#it's about processing information and critical thinking!

[uncle-fruity]

The thing is that books usually DO teach you something, but it's not usually something explicit in the text. (Sometimes the author has an explicit moral they want to push, but whether they pull it off or not is another thing.) Reading fiction teaches you about experiences and viewpoints beyond your own. It can act as a safe way to engage in hard emotions like grief, anger, disappointment, betrayal, etc. It can also be a safe way to engage with certain experiences you'd rather avoid irl. Most folks don't want to go to war, but understanding even a little bit of what war is like for the people who are forced into war is extremely good insight into other people's lives & experiences. That's the kind of thing a story can facilitate. Most people who do bad things DO justify their actions in one way or another, and stories can help you understand how someone could think or act in certain ways. So, yes. The more you read the more you learn, but the things you learn are typically cumulative over many stories with diverse points of view and not every one of those stories is *trying* to teach you anything. Even when a story is trying to teach you a lesson or a moral, you don't have to accept or agree with that lesson, but it's good to think about things you don't agree with just as an exercise in critical thinking.

In short, the best education from fiction you'll get is by reading a lot of all kinds of things and asking yourself questions about what you believe and what you want to prioritize in your life. The lesson is in your ability to comprehend what the text is telling you about the people and places and culture(s) it's presenting in the story and to take that information and process it and, hopefully, learn more about how other people think AND more about why you feel the way you do about things.

If you're reading for an explicit moral or lesson, you're gonna have to stick to Aesop's Fables and simplified stories of good vs evil, which is just not how life is or ever will be.

“it sounds like you’re justifying their actions-“ i am. they’re a fictional character. i’m okay with anything they do all the time. hope this helps.

[god-of-your-basement]

More about my Shen brothers AU

Thanks @nkturnalreverie for the opportunity to expand on the topic.If you have any more questions about this AU, I'd be happy to answer them <3

Part 1

I think I should point out that Shen Yuan's parents are struggling to defend their actions. They convince themselves they did a good thing no matter what they really believe. Still terrible thing to do. But I don't rule out the possibility that they might work through this sometime in the future.

"What does SY think of all this?" This is actually a more complicated question to answer, so let's talk more about Shen Yuan.

He was originally intended to transmigrate as Shen Qingqiu, but when Shen Jiu qi deviated, he received help quickly enough to stop the system and reject the switch. However, the process had started and couldn't be stopped, so eventually Shen Yuan ended up as his brother.

But since Shen Yuan became a character who wasn't even supposed to exist, much less have an impact on the plot, the system, in order to avoid his interference in the story, blocked his memories of his previous life. Other than that, the Shen Yuan's system was dormant, no OOC, no quests, nothing. The only thing that couldn't be avoided was collecting points, because it's done passively. In its case, the system will react only and exclusively in extreme cases of disruption of critical points in history, which in principle has no chance of happening. In short, Shen Yuan doesn't know that he has transmigrated, doesn't know about the system, nor does he know about his previous life and will never know.

Shen Yuan's transmigration does affect his life, though. He seems to mature a bit faster, he learns a lot easier, and he has good instincts, especially when it comes to different beasts or strange plants, he's very creative, but ultimately it is nothing too different. Shen Yuan is just a smart and talented kid.

Shen Yuan's decision to join Cang Qiong was also partly dictated by his past. He wanted to join the sect to help his parents and work with the demonic beasts, and Cang Qiong had always fascinated him. When he was taken to Qing Jing Peak at first, he was very happy, but after meeting with Shen Qingqiu, he was confused.

Then things start being difficult. Shen Qingqiu barely acknowledged his existence unless it involved criticizing his work, and he was very strict towards him. His martial siblings either avoided or bullied him.

Even the other peak lords treated him differently than his peers. Some of them made digs at him or questioned him about his connections with Shen Jiu. But when they didn't like his answer, they got irritated and accused him of lying. Oddly enough, that was the only time his shizun stood up for him.

Finding out that he was actually related to Shen Jiu shocked him a lot. Especially since he was around 11/12 years old at the time. He didn't know what to think about it. Especially since it changed his life quite a bit. The bullying from others had almost stopped, but Shen Qingqiu's treatment had gotten worse. Whereas before he had simply ignored him, now all he had to do was appear in his vision to be punished.

He was angry at Shen Jiu for how he treated him. Part of him was also angry at his parents for what they had done and that he now had to suffer for their decisions. But he had some knowledge of the times when it had happened and was able to understand them.

But over time, he also became curious. He wanted to know why Shen Qingqiu hated him so much. It wasn't hard to guess that it had to be something that happened after he became a slave. The conflict between them intensified when Shen Yuan began to talk back, realizing that Shen Qingqiu, if provoked, might unwittingly give him more information about his past. He can read between the lines of the things Shen Jiu says, and it doesn't sound good.

The more he learned about his past, the more he understood him. His anger subsided, and he suddenly realized that he wanted to have a relationship with his brother. But he knew it would be hard.

[darlingofdots]

today I did not pay any attention at a lecture and still asked a question that people found "very insightful" and that's because I spent my academic career having to work hard on my bullshitting instead of getting a plagiarism machine to do it for me

[blueberriesareking]

CHARACTERISTICS OF WHITE SUPREMACY CULTURE with more info in the link

excerpt in plain text:

Perfectionism Little appreciation expressed for others' work Criticism more common Criticism of person or their work in their absence even more common Mistakes seen as personal failings ANTIDOTES: Develop a culture of appreciation; develop a learning organization, where it's expected that everyone makes mistakes and those mistakes offer opportunities for learning

Sense of Urgency Continued sense of little time that undermines inclusivity, and/or democratic and thoughtful decision-making This sacrifices potential allies in favor of quick or highly visible results Reinforced by funding proposals that promise (and funders that expect) too much for too little ANTIDOTES: Realistic workplans; leadership that understands that things take longer than anyone expects; discuss and plan for what it means to set goals of inclusivity and diversity, particularly in terms of time; write realistic funding proposals

Defensiveness Organization and energy focused on preventing abuse and protecting those in power Criticism of those with power viewed as inappropriate Difficult to raise new or challenging ideas Energy devoted to avoiding hurt feelings and working around defensive people ANTIDOTES: Understand how defensiveness is linked to fear (of losing power, face, comfort, privilege); name defensiveness as a problem when it is one

Quantity Over Quality Measurable things are most valued Little value attached to process Discomfort with emotion and feelings ANTIDOTES: Include process goals in planning; develop a values statement about how work will be done in the organization; develop methods for measuring process; recognize when you need to get off the agenda to address people's feelings and underlying concerns

Worship of the Written Word Those with strong documentation and writing skills are more highly valued, even in orgs where ability to relate to others is key The org doesn't value other ways in which information gets shared ANTIDOTES: Analyze other ways people get and share information; come up with alternative ways to document what is happening; work to recognize the contributions and skills that every person brings to the organization; make sure anything written can be clearly understood (is jargon-free) Only One Right Way Belief there is one right way to do things and that people will learn and adopt it When they do not, then something is wrong with them ANTIDOTES: Accept that there are many ways to get to the same goal; notice and name behavior when folks/groups push "one right way"; acknowledge you have a lot to learn from community partners' way of doing; be willing to adapt; never assume you/the organization knows what's best for others

Paternalism Decision-making clear to those with power; unclear to those without it. Those with power feel capable of making decisions for and in the interests of those without power Those with power don't view as important or necessary understanding the views/experience of those for whom they decide ANTIDOTES: Ensure transparency about decision-making; include people affected by decisions in the process

Either/Or Thinking Things are either/or, good/bad, right/wrong, with us/against us No sense that things can be both/and Results in oversimplifying complex things Increases sense of urgency that we must do this or that, without time to consider a middle way ANTIDOTES: When people use ‘either/or’ language, push for more than two alternatives; when people simplify complex issues, encourage deeper analysis; with urgent decisions, make sure people have time to think creatively

Power Hoarding Little value around sharing power Those with power feel threatened when change is suggested & experience this as a judgement of them They also assume they have everyone's best interests at heart, and that those wanting change are ill-informed, emotional, or inexperienced ANTIDOTES: Include power-sharing in your org’s values statement; discuss that good leaders develop the power and skills of others; understand that change is inevitable and that challenges to leadership can be productive and healthy Fear of Open Conflict People in power try to ignore or run from conflict When someone raises an “issue,” response is to blame that person rather than look at the issue Emphasis on being polite, so raising difficult issues is being impolite, rude, or out-of-line ANTIDOTES: Role play ways to handle conflict before it happens; distinguish between politeness and raising hard issues; once a conflict is resolved, reflect on how it was resolved and/or might have been handled differently

Individualism Little experience or comfort working as part of a team People feel responsible for solving problems alone Accountability goes up and down, not sideways to peers or those whom the organization serves Desire for individual recognition and credit Competition valued over collaboration ANTIDOTES: Include teamwork in your org values statement; make sure that credit is given to all those who participate in an effort, not just the leaders; practice group (not individual) accountability; use meetings to solve problems, not just report activities

I'm the Only One Connected to individualism, the belief that if something is going to get done right, I have to do it Little or no ability to delegate work to others ANTIDOTES: Evaluate people based on their ability to delegate to others; evaluate people based on their ability to work as part of a team to accomplish shared goals

Progress is Bigger, More Observed in systems of accountability and success measurement Progress is an org that expands (adds staff, projects, etc.) or serves more people (regardless of quality of service) Gives no value, not even negative value, to the costs of this so-called progress ANTIDOTES: Ask how actions today will affect people seven generations from now; ensure that any cost/benefit analysis includes all costs, not just financial ones; ask those you work with and for to evaluate your/org performance

Objectivity Belief that objectivity is possible That emotions should not play a role in decision-making or group processes Requiring people to think in a linear fashion and ignoring those who think in other ways Impatience with any thinking that does not appear logical ANTIDOTES: Realize that everybody’s perspective is shaped by their worldview; realize this means you, too; push yourself to sit with discomfort when people express themselves in ways unfamiliar to you; assume that everybody has a valid point and your job is to understand it

Right to Comfort Belief that those with power have a right to emotional and psychological comfort Scapegoating those who cause discomfort Equating individual acts of unfairness against white people with systemic racism that targets people of color ANTIDOTES: Understand that discomfort is at the root of all growth and learning; don't take everything personally

like, okay, consent does literally just mean agree. which is what enables this little rhetorical trick. because there's all this cultural emphasis on sexual consent, which is just expressed as consent, a lot of phrases whose intended meanings are "rape is bad" can be taken literally to mean "i should get to agree to everything that happens in my vicinity."

[angorwhosebabyisthis]

i feel like i should start making more of an effort, when i talk about something in a piece of media being Upsetting to me, to distinguish between 'cathartic' upsetting and 'gave me psychic damage' upsetting. sometimes i mean OUGH OW MY FEELINGS THIS FUCKS ME UP IN A MEANINGFUL AND RESONANT WAY, MY LIFE IS ENRICHED FOR BECOMING AWARE OF IT and sometimes i mean that it is genuinely distressing and i want to shake the creators and ask what the fuck they were thinking

[thedinoknowsall]

It’s probably already linked in the replies to this post somewhere, but the recent MIT study on arXiv ( https://arxiv.org/pdf/2506.08872 ) was very relevant to these points.

The article is very long (like over 150 pages in the main section), so I’ll summarize here: the study put three different groups (LLM with Chat GPT, search engine with Google [with “-ai” to remove AI results], and Brain-only) up to writing SAT essay prompts for about 20 min (which is a pretty typical SAT time for these kinds of essays). They monitored the participants with EEG for brain activity (lots of discussions of alpha and theta waves) then had a set of questions for the participants. Each participant returned for three sessions with different prompts, and there was an optional fourth session that allowed participants to rewrite a previous essay and (though they didn’t know this when they signed up for the fourth session) switch tools.

I don’t know how much I trust the interpreted EEG results (I’m not a neuroscientist) and everything in the article should be taken with a grain of salt because stuff on the arXiv is NOT necessarily peer reviewed* but the questions did bring up very relevant-to-this-posting points about:

Recall of what the participants had literally just written. They were asked to quote from their essay. LLM group consistently failed at this task, even when they knew it was coming in later sessions, Brain-only group consistently passed often with 100% for later sessions. Brain only group also had higher quote accuracy.

Feeling of ownership over the essay. I’m not sure that the LLM group, if they were using the LLM to do most of the writing, should feel ownership over the work, but the authors didn’t do any breakdown of what was written by the participants or copy pasted from elsewhere. The LLM group consistently scored their sense of ownership lower than 100%, while the other groups naturally had higher or near 100% feelings of ownership.

Look, not saying that cheating by using spark notes is fully 100% moral and the right thing to do, but the search engine group were also able to recall quotes from their essays. They (seemingly) used the search engine as a tool for their writing, to find sources and information, not to write it whole-cloth. The study does note, however, that ideas did seem to be biased by the search results, but incorporating external sources into an essay framework is also a skill that requires you to use your brain.

The crazy thing to me is that in the fourth session, the remaining participants were asked to pick a previous prompt to write another essay about (most chose to do one that they had already done before) and a lot of the LLM group didn’t remember all of the previous prompts, while the Brain-only group tended to recall most or all of them.

As an aside anecdote, a colleague had an issue last semester with a student using LLM’s for large chunks of writing a class research paper, and the student was not engaging in critically examining the LLM output at all. Like excitedly asking my colleague about an “new institute” at my university that the LLM had fully hallucinated to justify a claim in the paper level of no critical examination. And. I think that’s partially related to that sense of ownership and engagement in the writing process. This student was treating the LLM output like a fellow student, accepting the claims made by the LLM as if it was truly well thought out work that they didn’t have to scrutinize, and not the most statistically likely combination of terms to relate to a prompt.

And both of these cases (the article and the anecdote) demonstrate a fucking terrifying level of disengagement with writing from these students.

Writing being a tool to communicate thoughts.

Writing being a way to engage in critical thinking.

Writing being the primary way that ideas are recorded and shared everywhere, as it has been for the last 6000-odd years.

Guys, I’m not so sure the kids are alright.

*I’m not sure what the path forward is for that article, as I’m not familiar with the field. Personally, if it is destined for a journal, it’s likely to be trimmed down significantly (it’s like, master thesis length right now). I hope that it does undergo some kind of peer review process: I’m not super familiar with the field and a peer reviewer is likely more familiar with the field, and if there were any logically leaps that I missed (like in the EEG interpretation). I think their explanations of the limitations of the study covered most of my issues with the set up of the study (mainly the small population, and the limited skill of SAT essay writing that the paper explores). I hope that they get to explore this further, and longer term.

Also, a lot of the plots were clearly made in excel and that offends my paper aesthetic sensibilities. But I know and acknowledge that’s a me problem.

Whenever I think about students using AI, I think about an essay I did in high school. Now see, we were reading The Grapes of Wrath, and I just couldn't do it. I got 25 pages in and my brain refused to read any more. I hated it. And its not like I hate the classics, I loved English class and I loved reading. I had even enjoyed Of Mice and Men, which I had read for fun. For some reason though, I absolutely could NOT read The Grapes of Wrath.

And it turned out I also couldn't watch the movie. I fell asleep in class both days we were watching it.

This, of course, meant I had to cheat on my essay.

And I got an A.

The essay was to compare the book and the movie and discuss the changes and how that affected the story.

Well it turned out Sparknotes had an entire section devoted to comparing and contrasting the book and the movie. Using that, and flipping to pages mentioned in Sparknotes to read sections of the book, I was able to bullshit an A paper.

But see the thing is, that this kind of 'cheating' still takes skills, you still learn things.

I had to know how to find the information I needed, I needed to be able to comprehend what sparknotes was saying and the analysis they did, I needed to know how to USE the information I read there to write an essay, I needed to know how to make sure none of it was marked as plagerized. I had to form an opinion on the sparknotes analysis so I could express my own opinions in the essay.

Was it cheating? Yeah, I didn't read the book or watch the movie. I used Sparknotes. It was a lot less work than if I had read the book and watched the movie and done it all myself.

The thing is though, I still had to use my fucking brain. Being able to bullshit an essay like that is a skill in and of itself that is useful. I exercised important skills, and even if it wasnt the intended way I still learned.

ChatGTP and other AI do not give that experience to people, people have to do nothing and gain nothing from it.

Using AI is absolutely different from other ways students have cheated in the past, and I stand by my opinion that its making students dumber, more helpless, and less capable.

However you feel about higher education, I think its undeniable that students using chatgtp is to their detriment. And by extension a detriment to anyone they work with or anyone who has to rely on them for something.

[rydengg]

a majority of you know nothing about how porn is made and distributed and the people in power are counting on you not knowing. i’m so tired.

one of the major things they count on you not knowing is that tube sites do not produce even a decimal of the content you consume. tube sites are just video platforms. they are access to content that isn’t put behind a paywall in the first place. mainstream studios that can often do put shortened versions of their films on tube sites for advertisement. these only make up a fraction of the content that people actively consume as well - much more of it is independently created than folks realize.

with pornhub’s model program, a MASSIVE amount of the content there is uploaded consensually by independent performers themselves. we get ad revenue and, as previously stated, it makes for decent advertisement. i believe the other big tube sites have programs that are similar. and yes, we are age verified when we apply to become part of the model program. every single thing we upload has to go through approval before it goes public.

i’m saying this because every single time a porn-related post goes around someone brings up tube sites before anything else, and they often bring up dated or entirely false information. PH and all of the big tube sites used to have MASSIVE issues (that we warned people about back then - nobody listened) with non-consensually uploaded content but they’ve long since had to change their stance on this and become fairly strict. i’m not saying there’s zero content of that nature. it’s just not all that different than any platform that has video content. all of them face issues of copyright and non-consensual media. (and i’d say they enforce their rules arguably better than platforms like say, facebook.)

and that’s not even to mention how it isn’t even a small facet of the industry despite the general public grouping it altogether. you cannot accept any kind of profit on onlyfans, manyvids, apclips, etc unless you go through a process that includes identity verification. you cannot upload any content involving another person besides who you already have paperwork for. that paperwork includes age verification. and while i’m absolutely there are people that find ways around this… that’s literally everywhere lol. in no other industry does that small outlier define the whole practice.

like… ALL of the propaganda, all the proposed legislation against sex work and specifically porn paints the exact opposite picture of what i’m telling you and so many of you are eating it up. they want you to have a visceral reaction so you don’t think critically and now - watching it hurt people outside the porn industry - we’re seeing what that does in the long term.

we have warned you. we will continue to warn you. the choice to stay ignorant is the choice to condemn yourself to a discriminatory society that’ll be overall worse off in the long run. it will run you over the moment it sees you as perverse, too.

[insomniac-dormouse]

It’s only just occurring to me I used to dissociate way more than I thought I did as a kid. I didn’t recognize the less in my body dissociation was dissociation until five minutes ago and have been wondering since I was five why there are massive gaps between events in my most negative experiences

[icecream4starscream]

Spoiler Warning for Transformers One. Please go see the film, it's great.

Something occurred to me when rewatching Elita-1's firing scene:

Right off the bat, she's presented as an absolute unit in the mines. We see her being a very by-the-book character. She's incredibly competent, strong, serious, focused, and an effective leader.

Maybe a little too effective.

We learn that Sentinel goes out of his way to personally take care of any "anomalies" in his system and does so in a way where the blame always gets shifted away from him.

It's why he personally went to see Pax and D-16 after the Iacon 5000 race. He makes himself out to be the open-minded, compassionate leader he's been parading as.

When Darkwing throws Orion and D-16 into sub-level 50, neither bot suspects Sentinel for their demotion. In fact, they beg Darkwing to talk to Sentinel so he can sort out the "misunderstanding".

It's later confirmed that Sentinel never had any intention of talking with Orion or D-16 after their first meeting. When Orion reunites with his fellow miners later in the film, they mention that Sentinel put out a statement saying that they both died from "racing injuries".

Sentinel might've not even openly ordered Darkwing to dispose of them. Darkwing might've been manipulated into thinking everyone was mocking him for losing the race (thanks to lowly miners) making him want to get rid of them.

Subconsciously manipulating someone like Darkwing would've been easy for Sentinel.

Sentinel clearly does not tolerate anyone rising above the station he imposes on them.

So what does this have to do with Elita-1 being fired?

We see her rigidly following the rules, meeting all quotas, running a tight and efficient crew. She's doing her job as a miner, a role unknowingly forced upon her by Sentinel, perfectly.

Shouldn't Sentinel be happy about that?

Well sure...

If Elita wasn't actively trying to get promoted.

We don't get a lot of information about how promotion works in TFOne's mining system, but we do know that in other iterations of pre-war Cybertron, one of the only ways miners could rise out of the mines was by participating in ridiculously difficult gladiatorial fights in Kaon's pits.

In other iterations, this was how D-16/Megatron was able to escape his station and how he grew to be so strong.

So basically, whatever version you look at, the miners are told "if you work really, reeeeally hard, and do your job perfectly, and don't die in the process (which, odds are, you will) you might, MIGHT get a chance to get out of the caste you were born into."

It's BS.

It's an impossible feat. No one is actually supposed to be able to achieve that goal, but it's the metaphorical carrot dangling in front of the work mules so they don't notice the ever-tightening rope around their necks.

But every so often there's someone extraordinary, like Elita, who actually manages to meet this impossible standard and with whom it becomes increasingly difficult to deny this coveted promotion.

So what can Sentinel do about bots like Elita-1?

Simple.

Wait for a screw-up.

It must happen eventually.

A member of Elita's team, Orion Pax, in clear violation of evacuation protocol, goes back into the mines to save Jazz from getting crushed to death.

Despite managing to escape, the closing mine causes a tunnel support to be flung into nearby machinery (which doesn't look critical and could probably be easily fixed).

Then, right the heck outta nowhere, Darkwing drops in, SECONDS AFTER THE INCIDENT JUST HAPPENED, and immediately fires Elita.

No "What happened?" or "Who's responsible?" or "The supervisor wants to see you", he just pops into the scene and demotes Elita, arguably one of the best workers in the mine, to a bottom-tier waste management position.

As if he'd been on standby, actively waiting for a reason to fire her.

"But Elita herself wasn't the one who screwed up!"

Doesn't matter.

"But she told them to follow protocol!"

Doesn't matter.

"But Orion admitted he was the one at fault!"

Doesn't matter.

"But a bot was saved! Jazz would've died!"

Does. Not. MATTER.

Her firing is presented as the typical "one character says thing won't happen then thing immediately happens" joke, but given how so much thought went into so much of TFOne's background details, I can't help but wonder if this was a hint to how broken the system was and how it was always rigged in a way that ensures the miners will never get out.

Not to mention, once Orion, D-16, and Jazz safely escape, she chews Orion out by saying, "If I get fired for this..." meaning this abrupt, out-of-nowhere, baseless firing is absolutely typical.

That's what makes Elita's "I'm better than you" speech to Orion that much more meaningful, because in many ways, she is better than him.

She's a better worker, better fighter, better at completing the task at hand, better at making sure things run smoothly. She is, ironically enough, an efficient and perfectly-running machine.

But had Orion not dragged Elita to the surface, she probably would've spent her whole life obediently following the rules, never questioning why things were the way they were. She was so focused on rising up within the system that she could never look beyond it.

Elita might be the cog by which other cogs turn.

But Orion is the spark that shows them a better way.

That's why he was given the Matrix.

[inkskinned]

so one of the things that's so horrifying about birth control is that you have to, like, navigate this incredibly personal choice about your body and yet also face the epitome of misogyny. like, someone in the comments will say it wasn't that bad for me, and you'll be utterly silenced. like, everyone treats birth control like something that's super dirty. like, you have no fucking information or control over this thing because certain powerful people find it icky.

first it was the oral contraceptives. you went on those young, mostly for reasons unrelated to birth control - even your dermatologist suggested them to control your acne. the list of side effects was longer than your arm, and you just stared at it, horrified.

it made you so mentally ill, but you just heard that this was adulthood. that, yes, there are of course side effects, what did you expect. one day you looked up yasmin makes me depressed because surely this was far too intense, and you discovered that over 12,000 lawsuits had been successfully filed against the brand. it remains commonly prescribed on the open market. you switched brands a few times before oral contraceptives stopped being in any way effective. your doctor just, like, shrugged and said you could try a different brand again.

and the thing is that you're a feminist. you know from your own experience that birth control can be lifesaving, and that even when used for birth control - it is necessary healthcare. you have seen it save so many people from such bad situations, yourself included. it is critical that any person has access to birth control, and you would never suggest that we just get rid of all of it.

you were a little skeeved out by the implant (heard too many bad stories about it) and figured - okay, iud. it was some of the worst pain you've ever fucking experienced, and you did it with a small number of tylenol in your system (3), like you were getting your bikini line waxed instead of something practically sewn into your body.

and what's wild is that because sometimes it isn't a painful insertion process, it is vanishingly rare to find a doctor that will actually numb the area. while your doctor was talking to you about which brand to choose, you were thinking about the other ways you've been injured in your life. you thought about how you had a suspicious mole frozen off - something so small and easy - and how they'd numbed a huge area. you thought about when you broke your wrist and didn't actually notice, because you'd thought it was a sprain.

your understanding of pain is that how the human body responds to injury doesn't always relate to the actual pain tolerance of the person - it's more about how lucky that person is physically. maybe they broke it in a perfect way. maybe they happened to get hurt in a place without a lot of nerve endings. some people can handle a broken femur but crumble under a sore tooth. there's no true way to predict how "much" something actually hurts.

in no other situation would it be appropriate for doctors to ignore pain. just because someone can break their wrist and not feel it doesn't mean no one should receive pain meds for a broken wrist. it just means that particular person was lucky about it. it should not define treatment.

in the comments of videos about IUDs, literally thousands of people report agony. blinding, nauseating, soul-crushing agony. they say things like i had 2 kids and this was the worst thing i ever experienced or i literally have a tattoo on my ribs and it felt like a tickle. this thing almost killed me or would rather run into traffic than ever feel that again.

so it's either true that every single person who reports severe pain is exaggerating. or it's true that it's far more likely you will experience pain, rather than "just a pinch." and yet - there's nothing fucking been done about it. it kind of feels like a shrug is layered on top of everything - since technically it's elective, isn't it kind of your fault for agreeing to select it? stop being fearmongering. stop being defensive.

you fucking needed yours. you are almost weirdly protective of it. yours was so important for your physical and mental health. it helped you off hormonal birth control and even started helping some of your symptoms. it still fucking hurt for no fucking reason.

once while recovering from surgery, they offered you like 15 days of vicodin. you only took 2 of them. you've been offered oxy for tonsillitis. you turned down opioids while recovering from your wisdom tooth extraction. everything else has the option. you fucking drove yourself home after it, shocked and quietly weeping, feeling like something very bad had just happened. the nurse that held your hand during the experience looked down at you, tears in her eyes, and said - i know. this is cruelty in action.

and it's fucked up because the conversation is never just "hey, so the way we are doing this is fucking barbaric and doctors should be required to offer serious pain meds" - it's usually something around the lines of "well, it didn't kill you, did it?"

you just found out that removing that little bitch will hurt just as bad. a little pinch like how oral contraceptives have "some" serious symptoms. like your life and pain are expendable or not really important. like maybe we are all hysterical about it?

hysteria comes from the latin word for uterus, which is great!

you stand here at a crossroads. like - this thing is so important. did they really have to make it so fucking dangerous. and why is it that if you make a complaint, you're told - i didn't even want you to have this in the first place. we're told be careful what you wish for. we're told that it's our fault for wanting something so illict; we could simply choose not to need medication. that maybe if we don't like the scraps, we should get ready to starve.

we have been saying for so long - "i'm not asking you to remove the option, i'm asking you to reconsider the risk." this entire time we hear: well, this is what you wanted, isn't it?

[wilwheaton]

Hey man, I could use a few talking points to help convince a friend that Musk is horrible. I'm reading 'Think Again' by Adam Grant (good read btws) and he says to help convince people to come to your viewpoint that it can be good to have 2 or 3 strong points instead of 10 mixed points. The counter argument I get from people about Musk being good is that he did spacex and tesla, and without him we'd be decades behind. Maybe, but I don't have good ammo. Please help as I get too angry tobe critical

Well, listen, the fascism, the transphobia, the chaos, and the unwavering support for autocrats all over the planet really ought to be enough to outweigh anything else, if you ask me. It sounds like you know some people who got excited about the companies he threw money at, and they are having a tough time updating their feelings due to current events. Or maybe they share his values and don't want to admit that.

But I'll try to offer some simple facts.

He did not do engineering with Tesla or SpaceX or even PayPal. He is a fraud. He walked into these existing businesses, where people had done actual work and engineering, threw some of his Apartheid money at them, and took credit for their work. He claims, over and over again, to be a founder of these companies, and that's just straight up a lie that is easily disproved.

He literally did nothing except throw money at people and take credit for their work. Look at every Tesla up to the (chokes back laughter) Cybertruck. Those Teslas look like cars, because they were designed by engineers. Look at the Cybertruck. When you stop laughing at what a joke it is, know this: that's what happens when Elon Musk is in charge. It's like a ten year-old with some crayons drew it on a menu at Denny's.

All of the things his weird fans claim he made possible, are things that would have happened, and were in the process of happening, without him. He literally did nothing to advance the technologies or engineering. In fact, SpaceX whistleblowers have told reporters how they had to keep Musk occupied with bullshit, so they could do the real work without him fucking it up all the time with his incompetence.

But even if he were telling the truth, even if the myth were fact, it would not outweigh the damage, the pain, the chaos, and the suffering he has inflicted on millions and millions of people, all over the world with his lies, his spread of misinformation, and his incitement of angry incels.

Also, don't forget, when Ukraine was trying to defend itself, he turned off Starlink access when they could have decisively ended Russia's aggression. A lot of people have suffered and died as a direct consequence of that action, which he took to support his buddy and fellow autocrat, Vladimir Putin.

That's more information than I think your friends will be willing to hear. Studies indicate that people who are heavily invested in the myth of a person will fight hard to hold onto the myth, and reject truth and facts, because it's so jarring to them. Musk has built a cult of personality, and maybe your friends are stuck to it.

I'd gently encourage your friends to consider one key fact: he has lied about his entire origin story, he has lied about his contributions to Tesla and SpaceX. He lies about everything, except when he posts on Twitter like a 12 year-old edgelord, because that's who he is, emotionally.

Finally, and this is for you, specifically: if your friends insist on supporting a fascist, a racist, a misogynist, or a bigot, because they think rockets are cool, maybe it's time to look for new friends.

I hope this helps.

And fuck Elon Musk.

[astra-ravana]

Befriending And Working With Crows

Crows have long been associated with witches due to their behavior, mystery, and connection to the supernatural. In folklore, they are seen as messengers between worlds, carrying secrets and omens. Witches were believed to communicate with or shape-shift into crows, using them as familiars to gather information or perform magical tasks. Their black feathers and eerie caws made them symbols of transformation, death, and hidden knowledge. This connection persists in modern witchcraft, where crows are often seen as guides for those practicing divination, shadow work, and spirit communication.

Crows are among the most intelligent birds, possessing problem-solving skills, advanced memory, and the ability to use tools. Studies have shown that they can recognize human faces, plan for the future, and even understand cause and effect. Their complex social structures and ability to communicate information indicate a high level of cognitive function, comparable to that of primates. Crows have been observed crafting tools from leaves and twigs, solving multi-step puzzles, and even holding grudges against perceived threats. Their intelligence makes them highly adaptable and capable of thriving in diverse environments.

Crows are highly intuitive, mysterious, and deeply connected to witchcraft, omens, and spirit work. These birds are known for their symbolism in folklore, association with deities like The Morrigan, Odin, and Hekate, and their ability to form strong bonds with humans. Befriending crows can be a rewarding experience, offering companionship, spiritual messages, and even small “gifts” from the birds themselves. Connecting with the crows isn't hard as they tend to be everywhere and their bravery and curiosity makes them willing to approach certain humans. They have senses of humor, empathy, critical thinking skills, and a lifespan of up to 30 years, all of which makes them excellent companions. Get to know the crows in your neighborhood.

🐦‍⬛Understanding Crow Behavior

Before approaching crows, it's essential to understand their nature:

• They are highly intelligent – Crows can recognize human faces, solve puzzles, and even speak.

• They have strong social bonds – They communicate within their flocks and even warn each other about potential dangers.

• They can be wary – Earning a crow’s trust takes patience, consistency, and respect.

• They have fantastic memories – A crow won't forget the face of a human that was kind to it and especially not that of one who was rude.

🐦‍⬛Attracting Crows to Your Space

To encourage crows to visit you regularly, follow these steps:

1. Offer Food Consistently

Crows love high-energy foods. Some of their favorites include:

• Unsalted peanuts (in-shell or shelled) – A crow favorite!

• Sunflower seeds – Nutritious and easy to scatter.

• Fruits (apples, grapes, berries) – Fresh or dried.

• Leftover meat scraps – A natural part of their diet.

• Hard-boiled eggs – A great protein source.

What to Avoid:

• Never feed crows processed, salty, or sugary foods.

• Avoid bread – it lacks nutrition.

• Do not leave large amounts of food – too much can attract unwanted pests.

2. Choose a Safe Feeding Spot

• Select a quiet, open area where they feel comfortable landing.

• Keep a routine – feeding them at the same time each day builds trust.

• If possible, create a dedicated offering space, like a small platform.

3. Provide Fresh Water

• A shallow birdbath or bowl of clean water can help attract crows, especially in dry seasons.

• Change the water frequently to keep it fresh.

🐦‍⬛Earning Their Trust

1. Observe From a Distance

• At first, let crows come and go without interference.

• Avoid sudden movements or loud noises.

• If they seem cautious, step back and let them approach at their own pace.

2. Speak to Them

• Crows recognize human voices and can distinguish between friendly and hostile tones.

• Greet them softly or whistle a simple tune when feeding them.

• Some witches even give their crows names, reinforcing a bond.

3. Leave Small Offerings

• In addition to food, place shiny objects (small trinkets, marbles, beads) as “gifts” for crows.

• Some crows may return the favor by leaving tokens like buttons, feathers, or shells.

🐦‍⬛Building a Magickal Relationship

Once crows recognize you as a friend, you can incorporate them into your spiritual practice:

1. Crow as a Spirit Ally

• If a crow visits during ritual work or divination, take note—its presence may carry a message.

• Crows can serve as psychopomps, guiding spirits between realms.

2. Divination & Omens

• A single crow cawing may indicate a warning or message.

• A group (a murder of crows) could symbolize change, transformation, or ancestral spirits.

• Here's some more information about counting crows.

3. Offering a Sacred Space

• Create a small altar outside with natural elements where you place food and gifts.

• Meditate near their space, listening to their calls and energy.

• Put up wards and cast protection magick for the crows.

🐦‍⬛Strengthening the Bond

• Be patient – Some crows take weeks or months to trust humans.

• Stay consistent – Regular feeding and positive interactions reinforce the bond.

• Respect their autonomy – Crows are wild and should never be captured or forced to interact.

🐦‍⬛Crow Spells

Crows can assist with your magick as well, through their presence and the lovely black feathers they often leave as gifts or lose through natural shedding. Here are some spells you can do with your crows.

Crow’s Omen Spell (For Divination & Messages)

Needed:

• A quiet outdoor space where crows gather

• A small offering (unsalted nuts, shiny objects, or seeds)

Instructions:

Sit in a place where crows are present and place the offering nearby. Close your eyes and ask the crows for a message:

“Messengers of fate, winged and wise,

Show me the truth with your keen eyes.

A sign, a word, a lesson true,

I call on crows to send their view.”

Observe their behavior. Watch how they move, call, or interact. Their actions may symbolize an answer to your question. Thank the crows and leave the offering as a sign of respect.

Crow’s Wisdom Spell (For Guidance & Insight)

Needed:

• A feather from a crow

• A small black candle

• A piece of paper and a pen

Instructions:

Light the black candle and sit quietly, focusing on a question or situation where you need insight. Hold the crow feather and say:

“Wise crow, keeper of secrets and sight,

Bring me knowledge, clear my mind this night.

Show me the path, help me see,

Reveal the truth and guide me free.”

Meditate for a few moments, then write down any thoughts, visions, or feelings that come to you. Let the candle burn down safely or snuff it out to use again.

Crow’s Shadow Cloak (For Invisibility & Stealth)

Needed:

• A black cloth or scarf

• A  crow feather

• A small mirror

Instructions:

Hold the black feather and visualize yourself surrounded by a shadowy aura. Place the mirror face down on the cloth, symbolizing the reflection being hidden. Whisper:

“Dark-winged shadow, silent flight,

Hide me well, keep me from sight.

As the crow vanishes into the night,

Let me fade from every light.”

Wrap the feather in the cloth and carry it when you need to go unnoticed.

Crow’s Omen Spell (For Divination & Answers)

Needed:

• No physical tools, just observation

Instructions:

Find a place where crows are naturally present. Ask your question either aloud or in your mind.

Observe the crows for signs:

• A single crow cawing: A warning or negative response.

• A pair of crows flying together: A positive or cooperative outcome.

• A group of crows circling or gathering: Major change or important news coming.

• A crow bringing or dropping something near you: A strong affirmation or message from the spiritual realm.

Thank the crows for their wisdom.

Crow’s Curse Spell (For Revenge & Justice)

Needed:

• A black feather given by a crow

• A piece of paper with the target’s name

• A dark stone (obsidian, onyx, or jet)

Instructions:

Write the target’s name on the paper and place the crow’s feather over it. Hold the dark stone in your dominant hand and visualize the negative energy returning to its source. Say:

“As the crow flies, swift and free,

Let justice return threefold to thee.

No more harm, no more pain,

What was given, be reclaimed.”

Let the feather sit overnight. The next day, release it into the wind or place it somewhere the crows frequent.

Crow’s Guardian Spell (For Protection & Psychic Defense)

Needed:

• A crow feather

• A small black candle

• A piece of black string

Instructions:

Light the candle and hold the feather. Close your eyes and visualize a crow circling around you, forming a protective barrier. Tie a knot in the black string while chanting:

“Black-winged guardian, fierce and free,

Stand between harm and me.

No ill may pass, no foe may near,

On shadowed wings, keep my path clear.”

Carry the string as a charm of protection, or keep the feather in your home as a spiritual ward.

By observing, working with, and honoring crows, you can create powerful bonds that enhance protection, divination, communication, and justice in your magical practice. If nurtured properly, crows can become lifelong allies, offering wisdom, companionship, and even protection. Treat them well, and they may even  become your loyal feathered familiars.

[imsobadatnicknames2]

How can you consider yourself any sort of leftist when you defend AI art bullshit? You literally simp for AI techbros and have the gall to pretend you're against big corporations?? Get fucked

I don't "defend" AI art. I think a particular old post of mine that a lot of people tend to read in bad faith must be making the rounds again lmao.

Took me a good while to reply to this because you know what? I decided to make something positive out of this and use this as an opportunity to outline what I ACTUALLY believe about AI art. If anyone seeing this decides to read it in good or bad faith... Welp, your choice I guess.

I have several criticisms of the way the proliferation of AI art generators and LLMs is making a lot of things worse. Some of these are things I have voiced in the past, some of these are things I haven't until now:

Most image and text AI generators are fine-tuned to produce nothing but the most agreeable, generically pretty content slop, pretty much immediately squandering their potential to be used as genuinely interesting artistic tools with anything to offer in terms of a unique aesthetic experience (AI video still manages to look bizarre and interesting but it's getting there too)

In the entertainment industry and a lot of other fields, AI image generation is getting incorporated into production pipelines in ways that lead to the immiseration of working artists, being used to justify either lower wages or straight-up layoffs, and this is something that needs to be fought against. That's why I unconditionally supported the SAG-AFTRA strikes last year and will unconditionally support any collective action to address AI art as a concrete labor issue

In most fields where it's being integrated, AI art is vastly inferior to human artists in any use case where you need anything other than to make a superficially pretty picture really fast. If you need to do anything like ask for revisions or minor corrections, give very specific descriptions of how objects and people are interacting with each other, or just like. generate several pictures of the same thing and have them stay consistent with each other, you NEED human artists and it's preposterous to think they can be replaced by AI.

There is a lot of art on the internet that consists of the most generically pretty, cookie-cutter anime waifu-adjacent slop that has zero artistic or emotional value to either the people seeing it or the person churning it out, and while this certainly was A Thing before the advent of AI art generators, generative AI has made it extremely easy to become the kind of person who churns it out and floods online art spaces with it.

Similarly, LLMs make it extremely easy to generate massive volumes of texts, pages, articles, listicles and what have you that are generic vapid SEO-friendly pap at best and bizzarre nonsense misinformation at worst, drowning useful information in a sea of vapid noise and rendering internet searches increasingly useless.

The way LLMs are being incorporated into customer service and similar services not only, again, encourages further immiseration of customer service workers, but it's also completely useless for most customers.

A very annoyingly vocal part the population of AI art enthusiasts, fanatics and promoters do tend to talk about it in a way that directly or indirectly demeans the merit and skill of human artists and implies that they think of anyone who sees anything worthwile in the process of creation itself rather than the end product as stupid or deluded.

So you can probably tell by now that I don't hold AI art or writing in very high regard. However (and here's the part that'll get me called an AI techbro, or get people telling me that I'm just jealous of REAL artists because I lack the drive to create art of my own, or whatever else) I do have some criticisms of the way people have been responding to it, and have voiced such criticisms in the past.

I think a lot of the opposition to AI art has critstallized around unexamined gut reactions, whipping up a moral panic, and pressure to outwardly display an acceptable level of disdain for it. And in particular I think this climate has made a lot of people very prone to either uncritically entertain and adopt regressive ideas about Intellectual Propety, OR reveal previously held regressive ideas about Intellectual Property that are now suddenly more socially acceptable to express:

(I wanna preface this section by stating that I'm a staunch intellectual property abolitionist for the same reason I'm a private property abolitionist. If you think the existence of intellectual property is a good thing, a lot of my ideas about a lot of stuff are gonna be unpalatable to you. Not much I can do about it.)

A lot of people are suddenly throwing their support behind any proposal that promises stricter copyright regulations to combat AI art, when a lot of these also have the potential to severely udnermine fair use laws and fuck over a lot of independent artist for the benefit of big companies.

It was very worrying to see a lot of fanfic authors in particular clap for the George R R Martin OpenAI lawsuit because well... a lot of them don't realize that fanfic is a hobby that's in a position that's VERY legally precarious at best, that legally speaking using someone else's characters in your fanfic is as much of a violation of copyright law as straight up stealing entire passages, and that any regulation that can be used against the latter can be extended against the former.

Similarly, a lot of artists were cheering for the lawsuit against AI art models trained to mimic the style of specific artists. Which I agree is an extremely scummy thing to do (just like a human artist making a living from ripping off someone else's work is also extremely scummy), but I don't think every scummy act necessarily needs to be punishable by law, and some of them would in fact leave people worse off if they were. All this to say: If you are an artist, and ESPECIALLY a fan artist, trust me. You DON'T wanna live in a world where there's precedent for people's artstyles to be considered intellectual property in any legally enforceable way. I know you wanna hurt AI art people but this is one avenue that's not worth it.

Especially worrying to me as an indie musician has been to see people mention the strict copyright laws of the music industry as a positive thing that they wanna emulate. "this would never happen in the music industry because they value their artists copyright" idk maybe this is a the grass is greener type of situation but I'm telling you, you DON'T wanna live in a world where copyright law in the visual arts world works the way it does in the music industry. It's not worth it.

I've seen at least one person compare AI art model training to music sampling and say "there's a reason why they cracked down on sampling" as if the death of sampling due to stricter copyright laws was a good thing and not literally one of the worst things to happen in the history of music which nearly destroyed several primarily black music genres. Of course this is anecdotal because it's just One Guy I Saw Once, but you can see what I mean about how uncritical support for copyright law as a tool against AI can lead people to adopt increasingly regressive ideas about copyright.

Similarly, I've seen at least one person go "you know what? Collages should be considered art theft too, fuck you" over an argument where someone else compared AI art to collages. Again, same point as above.

Similarly, I take issue with the way a lot of people seem EXTREMELY personally invested in proving AI art is Not Real Art. I not only find this discussion unproductive, but also similarly dangerously prone to validating very reactionary ideas about The Nature Of Art that shouldn't really be entertained. Also it's a discussion rife with intellectual dishonesty and unevenly applied definition and standards.

When a lot of people present the argument of AI art not being art because the definition of art is this and that, they try to pretend that this is the definition of art the've always operated under and believed in, even when a lot of the time it's blatantly obvious that they're constructing their definition on the spot and deliberately trying to do so in such a way that it doesn't include AI art.

They never succeed at it, btw. I've seen several dozen different "AI art isn't art because art is [definition]". I've seen exactly zero of those where trying to seriously apply that definition in any context outside of trying to prove AI art isn't art doesn't end up in it accidentally excluding one or more non-AI artforms, usually reflecting the author's blindspots with regard to the different forms of artistic expression.

(However, this is moot because, again, these are rarely definitions that these people actually believe in or adhere to outside of trying to win "Is AI art real art?" discussions.)

Especially worrying when the definition they construct is built around stuff like Effort or Skill or Dedication or The Divine Human Spirit. You would not be happy about the kinds of art that have traditionally been excluded from Real Art using similar definitions.

Seriously when everyone was celebrating that the Catholic Church came out to say AI art isn't real art and sharing it as if it was validating and not Extremely Worrying that the arguments they'd been using against AI art sounded nearly identical to things TradCaths believe I was like. Well alright :T You can make all the "I never thought I'd die fighting side by side with a catholic" legolas and gimli memes you want, but it won't change the fact that the argument being made by the catholic church was a profoundly conservative one and nearly identical to arguments used to dismiss the artistic merit of certain forms of "degenerate" art and everyone was just uncritically sharing it, completely unconcerned with what kind of worldview they were lending validity to by sharing it.

Remember when the discourse about the Gay Sex cats pic was going on? One of the things I remember the most from that time was when someone went "Tell me a definition of art that excludes this picture without also excluding Fountain by Duchamp" and how just. Literally no one was able to do it. A LOT of people tried to argue some variation of "Well, Fountain is art and this image isn't because what turns fountain into art is Intent. Duchamp's choice to show a urinal at an art gallery as if it was art confers it an element of artistic intent that this image lacks" when like. Didn't by that same logic OP's choice to post the image on tumblr as if it was art also confer it artistic intent in the same way? Didn't that argument actually kinda end up accidentally validating the artistic status of every piece of AI art ever posted on social media? That moment it clicked for me that a lot of these definitions require applying certain concepts extremely selectively in order to make sense for the people using them.

A lot of people also try to argue it isn't Real Art based on the fact that most AI art is vapid but like. If being vapid definitionally excludes something from being art you're going to have to exclude a whooole lot of stuff along with it. AI art is vapid. A lot of art is too, I don't think this argument works either.

Like, look, I'm not really invested in trying to argue in favor of The Artistic Merits of AI art but I also find it extremely hard to ignore how trying to categorically define AI art as Not Real Art not only is unproductive but also requires either a) applying certain parts of your definition of art extremely selectively, b) constructing a definition of art so convoluted and full of weird caveats as to be functionally useless, or c) validating extremely reactionary conservative ideas about what Real Art is.

Some stray thoughts that don't fit any of the above sections.

I've occassionally seen people respond to AI art being used for shitposts like "A lot of people have affordable commissions, you could have paid someone like $30 to draw this for you instead of using the plagiarism algorithm and exploiting the work of real artists" and sorry but if you consider paying an artist a rate that amounts to like $5 for several hours of work a LESS exploitative alternative I think you've got something fucked up going on with your priorities.

Also it's kinda funny when people comment on the aforementioned shitposts with some variation of "see, the usage of AI art robs it of all humor because the thing that makes shitposts funny is when you consider the fact that someone would spend so much time and effort in something so stupid" because like. Yeah that is part of the humor SOMETIMES but also people share and laugh at low effort shitposts all the time. Again you're constructing a definition that you don't actually believe in anywhere outside of this type of conversations. Just say you don't like that it's AI art because you think it's morally wrong and stop being disingenuous.

So yeah, this is pretty much everything I believe about the topic.

I don't "defend" AI art, but my opposition to it is firmly rooted in my principles, and that means I refuse to uncritically accept any anti-AI art argument that goes against those same principles.

If you think not accepting and parroting every Anti-AI art argument I encounter because some of them are ideologically rooted in things I disagree with makes me indistinguishable from "AI techbros" you're working under a fucked up dichotomy.

[kerrikles]

We don't know her story. She could have an invisible disability that he doesn't believe in. Maybe he sees that she isn't in a wheelchair or missing a limb, and therefore assumes she's just gaming the system. Maybe her mental health has deteriorated to the point where she can't work anymore, and she's using her knowledge of the system she once worked for to make sure she'll get her basic needs taken care of. But maybe he doesn't believe in mental health.

It is entirely possible that she is not disabled and is abusing the system, yes. But maybe you should examine the fact that you believed someone else's secondhand account without question. That you didn't even consider the fact that this could be ableism, instead of abuse of resources.

I'm in Canada, but from what I've heard the process of getting disability pay in the US has a lot of similarities. Getting access to disability pay is a lot of work, and often leaves you vulnerable. Even if you know the ins and outs of what to do, you have to have medical professionals confirm all your diagnoses. Her private medical records will now be on display for at least one of her old co-workers to comb through and jeer at. The pay is pitiful, and often requires regular paperwork and medical reports to reassure the government that yes, you are still disabled, yes you still can't work, yes you still need money.

There are scam artists out there who make it harder for the rest of us, absolutely. But not as many as people think.

You know what is common though? People thinking that anyone who doesn't fit their narrow view of what a disabled person "should" look like is lying for attention, clout, or some kind of benefit. People spreading around any little anecdote to "prove" that people who seek disability pay don't actually need it. People reinforcing ableism in small ways every day.

Just some food for thought.

an uber driver told me his wife's old best friend used to work for the disability office and she's. planning on using her knowledge from work to Get both disability and retirement at the same time even though she's not disabled.

ever wondered why its a nightmare to get on disability in the us? that's why. rich people are stealing it out from underneath you. disability fraud comes from within the social security administration, not poor people who are genuinely too sick to work.

[nipuni]

Alright, time to share my opinions about Veilguard!! I have both criticism and praise so bear with me as I jump from one extreme to the other 😆 spoilers ahead of course!

The game has a very rough start with the dialogue being formulaic and rushed and the characters overexposing. It feels like a heavy handed attempt at summarizing all of previous games' lore for newcomers or in case you forgot but it's so overdone it feels coddling and trivializes a lot of previous events. Luckily this gets better once all of the introductions are out of the way, though the excessive hints and clarifications continue until the end sadly.

The locations are absolutely incredible and very diverse!! This is a highlight of the game for me. There is so much detail and care in every map and there are so many of them. My pc is struggling to reach medium settings and yet everything looks stunning. The verticality of the maps is so imposing and the graphics have a very dreamy quality that I love. I also enjoy the maze-like structure to the maps, it's more linear but makes everything look a bit more intentional. The color and light direction was amazing, all the visual development really!! it has to be one of the prettiest games I've ever played.

When I started I have to admit it did not feel like I was in Thedas and it all felt a bit theme-parky, if that makes sense. A lot of previously important and established world elements that made Thedas what it is were overlooked or made irrelevant. But the more I played the more it started to feel a bit more similar to Inquisition, for better or worse depending on what you feel about Inquisition. But!! this also feels like a selectively sanitized version of Thedas compared to previous games. In it's attempt to stay safe and uncontroversial in some aspects it loses a lot of substance and it changes the tone. The surface level politics, ignoring previously established major societal issues and a tell-don't-show approach makes the world seem more simple and shallow with no grey areas to explore. ( the humor also falls flat and out of place often too, and WHY is everyone always smirking, enough!! godlike beings are destroying the planet please this is not the time for Marvel banter aaaa )

The pacing at the start is a bit of a mess. It is so fast it felt like jumping from one world shattering discovery to the next with no time to process. The characters also seem to underreact to important information and major developments. It felt like the game was rushing me through all this to get to the part of the story it wanted to tell me while I was still wrapped in my shock blanket trying to catch my breath lmao. I really like all the key story points they touched upon, I just wish they dwelled more on them to give them more narrative weight. ( though blaming every bad thing to ever happen on the Elves was certainly..a choice )

I think the writing could have used more subtlety in the first half and more boldness in the second 😆 but I loved the thematic parallels between Rook and Solas and how every quest informs the main storyline. I do wish Rook was given more impossible choices and put in more difficult situations that forced them to lie or betray their own to better drive the point home though ( listen I just love a Trolley problem!! we need more of those, I'm the Trolley problem's number one fan!! ) I feel like they missed the chance to put Rook in Solas' role and be as vilified and hated for it as Solas was despite their best intentions which would make Rook's regrets stronger and in turn make their escape from the fade all the more impressive and give them a better understanding of Solas to either use against him or earn his respect. The line 'they called me the Dread Wolf, what will they call you when this is over' from the trailers was so good I was waiting for this!! But everyone just loves Rook no matter what!!

But I feel like I stated too many negative aspects in a row so moving on to some things I enjoyed!

The characters were very lovable to me. The romances weren't as long or impactful as I would have liked but I enjoyed all the companion quests. Emmrich is a delight and his quest is so wild and fun. I loved learning about Nevarra and I was awestruck by the Grand Necropolis. The mourn watch was so interesting, it showed a whole new side of Thedas' lore I knew nothing about! and I loved Manfred! Davrin is so charming, he became a favorite. I loved his quest too and learning more bits and pieces about the Dalish was great, I wish we got more. Seeing the Wardens through his quest also made me enjoy them a lot. Assan was very cute too and I'm glad he was treated as an animal and not turned into a goofy Disney sidekick too much lmao 😭 Lucanis is hilarious. The fantasy Spain/Italy was a bit silly and off at times but he is very sweet! and I love the Spite possession, that was so fun I'm glad they kept him that way! Bellara is adorable, her first backstory quest made me cry and I just love a nerd! I wish the second part of her story was written better however, and she sort of devolves into 'it's hard, I wish it was easy but it's hard' dialogues too often sadly. Anaris and the Forgotten Ones' portrayal was underwhelming and anticlimactic which was disappointing. Harding is also very cute and her Titan plotline was the most interesting to me, I bawled my eyes out in her quest!! I love the dwarven lore of this universe I'm so happy we got more of it!! ( she also fucking died in my playthrough?! I was devastated what the hell 😭 'whatever it takes' WEUEUGHHHG I'M SO SORRY) Neve was a slow burn for me because of my choices in game slowing that relationship down ( saving Treviso I mean, perdón amor 🙏 ) but I love detective novels and she is such a badass I ended up loving her. Taash was unexpected, I didn't think they would be so young. The coming of age story was sweet, though I found myself cringing a lot too at the handling of it I have to admit ( and the Lords of Fortune in general, and the Antaam...and que Qun..listen- kajshfgf ) but I also enjoyed learning more about the first expedition and the Qunari in general despite the messy writing and choices. I also loved Antoine and Evka! and Strife! And I haven't even read any of the novels they are in 😆 also Mila!!!! and her dad oh my god and Felassan haunting the narrative!! speaking of haunting, I would have loved for Cole to be in the lighthouse too I think it would have worked well 🤔 especially with the whole 'reading Solas' secret diary' thing the game had going on lmao

Everyone seems to get along except for a bit of friction that is quickly resolved at the start, which is hmm missed potential? I would have preferred more tension personally. I enjoy the drama! gives me more to work with and gives you a better grasp on everyone's personality by contrasting values. I think they wanted to speed run a found family trope for the new hero to establish some emotional stakes early on but it ended up making everyone seem like a group therapy session instead. The group meetings also have everyone either state the obvious or repeat the same opinion or conclusion to each other, I would have loved these meetings to have more bickering, have people get mad and storm out and also get to listen to different takes on a situation. Make Rook struggle more to take the reins and keep the team functional, learning how to be a leader.

Speaking of Rook! ( who in my case has a northern British accent that I loved so much 🥺) They seem to have a very established personality. I was expecting more of a blank slate but I'm lucky that the personality they went for kind of matches what I would normally choose in a first playthrough. Though the lack of range in the choices is irritating and takes away some replayability and role playing potential. Rook is very supportive and selfless, I wasn't expecting this tbh! But it all made my Rook turn into the team's weird supportive necromancer mom so it worked out in the end I guess lmao. I can't wait to draw her!!

I was so overwhelmed by the amount of information we got about Solas and his past!! I was expecting answers but not these many and not for them to be such an integral part of the plot!! The game feels like it's about him more than anything else. His arc is the best written out of all. He is mentioned in every conversation, he's the main advisor and the narrative foil, you get to talk to him often, you work for him and with him and go into his memories it all feels so surreal to me lmao I love him so I'm delighted ngl! but also making the other Evanuris so cartoonishly evil makes Solas into such an obvious choice of an ally, god of trickery or not, that it sort of takes the decision out of your hands and makes some dialogue options and companions' opinions seem almost nonsensical. I have no idea how this game would feel to someone who absolutely hates Solas' guts honestly. I suppose I will find out soon enough 😆

About Solas' story, I loved it! I somehow also feel that I knew it already, all the speculation and theories that Solavellan fans were crafting for years were so accurate that it was all very validating. Even the wildest ones! Solas as the Maker, the elves spirit origin, Mythal giving him a body, the war with the Titans, the origin of the Blight, Solas being on your side as advisor, I can go on, we knew!! Also I have to mention this I'm sorry but they made him look so hot!! unbelievable. And the bloodied teary eyed pathetic look in the end ouurghhh I'm cheering and clapping!!

The romance conclusion was so lovely 😭 the Loki and Sigyn ending we deserved to such a mythological epic!! and open ended enough for all of us to cook!! and we got to see him fight and transform into the Dread Wolf!! and whimper and cry!! and bleed and love!! that's all I ever wanted, incredible we were really spoiled what the hell I still can't believe it 😭 GDL acting was brilliant as usual! the visuals were also incredible and exactly what I had in mind when I imagined where the story may go, the eclipse, the giant wolf, the glowing eyes, the Elvhenan ruins, the statues, even the hair lmao it all aligned exactly to what I've been painting all these years but better I was thrilled 😭

Solas backstory with Mythal also offers players that didn't romance him a chance to see him act out of love and show a side they wouldn't be able to reach otherwise and I think it was smart! also very tragic and sheds more light into all of his choices and words and his relationship with Lavellan too and the parallels and reversals and uughh thoroughly enjoying the emotional distress 👌

Pleasing both the Solas lovers and haters at the same time was always going to be hard with him being such a polarizing character by design and the world states being so different but I think they did a good job! at least from my side of things.

I think my favorite part besides the Solas related stuff was the Blight. I loved how horrific and gross and threatening it was! I've always loved the concept of the Blights and I'm glad it was such a huge part of the story in this game. I also loved Treviso!! has to be the most beautiful city in Thedas ahhh and the Necropolis!! the gardens!! Vorgoth!!! Kal-Sharok!!! I can't believe we got to see it!! and a Titan!!! the giant floating face of Ghilan'nain in the clouds??? and the huge archdemons and dragons!! oh and that warden dragon trap in the shape of a griffon?? and the giant blight tendrils!! the siege at Weisshaupt was outstanding!! and the floating panopticon castle situation in Minrathous uughh there is so much I loved.

OH I also enjoyed the Varric arc even though I saw it coming since the trailer it was still played well and it was touching 🥺

The ending felt a bit jarring to me in tone though, a bit too cheerful considering...the horrors. Over half the continent destroyed and most of the problems Thedas had before the game are still there. Veil in place and all 😆

But I had fun!! I'm nitpicking really, the conclusion to Solas' story feels very satisfying to me which was my main worry so I'm happy. It is a good game!! with a sort of soft reboot feel to it and aimed at a younger audience which is probably what they were going for? You can sort of feel the struggle the team went through during production in the way the target audience seems unclear sadly. I also can't help feeling like this is an ending, so much was revealed and resolved!! but maybe I feel that way because that is what I felt after Shadowbringers / Endwalker in FFXIV once my favorite part of the story was wrapped? They can always pivot to a new continent and expand on the world and cultures we know almost nothing about, but that is always harder to sell so I have no clue where they will go from here 😵‍💫

Anyway I'm still processing a lot of stuff that I will probably talk (and draw) about later, this is already long enough!! for now I'll look up how to get the artbook because the art direction of this game is fantastic!! I would love to hear your thoughts too really, I'm curious about the experiences of players who made different choices and with different tastes to mine!!

[invincibledc]

⊹ ࣪ ˖͙͘͡★JEALOUS, JEALOUS, JEALOUS, BOY

. ݁ ˖꩜ KOLE ANDERS (OC) X BATSIB!READER

ᯓ★SYNOPSIS: yknow how Starfire was back in teen titans 2003 when Kitty asked robin for a date to her prom and she got jealous badly? Well, you have to go on a date with a son of a drug lord to find out what his father does only for Kole to not hold his jealousy in well.

ᯓ★GENRE: fluff + silly

ᯓ★INFO: takes place in the dcamu universe. this OC is an OC I’ve written for my own amusement. He’s the adoptive son of Kori/Starfire. Full HUMAN name, Kole Anders. His Tamaranean name is Koldond'r. Reader is the twin sibling of Damian, but Damian is the older twin of course. Im only a writer so you can imagine who he looks more like but all I can is he is handsome canonically, plus freakishly tall like a Tamaranean should be.

ᯓ★WC: 1,131

“You are what?!” Kole exclaims incredulously as you receive your assignment to go undercover and meet the son of a drug lord.

“I’m going undercover to go on a date with a—” you begin, but Kole interrupts you, his surprise palpable.

“That’s absurd! My mother cannot seriously think this is a good idea! Why not send your twin brother, Damian?” He rushes over, gripping your shoulders, his expression a mix of disbelief and concern.

“Because Damian has made it clear he refuses to take on this mission, and frankly, he’d probably mess it up anyway with his liking for Raven,” you reply calmly. Kole's glowing green eyes narrow, and with a flash, he takes off, carrying you with him.

Before you know it, you're standing in front of the team and Kory, who is already aware of the chaos unfolding. Kole releases you, striding over to his adoptive mother, sharing her fiery curly mane of red hair.

“Mother, you must find a better candidate for this mission!” he implores, his voice filled with urgency. Kory anticipated his reaction but understands how critical your involvement is for gathering information about the upcoming ambush.

“I’m sorry, my little Bumgorf, but you know Y/N is the only one capable of handling this successfully,” Kory asserts, crossing her arms.

“He’s a manipulative gremplork, unworthy of Y/N's time!” Kole retorts, pacing furiously behind you. “Language,” Kory interjects, her tone firm as she frowns at him. Kole's frustration intensifies as the realization sinks in that the person he deeply admires is going on a ‘date’ with someone he views as a threat.

“I need to know more about this person,” he demands, his voice steady. Everyone around him—Raven, Garfield, and Jaime—watches in stunned silence as Kole, typically the soft-spoken one, displays an intensity fueled by concern.

“His name is Seth. He’s connected to Miguel, possibly his son. Y/N must approach this mission alone,” Kory explains, presenting the details to Kole.

“Hmph!” he huffs in frustration, floating beside you, his gaze burning a hole through you as he processes everything.

☆

You sit across from a guy attempting to project a tough image; a skull tattoo sprawls across his left hand, dominating its appearance. His table manners reek of disrespect, and his posture screams laziness. Honestly, you find yourself scolding him in your mind, channeling the voice of Damian as he would at the dinner table back home.

“So, what do you do, sweet thang?” he drawls, putting on a fake accent that’s painful to hear. You mentally cringe but choose to don your father’s persona— a player.

“Oh! I love computer science and mostly enjoy creating designs,” you reply, infusing your voice with cheerful enthusiasm. You use hand gestures to emphasize your points, feigning deep consideration over trivial topics.

The conversation rolls on smoothly until he starts to invade your personal space, attempting to touch your hand. Yikes. You pull back and feign fixing your hair, humming to distract him. The server has just delivered your drinks, so you pivot the discussion to his profession. He hesitates at first, but he eventually can’t resist showing off how "cool" he is. You suppress a smirk, realizing you’ve finally got him to divulge details about his father’s shady dealings.

Men are often easier than you expect; they wear their ignorance like a badge. Just as he dives into tales of his father's crimes, your attention shifts as you catch a glimpse of fiery red hair approaching.

No. Way.

You can't believe it when you see the tall, handsome boy with shimmering golden skin walking toward you. His wild curls are styled in a low ponytail, he’s rocking a green jersey with a purple top, ripped jeans, and Jordans. For someone still figuring out Earth culture, he’s mastered streetwear effortlessly.

“Excuse me! I need to use the restroom!” you state, making a beeline for the tall teen who seems to be scanning the area for you. Spotting you, he raises an eyebrow.

“Kole?!” you exclaim, quickly moving him away from the table you just vacated. “What are you doing here?!”

“My mother’s orders to investigate this boy. I intend to conduct a thorough investigation. Plus, I believe you might need saving. This Seth appears to be a monster in disguise,” he says, glaring at the guy who’s currently picking at his teeth.

“Kole, PLEASE don’t do this,” you implore, fully aware that you can't calm this towering alien.

“I am doing this,” he insists, his soft voice hardening.

“No, you’re not.” You gently cup his face, knowing he melts at your touch. “I absolutely am,” he retorts, grabbing your hands away from his face.

This is a disaster. You understand Kole's jealousy issue, and his stalker-like behavior is far from ideal. He starts walking towards Seth, but you tug at his hair, successfully arresting his attention.

“Kole. Listen, I’ll finish this up quickly, and we can watch those cartoons you love. Okay?” you negotiate, hoping to pacify him. When he turns to fully face you, you release his hair.

“Fine. But if he dares to touch you, I will step in,” he declares, settling back down with his arms crossed. You nod quickly and return to your booth. Kole doesn’t take a seat until a waiter guides him to a table. However, his gaze remains fixed on you as you feign naivety to play the part. This infuriates him, but what ignites his anger is when Seth dramatically wipes something from your lips.

“Here you go, sir—” the waiter starts, but the glass in his hand shatters under the sheer force of Kole’s grip.

The waiter scampers off, clearly spooked by the display of strength. Kole seethes, his glare locked on Seth. Each moment in the booth is torture for him. But as Seth leans in for what he intends to be a kiss, Kole is suddenly up, his hands radiating a green glow, ready to unleash a starbolt, when he finds himself encased in a swirling black ball of magic with purple lines, whisked away to where the team is gathered.

They’ve been keeping watch over you, especially since Damian, the overprotective brother he is, won’t let anyone take their eyes off you.

“Kole, calm down,” Raven advises, releasing him from her hold. He scoffs in disbelief. “How can I calm down when Y/N is being all overrun by some Zarbnof?” Jaime quickly covers his mouth, but that only makes things worse, as Kole thrashes against him, desperate to act.

“Seriously, never let us assign Y/N to these kinds of missions,” Jaime quips, and the others nod in agreement.

After the mission, you find yourself confined to Kole’s room in the Titans' tower, wrapped in his strong arms as he plants soft kisses all over you.

Never again it seems.

Kole Anders tag: @no-bishes @darkfaethedestroyer @dead-ry-walking @chalkadow @eclecticeaglebluebird @mistake34 @dandelion-delusion