#incoming mobility situation

[jewishfalin]

Disabled Jewish Butch in need- that's me...

Hi I'm Birdy. I'm autistic, struggle with mobility, ptsd, and other things. I am unemployed with no income. I had been kicked out of 2 abusive housing situations and now I am being housed by a close friend and their foster family in another state from where I was before, and am trying to survive it all. Though I have more support than previously, my support system is still very small so I really need help.

I need money for transportation, medication, food, hygiene, you know, the basics. I'm also trying to save for a new phone, as mine is literally around 10 years old and reaching its limits, not to mention on my abusive father's phone plan still, of whom I am trying to cut out of my life. Also need to change my name. Shit sucks.

Anything helps, please share.

paypal - ko-fi - venmo

[lambentplume]

Maui Fires & How to Support Relief Efforts

(Posted on 8/10/23) Hi, I'm Jae and my family is from Lāhainā. I watched my hometown burn down this week. The fires caused immeasurable loss in my community so I'd like to spread awareness of the situation as well as provide links to support local organizations directly assisting survivors. I'm pretty sure most of my following is Not local so I'm writing with intent to inform people outside the situation, but if you're reading this and happen to have family in the affected area that isn't accounted for, message me and I can send you the links to the missing persons tracking docs + more localized info!! If you'd like to skip down to how to help and follow community organizations, scroll to the bottom of the post after the image.

Earlier this week, Hurricane Dora passed south of the Hawaiian Islands, bringing strong wind gusts that caused property damage across the islands. On Tuesday August 8, high winds caused sparks to fly in the middle of Lāhainā town, knocking out power lines and immediately igniting drought-ridden grasses. The fire spread quickly and destroyed the entire center of town, the harbor, and multiple neighborhoods including Hawaiian Homes (housing specifically for Native Hawaiians), parts of Lahainaluna, basically all of Front Street, and low-income housing units. There is only one public road in and out of town, and after a very hectic evacuation period that road has been mostly closed off except to emergency responders, thus it is extremely difficult for anyone to leave town to get help. The nearest hospital is 20 miles away in Wailuku, and most grocery stores in town have burnt down.

As of Thursday, August 10, over 1,000 acres have been burned and 271 structures (including homes, schools, and other community gathering places) have been destroyed. Cell service is still extremely spotty, many of the surrounding neighborhoods deemed safe for evacuees are still without utilities. There are currently confirmed 53 deaths but that number is expected to increase as search-and-rescue efforts continue. Countless families have been displaced and many have lost the homes they lived in for generations. Places of deep historical significance have been reduced to ash, including the gravesites of Hawaiian royalty, the old Lāhainā courthouse where items of cultural significance were stored, and Na ‘Aikane o Maui Cultural Center. To add further context: Lāhainā has a population of about 13,000 residents. EVERYONE I know has been impacted in some way--at best forced to evacuate, at worst their house was burnt to the foundation, they cannot find a loved one, etc. I'm still trying to track down family members and it's been over two days. My neighbors down the street had homes last week and now many don't have ANYTHING. The hotels are taking in residents (tourists are also being STRONGLY urged to leave so that locals can recover). Without open access to the rest of the island, Lāhainā residents are now dependent on whatever people had in their homes already as well as disaster relief efforts coming in, but it's been difficult to organize and mobilize due to the location + conditions. People who have made it out are in shelters where no blankets or medicine were provided. Friends and acquaintances from neighbor islands are preparing aid to send over. Community response has been incredible, but the toll on the town has been immeasurable. My parents were desperately walking through town yesterday, my mom sounded absolutely hollow talking about it on the phone with me. It's horrifying. Below is a satellite map with data from the NASA Fire Information for Resource Management System showing the impacted areas from the past week; all of the red blotches were on fire at some point in the last three days.

Here are ways you can help:

If you have the means to donate:

Here are three donation sites verified by Maui Rapid Response, which also lists FAQs for people who are wondering about next steps.

Hawaiʻi Community Foundation - Maui Strong Fund accepts international credit cards. Maui United Way

Maui Mutual Aid Non-monetary ways to support:

If you know anyone who is planning to travel to ANY Hawaiian island, not just Maui, tell them to cancel their trip. Resources are extremely limited as is. Advocate for climate change mitigation efforts locally, wherever that is for you. The fire was exacerbated by drought conditions that have worsened due to climate change.

Lastly, remember that these are people's HOMES that burned, and Native Hawaiian cultural artifacts that have been lost. Stop thinking of Hawaiʻi (or any "tourist destination" location, really) as an "escape" or a "paradise." If that's the only way you recognized my home... I'm glad I got your attention somehow, but I would ask that you challenge that perspective and prioritize local and native voices. For transparency, I don't currently live in Lāhainā, I've been following efforts from Honolulu. My parents and brother have been updating me and I've been following friends and family who are doing immediate response work. I'm doing my best to find reliable and current sources, but if I need to update something, please let me know. If you're going to try to convince me that tourism is necessary for our recovery, news flash ***IT'S NOT***!

Thanks for reading.

[ivystoryweaver]

With You part 13

prev next || Fic Masterlist || My Masterlist

Summary: Who left you that note on the counter? (It was Marc)

Pairings: Marc Spector x gn!reader, (Steven Grant x gn!reader, Jake Lockley x gn!reader) No use of Y/N.

Word Count: 3.4k

Content: angst, sprinkle of fluff (more under the cut)

Warnings: like a lot of cursing, spiciest chapter to date, nsfw tho the language is still gn and not overly explicit but you have been warned. Probably inaccurate DID, based on the show.

PREVIOUSLY, on "With You"...

The three of you agreed that Marc just needed some time. As always, you decided not to take it personally. This was about him.

You beat Steven home again the following evening, and this time, waiting on the kitchen counter, was an envelope bearing your name.

'On the roof -M'

Just that little scribble - Marc's handwriting, that he'd taken the time to put into an envelope for you - had you gasping for air.

You bolted for the stairwell, clad in your scrubs and in no mood to wait the brief eternity for the lift. Taking the stairs two at a time, you heaved yourself breathlessly through the rooftop door, gasping out his name.

"Marc!?"

Your husband wasn't exactly the film-style, run-and-jump-hug kind of man, so you were going to have to work very hard not to tackle him.

"Marc? It's me!" you panted, more from the anticipation than from exertion.

Unable to locate him in his usual spot, you peered over the building's edge, down to the city below - in case he was hanging there like Spider-Man?

Dumb.

Scurrying around the rooftop, you checked behind cooling towers and anything else obstructing your view.

No Marc.

Cursing under your breath, you dialed his phone, hoping maybe you missed him somehow, but knowing full well that the roof of your building wasn't that big.

No answer.

So back down you went. Maybe he wasn't fronting anymore. Sometimes it happened, whether one of them wanted it to or not. Couldn't really blame him if that were the case.

That didn't stop you from ringing his mobile again as you raced back down the stairs, narrowly missing a dangerously close face-plant situation once arriving at your floor.

"Marc!" You cried, bursting back into your flat. Releasing a shuddering sigh, your eyes burned with the beginnings of frustrated tears.

Right then, he emerged from the bathroom, soaking wet, dark ringlets dripping down his cheeks, with a white towel tucked snugly around his hips.

"I'm here," he softly responded, approaching you slowly, stopping before even reaching arm's length. Realizing you were in some sort of distress, he withdrew, almost imperceptibly.

"M-Marc," you stuttered out, unable to believe it as actually him. And not just him - who you had missed terribly for two weeks - he was soaking wet and half naked.

Swallowing hard, he pushed his fingers through his drenched curls, sprinkling the floor with water droplets and creating one hell of a sexy mess.

He figured you must be really upset with him for being gone so long.

Neither of you moved. You just stood, staring, your chest heaving with emotion as Marc wilted, drawing in on himself.

Steven would probably be here soon. You had to do something. Anything!

"I-I saw your note," you blurted. "I ran upstairs to look for you. I- "

"Shit. I left the note earlier, in case..." Figures he would have sent you up to the roof on a wild goose chase. No wonder you were keeping your distance. The quick note had replaced a long letter he had composed for you. Something to try to explain. But he tore the letter up and replaced it with the rooftop note, because the letter was utterly inadequate.

Head dropping in shame, Marc's fists clenched by his sides. "I'm sorry," he choked out.

You had to try anything. Inching forward, you moved carefully, afraid of scaring off the elusive creature he'd become these past weeks.

Stretching your fingers out slowly, you made sure he could see your incoming touch with his eyes - then asked for verbal permission before you made contact.

"Baby...is this okay?" One fingertip grazed his knuckle like a whisper.

Realizing you were here, right in front of him - touching him - soothed his fears almost instantly.

Exhaling shakily, he stared at the floor, even as he pushed his fingers up to meet your palm. With the faintest caress, you traced the length of his fingers, slowly pushing your own in between each one until your hands intertwined.

"Marc...please - I need..." Chomping down on your tongue, you called upon every restraining force in your body to keep from pushing him away.

"What?" He whispered - wide, brown eyes flickering briefly up to yours. Water droplets made his impossibly long lashes glisten. He must have quite literally run from the shower. "What do you need?"

Tugging on your intertwined fingers, he pulled you close enough to feel the steamy humidity of his solid chest.

Feeling your shaking puffs of breath cool his heated skin, he wilted inside as you squeezed your eyes shut.

"I...is it okay if I hug you?" Your body twitched with nervous energy, your glassy eyes finally locking with his.

In them, he saw raw truth. He saw you. You weren't angry with him - you were something else. Maybe you needed him to touch you, but you wouldn't violate his safety to get what you wanted. Never. The restraint you were showing him was burning you alive.

'I'll burn down the whole world first.'

Your promise to never leave him flooded back to his memory, propelling him to dip his knees and scoop you up into his arms.

"I'll get you all wet," he murmured, even while nuzzling his sopping curls against your cheek.

"Then get me wet," you groaned, fingers clawing at his shoulders, hauling him into your embrace. "Please just...stay. Just a little longer, Marc, please."

Lips parted, you mouthed the damp skin of his cheek before pressing a kiss there.

Relief surged through him, simultaneously weakening his grip on you while fortifying his desire to stay here with you.

Feeling his hold on you loosen, you cursed yourself internally, face flaming as tears burned your eyes. It must be too much for him - the frantic searching, calling out for him - the pleas to stay and now, a soft kiss to his warm skin.

"I'm sorry," you whimpered, releasing him. It hurt so badly, you could barely stand.

Playing the last 30 seconds over in his mind, Marc frantically attempted to figure out what he did wrong. What else he did wrong... You let go of him...although you apologized. For what?

"For what?" He uttered, reaching out for your arms, his fingertips electrifying your skin.

Ducking down again, his heart shattered at the sight of your tears. When would he ever stop fucking up your life?

As your gazes locked, he brushed his knuckles tenderly across your cheek. "I'm the one who's sorry. I'm so sorry."

"I missed you," you whispered, nuzzling into his touch. "Did you get my letter?"

Nodding, he dragged his fingers down the side of your neck to grasp your shoulder. "I'm sorry I did that to you, honey. I didn't mean to be gone so long. I was so tired..."

"It's okay, baby, that's why you have Steven and Jake," you attempted, your hands twitching with the pulsing need to touch him again. Touch him more.

Right. Jake.

The one Khonshu wanted. The one you wanted. The one who was now here with you, living life with you, moving his clothes into the closet, showing you who he was.

The preferred one. Giving you the love you deserved, along with Steven - so alive, full of hope. Steven was the glue in this whole thing, as much as you were. Without Steven, Marc wondered if he might somehow slip away into the recesses of his own mind, leaving your heart in more capable hands.

Moon Knight was certainly in far more capable hands.

"It shouldn't be okay," he sighed, his skin crawling uncomfortably. "It's not okay for your husband to leave you without telling you." Shaking his head, his arms dropped heavily down to his sides. "But I guess it was okay to you because you have Jake now."

Ouch.

Your lip trembled - he'd pulled away from you again. "I...I haven't had chance to talk to you, like I promised I would - about Jake." What the hell? You didn't want to talk about Jake right now, you wanted to see and feel and love Marc!

"A-are you mad at me?" You whimpered, trying to find your footing in this conversation.

"Mad at you?" He gasped in disbelief as his hands found his hips. "You're the one who should be mad. You shouldn't have to fucking live like this." Shifting from foot to foot, he grew restless, like he wanted to claw his way out of his own skin. Or have a drink. Fuck.

Blowing out a long breath, you tried to steady yourself. If you hurt his feelings, oh well. If he withdrew into his mind and you didn't see him for another couple weeks, so be it. You thrived on honesty and communication. The real. No more tiptoeing.

"Marc, I don't need for you to tell me how I should have to live. I can decide the life I want to have," you calmly explained, relaxing your body and boldly holding his gaze. "I'm not mad that you're a system or that you're going through something new or hard for you."

"I know you're not mad," he muttered. "You never are. Because I can't disappoint you or hurt you if you expect nothing from me."

He may as well have thrown ice cold water in your face and then slapped you.

But he wasn't done.

"Why do you want to be on this merry-go-round...roundabout?" He added the less American term. "My drinking, my fucking panic attacks, nightmares - all my shit," he spat, his chest heaving. "I asked myself how anyone could put up with this, or would even want to, and the answer is...obvious."

Pushing a hand back through his damp waves, he re-stated his worst fear. Something he found himself finally able to voice out loud, after two weeks in the headspace.

His dramatic pause was long enough that you cleared your throat and prompted him to go on. He may as well get all this off his chest, even if it destroyed you. "What answer is obvious?"

Daring to meet your eyes, he could see, in real time, how much he was fucking up. But it was like a plane crashing - he couldn't stop the descent.

"The answer is Steven," he rasped, his voice hoarse - thick with emotion. "You don't expect anything from me because Steven is so good to you. He's so good at everything. And now Jake..." his voice trailed off as his dark eyes clouded with moisture. "Jake stepped right into my shoes - with you, with Khonshu. I don't do anything. I don't give you anything. But you're a good person and you love me anyway. Believe, me, I could not be more grateful for that. Or any less deserving."

You were crying now - heavy, wet tears streaking your beautiful cheeks as you sank to the floor. He had actually done it. He had rendered even you speechless.

Without another word, he walked back into the bathroom and shut the door.

God, how every word out of his mouth cut you so deep. You could cry for a week, but where would that get you? He thought Jake had taken his place? If he wanted a taste of the shit you and Jake gave each other, he could have it. But no way would you spend another instant on this floor, no matter how your gut twisted with pain.

Racing over to the bathroom door, you pounded. "Marc, open the door!" You shouted, wincing as you realized this was probably the opposite of what he needed. Lowering your voice, you announced that you were coming in.

Marc was naked.

His towel was hanging up in its usual place and he was reaching for the underwear lying on the countertop.

Why was he getting dressed in the bathroom if you were married?

Whatever. Didn't matter. Fuck him.

"You don't need those," you said sharply, yanking the boxer briefs out of his grasp and tossing them aside. Pushing your fingers over the soft flesh of his abdomen, up onto his chest, your nails scraped his damp skin. "You think I don't need you, Marc?"

Gripping his face in your hands, you lifted up on your toes, crushing your mouth against his.

He was stunned for a moment, but slowly melted into your kiss as you slid your tongue over his demandingly.

His hands found your hips, gripping them tightly before yanking you hard against his chest. The two of you stumbled backwards, breaking your kiss and sending you crashing into him.

Reaching for his muscular arms to steady yourself, you panted, desperate for him in every possible way. That's when your eyes traveled down to plainly see that he wanted you too.

Jerking your scrubs off your body, Marc quickly joined you in yanking and pulling until you were as bare as he was. Between every movement, your lips chased one another's, licking and tasting - connecting at every possible point, until he pushed you up against the door.

The fire in your eyes had him weak for you.

You surprised him by returning to a deeper topic even as your bare bodies pushed and pulled against the other. "You treat my love and compassion as indifference? Fuck you."

He stilled for a moment, but you gripped his length firmly in your palm, tugging and making him groan.

"You think I should be mad?" You spat, working him roughly. "Congratulations. I am."

"Baby," he panted, his forehead dropping to rest against yours as his body submitted to your demanding touch.

"You think Jake took your place, here, with me?" You growled on his ear, biting his earlobe and tugging it between your lips. "Fuck you both. Nothing is taking you away from me."

Groaning your name, Marc's hips stuttered against your hand as his forehead dropped to your shoulder.

"You think I don't expect anything from you?" Yanking on his wet curls, you jerked his head back so you could see his face. "I really fucking do." Using your grip on his length, you guided him to where you really wanted to feel him.

"You think you don't give me anything?" You whined, as he entered you, your body shuddering with pleasure as he groaned on your ear. "You've given me everything." Moving on him slowly, you moaned as he pinned you against the bathroom door. "Give it to me, Marc."

"Fuck...baby..." he gasped, gripping your hips hard enough to bruise.

He couldn't help himself - after deep, frantic thrusts over and over - he finished before you, whimpering and desperate.

Good. You had him right where you wanted him. Vulnerable and sated. Or at least slightly relieved, maybe.

Yanking the towel off the rack, you handed it to him so he could clean up a little bit. "Go lie down on the bed," you ordered, your eyes dark and unreadable.

Swallowing, Marc nodded once and complied. As soon as he left the bathroom, you stared at yourself in the mirror, exhaling shakily. What just transpired between the two of you felt really fucking good, but it was more than sex. You were doing battle. And Marc wasn't getting out of your bed until he understood a few things.

Moments later, you climbed on top of your husband in bed, salaciously kissing him, draping your body over his.

"I want you to do something for me," you murmured after a long while, as both of your bodies stirred with new desire.

"Anything," he whispered, his hands finding their way between your legs.

Gasping as he teased you, you reveled in his touch, forgetting to finish your thought.

"What can I do, baby?" Marc hummed against your skin. Being needed by you? He lived for it.

You kissed him again, your body writhing under his caress. "I want you to stop deciding how I feel."

"O-okay," he groaned as your breath tickled his lips.

"I'm serious," you went on, forcing him still - waiting for him to look at you. "If I'm mad, I'll be mad. If I'm patient and understanding, you can't tell me to be angry."

He was trying to listen, but he really wanted you again. "Uh-huh," he ground out, thrusting upward, hoping...

"You see this?" Showing him your wedding band, you pushed your fingers through his. "You remember the vows I made?"

"Yes," he panted, desperate for you, wishing you would touch him back. "Please, honey..."

"I know," you cooed, kissing him again. His mouth, his cheek, his eyebrow. "Who did I make vows to?"

His eyes locked onto you and he melted. "Me."

"That's right," you smiled gently down at him. "So stop with all the bullshit you keep telling yourself. And stop telling me how I feel."

Feeling a little relief in the air, Marc sat up and kissed you urgently. "So damn bossy." He said this while continuing to stroke and caress you.

"You were being an asshole," you half teased, shivering as he grazed a particularly sensitive spot. "I definitely prefer your usual method of stress relief."

His eyebrows shot up playfully as he slowly removed his hand, pulling his bottom lip between his teeth. "Is that right?"

The air between you crackled with electricity as you waited...

Wetting your lips, your eyes traveled down from his warm gaze, over his sharp nose to the fullness of his parted lips. The strong line of his jaw twitched with anticipation and that wasn't the only thing that twitched under the heat of your stare.

He pounced, rolling you underneath him, face down, nuzzling into your neck as his body smothered yours. "Are you sure, baby?" He growled, licking a stripe up the side of your neck while dragging his palms up your bare thighs. "Because I need a lot of relief."

With that warning, he pushed his way inside you, groaning on your ear. His strong hand slid around your abdomen, pulling your body against his as you began moving together. "I am sorry," he breathed.

"Shut up," you gasped as the hand on your abdomen traveled down between your legs.

You and Marc stayed in bed for hours, relieving a lot of stress. He had to re-visit the shower, not that you were complaining. The two of you did finally make your way to the rooftop, after the moon shone in the dark sky.

Wrapping his arms around you from behind, Marc nuzzled your cheek with his nose. "Can I ask you something? About your letter?"

"'Course," you murmured, tracing his forearm with your fingertips.

"What did you mean when you said I was the real Moon Knight?"

You thought for a moment, thinking back through the composition of your letter to him.

"Well...I mean - when Khonshu found you - or you found him, rather - he was in search of an avatar. The only reason he still has one is because you said yes. You're still the real Moon Knight," you explained. "I'm not saying you have to be him if you don't want to be. But if Khonshu wants Jake, he should be grateful to you. Otherwise, he might still be searching for an avatar."

"I guess so," he mumbled with a sigh. "Still prefers Jake though."

"For being a deity, he is dumb as a fucking rock sometimes," you sarcastically remarked. "I know you and Jake are different, but he may have noticed you share a body. If he needs Jake, he needs you. He needs Steven."

Marc was quiet for a few minutes, but it was a calm quiet, rather than the tension from earlier.

"I don't know, babe, I...I just can't seem to find my place in all this lately. And, believe me, I know how that sounds - a new husband, saying shit like that. It's not right."

"Sweetheart, you feel how you feel," you softly responded, resting your head against the solid warmth of his chest behind you. "You don't always have to make a judgment on that. You're too hard on yourself."

"That's what Steven says," he lightly chuckled. "You're much too hard on y'self, mate."

His terrible impression of his alter made you giggle.

"Well, you know he's right," you replied, "And - the other day, Steven told me I'm always right, so...I think you should really listen to us."

"Yeah..."

You hadn't noticed at first but the two of you had started to gently sway to the muffled tune drifting out a neighbor's open window. Something from the 1970s...American.

"Can I ask you something?" You echoed his question.

"Mm-hmm," he mumbled into your hair, pulling you impossibly closer.

"Do you want to be Moon Knight?"

He didn't answer for a while. And that pretty much told you everything you needed to know.

next->

@stormydaysxx @laaundromat @kindlover @flyestvenustrap @spxctorsslxt @deezisnotreal @stevenknightmarc @imonmykneessir @marvelouslovely-barnes @evilbubu @usualsworld @rivalriotrenegade @wordacadabra @this--is--music @i-still-dont-like-your-face @cicithemess2000  @avengersinitiative2012 @lockleywife @poppyflower-22 @thursdaywritings @scoliobean peregrine-nation local-mr-frog @bitchotine @ren-ni @valkyrie05x @randomhoex @tsukkie-daisuke @thebestrouge @mintellaine am i missing anyone? dividers by saradika

[txttletale]

Overly long disclaimer incoming: This is not anon hate. This is not an argument. This is not accusation. This is not agreement with anyone directly involved. Any feelings of hostility that may be gleaned from this ask are most likely because I struggle with maintaining a professional tone. Because this is not intended to be read as hostile.

This is solely intended as a statement of facts regarding who said what, mixed with light speculation on their intent. It is being sent because I feel that misinterpretation has occurred, and I firmly believe that one should always be as informed as possible on situations they are directly involved in. I hope this ask can make a positive difference.

Okay. Disclaimer over. Sorry it was so long.

I do not think roadhogsbigbelly accused you of being a pedophile yourself, and I don’t believe it was because of your stardew valley take.

I have seen several of his posts on this matter, and it seems he doesn’t like stardew valley (found it boring), his beef with your take was frankly minor and inconsequential, and it was intended to be separate from the larger critique he had of you. He made a few posts saying rather explicitly that they were separate issues, and I believe his initial post was a vagueblog that, on accident, conflated the two issues.

As for the main issue: if i recall correctly, you had reblogged a kink-positive post that turned out to have been made by an open zoophile (and also pedophile?). The zoophile in question is a clear danger to others, as they have a community of pedophiles and zoophiles that welcomes so-called “pro-contact” people.

This was where his accusations originated from, and this was what he focused on. He is concerned about how dangerous people like that are able to infiltrate into kink-positive spaces (is “infiltrate” the right word? I don’t know). His harshest critique of you seems to have been that you did not interrogate the intent of the person when you reblogged, and even that seems to have been mostly expressed in order to turn this into a learning moment for others. I don’t have precise wording (curse you tumblr mobile, for not letting me factcheck myself), but i believe he shared the sentiment that we all could stand to be a little more discerning?

- and I know he knows you have already responded to that criticism. For those unaware: txtlletale’s response was that she cannot be expected to vet the OP of every post on her dash, and that this criticism is thus unreasonable. His response to that response? … I forget, sorry. But I don’t think what you said was unreasonable. Again, my intent is to clear misunderstandings.

The point here is that, I don’t believe “accidentally reblogged a pedophile” and “is a pedophile” are the same statements, and roadhogsbigbelly had made the former statement. In short… I don’t think he was pedojacketing you. Whether he had unfairly judged you, and done so out of a transmisogynistic bias is, of course, a different question entirely. And if anyone else used his words to directly accuse you of pedophilia? Well, fuck em. Assholes.

I hope this makes sense. This ask is anonymous because I do not wish to become the focus of this issue. I am solely presenting information as I understand it. Feel free to fact check for yourself.

I think your anger is valid. These situations are infuriating, as is the culture of distrust that they bring. People on social media are, in general, far too swift to condemnation. You see it all the time, with pedojacketing, with qanon, with countless petty internet arguments. I try my best to reverse this tendency, at least with my own behavior. I don’t think you are a careless person, nor someone with a pattern of spurious accusations against people. I know you’re an intelligent and discerning blogger, which is why I trust you enough to send this ask. I hope I can have a positive impact.

have a good day, and take care of yourself.

(Considering sending an ask about this to him as well, so if you see a weird anon on his blog talking about misinformation hi its me)

i just don't agree with you--like, i don't say this aggressively either but this is just not an honest description of what he said. he called me, verbatim: "a tumblr user who markets incest and loliporn as an inherent part of queer sexuality". nothing in the screenshot mentioned "loliporn" -- nothing i have ever posted about in my fucking live mentions "loliporn" -- and for that matter, obviously, in none of my posts have i ever said that any kink, 'problematic' or not, is 'an inherent part of queer sexuality', and most fucking evilly of all, i don't 'market' these kinks.

like, think for two seconds about the implication of saying i, a trans woman, am "marketing loliporn". i think that goes beyond criticizing that i didn't vet my reblogs (which would obviously be insane in and of itself but i agree would not be pedojacketing). it's literal grooming/social contagion rhetoric. and again i can't emphasize enough he "just assumed" that "loliporn" was involved, despite it having no connection to anything i have ever posted! that + in his absolutely laughable double-down he says "99% of the people who make these sorts of posts are actual fucking pedophiles" as well as "pedophiles are agreeing with you! that’s not great!" which.

like wow that's crazy hey if 99% of people who make "those posts" (about "not being mean to sex freaks", or as i would phrase it, "criticizing the double standard leveraged to initiate mass sexual harassment campaigns against queer people but especially trans people for what they do privately and consensually with other adults" are "actual fucking pedophiles", what is that implying about me? can sherlock holmes get on this case with me?

idk i don't appreciate being told that "he never said 4" when he sure as hell was repeating "2+2" over and over again. & if his critique was 'intended to be separate' then why would he bring it up at all in his original post, multiple times, to clearly imply he doesn't think i should have 'takes' or 'opinions' on anything? regardless of what he did and didn't say about me i think it is pretty fucking clear that this:

is not 'seperate or unrelated'. i think it is really really difficult and requires totally unearned levels of good faith to read this as anything other than explicitly confirming that the point of this post is to use transmisogynistic rhetoric as a cudgel to shut up me up.

you can believe what you like but i know what i read and what was said about me and i will not be lied to.

[fashion-runways]

okay, i promised an explanation and i won’t go into too many details because honestly i’m still kind of a mess and there’s a lot we don’t know yet and everything but-- 2 weeks ago out of nowhere, in the middle of the night at 6am cops showed up at our home and raided our apartment and stuck around up until 2pm just making a mess of the whole place and taking photos and whatever, they broke the downstairs front door (which we now have to pay to replace off our own money), made an absolute mess of every room in the apartment, took every electronic device except our phones (and that’s only because i started crying about having all my healthcare info on an app and how i was going to lose all my appointments, and i think they felt bad for us?) and detained my father. they have barely given us information on what he’s accused of, they’re still nowhere near investigating those devices they took so they won’t give them back to us, and we have no freaking idea if or when my dad is coming back, because again, they’re not giving us a lot of information. on top of that my dad is pretty old, he's 65, he was supposed to have surgery this month because he can’t see very well from one eye (his workplace was paying for it) and he kinda can’t hear very well from one ear too, even though he refuses to accept it, and he’s been on anxiety medication for a while, so i’m kind of scared of what will happen to him without actual medical care or a nice place to sleep every night?? i don’t know. i truly don't.

now, this as you can imagine is traumatizing enough as it was, and it continues to be, but on top of that my dad was pretty much the only person with a stable job and a concistent income in this family, so now that he’s detained and we literally have no idea when he’ll come back, me and my mom got basically left in the dark. and even if he comes back, like, i don’t know, next week? i’m pretty sure he’ll get fired because he’s been missing work for 2 weeks now. i have some money that i saved from the stuff you guys send me, my mom has some money she makes, but it’s... obviously not enough, and this is a really stressful situation to be in, obviously, i wouldn't wish this on my worst enemies tbh.

so... i don’t know. i can’t promise i’ll post anything new because i’m limited to mobile for god knows how long, that’s why i’ve been reposting stuff. and if you want to help, if you enjoy the blog, if you have anything to spare, that would really be helpful. i know this sounds insane what happened, and trust me it still doesn’t feel real sometimes?? like i’m going to wake up and it'll be a bad dream? i don’t know. as always, since i’m from latin america, anything helps. literally even the smallest amount of money helps. sorry this post is so long and so trauma dump-y, but i said i’d explain and i need help more than ever, this blog is basically the only semi-stable thing i have income wise. if anyone wants me to tag this with any trigger warning specifically, let me know, i wouldn’t know what to tag this myself.

anyway, i have my kofi account that i link in every post i make here: https://ko-fi.com/fashionrunways and my redbubble account: https://www.redbubble.com/people/dinah-lance/shop if you’d want to buy something instead. and as always thanks for loving this blog and for always helping us, i know it doesn't seem like it matters sometimes, but it does to me 💖

[wauzmons]

We have been Betrayed, Backstabbed, Bamboozled: The Future of Elysian Eclipse

So, if you are active on our Discord, you know that EE is made in the Unity Engine and the CEO just decided to massively fuck over all the devs who are using it...

Callum Upton made a great video explaining the situation:

But it gets even worse!

Unity since defended themselves, saying that these fees are only affecting 10% of their customers, because of the $200k and $1m thresholds, so Indie devs don't have to worry about that.

…which isn't true:

Unity Plus

They aren't only introducing these fees but also changed the regular pricing plans! They just removed "Unity Plus" which is the lowest tier and costs about $50/month per dev with taxes. This is what most indies use. The next higher tier costs QUADROUPLE that amount and is also required to remove the universally loathed "made with Unity" splash screen. Oh! And if you have the personal tier, you won't be able to use Unity offline anymore! It now needs to do a license check every 3 days to function!

Unity's Ad Service

The fees will hit devs that do free-to-play mobile stuff especially hard, since they still have to pay the fees even when the players don't buy anything, meaning they could end up owing Unity more than they make in income. But what's this? If you use Unity's advertising service for your game, you will get a discount on the fees! The majority of mobile games run on Unity, meaning they are trying to monopolize the mobile ad market with this!

Publishers

Elysian Eclipse has caught the interest of a really big studio and publisher, who is considering to handle the marketing and publishing for the game. They are obviously planning to make the game come out big with sales, going beyond Unity's thresholds. But since the game is made in Unity, they probably now have to reconsider that carefully, since that would cause a massive amount of fees with Unity's new pricing model. So any game using Unity is now an instant turn-off for publishers, also massively hurting indie devs who don't reach that income threshold yet.

What will happen now?

So, Unity can't be trusted anymore and should be seen as a major threat to us and the gaming industry. Even if they walk back on some of these decisions, what has been said, has been said. They showed that they don't care about destroying thousands of games, as long as it nets them profit, so who knows what they are going to do next?

I will pause the development of Elysian Eclipse and release the Patreon demo, including all the prototypes like Aquatic Stage for free today. I canceled my subscription and it will run out next year, so Unity isn't getting a single cent from my games anymore.

Unreal Eclipse?

In the meantime I'll focus on improving my C++ skills, so I can work more effectively in Unreal Engine 5. Unreal is the current industry leader, offering much better solutions for graphics and performance for 3D games. It is also partially open source and completely free until you reach $1 million in revenue.

It is unlikely that I will be able to just translate the game from C# to C++ and port it over, since it is using a lot of engine-specific features. This basically means, we will start from scratch... I can't tell yet how much work this will be or in what ways the game will change.

But one thing, you can always be certain of: I will NEVER BETRAY MY DREAM. I will finish this project, no matter who or what stands in my way. I hope you will continue to support me on this journey.

That being said,

FUCK JOHN RICCITIELLO!!

Fucking cunt.

[lesbiansandgayssupporttheminers]

I want to write something long form about the teacher strikes and the state of education in England right now.

You’ll hear a lot of teachers in the coming days and weeks say they don’t want to strike, or they feel guilt about striking. I’ve thought about it, and I want to strike, and I don’t feel guilty, and I think I owe it to students to strike. Maybe not the ones I teach now, but the ones I might teach in five years time.

I owe it to some of the Y7s, 8s and 9s I taught last year who were deeply passionate about science. In particular, I’m think of the Y7s who loved our space topic, and may never get taught by a qualified physics teacher. I’m also thinking about the sort of country they’ll grow up in, the opportunities they’ll have and the future they deserve.

I can write some arguments within the liberal, capitalist context we live in,  for improving education, and specifically why pay and working conditions need to be improved for teachers and why striking is our only option. I know that’s not what a lot of you follow me for, but they may be persuasive if you know teachers or want to talk to people about why they should support the teacher strikes.

1)     There is a national shortage of teachers. This is a fact- we know a large number of teachers do not stay in the profession long term- 1/3 of teachers who trained in the last 10 years are no longer teaching. Other research suggests many of these teachers quit in the first 5 years of teaching. This year, we have struggled to recruit across secondary subjects. In subjects like maths, science, MFL, geography and more, the situation is especially dire- but this crisis is even starting to impact primary schools now. First and foremost, students are going without qualified, subject specialist teachers. In other professions, the Tories acknowledge high pay is needed to recruit suitable staff. Why not teaching- which after all requires a specialist degree and often a post graduate qualification too.

2)     This doesn’t just hurt individual students, it hurts the whole country, because it leaves us with a lack of people who are capable of becoming doctors, dentists, engineers, entering other health care professions, working in the STEM fields that are meant to drive our economy. Investing in education grows the economy long term, and is better for society as a whole.

3)     But it does also hurt the social mobility of individual students. Richer families can pay tutors, or go private to make up for deficiencies in teaching. But those from low income families can’t. Few parents have the time or ability to bridge the gap themselves.

4)     Furthermore, if we think about really vulnerable students- who, make no mistake will be used as a weapon against teachers during the strike- they benefit from well funded schools. They benefit from having consistent adults in their lives. They often take a long time to form relationships with staff. A revolving door of supply teachers (which is the reality in many secondary schools) really hurts them.

5)     Teachers struggle to negotiate pay for themselves. Many schools will baulk at the idea of a teacher negotiating on their own pay, and take deep offense, as if the idea of negotiating pay in a capitalist society when you have an unusual skill is totally unreasonable. So, teachers can only negotiate pay on a national scale. And because the government won’t sit down and negotiate, the only thing we can do is take industrial action.

6)     Ultimately, schools can’t afford to pay teachers well- so any pay rise needs to be fully funded. Again, hence strike action.

 We can say that the teacher shortage is about working conditions too- and it is, for sure. But it’s also true that the teacher shortage appears to be most acute where a teacher’s pay won’t stretch as far because accommodation costs and other costs are high.

I want to take a moment at this point to address the idea of “work to rule”- which doesn’t actually exist in English law, btw.

Action short of a strike in teaching would likely take the form of teachers not running clubs and trips, maybe refusing to do marking as well. These are all things that would negatively impact students, but have a totally negligible economic impact, if at all. It would, inevitably, drag on for months, because the government simply would not notice.

A teacher strike, ideally one that shuts a large number of schools, will have a noticeable impact on the economy, because some parents won’t be able to work or travel. Yes, it’s rubbish for parents, but the impact on students will genuinely be lower than weeks or months of action short of a strike. And it’s the only language the government will listen to, unfortunately.

 I want to talk also about what the Tories are doing to education. I alluded to this earlier, but I think it bears exploring specifically.

The Tories are destroying education. At this stage, I think it’s gone beyond neglect, into a deliberate policy to damage state education. They can’t say that out loud, of course, but why else, at a time of massive teacher shortages, would they cut teacher training places from 2024? Why else would they implement the ECT program in such a way it’s driving early career teachers out of teaching? Why else would they starve schools of funding to such an extent?

Why would the Tories do this?

I’ve got two possible theories for you.

One, they want a poor, uneducated underclass, with limited job prospects, in order to exploit them. And educating the working classes and providing them with opportunities for social mobility runs against that.

Two, some tories take a more eugenicist outlook, they think education is simply wasted on said “underclass”. That no amount of good education would improve the prospects of certain groups, so why bother?

Perhaps it’s a little of column a, a little of column b. Certainly, there are strong objections to teachers in state schools sharing opinions that might be contradictory to the governments’.

So I strongly believe this strike is to preserve the future of education.

 Obviously, if we consider the wider state of the country, there are lot of important reasons to join a wider worker’s movement. And I’m going to come back to that point about working conditions, because part of that is the shortage of funding in other public sector areas, meaning schools are asked to do more and more with less and less.

It’s increasingly clear Rishi Sunak’s Tories are both fascists and disaster capitalists, who are going to take what they can from this country before their party implodes. And you all know what I think of the political alternatives. It’s also true if we wait two years for an election, people will die- not least in A and E waiting rooms, or waiting for an ambulance.

The Tories are happy to let £42 Billion in tax go unpaid (largely by the rich and mega-corporations), and then they turn around and say there’s no money.

I genuinely think this wave of strikes could be the start of something- of meaningful political change that carries this country to the left. Maybe the some of the current union leaders will not push things far enough, but we are the union, so we must push further. And we can use this opportunity to really influence the UK political landscape, and build solidarity for a mass worker’s union.

[newtype-difference]

Continuing my little gunpla review series, I wanna say thank you so much to everyone that liked and reblogged my Demi Trainer post! It means so much to me and every like I get on it makes me incredibly happy <3

This review is gonna be all about...

Gundam Lfrith Thorn

I wasn't expecting to build this kit so soon but I saw it in my local nerd store and I just had to pick it up, I really love the design on this one and I can't wait to tell yous all about it! Building this felt like an appropriate step-up from the Demi Trainer.

Lfrith Thorn in the Show

(Spoilers for Mobile Suit Gundam the Witch from Mercury episode 12 and beyond ahead)

EDM-GA-02 Gundam Lfrith Thorn is a Gundam-type mobile suit developed by Ochs Earth Corporation for Dawn of Fold, the anti-spacian organisation. It's a heavily modified version of the XGF-01 Gundam Lfrith Pre-Production Model, which can be seen in the prologue episode of the show.

This Gundam is piloted by Norea Du Noc, a member of Dawn of Fold. She was trained from a young age to be a mobile suit pilot, and has strong ideals and a deep hatred of all spacians. She's a hot-headed earthian terrorist who believes in attaining the organisation's goals through violence. A perfect pilot for this offensive-oriented Gundam!

As I mentioned previously, Lfrith Thorn is a heavily modified version of the Lfrith Pre-Production Model, which allows the Lfrith Thorn to utilise GUND technology. It was created alongside the Lfrith Ur, and the two can be seen as sort of sisters, as one compensates for the other's weaknesses. It's a very cool dynamic that I really enjoyed seeing in the show!

Lfrith Thorn is seen multiple times throughout the show, but main appearances include episode 12, when it attacks Plant Quetta alongside the Lfrith Ur. It also appears in episode 14, fighting in the Rumble Ring and causing mayhem, once again alongside the Lfrith Ur. We see it once more in episode 20, when Norea goes on a rampage in Asticassia, before she is calmed down by Elan Ceres and her Gundam is subsequently destroyed by the security forces. Seeing this Gundam in action was always a pleasure to see in the show, and Norea's hot-headed yet focused personality really made it stand out as an effective combat mech, especially when paired with Lfrith Ur! I wish we got to see more of it but what we did see was an absolute treat.

The Design of Lfrith Thorn

I. LOVE. THIS. DESIGN. SO MUCH! It's so cool and it all makes sense for what this Gundam is supposed to achieve! It can look quite goofy, especially with those long arms and chunkier legs, but there's purpose to that design choice! Lfrith Thorn excels at offensive skirmishes and intense combat scenarios, providing heavy fire support to her sister, Lfrith Ur.

Lfrith Thorn comes equipped with a variety of weapons that allow it to adapt to any combat situation. It's primary weapon is the beam diffuse gun, a large firearm that fires energy scatter beams. It can be wielded with one hand or with both, allowing for more accurate and focused fire. Beam saber units are stored within the Lfrith Thorn's forearms, allowing for quick deployment when engaging in melee combat. It can also equip beam sabers on its hand if needed, though this Gundam is better suited for longer-range combat. A long and narrow shield can be seen on it's right arm, which can be used to deflect incoming fire, though it is not particularly effective due to how small it is. The huge cannon mounted on Lfrith Thorn's back is the phased array cannon. It fires a powerful beam which allows for wider-ranged attacks. This cannon is only operable when the Gundam's permet score reaches 3 or higher, making it a very risk-reward oriented weapon!

Considering how heavy all of these weapons are on this Gundam, it's very important for it to keep stable when fighting on the ground. This is where those goofy design choices I mentioned earlier come in! The heavy legs and longer arms result in a lower center of gravity, making the Lfrith Thorn more stable when providing fire support! The thrusters on it's rear waist also offer extra stability, being able to counter the recoil and pushback from sustained fire if needed. Even the feet are used for stability, being able to dig into any softer ground material the Lfrith Thorn may be standing on, and providing even more stability! Everything about this design is so coherent, despite it's inherent goofiness, and I absolutely am in love with it!

Naturally, one would compare the Lfrith Thorn and Lfrith Ur, as they are often seen in combat together. You can see the more support-oriented design philosophy of the Lfrith Thorn when looking at both Gundams side by side. Despite the heavy weaponry, the frame of the mech is visibly more lightweight, allowing the Lfrith Thorn to reposition more easily. The Lfrith Ur is meant to be on the frontline, while the Lfrith Thorn supports it from afar. It's an awesome dynamic and I think both Gundams are designed really well around this cooperation!

In the first section of this review I mentioned that the Lfrith Thorn is a modified version of the Gundam Lfrith Pre-Production Model, and you can definitely see some aspects of that design incorporated into this one! You can see this mainly in the body of the Gundam, as it retains that flatter, more extruded chest to house the pilot and shell unit. The back-mounted cannons are still present in both designs, though the cannons themselves are quite different between the Lfrith Thorn and the Pre-Production Model. You can also see a more refined version of the shoulder pads, as they are more exaggerated and armoured on the Lfrith Thorn.

Honestly, researching Lfrith Thorn led me down a very deep rabbit hole when it comes to design inspirations and origins and I feel like I could make a family tree that connects MANY of the Gundam designs in this show!

Building the Kit

Much like the Demi Trainer, this was super fun to build! I was so excited to finally build a Gundam, and this did not disappoint, for the most part!

A lot of the same satisfying aspects of building the kit itself that I mentioned in my Demi Trainer review can be said here too. Fitting all the pieces together, hearing the clicks and seeing it come together is extremely satisfying and enhances the experience a lot! The stickers on this kit are more complex, and you have more choice with them, namely being able to either put stickers on it that show the Lfrith Thorn with no permet score, or a high permet score. I decided to use the high permet score stickers of course, because that looks a lot cooler to me! I found these stickers really tough to put on, as some of them are really small and need a lot of precision to place properly, and this was only my second kit. I hadn't developed a strategy for placing stickers yet and it shows in some parts of my build.

The Lfrith Thorn kit comes with a few extra pieces that allow for some really neat customisability! For example, you have the option of using a closed hand, which allows the Lfrith Thorn to hold weapons, or an open hand, which can look dramatic and badass when posing it. Even that small amount of choice with the kit makes for a lot of different things you can do with it and I think that's awesome!

As much as I love Lfrith Thorn and as much as I enjoyed building this kit, I do have a few complaints with it. To start, I personally find that the head movement on this kit is very limited, and the head has fallen off of my kit many times when I was trying to pose it and make it look in certain directions. I understand there being limitations in the range of movement, but I find it to be a little bit too limited here. I also think that the beam sword pieces are a little too easy to bend, and I recommend taking extra good care to not put too much force on them when handling them. Mine are very slightly misshapen now, and while it's not too exaggerated, it still sucks to see.

Other than that though, the kit was super fun to build, and it's by far the easiest to pose when comparing all of the kits I've built so far! The stable design philosophy of the Lfrith Thorn actually translates really well to this kit, and it's noticeably more stable to pose than other kits! It was really cool to see honestly and noticing that inspired me to start this series in the first place, so thank you Lfrith Thorn!

Once again, thank you to everyone who liked and reblogged my previous post, seeing the attention my Demi Trainer review got inspired me to continue with this, and I want to make even more reviews and design studies now! As always, constructive criticism is welcome, as well as likes and reblogs!

I'm hoping to get those action base kits at some point so I can have more freedom in posing my kits, so look forward to that!

[bullet-prooflove]

Future Building - Michael 'Riz' Ariza x Reader

Tagging: @crazy4chickennuggets @kmc1989 @anime-weeb-4-life @danzer8705 @mysoulisasunflower @msjava1972 @adaydreamaway08 @im-just-a-mississippi-girl @wakeama @librarian1002 @briefpersonenemy @creativitybeware @mortal--soul @buddinglinguist @purrrrfect

Riz builds you a house. It’s situated on the edge of his land, near the pond that the two of you skinny dip in during the summer months.

It started as a joke, something Taza mentioned whilst Riz was recovering from his injury after the motorcycle accident. You’d been running around after him playing nursemaid, keeping him fed, watered and medicated. He hated that you had to do it, but you had shushed him, your fingertips brushing the hair away from his face as you kissed him and told him not to worry.

“You should marry her.” Taza had said after you’d disappeared off into the bathroom for a shower. He sets the coffee down in front of Riz before taking the seat across from him at the kitchen table. His leg is stretched out in front of him because of the knee brace. He has a fracture and a torn ligament, he’s already been told off by Stitches for not looking after himself, for trying to be too mobile.

“Technically she is still married.” Riz tells Taza, bringing the cup to his lips. “After what happened with her ex… she decided it wasn't worth the fight, trying to divorce him.”

The club had a part to play in that. Your ex was a sheriff and could do alot of damage of you'd continued to push for it.

He trails off shaking his head. Your marriage had been messy, fraught. You’d felt trapped the entire time you were married, stifled by the man who had intentionally knocked you up and then smacked you around when you’d told him you’d gotten an abortion.

“She’s been a Godsend since the accident.” Riz says, his thumb chasing up the side of the mug. “I wanna take the next step, show her I’m invested in our future. I just don’t know what that is.”

“You could build her a house.” Taza says half seriously. “You’ve got all that land just sitting there, we’re in a quiet spell at the minute. I’m sure Gilly would be glad for the work.”

“I can’t just build a house.” Riz laughs before taking a sip of his coffee.

“Why not?” Taza says with a shrug. “The two of you love it out there, it’s quiet, you can see the stars, you can make as much music as you want without the neighbours complaining. You can rent this place out, have some passive income.”

Riz pauses for a second, his mug still clasped in his hand as he considers Taza’s words. The things is the more the other man says, the more Riz is starting to like the idea. You’ve never had a place of your own, a space that’s just for you. He could build a little studio just off the house, somewhere you could go to play and create. He likes that idea; he likes it a lot. He can afford it, the two of you live conservatively, and the money he’s earned from his illicit activities he puts aside, he’s never really realised what for until now.

When he pulls up outside the finished product, it’s better than he could have imagined. It’s a beautiful three-bedroom bungalow, with cream masonry and dark wood outlining the exterior windows and doors. The yard still needs a little work, Neron and Bottles are laying down flags while Lila digs out the flowerbeds along the edges of the space.

Gilly steps out through the open front door, using a rag to clean his hands as he stands on the porch.

“So what do you think?” He says gesturing at the house.

Riz grins as he puts his hands on his hips.

“She’s gonna love it.”

Love Riz? Don’t miss any of his stories by joining the taglist here.

Like My Work? - Why Not Buy Me A Coffee

[probablyasocialecologist]

If high-income countries are to decarbonize fast enough to stay within their fair-share of Paris-compliant carbon budgets, then urgent climate mitigation tasks – like building renewable energy capacity, insulating buildings, expanding public transit, innovating and distributing more efficient technologies, regenerating land, etc – need to happen very quickly. This “green production” requires mobilizing massive amounts of labour, factories, materials, engineering talent, and so on.  In a growth-oriented scenario, this is difficult to do because our productive capacities are already devoted to other activities (activities that are organized around profit and which may not contribute to social and ecological objectives). So we need to either compete with existing forms of production (for labour, materials, energy etc, which can drive prices up), or otherwise increase total productive capacity (i.e., grow the economy).  This cannot be done at just any desired speed.  Under these conditions, there are very real physical limits to how fast we can decarbonize.  Scaling down less-necessary production solves this problem, not only because of the two benefits indicated above, but also because it liberates productive capacities (factories, labour, materials) which can then be remobilized to do the production and innovation required for rapid decarbonization. For example, factories that are presently devoted to producing SUVs can produce solar panels instead. Engineers that are presently developing private jets can work on innovating more efficient trains and wind turbines instead. Labour that is presently employed by fast fashion firms can be liberated to train and contribute to installing renewable capacity, insulating buildings, or a wide range of other necessary objectives depending on their interests, through a public job guarantee program linked to green public works. This helps us rethink a longstanding question in ecological economics. Some ecomodernists have in the past argued that it is easier to achieve green transition in a bigger economy than in a smaller economy, because it means we have more capacity to devote to green production.  But this fails to grasp the nature of the problem. Yes, a bigger economy may have more capacity, but in a growth-oriented scenario that capacity is already allocated.  In this respect bigger economies face the same problem as smaller economies.  But a degrowth scenario is not a “smaller economy” (i.e., a low-capacity economy).  It is a high-capacity economy which is reducing less-necessary production, and therefore is suddenly endowed with spare capacity that can be redirected for necessary purposes.  This is a unique situation that carries significant potential: it enables acceleration in the speed of green production and innovation at a rate faster than what can be achieved in a growth-oriented scenario.

[hstylesloverr]

YOUR CHOICE.

dad!harry x singer!reader | the series’s masterlist | part one.

parining: dad!harry x singer!reader

warnings: a little bit of angst, fluff, mentions of abortion, a small mention of l*rries, pregnancy, mention of vomiting and nausea.

-

May 2019.

Y/N had never felt so panicked in her entire life. Not when she moved from her home in America to Korea, not when she first debuted in the entertainment world, not when she met celebrities she was a fan of, not when she debuted again but as a solo artist, not when Harry told her how he felt about her. She had never felt that cold sweat that bathed her entire body, nor that constant and unstoppable trembling of her hands, even the headache and the desire to vomit that attacked her.

She didn't know how to tell Harry. She couldn't find the words or the strength to speak. When Rosé, Lisa and Jisoo came to her bedroom door and tried to reassure her, Y/N simply told them to go away, that she needed to be alone. And so they did, understanding that Y/N would be better off and feel like she had control over things if she decided how to continue from now on.

The only problem was that Y/N had no idea what to do. For the next few hours after she found out she was pregnant, she lay in her bed, not moving, not eating or going to the bathroom. Just looking at the ceiling and thinking what the hell was going to happen in her life from that moment on.

To be honest, Y/N liked the idea of ​​having the baby. She liked the idea of ​​seeing his son or daughter when he was born, of seeing the baby say his first words and the baby first steps; to see Harry with his baby, caring for him and loving him more than anything in this world.

If she were in other circumstances, she would have kept it, but there were other factors, especially her career, that left her uncertain of what to do.

When Harry arrived a little earlier than expected and saw Y/N in bed, he immediately knew something was wrong. Because she was still supposed to be in meetings with her company and would be home even later than he was.

"Y/N, baby?" He whispered walking over to the bed and rubbing Y/N's shoulder gently “Do you feel very sick? I can take you to the ER if you want.”

"No, Harry," Y/N murmured in a cracked voice, still with his back to him. “I`m just tired.”

“Sure?” Harry asked, lying down next to her and patting her arm to comfort her. When Y/N nodded, he kissed her shoulder affectionately. “Okay, honey, get some sleep, huh? I will prepare dinner.”

Harry didn't believe her one bit at her excuse, but decided not to push her and instead make her feel better about the food he made for her. So he left her upstairs in her room and went downstairs to the kitchen to make her dinner.

It turned out that Y/N actually did feel tired, so she slept for a couple of hours and when she woke up to her mobile, which was ringing for an incoming call, she felt the reality of her situation hit her again when she saw the number of Rose.

"Have you told Harry yet?" Her friend asked as soon as Y/N answered the call.

"No, not yet," Y/N answered. “I do not know what to tell him.”

“The truth, Y/N. Tell him that you are pregnant and that you don't know what to do, tell him that you need his help. What is your boyfriend for, then, if he can't help you?”

Rosé's words made sense, how could they not? But Y/N was afraid that Harry would be overwhelmed by the situation, just as she felt. The only difference is that he could pack his stuff and leave, Y/N didn't have that choice.

"And if he don't want to be with me when I tell him? What if he just walks away” Y/N confessed her fears to her friend.

“Then you'll be fine because you've got rid of an asshole like him. And I will hunt him down to death, I promise you. But if you never tell him...”

“I know, I'll wonder what would have happened if.”

“Exactly, go tell him and then tell me, okay?”

“I guess.”

When Y/N went down to the kitchen, Harry was setting the table. He looked up with a smile and motioned for her to sit down.

“Come, sit down, eating will do you better.”

The truth is that Y/N didn't feel like eating one bit. And Rosé's words played over and over in her brain. What would have happened if. Rose was right, if Harry left it would hurt, of course it would hurt, but it would be better, it would be better eventually. If Harry stayed, well, they could figure out what to do with the baby together, as a fully established couple. So she bluntly swallowed hard, brushed all her fears aside like trash, and took a deep breath before letting it out.

"Harry, I'm pregnant.”

Those three words made her boyfriend stop in his tracks. Y/N looked at him apprehensively, not knowing what he was going to do next. Harry set the plate on the counter, ran a hand through his hair, a habit that was now common for him, and looked at her with sparkling eyes.

“What?”

Y/N swallowed hard again. Feeling again how the drops of sweat began to form due to the stress of what was about to happen.

“I'm pregnant. I went to the pharmacy and bought two pairs of tests and they all came back positive. I'm...sorry. I know it's not the right time because... ¡Fuck! you're going to release your second album in December and you and I are going to be on tour next year and a baby is the last thing you need right now.”

Harry fell silent. Y/N felt tears welling up in her eyes. The prickling and anguish in her stomach only told her that she was about to burst into tears.

“Say something.”

Harry put his hand to the bridge of his nose, rubbing it. He then stared at her, and then looked down at her flat stomach exposed by the top she was wearing.

"Sorry, it's just that you caught me by surprise. I was thinking something happened to you but I never thought it was because you're pregnant.”

“Aren't you angry?” Y/N asked in a small and nervous voice. Harry frowned, suddenly very confused. Seeing Y/N's tear-soaked eyes, he sighed heavily and walked over to hug her and repeatedly kiss her on the head.

“How can I be angry, huh? You take my babe in there. Besides, to make a child you need two people, right?”

Y/N nodded repeatedly, suddenly feeling so overwhelmed with relief that she felt her shoulders begin to tremble from crying. Harry pulled away from her, looking at her worriedly.

“Why are you crying, pretty? Everything will be fine, I promise you.”

Y/N shook his head as Harry's thumbs wiped the tears from his face.

“They are tears of happiness. I love you so much." Harry gave her a kiss on the forehead and led her quickly to the sofa, telling her to sit down, she obeyed confused. However, when Harry brought her the food with an extra quantity and water, Y/N looked at him lovingly.

“Harry, no need...”

"You have to be comfortable, pretty," he interrupted her. “Eat, you need to feed the baby too. Tomorrow I'll start calling the best gynecologists and doctors and whatever it takes for the baby. You just rest.”

Y/N suddenly changed her expression. Of course, Harry was now in the euphoria that in nine months he would possibly be a father, but then came the realization that he would have to cancel his tour and upcoming promotional events, and that would be a waste of money and outrage from his fans. And the same thing would happen with Y/N's career, probably her company would replace her forever and put her out of a job. They couldn't afford that.

"Harry…" Y/N placed her food and drink on the small coffee table and looked at him. "I'm not sure I want to have the baby."

Two seconds passed, then another, and finally a small, almost inaudible:

“Oh.”

“It's not... it's not because I don't want to have a family with you, H. Our jobs... aren't normal. From the third trimester I will have to be on leave and then I will be on maternity leave for another two months. That would be like half a year without being able to work, and very possibly they would cancel my contract and throw me out on the street. And you... your second album comes out in December and even before that you're full of publicity events, and then comes the world tour. Then there are the people… they're going to talk, Harry, they're going to say a million things just like they did with Louis when he had Freddie. They already say things like our relationship isn't ours or it's not real or that I'm just a distraction to make people think you're straight. I told you I didn't care because I don’t, but now it's not about me, it's about our son. I don't want to see people talking or speculating about whether our child is ours, or someone else's, or a doll, dammit.”

“Do you think that I don't care when people say that our relationship is a publicity stunt, or that it's not real? Do you think I would like to see people saying that my baby is not mine?”

“I know that no! But that's what's going to happen if I decide to go ahead with my pregnancy, even if we don't want to. Harry we can't control people, and even though we think we can't control our own lives either, as long as we keep doing what we do, we'll never be ourselves, a part of us will always be theirs. How can we be so cruel as to put our baby in this world? We did it because we wanted to, we already knew the conse2quences and we did it anyway, but he would not have that opportunity to choose.

Harry stared at her for a couple of seconds, took a deep breath.

“I will withdraw. If in the end you decide to continue with this pregnancy, I will withdraw.”

Y/N felt his body tense. She looked at him confused, it was impossible that he really meant that.

“What?”

“You already heard it. I'll withdraw, and we can go live in a town outside of London or France or Korea or wherever you want. A quiet and out of the spotlight place to raise our baby. You will continue to work with your group and I will find myself a job as a producer or songwriter or whatever, something where I don't have to make public appearances. I will take care of our son.”

“You can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

Y/N looked at Harry like he was an idiot.

“Because what you love most is getting on stage and singing songs, seeing how all those people are there to see you, how they applaud you. You love hearing how people praise your work. I can't take that away from you.”

“My ego doesn't matter if it's about my family, Y/N, you already know that.”

Y/N tried to find an excuse, anything, but Harry seemed to have already made up his mind. Of course Y/N appreciated that Harry was willing to do this for her, for their baby. But it was too much, even for him. Quit his job, the one he loved so much, for which he had given up his adolescence, his private life, and a million other things?

"Harry, listen…" Y/N gently took both hands in his, "I love the idea of ​​starting a family with you, but I also want you to be happy, as happy as you can be, before we settle down. And if that means we have to wait a few more years... that's completely fine with me.”

“This isn't about me, Y/N, you're the one who's pregnant."

“I know but...”

“Do you want to have it? Regardless of everything, do you want to have it? Because if you don't want to, if you really don't want to, I'll accompany you tomorrow to an abortion clinic.”

Y/N found herself speechless. There she had it: the support she had feared so badly from Harry, because she thought it wasn't going to come. She had the support of her partner, whatever decision she made. It didn't matter what Harry wanted, or what anyone else wanted, it only mattered what Y/N wanted.

"Well…" she hesitated a little, "I love the idea of ​​having it, Harry. To see him grow and take care of him and love him, especially with you by my side. I know that if I decide to have him you will love him more than anything so I’m not worried about that, I know that even if things do not go well between us you will worry about your son and you will continue to love him as always. What I'm worried about is what's going to happen to our careers, because, I mean... it's what we live off of, Harry.”

Harry nodded, understandable as always, and patted her shoulder gently to comfort her.

“Listen, we'll talk to your company, okay? We will tell them about our situation and we will propose that you hold all the important events after the summer in the first few months. The recording of the new album, the choreographies, whatever. So the last months of your pregnancy you will not have to do anything. And we will propose to delay the tour until May or June.”

Y/N thought about it with a cold head. Maybe, maybe it could work. If they organized their ideas better and explained it sparingly, they could do it. Y/N felt very grateful to Harry for how he was putting her at ease. Without him, she possibly would have panicked.

"So…" Harry murmured slowly and carefully, "should I call the gynecologist to make an appointment, or an abortion clinic?"

Y/N looked at Harry. She looked up at him with his perfect mop of curly hair, his green eyes meeting her brown, his chubby pink mouth, and his straight-bridged nose. Harry's expression was curious, and when Y/N looked at him she realized that this was all she had been looking for, and she understood why Harry had told her that if she had the baby, he would back off. But she was too stubborn and she wasn't going to let Harry give up on his dreams.

"Harry, don't withdraw" she murmured, laying her head down with her boyfriend's.

“I must do it, it's for the best, I'll be fine, I promise.”

Y/N took a deep breath.

“We can't know everything right now. We have nine months to prepare, and then we'll see what happens, huh? Other artists have done it, have children, I mean.” Harry looked at her with a smile.

"I guess that means tomorrow I should hurry up and call a gynecologist."

Y/N smiled, feeling her nose brush against Harry's. She felt the heat emanating from her body like a heater, warming her as well. Y/N nodded repeatedly, feeling tears pricking her eyes.

“You guess right.”

Harry's face broke into the biggest smile Y/N had ever seen, and he hurried to give her a tender kiss on the lips, and then on the cheeks, and then on the nose, and then on the temple, and then on the forehead.

"I love you so much, you and our baby," he said. Y/N felt Harry's hand move to her belly, which hadn't shown any kind of change yet, but they both knew their baby, the love of their lives, was there, forming. “I can't wait to put a ring on your finger.”

Y/N smiled, feeling so happy that she was beginning to think she would float from the euphoria.

“Ask me in a couple of years and I'll tell you yes.”

Harry gave a small laugh, brushing a couple of dark strands from her face. However, then he looked at the food he had brought her a while ago, which was still on the center table, already forgotten. He kissed Y/N on the cheek and got up to get the plate and go back to the kitchen to reheat it.

“Do you think the baby likes lasagna?”

-

[persnicketypomelo]

Could you write what it would be like to have the phantom with a reader who is also "disfigured"?

Maybe the reader is albino, missing an eye, or just looks "different" and that's how they gain his attention. I'm just curious on how that situation would work out.

This ended up being far sweeter than I originally intended, but I think it's kind of cute

Phantom With "Disfigured" Reader

Being handicapped, abnormal, or unique in any such way destined you to a harsh and unforgiving life

Let us not forget that this was a time when your race, gender, and ability predetermined your possibilities in life

However, the main factor in your quality of life was the depth of your wallet

This was a time with no social mobility and vast income inequality

It is likely you would be born into the poor working class majority, even without any unique features, based on statistics alone

If you're grimy and donning ill-fitting hand-me-downs, the best chance you have is doing dangerous physical labor, or else in some other underpaid position to be forgotten

Perhaps, though, you are lucky enough to make yourself look sufficiently presentable to be hired into a prestigious opera house as part of the cleaning staff or costuming department

You secured yourself a better means of survival, and you couldn't afford to lose it

From the first day, you stretched yourself thin taking odd jobs for every department in an attempt to prove yourself useful

Unfortunately, your hard work made you absorb the tasks of those wishing to cut corners and slip out of some of their responsibilities

You were often one of the first to arrive as well as the last to leave, and your presence did not slip past the attention of the opera house's nightly resident

At first, the Phantom regarded you with annoyance

Admittedly, frightening the chorus girls that wandered like packs of lambs was entertaining, but that aside, Erik wished for nothing more than a comfortable salary, compliance from the managers, and solitude

One day he would complete his Don Juan Triumphant composition, and then lay to rest for eternity

But until then, he supposed there was no harm in observing you pace about the opera house late into the night

Your company was not at all bothersome, he came to find

You were quiet, focused, and didn't stray into his domain

Those were qualities Erik could appreciate

Not to mention, you seemed oblivious to his presence, so there could be no harm in at least watching you

It was only when you propped a lantern up to finish polishing the floors the night before a new production that he saw you up close

His heart, if it was even beating, paused a beat in his chest

You were like him...

His blossoming interest in you bloomed into affection in that moment

Erik knew the opera house better than the back of his hand, and all its happenings never went by unnoticed

The whispered exchanges and glances cast your way, the muttering behind your back, the uneasy silence the moment you entered a room...in an instant, everything connected in his mind

From then on, you might notice that the horribly mannered dolts who teased you and chattered about you when they thought you could not hear had...accidents

Sandbags falling too close for comfort, props falling upon them, cryptic notes among their belongings...

You heard many rumours of the fearsome and horrifying opera ghost that lurked the building during your time there

But with the unfortunate incidents occurring to your tormenters, you could not bring yourself to think ill of him, though he couldn't have known he was helping you

Perhaps, you think, smiling to yourself, this opera ghost is not so terrible as everyone describes him to be

[rhythmic-idealist]

The shorter (better) version of this post that contains every detail ever— Some of you know my partner @crimeronan.

(This is the part where I gush about my partner. You can skip down a few paragraphs if you wanna.)

If you do know—or know of—Kitkat, you might know them as a resource, or as a writer, or as that person who has been known to sit down and write six paragraphs of advice to the scared young person in their inbox.

Watching their blog I see people trading autoimmune stories, younger queer and polyamorous people asking questions about what it's like to be in your mid twenties and settled into those things, and people who found stories who resonated in ways stories don't always succeed at.

Or maybe not! That’s my platonic partner of four years. Happy to introduce u.

(This is the part you can skip forward to.)

If you ARE aware of Kitkat, you might know a little about their running 2+ year health mystery, and about the recent updates that it is FINALLY starting to be solved. Kitkat has been too sick to work consistently for a very long time, has lost multiple freelance writing clients to ChatGPT, and has been doing physical gig delivery work to try to make up the gap—while remaining too sick to work a majority of the time.

This post exists because their car broke down.

To say the money situation is already tight would be, though I’m sorry to put it like this, understated. Basically: because of this auto repair bill, they’re not going to be able to make rent.

A little info about what we're doing moving forward: I'm gonna be moving in next month, finding a job that will train me instead of the original plan of finishing trade school first (I'm happy about this turn of events for many reasons! Just explaining where I fit in the whole financial constellation). And at that point, I'm gonna be helping with bills, since Kitkat's entire focus right now should be on getting well again. I expect we as a group will probably be okay once I’m in Oregon and more established/able to help out with the household income.

The problem is just that things aren’t there yet, and this isn't money we're going to be able to make back later. Kitkat has been too sick to work consistently for much too long, and that's just untenable without looking for community support right now.

Kitkat has limited mobility and is going to need to get to upcoming appointments, and speaking honestly, also just really needs access to a car to make things like groceries feasible. She’s not the only one in the apartment with limited mobility or chronic pain.

The bill has come out to $717.80.

As of now, rent money has been used to pay it—the car has been repaired now, but that money was for rent and daily expenses. There is already financial assistance in play, particularly Medicaid. As it stands, because of this bill, they're not going to make rent.

To account for GoFundMe's fees of 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction, the goal has been set to $750.

If you’re in any way able to give, the link is here: https://gofund.me/c0f9d7fe

Otherwise, a share goes a really long way.

Thank you a ton for reading this far. Please know: this post is an appeal to those among us who have disposable income and are looking to donate some of it. Take care.

Thank you.

$1,478/750

Date posted: July 27th, 2023 Updated: August 10th, 2023 because I noticed donations are still trickling in wah??????? 🥹😭

[chronicbitchsyndrome]

i have a weird and fluctuating relationship to support needs labels because it's extremely situational as to whether my needs are considered "support needs" and whether they are considered high compared to the baseline or not.

like, in circles of abled people, i am considered basically nonfunctional without obscene levels of support that no person should ever be expected to give someone. i am considered a very high-maintenance person, and being roommates with me is something that people consider a sacrifice and a major burden.

in circles of disabled people, this is still sometimes true, and other times i am the most independent person in the room and am considered to have massive amounts of privilege because of my ability to do tasks independently.

it's really contextual! to a lot of people, the fact that i need someone else to drive me for any outings, i need someone else to cook for me and can only make basic no-chop no-heat things like sandwiches by myself, i cannot clean a bathtub, i cannot do dishes, i cannot buy groceries alone, i can't navigate without a live-tracking gps (i can't even read maps), i cannot work a job and need additional incomes in the household to maintain QOL, i can't do low-level executive functioning tasks like recognizing when i need to shower and understanding the steps to shower, and i cannot budget my own money and need someone else to help me with basic math, all mean that i'm high support needs.

to other people, the fact that i can dust and vacuum and scrub surfaces, i can speak verbally and am in fact hyperverbal, i do not use assistive tech or mobility aids, i can make basic no-cook meals like sandwiches, i am good at navigating government forms, i can do high-level executive function like recognizing and organizing my household's QOL needs, and i can exercise for short periods, "balance out" my shortcomings in other areas to the degree that i no longer have anything in common with other people who have mid-high-support-needs.

also i exist in a weird gap in some places where i am actively good at the high-level tasks, but completely incapable of the low-level tasks in a basic skill set (yes, even if i "work on it" and try to "learn how"). like executive functioning--i can recognize, track, and organize my entire household's needs, but i cannot break down the steps to making a meal in a way that allows me to even understand how cooking works mentally. like apart from the fact that i am not physically capable of chopping or using significant heat without injuring myself, i literally just do not understand the sequence of actions or how they relate to one another or what i am supposed to be thinking about or looking for, i don't understand how it fits together and why, and i don't comprehend it when people try to teach me. it slides off my brain like glass.

end of post, no wider point, i'm just musing about myself

[junebugtwin]

fun little Worm ocs I've got stuck in my head (under the cut because this post ended up longer than I thought it would be):

Kathline 'Katie' Darner aka: WYSLMIIWAW (pronounced like 'wise-limm-wah') a nineteen year old runaway and member of 'The Party Crashers' a small and relatively informal rouge group that steals from the rich/ morally questionable and gives to the poor. (in this case they are The Poor but semantics) The party crashers prefer to target villain groups or cops- which makes them pretty much villains in the eyes of the law, though other villain groups find that opinion controversial.

Her power is that she can 'transform' into a worm (in reality its more like her consciousness switches into that of a worm that has been teleported where she was and her body has been teleported to another dimension in a location where it is physically safe, but she doesn't know that). It happens instantaneously and can be undone instantaneously, which gives her a surprising amount of movement and agility.

She can use her powers to dodge hits, survive falls she wouldn't as a human, sneak into places, hide, or dig through the ground. She perceives the world similar to how she might if her human body was made tiny, as though she has somehow retained her human senses- though they are fuzzy and tend to 'lag' a half second or so behind reality.

If she dies as a worm she wakes up in her human body in another universe. She does not know this because she has assumed (fairly) that dying as a worm would just kill her like normal.

Her name is a acronym, the full title is 'Would You Still Love Me If I Was A Worm'- a truly stupid name made up by her girlfriend that she went along with. They have not bothered to explain it to the press or anyone outside of their group- which, hilariously combining with the fact that the 'worm' aspect of Katies powers is mostly unknown- leaves her as a mysterious figure with an annoyingly instant mover power.

Katie mostly stays quiet in costume, but as a civilian she's relaxed and pleasant to be around, if not incredibly easy to push over and boss around.

Maxine 'Max' Arbor aka: Hot Wheels- An eighteen year old girl who lives with her grandparents and barely passed highschool. She's one of the other members of 'The Party Crashers' and girlfriend to Katie.

At fourteen she was in a bad accident and became permanently disabled, resulting in her using a wheelchair to get around, among other chronic pains and annoyances. She does not let this stop her from being an active member of a semi-criminal gang of hooligans, though maybe it should honestly.

Her power allows her to use as much force as the most powerful thing to impact her (ever) into any movement she does with her body. She can not tone this power down- if it's on it's all the way on. This would not be so disasterous except the most powerful thing to hit her was a bus.

Max's physical body is protected from the after effects of punching/shoving things with the force of a bus, but it does not protect her immedate surroundings, the floor, or her wheel chair.

This is unfortunate because she definitely cannot pay for multiple wheelchairs, and thus uses her thievery as an income to replace her mobility aid which she destroyed via her job as a thief. It's a self perpetuating cycle that she doesn't really like thinking about.

Max has obvious brute powers, and can move extremely fast when necessary- however she's not so great at the steering or stopping part of things.

She's naturally impulsive, quick to anger and quick to forgive and a generally kind hearted person when she remembers to be one.

Rose Winters- A nine year old girl who doesn't have a cape identity because she doesn't really consider herself one and hasn't stopped to think too hard about things.

Rose is extremely intelligent for her age, in part because of her powers, and in part because her parental situation is neglectful enough that it borders on abusive and she's sort of had to learn how to fend for herself.

She has a tinker power in a round about way, she makes little 'statues' out of mud, rocks, grass, leaves and other natural items- with each ingredients adding different abilities or quirks to the statue as she goes. The location the items were found in, the condition they are in, the order they are added to her creations, even her emotions toward said object all effect the final product even if only slightly.

These creatures are made animate when she considers them 'done' and are friendly towards her, with the problem solving skills of maybe a particularly smart dog. She can make them at any size, but it's quite hard to make them overly big without it collapsing in on itself.

Each statue has it's own simple personality, and some work together better or worse than others. Depending on what she put into them they can have a huge range of abilities and properties, such as blending into the background, being hot to the touch, shooting gravel, making extremely loud sounds, seeing in the dark, or giving out a mild electric shock.

Rose is more interested in collecting, making and testing out her statues than the local cape scene but she has accidentally caused some chaos- her creatures are free to roam where they want and not every one takes seeing what is obviously some ones minion wandering around their turf very well.

I do have more characters, including the rest of the members of The Party Crashers, but this post is already waaay longer than I thought it would be and it's getting late. Feel free to ask me any questions/clarification about these guys, I'm always down to talk about ocs.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Capitalists hate capitalism

Today (Oct 16) I'm in Minneapolis, keynoting the 26th ACM Conference On Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing. Thursday (Oct 19), I'm in Charleston, WV to give the 41st annual McCreight Lecture in the Humanities. And on Friday (Oct 20), I'm at Charleston's Taylor Books from 12h-14h.

When we think of class struggle, we rightly focus on the struggle between workers and bosses. Class struggle is held back by “false consciousness.” We’re told that American workers are allergic to socialism because they view themselves as “temporarily embarrassed millionaires,” who throw their lot in with their bosses because they want to join their ranks.

In reality, America has virtually no upward social mobility; an American who changes class is generally a middle class person who becomes poor, or a poor person who becomes homeless.

But there’s another important class struggle, within the ruling class. That’s the struggle between capitalists and rentiers. Capitalists want to own the means of production and utilize it without paying rentiers, both so they can enrich themselves and so they can invest in superior production.

Rentiers want to own the things capitalists must use so they can cream off the profits without doing anything to produce them.

The struggle between capitalists and rentiers is rife with false consciousness. Capitalists hate capitalism. Not every worker sees themself as a temporarily embarrassed millionaire, but every capitalist sees themself as a temporarily embarrassed rentier.

Capitalists loathe competition. That’s why Peter Thiel says “competition is for losers” and Warren Buffet continuously salivates over investment in firms with “moats and walls” that prevent competitors from entering the market.

The landlord who owns a building with a coffee shop does well even if that coffee shop goes out of business when a competing shop takes away all their business. Indeed, the landlord benefits from this situation: having a vacant storefront to rent just as a neighborhood is blowing up thanks to a hot new coffee shop is an opportunity to raise the rent. “Passive income” is income that is protected from competition.

-A Major Defeat For Technofeudalism: We euthanized some rentiers.

My next novel is The Lost Cause, a hopeful novel of the climate emergency. Amazon won't sell the audiobook, so I made my own and I'm pre-selling it on Kickstarter!