#but this IS the Piss On The Poor website

[shadowkat678]

I know there are people here who'll absolutely misconstrue my words, so before I continue, this is NOT a justification for awful actions or choices or beliefs.

HOWEVER! (Yeah I know, always a great start to a post)

It seems very... unhealthy when I stumble across responses or posts in a certain vain talking about groups of bad people in the context, say, of like law enforcement or conservatives or military or whatever where people instantly paint them as "They JUST wanted to do x, y, or z because it lets them feel this or hurt these people or gives them an excuse to give into their darkest impulses".

Like. It's not necessarily always wrong. But I think there's a habit of going "No, they're lying when they say they want to (Insert positive intention here, such as serve their communities, Protect The Children, uphold values they believe help people, whatever), and that is an excuse to hide behind." and turning it into...I don't know.

Cardboard cutouts to put all our grievances and anger and pain on that simplify bad people into things we don't have to have any relation to. Something simple and straightforward and easy to dismiss without being hurt as much by their choices more than you have to already be.

But people often do fall into harmful ideologies and groups fully buying, still even to the end buying, the reasons they give. That's what justification is! People want to feel like they're backing something or doing something that matters! That makes them feel good or vindicated or heroic!

The road to hell IS paved with good intentions, and that's one reason people double down so much! Even with facts shoved right in your face, how do you reconcile everything you built around yourself being a lie? That you hurt people? That you're not even the story's villain often, but a pawn of lackey of a greater evil?

That's why we praise those who escape that, right? It's hard. It hurts. Your entire perceived reality crumbles around you. To face that and accept it anyway, then strive to be better, and find ways to undo the harm is an enormous life altering choice that could lose you so much. And it's terrifying.

And added on to that, you have to do so facing people who may rightfully hate you. It'd be so much easier to continue falling further in, with people who justify your actions and offer you compassion and kindness while everyone else is calling you a monster, but YOU know you're not a monster, right? You're just trying to do what's best. Your beliefs are justified. They have to be.

Of course you're a good cop, you bought that mother who couldn't afford a booster seat one instead of ticketing her, right? I mean maybe you couldn't let everyone off, and some people unfortunately get hurt or can't afford rent because you didn't let them off when you caught them going 10mph over the speed limit but they could control that more so why is that your fault? Yeah you defended the cop that got accused of shooting something wrongly, but it was a mistake. People make mistakes don't they? And you know his family. He's been on patrol with you.

He's a good guy, it was just a mistake. You're a good guy. If you hold him to his mistakes, what about yours?

This isn't, AGAIN, saying not to hold people to their choices. This is not a justification post. But there's a very real fear I have, that if you go too far in forgetting those in the wrong are complex, people who have love, redeeming qualities, and humanity...well, how do we recognize ourselves when we fall down our own holes?

When we justify our own actions. Because we're good people, right? Isn't that how exclusionists happen, leaning so hard into doing this to PROTECT other vulnerable populations from infiltration and abuse, for example? How The Good Feminists justify turning their pain and honing it as a weapon against sex workers, men as a whole always being a dangerous force to constantly guard against (specifically referencing the harm done by ignoring intersectional struggles and the way the patriarchy hurts literally everyone, which by the way I fell into for a while too), etc etc etc etc etc

It's easy to other those who've hurt us and paint them as monsters. But in forgetting the complexity of those who hurt us, we open ourselves to blindspots, and also further push away those who might be on the fence to turn away from these harmful choices and beliefs.

I think we do ourselves a disservice in not understanding the more scary evil of those we fight against. That they're just people, and we could very well fall into our own traps. That evil is often not that of cackling villains fooling everyone around them while enjoying the harm they cause, but individuals justifying their actions through their own fear, anger, distrust, misplaced intent, or prideful arrogance.

You can hate them just as much! Their actions are just as reprehensible!

You don't need to flatten the complexity of your enemies as fully fledged people to oppose them and what they've done!

[fieldlands]

i feel like it's absolutely crucial in the social justice world to take "he a little confused but he got the spirit" and similar sentiments/situations as a Win. intent is so much more important than saying it right the first time! if someone is approaching with scuffed language and incorrect terms but they're visibly being as polite as they know how, that person is a friend and should be treated better than what their words might invite in someone else's mouth.

[unforth]

Actually I love voting for the lesser evil. It's less evil. I support that whole heartedly.

[persephinae]

if you have not had covid yet please help out science and complete this survey - https://covid-long.com/

EDIT: i'm stopping reblogs because i'm tired of seeing people who can't read in my notes

the website was made for all however they're SPECIFICALLY ASKING for people who have not had Covid.

[possum-apologist]

how does being a former DA who prosecuted child abuse cases make someone a cop

I was a coordinator in our DA's child protection unit, does that make me a cop?

does prosecuting child abusers make someone the equivalent of a genocidal war criminal or a felon with a known history of sexual assault?

[creature-wizard]

Did a post upset you? Thinking about writing a response? Hold up!

Are you sure you read it correctly?

Are you sure you didn't skip over any words or sentences or even whole paragraphs?

Are you sure you didn't read malicious intentions into it that just weren't there?

Before writing your angry retort, get up, get a drink, walk around a bit, and then read the post again, slowly and carefully.

You will either determine that:

1: The post didn't actually say what you thought it said, and you can leave an innocent person on Tumblr unbothered.

2: The post really did say that - and now you're in a better place to decide whether it's really worth your time to write a reply or not. And if you decide to write a reply, you'll be in a better place to articulate why it's bad.

It's a win/win strategy.

[mokeonn]

"you have more options for an art career than just commissions and hoping for online popularity to pay the bills." "No I don't :("

[antiyourwokehomophobia2]

I wish women did not feel so strongly about the fact men, on average, are physically stronger than them. I feel like women have such negative feelings about this that it drives them to ridiculousness. Listen, I get it. I get it, I get it, I get it. The fact men are stronger is frightening. It’s scary to know that if a man decided to physically attack you then you are probably fucked. The USWNT, women who have spent years honing their skills on the field, lost to teenage boys who—when compared to the women—were basically just beginning to develop their talents. I understand how demeaning that can feel to every woman who hears this fact. I can imagine how demeaning it was for the USWNT. I’m sure every woman has been in a situation, playful or threatening, where they have tested their strength against a man and lost miserably. I’ve seen videos where women hit and slapped men with genuine rage and fury and the man barely even flinched. I understand how embarrassing and scary it can be to come to terms with the strength disparity between men and women, but you simply must come to terms with it. Far too many women have taken to pretending that it's not there—this is not a good approach.

Women choose to pretend it's not there because acknowledging that it's there makes them feel inferior. I ask women to remember that this world was built with the ideals of men in mind and to cater to their specific strengths. Men value strength and violence so of course the world is going to seem like those two things are all that’s valued in it. It's no coincidence that many male heroes are physically strong/easily able to cause harm—such as Naruto or John Wick or the Avengers. Of course it feels shitty, as a woman who inhabits this world, to have to acknowledge that your biology generally prevents you from being able to have the ‘can beat anyone in a fight’ type of strength that gets constantly praised.

However, I implore women to consider that men being physically stronger than them is no more of a significant fact than women being able to give birth while men cannot. Women also have biological advantages over men but when was the last time you saw a man calling himself inferior because of them? Imagine if the world was built with female advantages in mind. Imagine a world where the ability to give birth was seen as some sort of pinnacle of human worth. I mean, the ability to give birth is crazy. You are literally creating a whole new life. The female body is capable of providing the necessary tools to bring about a whole new person. Every brain that has thought of something life changing and every hand that has built something new was brought into existence by a woman’s reproductive system. Every single person that has ever so much as breathed was brought to life by a woman, but men never think women are superior for this fact.

Oh, but women couldn’t get pregnant without men, right? No. IVF exists. But even without it, the correct thing to say would be that women cannot get pregnant without sperm. A woman can get artificially inseminated. She never has to go out and find a man to have sex with. Is that not an advantage? Because, I mean, what can a man do if he wants to have a child but no woman is willing to give him one? Hire a surrogate? That comes with a list of complications, is far more intimate than artificial insemination, and is incredibly expensive. How is that not a disadvantage of being male? You may be thinking that you, as a woman, never want to become pregnant, but that is not the point!  The point is that it's arbitrary to look at biological advantages as anything other than completely neutral.

Women also survive famine better and live longer than men. Imagine a world where women held this over men’s heads? But we don’t live in that world. In this world, I’m certain a man would say that they die sooner because of being braver, taking more risks, and doing dangerous jobs. However, if it were women putting themselves in danger and dying as a result, men would not be quick to call us brave; they'd call us the opposite. Idiotic. Foolhardy. Too stupid to take the necessary precautions to keep ourselves alive.

It is just so painful to see women lamenting over the physical disparity between men and women. Let it go. Consider being neutral on the subject of biological advantage. Consider that male strength isn't something to pretend doesn't exist and isn’t something that proves women are inferior.

I understand that acknowledging vulnerability is against the survival Instinct—I get it—but come on. How can we let this get to a point where we’re saying it’s okay for males to enter female sports and beat the absolute crap out of/wipe the floor with women? Them being stronger is neutral! It does not mean anything! But it��s fact. Pretending it’s not only serves to put women in a losing position. Pretending it’s not only serves to make women into a laughing stock. Men will gladly collect medals that belong to women—they’ve been doing that forever. If there was no reason for male and female leagues then there wouldn’t be any. You cannot deny your way into something being true. I also wish it were true that the average woman was evenly matched against the average man, but it’s simply not reality. In the same way that it’s not reality that the average woman is taller than the average man.

I am begging women to think neutrally about this topic instead of being in such deep turmoil over it that they open the door for men to walk all over us.

[t00thpasteface]

i've been seeing this recurring genre of solipsistic, "everyone's stupid but me" posts complaining about seeing fandom stuff in fandom tags on the fandom website for about a decade now and it's always just felt like this to me

[tevanbuckley]

so ftr I normally detest the “but why can’t straight men just be friends???” line, 9/10 times it’s just no homo wearing a progressive wig, and frankly the idea that close hetero male friendships are underrepresented in fiction is a little ludicrous especially compared to explicitly queer male relationships.

at the same time though, insisting that every interaction between the newly out bi man and his canonically straight friend is proof of their impending love affair just hits a little different. by 7.05 buck and eddie couldn’t so much as express an emotion in the vicinity of one another without someone screaming that it was proof bvddie canon was only around the corner. all whilst a lot of the same ppl were deliberately reading the “opposing” canon queer relationship not only in bad faith but in ways that more often than not played into homophobic tropes.

[the-real-list-of-ominous-threats]

I'm going to make you see a post that isn't 100% wrong but completely ignores nuance and accuses a very large proportion of people of evils they haven't really committed in its black and white take. You will want to rewrite it to better phrase the (not incorrect) core message, but also be worried that if you do, you'll create massive arguments.

[dadvans]

made the mistake of briefly getting on non-tumblr social media and holy shit lmao no wonder oliver stark bailed on this fandom, yikes yikes yikes yikes yikes

[sashayed]

"why would king charles commission this portrait" listen man idk but as someone born inside the spiked crown of the death machine, as someone whose kindergarten classmates were the heirs to the american empire, i suspect that the very privileged cannot imagine how to take responsibility but DO want to tell you that they know they should. sometimes powerful people want to believe that acknowledgement is as good as atonement, or that recognition is as good as reparation. the "sry 😔" of royal portraiture. i think plenty of the old men who pilot the dragons gnawing the heart of the world are HOPING to dissolve into a fine red mist. i think they know that fading into their own bloody ancestral legacy is probably the kindest fate they can ask for. they are glutted and exhausted and full of flesh and they know it's their turn to be eaten, but still, they'd really rather you do it symbolically. "look at this painting, isn't that enough? isn't that what you wanted? will you please stop being so angry now?" edit of course also he might simply be very stupid

[grecoromanyaoi]

just saw a take that basically said its islamophobic that greeks dont culturally identify w the empire that conquered them, occupied them n forced their culture on them. now i can retire from the internet bc ive officially seen everything

[mothfinite]

tbh theres been something bugging me with all the conversations regarding this communities lesbophobia and misogyny recently. im glad people are making posts about it of course, making blogs and posts uplifting and drawing attention to lesbian selfshippers especially those who mainly or exclusively ship with canonical women, its an important topic and should be talked about!!!!

but. in some cases it feels like nonbinary lesbians, especially those who consider themselves unaligned/dont identify as a woman/wlw, are kinda... ignored? and its. uncomfortable, in a way.

and this isnt just like a selfship problem obviously, its a widespread thing that often nonbinary people are by default assumed to be woman lite™️ ESPECIALLY when identifying as a lesbian. as a teenager i struggled so hard with my orientation because of these invisible guidlines. i was uncomfortable identifying as a lesbian because i was scared of how other people would percieve me, a (typically) agender person whos deeply uncomfortable being seen as a girl.

but it still hurts a bit to see posts about bringing attention to lesbian selfshippers be exclusively about wlw, glossing over the existence of nblw/unaligned/genderfuck lesbians. i think of my teenage self struggling with connecting with the lesbian community because even though i resonated with the lesbian label, it felt like i wasnt allowed, because im not a woman.

to nby lesbian selfshippers who dont identify as women/wlw: i see you. you are valid. your f/os love you. you are not alone. ❤️🧡🤍🩷💜

(pr0ship/c0mship dni)

[ridibulous]

everyone's able to be affected by transmisogyny dipshit it came free with your fucking (inter)sexist and queerphobic society /ref