have been universally interpreted by you and your bullying, hectoring followers.

So there’s a lot going on here. And I’m not sure how I feel about all of it. So I’ll attempt to break it down.

1. I respect that you’re a private person. I will consider altering my post so that my commentary beneath it is removed on only your words as you wrote them will be visible. I will also delete your username from the screenshots. I may also delete the post entirely, but if I do that’s something I’ll need to mull over for a few hours to a few days. The reason I cannot outright commit to deleting the whole thing right now is because of the aforementioned need to archive comments that trigger trauma responses in Jewish communities.

2. I don’t want you to feel like you cannot speak on any issue. You can and should speak on issues if you’re passionate about them. But you should understand that when you’re speaking on communities of which you are not a part, you may be met with ire at the way you speak on things triggers issues you may previously have been unaware of. And not everyone will be patient or kind when you do so.

3. Name calling is not something I encourage or participate in. Followers, please don’t call people names on my behalf, although I very much appreciate your attempt to defend me. It is not necessary and doesn’t foster peace.

4. I don’t think you understand: your reading comprehension was poor in this case. This is not an indictment of your intelligence broadly speaking, nor is it an indictment of your general reading comprehension skills. The point of my post was to explain that the racial categorization of Jews is unfixed. Even white-passing Jews have to contend with uncertainty of how they are perceived with the ever present fear that this can change at any time. While some Jews may self-identify as white, most that I have met do not. Neither do many of us identify as POC. We are a liminal group in between.

There is a lot of discourse about Jewish whiteness these days, which I have discussed before on this blog. The main points here are that even white-passing Ashkenazi Jews with some ties to Europe are not white as a result of privilege and therefore our status as white cannot be associated with privilege (although we do of course benefit from white-passing privilege). White-passing Jews with historical ties to Europe are often white as a result of mass murder and sexual assault. Meaning: those of us who were too ethnic appearing for Europe were murdered. Those of us who looked “white enough” were sexually assaulted and forced to bear the whiter children of their rapists. This was done so thoroughly to Jews over the course of a few centuries in Europe that many of the surviving Jews with European ancestry today have whiter skin than many of our Sephardi or Mizrahi counterparts. And while other “white”peoples in Europe benefited from their European appearance during the previous few centuries, Jews did not. In most countries we were forced to live in ghettos, denied citizenship, only allowed to work certain jobs and then demonized as if we conspired to control those industries before finally being slaughtered in the millions by people who despised us specifically for being not white enough. In fact, Hitler described as an “Asiatic race.” American white supremacists consider us middle eastern usurpers, as do many European white supremacists. In the Middle East they call us white colonizers. And none of this has anything to do with how we look. It has everything to do with what those who condemn us hate most. Which is why I made my initial post in the first place.

Jewish white passing privilege in the United States is completely different than Irish or Italian white privileged, because of the historical circumstances surrounding our perception in Europe, America, and around the world.

And none of this even begins to touch on the infinitely nuanced experiences of black and brown Jews in America, Europe, and elsewhere. Nor does this address the loss of whiteness experienced by gerim (Jews by choice) who grew up with full white privilege and have experienced a distinct loss of that privilege after conversion.

Jews as a people predate the modern concepts and categorizations of race, religion, and ethnicity. These are words and concepts that came into existence long after Jews already existed. And as such, these terms often fail to account for our experiences in myriad ways.

To put it mildly, race as a concept is a very thorny topic for Jews.

5. If my statement struck you as ludicrous, a better course of action would have been to ask what I meant or to look into what I have already said on the subject in reblogs of that very post. But you didn’t. You came into a post by a Jewish person and imposed your understanding and definition of race onto us. As so often happens by non-Jews. And then you spoke down to us by calling us fools. That hurt. Not just emotionally. It hurt in that it causes harm to my community by thoughtlessly igniting cultural wounds. In future, if you see a cultural group of any kind talking about an experience that strikes you as ludicrous, seek understanding. Seek to understand why we feel that way.

6. I did not bully you. Nor did my followers, except those who chose to call you names. Which I do not endorse. We expressed anger at you, because we are angry. We have a right to both feel and express that anger. We are not bullies for having feelings and communicating them. While I always advocate for civility, we do not owe politeness to those who harm us. We should not meet harm with harm. But we don’t have to always be perfect and kind and sweet and understanding. Sometimes, we can be angry.

7. We have all agreed that race is a construct. You. Me. My followers. The German person who you mentioned. What we are having a miscommunication about is how the status of race as a construct uniquely affects Jews in ways that are different from the experiences of both white people in Europe and America as well as from the experiences of other racial and ethnic minority groups. We all know that whiteness is not immutable. What we are all trying to communicate to you is that whiteness as a concept does not now nor has it ever been fully applied to or embraced by Jews as a community.

I want to be very clear: I still don’t hate you. I’m upset about the whole situation—both our conflict here and the status and topic of Jewish ethnicity more broadly. I am trying very hard here to speak clearly and with understanding and compassion for you and your privacy while also remaining steadfast in communicating the feelings of my fellow Jews in hopes that you will understand how and why we have reacted to you in the way that we have. I am also terrified that you will walk away from this interaction feeling negatively about Jews in general and that this will be my fault. Because any less than perfectly sweet and emphatically kind behavior from us as a community so often held as evidence of our terrible [insert negative quality here] and used as an excuse to write us off.

I can tell that you don’t mean us harm as a group nor do you want to be perceived as antisemitic. But just like any systemic prejudice, it must be actively dismantled. Until it is examined and dismantled, its existence will continue to lead you to unintentionally harm us. Antisemitism is a deeply ingrained systemic prejudice. Literally everyone has it until they do the work to get rid of it. That is what I am asking of you. That is what my followers are asking of you. Even if we didn’t ask in the most perfectly polite and self-effacing way.

[whatbigotspost]

God damn it. One of my least favorite things about being on tumblr.com is the fact that someone is always going to say the main point of my post back to me as if I wasn’t saying it in the first place.

This is definitely a phenomenon specific to this platform for me, but that might be because this is the only social media where I actually write things a bit longer. I have no idea, maybe other sites have this occurring too. But for me, it’s a Tumblr thing.

Basically it feels like no matter what I do, if my posts “breach containment” as one might say, I can seemingly never words things in a way that won’t have somebody at some point re-blogging where they say “ACTUALLY…..” and launch into a slightly reworded but fundamentally IDENTICAL main point a different way than I said it. 

It drives me up the wall. Of course, the solution is to just ignore this and move on with my life. But it’s so hard. I try to be so extremely intentional and clear and detailed with the language that I use when I’m writing. When somebody has so egregiously not comprehended what I’ve said that they think that I’m not even saying the thing I’m saying, well it really gets under my skin. And I know right now we’re in that whole space of being judgmental about other peoples reading comprehension skills, but when you���re on a website for 13 years with this continuously occurring in large and small ways, it’s hard not to notice over and over.

And I might think it was a “me thing” if I didn’t see it crossing my dash happenening to other people all the time as well.

Anyway, it’s pretty much a weekly occurrence for me to wake up and see something in my notes where somebody starts their post with a big ACTUALLY and end it with a thing that makes me think “yeah, no shit that’s what I was saying the whole time.”

[flower-boi16]

I would like to ask what your opinion is on MDHWrites's blog, or some of his most comprehensive takes criticizing the show at large, for he's covered a lot of ground. What is your regard for his opinions, if you have seen it.

The second I saw this ask pop up in my inbox my thought was "should I even answer this?". On one hand, I would like to express my opinions on Writes' TOH takes since I have er...strong feelings about some of them, but on the other hand part of me still feels a bit iffy about it.

For my 200+ followers who don't know who tf this anon is talking about; MDHWrites is a tumblr user who makes a heavy amount of posts critisizing TOH, he's kind of the most well-known TOH critic on this site, at least in the TOH critical commuinity (and yes, TOH has a critical commuinity).

I remember once randomly stumbling across Writes' blog when I was new to tumblr and first discovered that critical tags were a thing and I started reading some of his posts. I don't remember exactly what all the posts I read said but I do vaguely remember some of the points Writes' made in the posts.

This was at a time where I kinda just accepted critisicm of things I liked rather than actually thinking about the validetly of the takes, and since Writes' posts sounded proffesional enough (and because I went on the toh critical tag and watched videos critisizing the show WAY too much) I think I kinda just forgot why I liked the show in the first place...? I know that sounds weird but I first watched TOH when I was 13 (I'm 14 now) and my analysis skills were still developing at the time.

A couple of months later after I rewatched The Owl House and fell back in love with the show leading me to grow an attatchment to it that was stronger than ever before I thought back to Writes' posts and decided to revist his blog and read a handful of posts out of curiosity to see what his points were. And...I thought going in that there might be some good points about the show but...I can't really say I agree with any of his takes.

While I don't Writes' TOH takes are Lily Orchard levels of infuriatingly media illiterate, and Writes' doesn't look like a bad person...I don't think his TOH takes are that good. They sounded professional at first but everytime I think about them I notice more holes. That's all I'm going to say. I don't want to cover Writes' TOH takes in detail because I know some might alert him of this post, he'll see it and I'll end up starting an argument I don't really want that.

I guess I'll just say that I think his comments about the understood scene in the posts I read feel like he completely missed the point of it. The scene is meant to be a moment of realization for Luz of what she truely wanted, it's not intended to be a "character finish" and just because she realized what ultimately wanted doesn't mean that her self-loathing and guilt of helping Belos is just going to go away.

He even goes as far as to say it doesn't matter to Luz as a character in his post about filler in TOH, where he labled several episodes that are extremely important for outside context as "filler" by the standards of the general commuinity that complains about Amphibia's filler (that post is a whole other can of worms that I don't want to get into) which is just....baffling.

I could also get into things like Writes' takes on Luz's depression arc or his post about Waffles or his post about grom factor (a fan comic by moringmark) but again I don't want to say anymore things here beyond that.

I just don't agree with most of the takes that Writes has on the show. I will say sometimes he makes interesting points like his post about why the boiling isles woulden't work as a setting to a sequel series which does raise some valid points and his analysis of Boscha's "redemption" on my post that he reblogged was fairly interesting (though his reasons for Luz reaching out to the collector not making any sense weren't valid to me) but overall I don't care for his TOH takes.

[just-rogi]

“I DO NOT DREAM OF LABOR” this “LATE STAGE CAPITALIST BRAINROT” that- well I do. I do dream of labor. Idleness makes my hands buzz and my eyes glaze over. Of course I enjoy rest (what little of it I get with my job) but ultimately, yes, I do dream of labor. Labor is what I dream of most in fact-

I dream of creating : of having time to knit and sew and embroider my own garments, rather than let my yarn collect dust in my closet. I dream of creating poetry and art and spending hours illustrating something beautiful and having the time and energy to focus only on that.

I dream of biking the back roads of my town with my brother again collecting litter that we see and filling up plastic bags to sort into recycling and trash (two summers ago was the last time we biked together- the litter is building up now in the ditches).

I dream of tilling the soil in my mothers garden and watering the tomatoes and peppers and zucchini and Persian squash in the garden until I can harvest it. I dream of watering my neighbors garden and feeding her chickens every morning and every evening while they are away on vacation for a week. I dream of driving to my grandmothers house twice a week and bringing her fresh fruit bread and vegetables and cooking for her while she sits in the sun eating tomato salad I made.

I dream of mowing my mothers lawn and making my brother lunch and baking treats for the teachers room at work.

I dream of academia and dedicating hours to research to archaeology and anthropology and spending long hours on dig sites and in the lab as that was when I was the happiest in college.

I am one of the few people who can say that I really, truly, from the bottom of my heart, love my job and come home from work feeling a sense of fulfillment and pride in my work. I am a teacher and I dream of spending hours teaching children to read, teaching ancient civ and history, of reading texts on effecting teaching methods and finding interesting assignments for them. I dream of teaching them to draw during their free periods. I dream of taking them to the library to practice reading and language comprehension skills- of taking the time to sit with middle schoolers with learning disabilities and dedicate my time and energy to teaching them how to be functional adults and making their lives better. I dream of labor, yes, and I would bet that most of the tiktok communists who say “I do not dream of labor” fucking do to.

Labor is fulfilling. Humans dream to create and do something worthwhile- otherwise we lose our minds! But we are at such a late stage capitalism here in the west (specifically America) that we associate labor with exploitative labor.

I love my job- but I do not dream of skipping my lunch break. I do not dream of working 8:45-4:00. I do not dream of staying after work until 4:35 unpaid. I do not dream of small classrooms with little supplies. I do not dream of understaffed schools and overstuffed classrooms forcing teachers to stretch themselves too to pick up the slack. I do not dream of sending emails after working hours. I do not dream of forty minute unpaid commute due to dysfunctional public transport. I do not dream of coming home and crying from stress every night. I do not dream of my feet and ankles swelling and hurting so badly after a full day of work that all I can do when I get home is shower and sleep with my feet elevated to lessen the pain enough to slip my shoes on the next day. I do not dream of the pay being such that I have to live with four roomates in the city I live in, AS A CITY EMPLOYEE!!! IM A FUCKING PUBLIC SERVANT!! I WORK FOR THE CITY BUT DONT GET PAID ENOUGH TO LIVE IN THE CITY!!

I do dream of labor fuck I love labor but exploitation has made me resent work which I should love, and has taken up so much of my time that I have no energy to garden or to clean the roads or to knit gifts for friends and family anymore. I know that there are people who dream of being truck drivers and baristas and grocery store employees. I know that there are people who would feel fulfilled by being garbage men and construction workers and dishwashers, but who can’t because the abuse would kill them and the hours are too long.

I dream of labor I’m a world where I am not abused and where all my basic needs are met - I dream of labor in a world where labor isn’t the price of being alive, but rather one of the many joys of it.

[mortalmab]

I’m not done talking about Beware of Chicken, actually. This book has a thruple that is only subtext by the skin of its fucking teeth and only subtext if you have no critical reading skills (character A referring to character B as his wife while character D tells character A and C to have a nice time on their date. A making a comment about ‘it’s nice to come home after visiting other hen’s coops’ and then realizes it sounds like he went and sleep around while B and C turn to ‘give him the gimlet eye’)

Like, the only reason I call it subtext and not just textual is because the text does not explicitly state that the three of them are in a romantic relationship and I know how the reading comprehension on this webbed site is.

And yet there are no jealousy arcs, no double dealing, none of that bullshit. Just wholesome polyamory.

Then it has another thruple explicitly stated in a flashback where we get this one ancient emperor’s whole life story from his POV.

And to FURTHER make my poly little heart beat in paroxysms of joy, the main character (Jin) has the best most badass wonderful wife (Meiling)…and Meimei will not stop flirting with the cultivator woman (Xiulan) who is repeatedly described as the most beautiful woman anyone has ever seen. Like “You are always welcome in our bed, Xiulan,” and “I’ll get you in my bed one day!” And just a constant tease and flirt while Jin just sighs and allows random strangers to think Xiulan is his wife so they don’t treat her like a piece of ass - which leads to his own wife getting mistaken for the maid and she never gets mad about this, just eggs them on. She is GUNNING for this poly triad or at LEAST to have a second partner herself.

Meanwhile, Xiulan is SO ace-coded (to me). Possibly also aro-coded, but I’m not gonna stake my life on it. She just rolls her eyes at Meimei or she and Jin team up to tease Meimei, and then she snuggles with her in the bath while they take an opportunity to ogle Jin together. This is the slowest of slow burns and if something isn’t canonized I’m eat my phone. Everyone who meets them (who knows Meimei is the wife) assumes Xiulan is his concubine - even her own father!

I do not often see this much positive poly representation in such a wholesome book and I squeal every time it happens. There is so much more but I want y’all to read it yourselves.

[pestis-blight]

Ugh I had a whole essay I was gonna write with big critical analysis but here's a shit post instead until then

CV rogues be like:

Spooky DID wait no -- he's normal TM except when the bird's dead

Why is the man's only vice a fuckin bird ???

LMAO PSYCHOTIC MAN !!! LETS MAKE HIM A RAPIST WHEN HE ISNT LUCID -- the spooky man eggs him on to do this. To harley. In the murder House special.

How is he delusional? Schizophrenia? Let's not at ALL delve into how that works and just say it's "ooo wonderland"

AND ON THAT NOTE! CANNONICALLY QUEER MAN IS NOW HOMOPHOBIC ! WHY

Ohhohoh southern black coded man? He knows. 2 words. 2. And even then the smart white man has to help him :]

I'm sure there's more but I can't be arsed to cite myself or continue which is

Eh

I'm slowly reading through the transcripts

If you get up in arms and say listen to it -- I can't, fuck you, I'm reading

If its not accurate that's a skill (accessibility) issue

Don't come at me like this is a small thing, it's fucking gotten to be considered near as good as cannon

THATS why it deserves valid critical criticism

To the fucker who said "rogues are bad theyll do bad things" you don't fucking understand the criticism they stand for and what the narrative of Gotham is.

You don't understand the fucking point. And I'm not gonna explain K3 comprehension to you.

To the fuckers who send death threats; idk how and learn through demonstration :]

And to all the genuinely good people who aren't the raging minority of this site god bless you for understanding two opinions can exist and it doesn't mean outright war

[psychoticallytrans]

i think it is great that you encourage reading comprehension on your own posts without being condescending

you might have already posted about this (I didnt look yet sorry) do you have any strong feelings about the "lack of reading comprehension" on tumblr

I don't believe it's a tumblr issue. I believe it's an issue of education that is manifesting on Tumblr as well as many other places.

Tumblr skews heavily USAmerican, and our educational system - along with many others, but ours is the one that I know best - has been devaluing the humanities for decades, and I don't believe it has ever done a good job of teaching how to read for understanding of the text. Many "how to read" programs begin and end with students knowing what words they are reading, if not even earlier at just providing people with books.

These programs fill crucial gaps in education, but we also need programs teaching more complex comprehension skills, such as interpretation of authorial intent and how well they succeeded at fulfilling it, the meaning of common metaphors and symbolism, and looking at the source of a text for context. Without these skills being explicitly taught, adults are left stumbling along when it comes to reading and understanding complex texts, or even just ones written by people they don't understand. The phrase "The beautiful whiteness of the countryside" means something very different from a white racist than from an Inuk person, but without looking for and understanding that context, many people will assign the meaning that makes the most sense to them.

However, the bigger problem in my opinion is the aggression and lack of willingness to be wrong that many people with poor reading comprehension have, which makes it impossible for them to learn better comprehension. This, I believe, is due to a much more insidious gap in USAmerican education: the inability to let a student be wrong without it being something wrong with them. A wrong answer on a test is not seen as it should be as an opportunity to learn and do better next time, but as a personal failure on the part of the student and an indication of their worth. Think of how many times you've seen "poor reading comprehension" and "lack of reading comprehension" hurled as insults on this site. Poor reading comprehension is not an indication of morals or character, and should not be treated as such. It is a gap in their education.

This is in good part because of the pressures of standardized testing bleeding down into all parts of our educational system. Standardized testing determines a good part of school funding, so many schools place an incredible amount of strain on the students to try to motivate good scores. This, in many cases, leads to teachers tying praise to good scores and nothing else, and scolding students who score poorly. Since young minds tend to tie praise and scoldings to their self esteem, and school makes up a huge part of children's lives, their self esteem is heavily influenced by the amount of things that they get right in school. Some parents reinforce this at home by only praising children for good scores in school, and frequently scolding and punishing children for poor scores.

Being right means feeling good and being praised, and makes you feel better about yourself. Being wrong means feeling bad and being scolded or even punished, and lowers your self esteem. So of course this leads to people who are very resistant to admitting they are wrong. Of course people don't want to feel bad and like they are going to be scolded or punished. Of course they want to be right all the time and feel good about themselves all the time. Of course this makes it difficult to learn better, because what is there to learn if you have to be right?

That is what I think of the state of reading comprehension on Tumblr. That due to the high proportion of USAmericans, it is heavily influenced by the USAmerican educational system, and specifically by some of its major flaws.

[dxsole]

🎤 GET TO KNOW THE MUN | Dex

NAME?: Dex

PRONOUNS?: please regard my gender as just silly detective that's just how i am, if pressed, u can use she / they / lieutenant

PREFERENCE OF COMMUNICATION?: IMs, you can also chat with my on Discord (pls ask me if u want it!), but I am mostly on tumblr tbh

MOST ACTIVE MUSE(S)?: [pointing at Didi, Lawrence, and Philo] these morons

EXPERIENCE / HOW MANY YEARS?: I've been here since 2011, i have no clue if I have improved, i just know i am here

BEST EXPERIENCE?: just??? making new friends :3 i love u all, ur all going in my pocket. I've known some of you for literal years, it's wild my guy

RP PET PEEVES?: you can't trick me into me saying an opinion on the 'lack of reading comprehension site' lmao. real talk, my brother in christ can we all just read sentences. like MY mutuals are cool but then i see something in like rp tags or in my peripheral about some bullshit where it 100% is just hey maybe...take one...second to consider....this is not a personal attack or maybe it's literally not worth your time. it's ok it has happened to me too. take a breath. none of this is real. we're all ding dongs trying to write some characters on the interwebs my guy.

FLUFF, ANGST, OR SMUT?: in order of operations; smut , fluff, then angst...i love sweet things and smut is fun for development n shit and then...after all the sweet....hit em with a hammer

PLOTS OR MEMES?: MEMES! I can do plotting but i'm like?? a vague plotter...i like winging it tbh bc uhhhh in life there's no plotting u just roll with the shit that hits u...send me a meme and i will put ur muse in a situation, that's IT

LONG OR SHORT REPLIES?: gonna cop out and say medium! one sentence is hard 4 me bc i don't shut up but too long and i'm like AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA bc i forget all the words I've known in my life

TIME TO WRITE?: i am writing while i work lmaooo...9 to 6 babey after that i remove my brain and i can only message silly things to friends

ARE YOU LIKE YOUR MUSE(S)?: i do add like?? one part of me to each of them, but like...if I had to say I am most like Freida and Lázaro...like Freida has my neurotic perfectionism and planning skills but Lázaro has my like it is what it is mentality and love of Hawaiian shirts and those two battle it out every damn day . but tbh ask me what i put in a specific oc, they all get a lil pinch of Dex spice

TAGGED BY: @hellfollowed // thankies~! TAGGING: @allevils, @rennisaturate, @resignedworkaholics, @ofwealthandtaste, @vitalphenomena, and anyone else who wants to do this~!

[torillatavataan]

Read full article by The New York Times

A typical lesson that Saara Martikka gives her students goes like this: She presents her eighth graders with news articles. Together, they discuss: What’s the purpose of the article? How and when was it written? What are the author’s central claims?

Her goal, like that of teachers around Finland, is to help students learn to identify false information.

Finland ranked No. 1 of 41 European countries on resilience against misinformation for the fifth time in a row in a survey published in October by the Open Society Institute in Sofia, Bulgaria. Officials say Finland’s success is not just the result of its strong education system, which is one of the best in the world, but also because of a concerted effort to teach students about fake news. Media literacy is part of the national core curriculum starting in preschool.

While teachers in Finland are required to teach media literacy, they have significant discretion over how to carry out lessons. Mrs. Martikka said she tasked students with editing their own videos and photos to see how easy it was to manipulate information. A teacher in Helsinki, Anna Airas, said she and her students searched words like “vaccination” and discussed how search algorithms worked and why the first results might not always be the most reliable. Other teachers also said that in recent months, during the war in Ukraine, they had used Russian news sites and memes as the basis for a discussion about the effects of state-sponsored propaganda.

Even though today’s teenagers have grown up with social media, that does not mean that they know how to identify and guard against manipulated videos of politicians or news articles on TikTok.

During Mari Uusitalo’s 16 years as a teacher, she has noticed a clear decline in reading comprehension skills, a trend she attributes to students’ spending less time with books and more time with games and watching videos. With poorer reading skills and shorter attention spans, students are more vulnerable to believing fake news or not having enough knowledge about topics to identify misleading or wrong information, she said.

Ms. Uusitalo said her goal was to teach students methods they could use to distinguish between truth and fiction. “I can’t make them think just like me,” she said. “I just have to give them the tools to make up their own opinions.”

Read full article by The New York Times

[besavedbyaperfectkiss]

This is the last thing I'm gonna say and god I hope the person who started this witch hunt for my best friend sees it.

You took one of the most loving, wholesome, wonderful people on this site and tried to make them a villain. And they were seen as a villain since April. Now you're starting it all up again just as it was getting better. That is what I call immaturity at it's finest. This vague posting, "oh i know all their lies" (there aren't any), she bullied all of my friends (no she blocked anyone who she thought was going to trash talk her, her family, friends, etc. all due to a MISUNDERSTANDING which is still happening in your brain because you have no comprehensive reading skills. Read what she actually wrote then get back to me on all your thoughts), several people on here who know her boyfriend irl and actually know he does what he does (he's even my cousin, an actual breathing human!!) including working with a certain singer and yes even talking to her PR manager from time to time (she never once said she talks to Tree directly so get off whatever high ass horse you're on) and everything else she is apparently lying about bc I'm sure all of your dumb evidence will definitely see all of this through and so much more.

You are Not a journalist. This is tumblr dot com. It is Not that serious and yet you want to make others hurt. And congratulations. Molly has left and not only her, but her friends are hurting as well. All because you have some wild delusional list that apparently makes her out to be an evil witch. Try again. Tumblr has never been a place for this. We have moved on. Everyone has. But then there's you. Talk to me if you want actual evidence that you so badly crave. Not people you think might possibly be right. You definitely aren't.

Bottom line stop with the pointless hate, stop with the bullying, stop with the vague posting. I can't not vague post because you blocked me when I never even spoke a word to you.

Be the better person here. We all want to have fun. You took away bingo nights, live blogging with her and her bf, book club, amazing black and white gifsets, a safe space for everyone, a place for great advice, a loving and dear friend to so many, and for what? Your little list? Please.

[mejomonster]

I love reading.

I frequently select novels which are just So Long it takes me weeks to months to finish them. Making speed reading through a couple a week (my dream) unobtainable. I mean, I like reading nonfiction too, and maybe because of old college cramming skills I can read 2-4 400 page nonfiction books a week if Im okay with feeling tired all week.

Which, I have some niche recs if you're into non fiction: Stalking the Wild Pendulum by Bentov, When the Body Says No by Gabor Mate, Peoples History of the United States by Howard Zinn, The Reality of ESP by Russel Targ if youre into remote viewing history, Psychic Discoveries beyond the Iron Curtain by Ostrander and Schroeder on archive.org if youre into parapsychology and looking for other names to look into further since tbh this book is more journalism-entertainment than nonfiction reference also this books fairly old now, Immortal Remains - from a philosophy angle it was okay but frustrating to me except i got some good sources for further reading mentoned... but I prefer the UVA youtube lectures and the research they do since i just tend to prefer reading collected information myself, The Emotion Code - not necessarily informational in a verified sense but if youve ever considered paying money for an emotion code practitioner i liked the book cause i could just Learn the method and try it myself... free... and test and decide for myself regardless of if ifs placebo if its actually helpful to me or not, The Ancient Science and Art of Pranic Healing - this book doesnt have studies sourced as its more about teach The technique but i like that it lists sources for further reading - and its another case of "well i can just learn, test it on myself, see if its helpful or not" also im an absolute nerd about older books and the considerations that went into X book at Their time compared to now... if you ever saw my language learning textbooks collection from 1800s books to 2023 books youd know.

Speaking of here are some Fascinating Language Learning books. If youre curious about the Nature Method as in learn a language IN the lamguage by comprehensible context I recommend Ayan Academy playlists on youtube and the books: English by the Nature Method, Lingua Latina, La Francais Par Le Methode Nature, L'Italiano Secondo il Metodo Natura, Poco a Poco. (I also have many a youtube channel lessons recommendation for this learning method as I prefer it). For textbooks to learn primarily with graded reading materials Ive got: Beginning Chinese, Intermediate Chinese, and Advanced Chinese by John DeFrancis, Spanish for beginners by Charles Duff, French for Beginners Charles Duff, A Japanese Reader: Graded Lessons for Mastering the Written Language by Roy Miller (steep learning curve but decent preparation for reading actual novels and news which is great because i find a lot of japanese textbooks hover at beginner-intermediate but dont bridge all the way to necessary skills to understand complex texts). Cool books: Chinese Self Taught by The Natural Method by John Darroch (old af and some information is outdated and the pinyin system Hurts so focus on actual hanzi - but the grammar explanations are the easiest ive read and enjoyed reading), Japanese in 30 Hours (its basic japanese but it explains basic grammar understandably and helps you get a basic mental framework for the language making further study, i felt, much easier to adjust to, and its a short quick Study Up Basics book - id especially recommend it to people planning to learn using immersion/comprehensible input asap as it will give them a little bit of a skeleton to lean on), japaneseaudiolessons.com is an interesting introduction to audio flashcard lessons (fun fact glossika is just an expensive version of audio flashcard study which are just... audio in target language then a language you understand so you comprehend the sentence meaning and can learn new words/grammar from it by listening) and the site has a free grammar book to accompany it AND the site makers made kanji teaching books that come the closest to providing prewritten mnemonics for meaning AND pronunciation of japanese kanji in book study form. Something i appreciate since heisig books make you Make Up Your Own mnemonics so i find his books useless, and many japanese kanji teaching books that use mnemonics focus on meaning and skip teaching pronunciations since its harder to include multiple pronunciations in a mnemonic. For Chinese hanzi study, my favorite book is Tuttle's Learning Chinese Characters: (HSK Levels 1-3) A Revolutionary New Way to Learn the 800 Most Basic Chinese Characters, the book provides mnemonic stories for pronunciation including tone, and meaning, and example words. Its the backbone of how i learned the first few hundred hanzi and Learned How to personally remember more which made continuing to learn hanzi much easier. Since that Hanzi book, ive been desperate for a similarly written book for japanese kanji and... japaneseaudiolessons.com has the most similar kind of kanji books, but theirs is a drier and therefore harder read.

Anyway wow I got lost ToT back to my older point ayy. I have no time to read these fucking long ass fiction books I keep wanting to read ;-; my focus can resolve to read a nonfiction book in a frantic 6 hours of Research Mode then burn out and lose focus until im up for the next book. But i pick these long ass fiction books, and oddly i seem to read fiction slower so maybe im like savoring it idk. But i took like 2 months to finish Silent Reading by priest so. Yeah i WISH i was getring through these novels a touch faster ;-; i have so many i wanna read. Perplexingly i also read manga super slow, so i guess any fiction i slow down and savor or something

Books im trying desperately to read, to finish, or to get to after finishing my current books: Observations by janon (a fanfic but a great one and im only 30% done after 1 week intensively reading), kamikaze girls (1/3 done then i forgot the book so its been a few months), Old Fashion Cupcake (1/4 thru and the single volume is LONG), Devilman (1/8 through maybe), Sudden Silence (this book is like 200 pages frankly i have no idea why i didnt manage to finish it in a few days), Game of Thrones book 1 (in my defense its an audiobook so im only in like chapter 3 theres a cool youtube guy who does different voices and music for the chapters), The Expanse (i just started), The Dark Forest (book 2 of three body problem series im half done then i forgot it), In The Dark book 1 (1/3 done and its just... not quite getting my attention as well as other stuff i recently read), Little Mushroom (likely to start more solidly once i finish Observations), 2ha (i got volume 4 babey!!), Can Ci Pin (id like to restart and read in earnest im in a sci fi mood lately so i think ill get obsessed with this once i start), Breaking Through the Clouds (my instincts tell me this is most likely the only crime mystery novel thats going to manage to catch my attention after Silent Reading by priest impressed me so damn much its like in my top 5 books i ever read now), discworld (im just reading little snippets as i have time), Final Girl Support Group (1/4 done then i got busy and forgot it - this is by Grady Hendrix and so far ive loved everything they write, I highly recommend My Best Friends Exorcism it was great), Guardian (i have the english translation but im... eternally chugging away at the chinese and at the end of the First Arc which ive reread in chinese like 4 times now i need to just GET PAST THAT PART TO NEW PARTS and i dont really wanna read the english translation until ive read the original so i can compare), so many fucking novels by priest in my to read list... sha po lang, jinse, huai dao, guomen, lord seventh, faraway wanderers, the blue seal, tai sui, liu yao, lhjc, and again Can Ci Pin... then I have Peach Blossom Debt and Imperial Uncle, and Golden Stage on the to read list too... and Thousand Autumns, Peerless. And Wu Chang Jie, and Nightfall (evernight). Oh I also started reading Vampire Hunter D omnibus and that fucker is like 800 pages. Frankly most books i buy are 400-1200 pages. Usually 600 at minimum. Oh i also started reading One Piece manga, got to Sanji's introduction arc, then like most things... i forgot i was reading it and havent picked it back up for weeks. Basically... i try to get through a book but if it takes me more than 3 days (nonfiction usually takes me 1-2 days) then i risk forgetting i was reading it, forgetting for months, picking it back up and having to start over cause i forgot it for too long -.-;

Anyway my point

[fungalfren]

Initial Resources for anyone interested in Mycology

Howdy!

I Thought it'd be best to bring any information I can bring to the table for anyone interested in starting to learn fungi and how to forage by introducing the resources I personally use to identify specimen. Do note, however, that I am in North America, and this could vary drastically from where you are (even coasts have remarkably distinct diversity).

Mushrooms Demystified: A Comprehensive Guide to the Fleshy Fungi - David Arora.

This book is a must have for anyone looking to start, seeing as it has thousands of species at hand. This book gives you the initial jump-in point that many need, as it has sections discussing the ins and outs of how to discern morphology, and how to use the most important concept that you will learn for this topic -- the use of dichotomous keys. If you are unfamiliar, they are essentially flow charts that eventually lead you to the species you have, given that you have correctly identified the physical evidence. Another added benefit is that it uses color plates and other imagery to help get the point across. Keep in mind, however, this book was published in 1979-1986 (in my experience, I have found a good few species that ended up being either completely missing from the book, or have been restructured in its family/genus). Overall, this will give you the best advice on how to get your foot in the door for identification of Fungi.

mushroomexpert.com - Michael Kuo.

This website has been meticulously created by Michael Kuo, a brilliant man with a lot of help from the mycological community. Mushroomexpert.com in my experience has a much more frequently updated AND up to date collection of taxonomy, as well as extra information that you would enjoy having (such as chemical tests, and microscopic evidence). Where Mushrooms Demystified lacks, Kuo's website certainly makes up for it. Now, as he makes it a very important note in the main page of his site -- You will NOT find information on the edibility of Mushrooms on this website, and I support that. If you want to find out what's edible and what's not, that will take years and years of experience with your foraging skill and the environment you live in. Don't expect to be able to eat what you catch for a long, long time.

namyco.org - North American Mycology Association

Now, NAMA may be a little less evident on why you would need this to identify anything! However, this is also a fantastic resource for many things you could need. For starters, you can find your states mycological club and join it! That alone is a benefit -- a community that fosters this research with you. There is also the section about their own publications - which, the more resources the merrier! You can also find many other wings of information that may be important on your way through this wonderful science. (hopefully you heed mine and many others warnings when we say PLEASE DONT EAT THINGS YOU DONT KNOW).

To wrap up this first post, I want to thank you for reading this and I would like to welcome you to Mycology. It's an extremely fascinating field that has grasped my interest to an extreme. The study of fungi is a very new type of field (compared to something, say, like zoology) and still has a lot of wonder and mysteries to be solved. Of course, its not as simple as looking at a mushroom and saying "I know that its this!", you will find that there are many tests and things that you can ponder over to be sure of what you have.

If you want to know where you should start while you wait for your books to come in, id say start here on Michael Kuo's website :

Remember, nothing here is a replacement for formal education and experience, and that I am simply a hobbyist like you. If you have any resources of your own to share, I'll am open to being any information that you have.

Happy Hunting!

[piracytheorist]

2 and 3 please for the violence ask game (I like being nosy and the idea of airing out dirty laundry lol)

2. a compelling argument for why your fave would never top or bottom

(I'm taking this with more of a meaning of dominant and submissive role, respectively) I don't have particular headcanons regarding Loid's sexual preferences (other than him being a-spec), though I believe that he's done both as part of his missions, carefully separating his feelings from the activity so that either role wouldn't matter to him.

So I'm going to talk about Killian instead. And I'm full on the "submissive Killian Jones" train. My argument is that he has trauma and issues over loss of control due to growing up in servitude, and allowing his significant other (Emma, or whoever else) to wield some control over him and their sexual relationship helps him come to terms with his fear. To give up control and not only be treated well by his "master", but to also be given care and support and gratification back (and through the whole thing that what happens is the submissive's choice, so he would choose how things would go but would allow his SO to handle things). I don't know if that's healthy, but the opposite (him becoming dominant to deal with his trauma) could be unhealthy and toxic as fuck because he might see it as a way of "avenging" his past self who had no control and no agency. So yeah, for me, I could never see him wielding control in a sexual relationship like that, and giving up control is what would make him feel more free and relaxed.

3. screenshot or description of the worst take you've seen on tumblr

As a rule I hate keeping screenshots because a) no reason to remember stupid shit people have said just to make myself angry, b) people can change and holding them on to ideas for fictional stories they had from years ago is unfair and c) I've seen people get endlessly harassed over silly tumblr fandom takes, so.

But that doesn't mean I don't REMEMBER horrible takes. Ethan Winters from Resident Evil being a bigot for some reason. Killian Jones from OUAT only wanting to "get in Emma's pants" (and the painful part about that was HOW MANY PEOPLE just outright believed it, like, tell me you haven't watched his scenes without telling me you haven't watched his scenes). Damian Desmond from SxF "never having been a bully".

Ironically, the worst take I've seen about fictional characters in EVER was on twitter, but I'm not gonna go there cause we know what a cesspit that site is and why the people who make such horrible takes do not survive on tumblr.

But yeah I think the absolute most derailed, most biased take and biggest proof of "I haven't watched the original material" is people saying Heisenberg from Resident Evil wanted to help Ethan. Heisenberg, the guy who forced Ethan to fight his way through a stronghold full of lycans hell-bent on killing him, and then fight through Urias too, apparently wanted to help Ethan and also "cared" for Rose. Because throwing Ethan into another death trap after Ethan refused to let him use Rose however he wanted to is how he showed his compassion!

And I'm not talking about people who recognize the difference between canon and fanon. I'm talking people who legit think Heisenberg would be a better romantic partner for Ethan than Mia. They're like "I can excuse using people as objects and leading them into death traps and ignoring their wish to protect their child but I draw the line at lying to your spouse about being a bioterrorist".

And there are people who legit believe that! There are people who are down to fight for Heisenberg's honour and it's the biggest proof that they completely skip the Stronghold part of the game (and most of the factory, I guess, aside from the moments Heisenberg has his monologues through the megaphones). Because I cannot believe watching an entire playthrough or playing through the entire game, with a moderate amount of reading/watching comprehension skills and reach the conclusion that Heisenberg was only "helping" Ethan and that Ethan was wrong to refuse him and kill him. Again, fanon content is different and I respect whatever people want to create. But when it comes to canon interpretations, I do believe that it's the worst, least informed and most biased take I've seen in my years in fandoms.

🔥 choose violence ask game 🔥

[cielles-random-vault]

ressources for a (possible) autism diagnosis, ways you can support autistic people (even after april ends) + my personal symptoms!

as april is autism acceptance/ awareness month here are some ways you can make us feel autistic people more accepted :D

notes: this post is directed towards ALLISTICS. you can still read if you're autistic/neurodivergent but i feel like all im going to write isn't going to be new to you so x) yea /lh

also i alr stated it but the symptoms i will list are only MINE. just because you relate to them doesn't mean you're autistic OK ? ok. also please don't use the resources as a proper diagnosis, I AM NOT A PSYCHIATRIST OK? I AM JUST POSTING THIS TO HELP PEOPLE AND ALLISTICS 👹

this being said, ladders, gentlebeans and gender anarchists (me) luvs, ✨️how can allistics help autistic people!✨️

(in case you're confused you just have to tap on the text when it's underlined, the name of the website is the text written)

1- helpful resources for looking for a future diagnosis

before using the following i highly recommend to list why you think you might be autistic so that you only note what you truly have and don't tend to- "oh i have this symptom too" while you don't /lh

dsm5 criteria (this one's a bit boring tbh my adhd made it hard to read through the whole thing lmao) but it's still good to have an overall look on autism symptoms

same thing as above but as a checklist

CW EYE CONTACT embrace autism's "reading the mind through the eyes" a test in which there are a few faces shown but you only see the eyes and you have to guess the emotion depicted there are around 40 questions and you can't actually click on your answers lol you have to note them and the good answers will be in a table at the end of the test

embrace autism's tests and how the results work (pretty self explanatory c: /lh)

everything you need to know about embrace autism (as far as i'm aware this site is nothing like autism speaks but please let me know if i'm wrong)

2- ways you can support autistic people!

ASK US FOR CONSENT this is not only for autistic people but since being touched is a trigger for most of autistic people ASK US IF YOU CAN TOUCH US AND BE S P E C I F I C (like "can i touch you *speficic body part*?)

don't expect autistic people to be all the same, we all manage our symptoms differently (that's literally why it's called a SPECTRUM everybody experiences differently)

listen to us when we say something you say/do is ableist and/or makes us uncomfortable. i know this is basic common sense but keep in mind that we are humans too.

this is basic common sense but keep in mind that we are humans too.

DO NOT, I REPEAT DO NOT question an autistic person's diagnosis. this is mostly basic common sense but don't go like "but you don't look autistic omg i could never tell you're autistic" first of all that's ableist and second of all MASKING. THAT'S ALL THAT'S THE REASON WHY YOU CANT TELL AUTISTIC PEOPLE ARE AUTISTIC. sorry i sound mad but 💀

be comprehensive. pleaasee understand that some things/situations may be hard for us. like not understanding social cues for example

ask us about our hyperfixations/specific interests!!

USE SPEAKING TONES AND USE THEM CORRECTLY

3- my personal experience with autism and how i try to manage my symptoms"

keep in mind that this is MY experience, everybody experiences autism differently as it is A SPECTRUM also i alr said it but don't use this post as a tool for diagnosis ok? o

ever since i was a kid i always had a lot of friends and i always talked to adults as if it was a normal thing, my parents always were like "don't do this this can be dangerous" but i kept soing this bc to me they were nice

AWFUL TIME MANAGEMENT SKILLS ( it probably has to see w my adhd) but i always arrive an hour too early or 30 minutes late, there is no in between

not liking ppl my age therefore only befriending older/younger ppl

having a "higher than average" intelligence (it led me to a burnout 💀/lh)

not understanding undertones esp irl ones, and having trouble telling the difference between platonic and romanic feelings

having a hard time identifying my identity (esp gender one) (xenogenders here i come /pos)

either feeling everyone's emotions or nothing at all, also having no empathy because i never know how i have to feel for example right after they vent to me

liking "more adult" stuff such as psychology and murders, yet liking very childhish stuff

pattern recognition, like always guessing how movies end/ who the killer is

finding deep interests in subjects that are not common to my age

low to no empathy, not knowing how to react when ppl vent to me/talk to me abt sensitive subjects

always seeing things as a spectrum, instead of a "yes or no" perspective i always see things as "yes,no, maybe" like nothing is binary

not knowing when things are inappropriate, always saying my mind

staring at things/people i find pretty because they're visually stimulating

so many more tbh but i think that's alr a lot x)

ty for reading ily! im sorry this took weeks bc of procrastination 😭

ily have a nice day! - kanahari/ @kana-has-no-rizz 🩶