#literacy is wasted on this

[sluttypatrickstar]

I AM BEGGING AUTHORS TO STOP WRITING

[lancabbage]

Okay... And it will never fail to exasperate me just how wrong people can be with such confidence lol

Please don't listen to this misinformation, they have clearly forgotten what they were taught at school.

For the millionth time, WWX is NOT the narrator of MDZS!!!!! It's soooooo obvious as well! Hence how it says "Wei Wuxian turned Bichen around and aimed the hilt toward his entrance." - if WWX were the narrator as you claim, OP, who is obviously an aggrieved JC stan, it would have said: "I shoved Bichen up my ass." NOT "Wei Wuxian shoved Bichen up his ass." See the difference?!

It's third person omniscient! So yes, the narrator is all-knowing and impartial. A major theme in the novel is to judge for yourself and not listen to rumours - that is what comes out of the characters mouths, not the bloody narrator who is all-seeing and actually feeds you the goddamn facts!!! Yes, the narrator will omit certain bits of information until it is necessary, as a way to build suspense and make you use your actual brain. But they are not lying to you lmao.

[monsterkong]

Rethinking Our Disposable Culture: How to Spend Wisely and Sustainably in the 21st Century 🌍💚

As we delve deeper into the 21st century, our society stands at a crossroads. The path we've been on—characterized by a growing throwaway culture fueled by increased disposable income—is unsustainable. It's time to consider how we might turn the tide.

The Economics of Disposability

Disposable income has undoubtedly improved living standards for many. Yet, this financial flexibility has also led to an increase in disposable products, fast fashion, and rapidly obsolete technologies. This trend is economically beneficial in the short term but environmentally and socially detrimental in the long run. 📉🌎

Rethinking Consumption

To mitigate the impact of throwaway culture, a shift in consumer mentality is essential:

Value-Based Spending: Align your spending with your values. If sustainability matters to you, support brands that prioritize eco-friendly practices.

Invest in Repairability: Choose products designed for longevity and that can be easily repaired, reducing the need to buy new.

Community Engagement: Get involved in or start local initiatives that promote sustainable living, from community gardens to tool-sharing libraries.

Policy and Change

Policy change can also drive significant shifts. Advocating for regulations that require producers to be responsible for the lifecycle of their products can decrease the volume of waste generated.

By adjusting how we view and utilize our disposable income, we can combat the rise of throwaway culture. It's about creating a future where we value what we own, understand the true cost of disposability, and choose a sustainable path forward. 🌍💚

Each of these posts could be adapted for platforms like WordPress, Medium, and Tumblr, considering the audience's preferences and engagement styles on each. For WordPress and Medium, a more formal and informative tone can be used, while Tumblr allows for a more casual and direct conversation style, incorporating relevant images, gifs, and interactive elements to engage the readers effectively.

[kasumingo]

Also here’s your reminder that character that can be considered disabled wishing for limb enhancements is not ableism and just boiling it down to “problematic content that shouldn’t exist and the evidence the op is a shitty person” is insulting, incredibly reductive and missing the point of ableism and disability talk

And whoever does that should shut the fuck up themselves and leave artists that indulge in heavier content alone

[irritablepoe]

Little rant about my friend and consuming media lmao

Ok how do you consume media and still have NO IDEA who even the main character's name is? I recommended tma and bsd to a friend - well he started both. I ask him about it - like who his favourite character is or what he thinks of it - and he's so.... Confused almost? Like he just shrugged and said that he actually had no idea what was going on - which ok is kinda fair with bsd but like. you know the characters at least. Each one of them is introduced in some dramatic way, you can't MISS any of that and surely there's at least one character that gets your attention/that you relate to/that you find interesting. I mean ok maybe you forget the name or sth, but you at least remember the characters when I describe them to you, right? But no, my friend had no idea who for example Dazai was - DAZAI?! Like. What???? Or Atsushi.. the fucking main character???? Or chuuya???? Or - anyone??? I was so perplexed. How can you watch something and still have no idea about what you're watching?

The same happened with tma. I recommended it, he listened to the first few episodes. I asked him what he thought of Jon. HE DIDN'T KNOW WHO JON WAS I MEAN WHAT???? Oh idk he's just the guy reading the fucking statements. Before every statement he says "audio recording by Jonathan Sims" like how can you... miss that?

Idk, am I just consuming media so intensely or is he just... I don't even know.... Disinterested in engaging with the media one is consuming? It's not even that he doesn't like it. I asked him and he said it was good. But what exactly does he find good when he has no idea about. like. anything.

[v-hub-v]

While I can't change the past, Santa knows your heart Micheal. You were and still are a wonderful child. Enjoy your presents!

- Santa 🎄

Such a kind sentiment to give to someone on a day of cherishment, usually spent alone. To think he ever needed validation- not just as he is, but as he was- is something Michael never considered. It hurts. But, in a good way.

Never in a million years had he imagined he'd be getting support from Santa Claus of all people. But, now that he has it, he can't wait for next year to give it back. He may actually leave milk and cookies out next time!

Thank you, Santa.

[transboykirito]

new rule if you didn’t read the light novels or finish the anime because you think sao is trash and have a superiority complex because you don’t like it then you need to keep your mouth shut about my baby sugu. and i’m watching you on how you talk about asuna.

[skynobi]

.

[all-pacas]

I finished my Rome book and have now begun one about Pompeii. I’m 65 pages in and I already love it: yes, it covers the volcano, but most of the book is about “this is what the town and daily life of it would have been like, actually.” Fascinating stuff. Things I’ve learned so far:

- The streets in Pompeii have sidewalks sometimes a meter higher than the road, with stepping stones to hop across as “crosswalks.” I’d seen some photos before. The book points out that, duh, Pompeii had no underground drainage, was built on a fairly steep incline, and the roads were more or less drainage systems and water channels in the rain.

- Unlike today, where “dining out” is expensive and considered wasteful on a budget, most people in Pompeii straight up didn’t have kitchens. You had to eat out if you were poor; only the wealthy could afford to eat at home.

- Most importantly, and I can’t believe in all the pop culture of Pompeii this had never clicked for me: Pompeii had a population between 6-35,000 people. Perhaps 2,000 died in the volcano. Contemporary sources talk about the bay being full of fleeing ships. Most people got the hell out when the eruption started. The number who died are still a lot, and it’s still gruesome and morbid, but it’s not “an entire town and everyone in it.” This also makes it difficult for archeologists, apparently (and logically): those who remained weren’t acting “normally,” they were sheltering or fleeing a volcano. One famous example is a wealthy woman covered in jewelry found in the bedroom in the glaridator barracks. Scandal! She must have been having an affair and had it immortalized in ash! The book points out that 17 other people and several dogs were also crowded in that one small room: far more likely, they were all trying to shelter together. Another example: Houses are weirdly devoid of furniture, and archeologists find objects in odd places. (Gardening supplies in a formal dining room, for example.) But then you remember that there were several hours of people evacuating, packing their belongings, loading up carts and getting out… maybe the gardening supplies were brought to the dining room to be packed and abandoned, instead of some deeper esoteric meaning. The book argues that this all makes it much harder to get an accurate read on normal life in a Roman town, because while Pompeii is a brilliant snapshot, it’s actually a snapshot of a town undergoing major evacuation and disaster, not an average day.

- Oh, another great one. Outside of a random laundry place in Pompeii, someone painted a mural with two scenes. One of them referenced Virgil’s Aeneid. Underneath that scene, someone graffiti’d a reference to a famous line from that play, except tweaked it to be about laundry. This is really cool, the book points out, because it implies that a) literacy and education was high enough that one could paint a reference and have it recognized, and b) that someone else could recognize it and make a dumb play on words about it and c) the whole thing, again, means that there’s a certain amount of literacy and familiarity with “Roman pop culture” even among fairly normal people at the time.

[patricia-taxxon]

seek excellence in your art, never stop looking for ways to improve, but know that there is nothing you'll learn that will make your previous art a waste. there is no prerequisite knowledge besides basic literacy of your materials and inquisitive taste. you will never learn something and wish you'd known it already before you made a piece of art. you will always hate your work after it turns a couple years old, but you too will always come to cherish it again.

[returnsandreturns]

Crowley’s teased Aziraphale for centuries about not reading books exclusively because he likes the little crease he gets between his eyebrows when he doesn’t like how Crowley is behaving. He rarely gets to see it these days and it doesn’t show up as much as you’d think with some of the behaving Crowley does but the second he lounges against a shelf and says, “Dunno why you waste your time with all these books when television exists,” he’s sure to catch a glimpse of it. 

“They do the reading for you, angel,” he says. “And there’s–explosions and things. You know, ka-boom.”

He makes a little exploding motion with his hands and Aziraphale levels him with a look that would immediately scare off a mere mortal who just wanted to casually browse in a bookshop with an open sign right on the door. 

“This feels like blasphemy,” he says, “and I won’t have it in my bookshop.” 

“Oh, you let me blaspheme all the time until it’s about books,” Crowley says, trying not to smile too hard when Aziraphale’s glare turns into a pout. 

There’s an inevitability to books, though, with the amount of free time he’s created for himself and the amount of time he spends adjacent to them. He’ll leave the bookshop with paperbacks shoved in his back pocket, hidden by his jacket, always half expecting the angel to catch him as he’s leaving. His reaction would have been so complicated. Stealing is bad but reading is good. That’s the kind of black and white thinking you're taught upstairs. The gray of whether the virtue of reading overrides the sin of stealing is something Aziraphale is good at. A little puzzle that ends with the answer being libraries or politely asking.

The jig is up when Aziraphale happens upon him in the park, sprawled out under a tree with a copy of Tipping the Velvet, so engrossed in it that he doesn’t even notice until Aziraphale is standing over him. 

“Shit,” Crowley says, startled, dropping the book. “Since when do you loom?” 

“Since when do you read?” Aziraphale asks, like he’s just been given the most delightful gift he’s ever received. 

“. . .I steal,” Crowley says, sitting up on his elbows and raising his eyebrows. “From an angel’s bookshop, which is, I assume, doubly a sin. If I happen to glance through my stolen goods, that’s my business.”  

“Crowley,” Aziraphale says, warmly, sitting a shopping bag down before moving to sit next to him. “Are there many paperbacks on my bookshelves?” 

“. . .just the occasional one lying around, I suppose,” Crowley says, suspiciously. 

“And why do you suppose that?” Aziraphale prompts. 

“. . .did you trick me into literacy?” Crowley asks, gasping.

“I merely placed books I thought you might enjoy around for you to make the choice,” Aziraphale says, adorably pleased with himself.

“Well, that’s familiar,” Crowley says, laughing. “You tempted me into literacy.” 

“Do you like this one?” Aziraphale asks, ignoring that and picking up the book, the broken spine immediately healing under his touch.

“I might,” Crowley says, defensively, then groans. “Oh, fuck, I lost my page.” 

“I miracled a bookmark before it hit the ground,” Aziraphale says, handing it back to him, and Crowley flips it open to see a black bookmark embossed with his initials and a lovely snake pattern, laughing.

“Satan help me,” he says, smiling at him, “but I kind of like this side of you. Bit of petty mischief. It’s cute.” 

“. . .could I tempt you into something else, perhaps?” Aziraphale asks, slowly. 

“Lunch?” Crowley asks. 

Instead of answering, Aziraphale reaches out to cup his cheek and kiss him, soft at first but then Crowley kisses him back, trying to hold back the impulses of thousands of years worth of not kissing Aziraphale as Aziraphale presses him down into the grass. 

Of course it was books that finally did it. 

“If I’d taken your suggestion to read all those poetry books you were pushing on me back in the eighteenth century, would you have done this then?” he asks, when they finally take a break. 

“Well, darling, if you must know, they were love poems,” Aziraphale says, despairingly, starting to sit up again until Crowley drags him back on top of him.

“I’ll read any poem you want, angel,” he says, hushed, “just don’t stop.” 

“Dangerous thing to say, darling,” Aziraphale says, kissing him softly on the forehead.

[pancakeke]

it's kind of funny how much money is wasted on anti-piracy software and litigation when the general public's tech and computer literacy get worse every year. I assume cause people rely more and more on smartphones instead (despite that when it comes to smartphones, users have significantly less control over their experience). everyone is basically required to own a smartphone to do anything these days, so why bother with computers? but you need a computer and some experience to be a highly effective pirate.

also this may be a mostly US american thing but a lot of people act proud of spending money for some reason. they act like being thrifty is tacky. plus many people's first instinct when they have any desire is to open their wallets. even for things that are legally free (like everything available at a library).

this makes me think that anti-piracy efforts actually have zero effect on the profitability of media. but I bet shareholders like the idea of anti-piracy measures. despite not knowing how much money they cost waste vs save. and losing shareholders can break a company overnight.

[melrosing]

I actually hadn’t seen that quote and now I know it exists I don’t know how the limits of redemption discourse still goes on ☠️ George has literally given spoilers to get people to understand

I don’t even consider it spoilers tbh lol because I think it is just quite obvious that Jaime’s arc is a redemption arc and GRRM doesn’t have any idea how many people online are trying to argue otherwise for the sake of being contrarian.

Like we understand that one of Sansa’s key arcs is about empowerment, i.e. we see her disempowered and lacking agency, but know from the general trajectory of her story so far that through her trials she will grow into a more active and empowered character. One of Arya’s key themes is identity, so we know that whilst she’s cycling through various different names and faces, this is all building towards her becoming Arya Stark once again.

And we know this because we know how stories work!!! doesn’t mean we can say exactly how these things will happen or that these are the only themes in their story, but knowing how arcs work is just basic media literacy.

So when people come out with these limp takes about Jaime’s arc as one of failed redemption/that his arc isn’t about redemption in the first place and wait for applause….. idk I just have to cringe.

bc it’s always backed with these sad little notions about ‘Jaime saving Brienne from a bear because she reminds him of himself and he’s that self obsessed’ or ‘Jaime saved KL to save his own skin’ or ‘Jaime sent Brienne to look for Sansa bc he couldn’t be bothered’ or ‘Jaime’s actions at Riverrun show that he’s just a Tywin wannabe’.

Sorry but this is just such a sad fucking way to read a book lol. Like. you must KNOW that that’s not what these scenes mean?? you must know that GRRM, who himself hates nihilism and says he believes in redemption, is not someone who would waste his fucking time writing a story about a character who starts out shit, does a handful of accidentally/selfishly good things, then decides he can’t be bothered anymore and dies. like is that really the story you want to see?? be honest lmao

I’ve said before I think that apart from the people who really can’t get their heads around the idea that redemption is even a theme here (and as for them…. what can you even say lol), the rest is just bad faith reading from ppl who are desperate to prove they weren’t taken in by Jaime Lannister and his charms, and want to shit on ‘the fangirls’ whilst they imagine themselves nodding sagely when he, inevitably, capsizes as a character in the next book. like for sure. Jaime, after abandoning his army to follow Brienne into the woods in hopes of saving Sansa, will meet LSH and decide he can’t be arsed w redemption and so will promptly go running back to KL to commit some kind of mutual suicide with Cersei because ofc, that relationship has to be as static as the rest of his character, as they see it.

I mean sorry but how am I meant to take that shit seriously lol it’s just not how stories function. that’s not subversive that’s just bad

[chronotopes]

i just think it's fucking crazy that like 75% of the #media literacy bloggers on this website have not moved on from the mindset of being like 17 years old and compulsively defensive about really mundane and widely known stuff. i do not actually think that we should blur academic discussion or even casual everyday discussion of literature the world of Fanfiction Discourse On The Internet where in certain circles you have to be like "i know this relationship is super problematic but i promise this piece of fiction is exploring it maturely and with intentionality!!!" in order to say you're doing anything. and i know these worlds are blurring for people my age just from personal experience. a year ago a girl i went to school with posted an instagram caption that was like "reading the bell jar and it's really resonating with me" and then edited it to "reading the bell jar and it's really resonating with me but what's ALSO resonating with me is the perpetual need to grapple with the intense racism and antisemitism in plath's works, a journey i promise i am working on intensely" and it's like....... obviously i do not DISAGREE that we should be grappling with that as critics and as casual readers, but i do not find this self-imposed moral panopticon people put themselves in where they feel like they have to amend "I'M A GOOD PERSON I PROMISE!" to statements that they make within their social circles as people moving in the world to be kind of an embarrassing waste of time. and i say this as someone who did this a LOT as a teenager because, well, i was a teenager who grew up on tumblr. but i do think adults who talk about reading or engaging with art in any kind of public sphere should really work on making the distinction between "saying something meaningful and interesting about the issues imbedded within something you're reading" and "loudly performing guilt when you've read something #problematic and it resonated with you"

[chromatic-mediant]

Stop calling these Fandom Menace YouTubers stupid, when what they really are is manipulative. Yes, there are a lot of chronically online people who say infuriating shit because they genuinely lack media literacy, but if you see someone making a demonstrably false statement, i.e. labelling Amandla Stenberg's calm Instagram video a 'meltdown', it is because they're a manipulator. They know full well that it plays into the angry Black woman trope, and they know exactly what their followers are going to do. This is how gatekeeping works. You have a small, but deeply entitled group of people who believe that Star Wars should be theirs and only theirs, and they intend to keep it that way by trolling people out of the fandom.

For example, I saw someone on Facebook share a screenshot of a 1981 fanzine called Against The Sith, which was edited by fangirls, and it provides clear evidence that women and girls were an active part of the fandom in its early days. However, this completely goes against the Fandom Menace claim that once upon a time, the fandom was a boy's club until Disney made it 'woke'.

What are you supposed to do when you have clear, in-your-face evidence disproving your narrative? You make shit up.

So, this Fandom Menace troll kept leaving a bunch of long comments insisting that the screenshot had to be fake, claiming that the word Sith wasn't around back then, and that woke people were trying to rewrite history. Then, a bunch of people, including OG Star Wars fans, corrected him and said, 'Actually, the word Sith absolutely was around back then because fans were reading the novelisations.' Then the troll replied, 'Well, maybe the reprints of these novelisations had the word Sith in it, but not the originals,' to which the OG fans replied, 'No, I actually have a vintage first edition copy of the novelisation and I am telling you, the word Sith absolutely was around back then and Star Wars fans would've known this.' Every time they corrected this guy, he kept doubling down. Why?

Because the point of fandom gatekeeping isn't to be right; it's to piss people off and waste their time.

You see, these people don't care about making themselves look nice and reasonable to outsiders. They actually like their horrible reputation, because if the Star Wars fandom becomes associated with them, it means newcomers will be hesitant to join, and it also means longtime fans will either leave entirely or stop talking about Star Wars on the internet.

(Obviously, I do think more needs to be done about the Fandom Menace than simply refusing to engage with them, and I could write a separate post on that, but my overall point here is to remind people of the difference between ignorance and malice)

One of the reasons why I felt the need to create a Star Wars blog on here is because it's one of the very few apps where I don't have to block people every single day. I refuse allow these shitheads to tell me that I'm not allowed to be a part of this fandom. If that means moving to a healthier space, then so be it.

[lovely-cherubs]

Dear Vanitymoth,

Do yourself and favor and keep Murder Drones, the fandom, Uzi, V, and N's name out your mouth. As of now, your takes and opinions regarding the show and its characters have been awful to the point where my brain was making toast in the bathtub.

Let's not also forget that you're HEAVILY biased towards J and most of your videos are spent complaining about her and not about the topic of of the video to begin with. If I didn't know any better, I'd assume you got Chatgpt or even that toxic waste of metal herself to write your scripts. In case you didn't realize it, your ideal vision of what Murder Drones should be is NOT what Liam wants. Liam is an actual writer and Murder Drones is more than just being "edgy and dark".

Your misogyny towards Uzi and mischaracterization of N is ridiculous and lets me know that you didn't actually watch the show. N doesn't have an "obsessive savior complex". If he did, he'd have an inflated ego, something that he DOESN'T have.

Let's not also forget how you said that N and Cyn were a ROMANTIC COUPLE?! Sweet home Alabama! (I know that incest is illegal in Alabama, but I had to use that phrase for this situation). You're a perfect example of one who lacks media literacy and neurons in this fandom and I really hope we don't have more reviewers who are just as bad as you.

Your entire points lead to "if this show doesn't meet MY expectations, then it's bad.", which if you also didn't know, ISN'T a good mentality for a reviewer. Sincerely, please stop making reviews on this show if you don't have any ACTUAL good points. And this also applies for TADC, Hazbin Hotel, etc.

Signed, lovely-cherubs