#it probably won't but we can dream

[unpretty]

i love your writing and am always eager to read more of it, but i'm not mad or whatever about you taking a hiatus. i can't speak for anyone else but i'd guess most people who read your stuff feel similarly. to paraphrase neil gaiman, you don't Owe us shit. wishing you well <3

[inkskinned]

one of the things that i think we should pay attention to, socially, about the disney v. desantis thing is that it is really highlighting the importance of remembering nuance.

in a purely neutral sense, if you engage in something problematic, that does not mean you are necessarily agreeing with what makes it problematic. and i am worried that we have become... so afraid of any form of nuance.

disney isn't my friend, they're a corporate monopoly that bastardized copyright laws for their own benefit, ruin the environment, and abuse their workers (... and many other things). this isn't a hypothetical for me - i grew up in florida. i also worked for the actual Walt Disney World; like, in the parks. i am keenly aware of the ways they hurt people, because they hurt me. i fully believe that part of the reason florida is so conservative is because it's been an "open secret" for years now that disney lobbies the government to keep minimum wage down, and i know they worked hard to keep the parks unmasked and open during the worst parts of Covid. they purposefully keep their employees in poverty. they are in part responsible for the way the floridian government works.

desantis is still, by a margin that is frankly daunting, way worse. the alternative here isn't just "republicans win", it's actual fascism.

in a case like this, where the alternative is to allow actual fascism into united states legislation - where, if desantis wins, there are huge and legal ramifications - it's tempting to minimize the harm disney is also doing, because... well, it's not fascism. but disney isn't the good guy, either, which means republicans are having a field day asking activists oh, so you think their treatment of their employees is okay?

we have been trained there is a right answer. you're right! you're in the good group, and you're winning at having an opinion.

except i have the Internet Prophecy that in 2-3 months, even left-wing people will be ripping apart activists for having "taken disney's side". aren't i an anti-capitalist? aren't i pro-union? aren't i one of the good ones? removed from context and nuance (that in this particular situation i am forced to side with disney, until an other option reveals itself), my act of being like "i hope they have goofy rip his throat out onstage, shaking his lifeless body like a dog toy" - how quickly does that seem like i actually do support disney?

and what about you! at home, reading this. are you experiencing the Thought Crime of... actually liking some of the things disney has made? your memories of days at the parks, or of good movies, or of your favorite show growing up. maybe you are also evil, if you ever enjoyed anything, ever, at all.

to some degree, the binary idealization/vilification of individual motive and meaning already exists in the desantis case. i have seen people saying not to go to the disney pride events because they're cash grabs (they are). i've seen people saying you have to go because they're a way to protest. there isn't a lot of internet understanding of nuance. instead it's just "good show of support" or "evil bootlicking."

this binary understanding is how you can become radicalized. when we fear nuance and disorder, we're allowing ourselves the safety of assuming that the world must exist in binary - good or bad, problematic or "not" problematic. and unfortunately, bigots want you to see the world in this binary ideal. they want you to get mad at me because "disney is taking a risk for our community but you won't sing their praises" and they want me to get mad at you for not respecting the legit personal trauma that disney forced me through.

in a grander scheme outside of disney: what happens is a horrific splintering within activist groups. we bicker with each other about minimal-harm minimal-impact ideologies, like which depiction of bisexuality is the most-true. we gratuitously analyze the personal lives of activists for any sign they might be "problematic". we get spooked because someone was in a dog collar at pride. we wring our hands about setting an empty shopping mall on fire. we tell each other what words we may identify ourselves by. we get fuckin steven universe disk horse when in reality it is a waste of our collective time.

the bigots want you to spend all your time focusing on how pristine and pretty you and your interests are. they want us at each other's throats instead of hand in hand. they want to say see? nothing is ever fucking good enough for these people.

and they want their followers to think in binary as well - a binary that's much easier to follow. see, in our spaces, we attack each other over "proper" behavior. but in bigoted groups? they attack outwards. they have someone they hate, and it is us. they hate you, specifically, and you are why they have problems - not the other people in their group. and that's a part of how they fucking keep winning.

some of the things that are beloved to you have a backbone in something terrible. the music industry is a wasteland. the publishing industry is a bastion of white supremacy. video games run off of unpaid labor and abuse.

the point of activism was always to bring to light that abuse and try to stop it from happening, not to condemn those who engage in the content that comes from those industries. "there is no ethical consumption under late capitalism" also applies to media. your childhood (and maybe current!) love of the little mermaid isn't something you should now flinch from, worried you'll be a "disney adult". wanting the music industry to change for the better does not require that you reject all popular music until that change occurs. you can acknowledge the harm something might cause - and celebrate the love that it has brought into your life.

we must detach an acknowledgment of nuance from a sense of shame and disgust. we must. punishing individual people for their harmless passions is not doing good work. encouraging more thoughtful, empathetic consumption does not mean people should feel ashamed of their basic human capacities and desires. it should never have even been about the individual when the corporation is so obviously the actual evil. this sense that we must live in shame and dread of our personal nuances - it just makes people bitter and hopeless. do you have any idea how scared i am to post this? to just acknowledge the idea of nuance? that i might like something nuanced, and engage in it joyfully? and, at the same time, that i'm brutally aware of the harm that they're doing?

"so what do i do?" ... well, often there isn't a right answer. i mean in this case, i hope mickey chops off ron's head and then does a little giggle. but truth be told, often our opinions on nuanced subjects will differ. you might be able to engage in things that i can't because the nuance doesn't sit right with me. i might think taylor swift is a great performer and a lot of fun, and you might be like "raquel, the jet fuel emissions". we are both correct; neither of us have any actual sway in this. and i think it's important to remember that - the actual scope of individual responsibility. like, i also love going to the parks. Thunder Mountain is so fun. you (just a person) are not responsible for the harm that Disney (the billion dollar corporation) caused me. i don't know. i think it's possible to both enjoy your memories and interrogate the current state of their employment policies.

there is no right way to interrogate or engage with nuance - i just hope you embrace it readily.

[tangereendream]

Mizrak from Castlevania: Nocturne is Eadwulf Grieve to me.

He even growls.

"handsome, feisty, glowering one"

Anyway, I'm in love with him.

[raysdrawlings]

Listen, I didn't really care about the upcoming miraculous special when it was announced- BUT!! The fandom's take on these new little emo kids is absolutely amazing, every comic I see is so funny- genuinely gets me excited about the concept- and makes me want to draw.

I can only hope the special is similar. :'')

[syxnewt]

Valorant YT released a picture of Omen in front of someone holding a book actually why don't I just screenshot it lmao

Are we getting a library map. If we get a library map I will die a hundred deaths (positive)

[lpa6zn]

Never in my life have I wanted to be in Paris so much as now😩

[bbq-potato-chip]

i can't think about drawing right now I HAVE THINGS TO DO!!!

[iindigoeyed]

RE: Tumblr shilling out to AI scraping tools

also see @.staff's post.

the news has made its way to me. I've opted out but in true "nothing-on-tumblr-ever-functions" fashion, i just can't rely on that working. Considering the guy who owns tumblr now is also a massive transphobe this is not surprising at all and i expect this will be 2018 Porn Ban-levels of dropping userbase any day now.

So with the rise of AI scraping, I probably won't be posting my art here or, honestly, anywhere at all in the future. There is nowhere left for artists to exist, and nowhere left for fandom to flourish like it used to, and that upsets me. tumblr is not and has not been perfect but this was truly the only last place for the freaks to exist without having to be marketable.

I have dozens, and by dozens i mean hundreds, of inactive blogs lying around on tumblr from over the years. a lot of them have my old art on them. not only do i not have the information to log into them anymore, but a lot of them only exist in reblogs, and exactly how are reblogs of art going to exist under the "pwease dont scwape my awt" thing? Will you be able to check that EVERY blog has opted-out? What about deleted blogs? Inactive ones? The blogs that belong to dead people? You get it. I'm sure I'm not the only one in this boat. you want me to log into what is probably close to a hundred blogs to switch a button that should be OPT-IN to begin with? -- But let's be honest, who's opting in to have their art fucking stolen? No one, and on tumblr especially.

Personally speaking here, I know i don't have a huge following and that's kind of by choice. So you can take what i say with a grain of salt. but as someone who want(ed) to work in the art field and was hoping ai scraping would be a passing trend, this is the nail in my coffin. I give up. I'm not posting art anymore, period. I've dealt with all of this for long enough. Everyone and everywhere is hostile for artists, including other artists, every single website, and now companies and corporations. If this is the future it is fucking bleak. I've made a lot of friends and memories through art, and please don't get me wrong, i am so grateful. But even so, I make no money (not like i ever tried), i don't enjoy the process, and i'm just a drop in the ocean of artists on the internet. Instead i get to worry about: people harassing others over what art they make, art being suppressed in the algorithms, artists being expected to comply with bullshit regulations, companies scraping our hard work to feed back into their dumbfuck machine, and in my case honing my skills for almost a decade with nothing to show for it to my colleagues.

I love art. I love(d) making art, at one point. My philosophy is that art is made to be shared. but if i cannot do one, i cannot do the other. I myself cannot share art safely, ergo i myself have no reason to make it. I'll find a way to do what i love but this is not it.

as for everyone else. i hope you don't give up hope, i hope you keep fighting to fix this. But personally speaking i am done. Look around, look outside. everything is trying to kill us. and the last thing i need is having to worry about whether my art is getting fed into an ai or glazing everything before i post. I know it will get worse. I'm just tired.

[quietzap]

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[indigodawns]

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[notafraidofredyellowandblue]

Viva interview 2.0

So many great idea for Rammstein to do, this is a really good one as well 🌺

Personally what i would like too, is if they would do some remakes of iconic photoshoots 😊

[theflyingfeeling]

I still can’t believe Allu went to Oulu 🤧 and how he wanted everyone to know he’s been there (with Olli) for 3 days already 😭😭💞

Yessss and for Olli's birthday too?! It's too soft 🥺💕 I hope Aleksi is still in Oulu with him and that they had a nice day 💞

I'm also really curious as to what they're actually on to 👀 Aleksi tagged the band account in his story yesterday so it seems it is something for BC after all, but clearly it doesn't involve the whole band... 🤨 so the conclusion we can draw from this is that they really just wanted to come up with something as an excuse to spend more time together after the tour, because they couldn’t bear the thought of not seeing each other until maybe after the holidays 😭💗

I need Aleksi to do a stream asap to answer all the questions I've had since he last did (like how come he has apparently taken up smoking all of a sudden 🤨) and I just want to know what's up in general 😩

[korinthiakos]

Just thinking of The Corinthian experiencing snow for the first time, that's all.

[you-will-return]

---

[alectology-archive]

here’s how rand’s flute can still win-

[jokerownsmysoul]

I may be still worried about the sequel for a couple of reasons, but I'm also genuinely excited for a few things. Arthur's new clothes & outfits we will get to know and inevitably will come to love immeasurably is one of the things I'm the most excited about. I can't wait to see him wear again the colors we love to see on him, the ones that bring out his beauty and match the colors of his hair and eyes, and other different colors too that will show us he really does look handsome in any kind of shade. We'll get so many other clothes that obviously we'll grow to love, have strong connections and feel a particular sentimentality with. I want to get to know him better and deeper, and this is one of the few ways we are granted to do that. I wonder if we'll be able to figure out more what may be his taste in clothing, which colors he prefers to wear, which ones are his favorite, if we'll have confirmations of the things we thought all along he might love. I'm going to miss his old outfits, his soft cardigans, his red suit, all those familiar fabrics that feel like home and we'll probably won't meet again, but I long for nothing more than getting to know more of him and this soothes it a little. Getting to know little things about him, about his wonderful self, what he loves and prefers. Things that aren't little at all. 🤎