#of idealists and pragmatists

[dreamerwriternstargazer]

Winter’s Northern Lights

[kindlespark]

griffin harley lovell, a study.

[dreamerwriternstargazer]

I really love humans ^_^

Today one of my students gifted me a painting she did herself Masha’Allah and some chocolates

So already great

But then when I was ordering some doughnuts as a treat for my other class the service worker called me saying that they didn’t have some of the ones I selected

I said it was no problem she could just do doubles of the ones available

And when I got my order I saw there was a note and an extra doughnut 🥰

And I just… think humanity is beautiful sometimes the way we look out for each other or try to brighten someone else’s day a little bit

The kids are alright ^_^

[sergeant-angels-trashcan]

While I'm aware that spite is not the ideal political or social motivator, I am increasingly aware that I am a pragmatist above almost all else and am a big fan of the "butts in seats" approach to politics and therefore believe that, if for no reason other than spite, all USAmerican Millennials and Gen Zers should be vocal proponents of the land back movement.

You've made it financially impossible to own a home? I don't think this land belongs to any of us. Suck on that, landlord.

Yes obviously there are philosophical and moral reasons to support the land back movement and I'm sure someone will tell me it's "not that simple!" which is not the point.

[dreamerwriternstargazer]

[ID: a screenshot of a page of a book with text stating: I however, have noticed a hidden meaning in all of this which is that if the ‘self’ was in a constant state of awakening it would have fallen trial to a calamity more than it would have when being heedless sometimes ie. if the ‘self’ was in a constant state of awakening, it will become too proud of its worship and despise those whose worship and striving are less. Even worse, it could reach a level at which it says, ‘I am entitled for such and such and I deserve such and such.'

It is for this reason, it was left to flounder along in the pit of its sins, since then when it stands on the shore of safety it will stand with humility and hence will have fulfilled the due right of true servitude to Allah and that is the best for it. This is indeed the situation of most people, which is the reason why they have been distracted from the actual purpose of their creation.

That said, whoever sows [i.e. worships and obeys Allah] and rectified his affairs, will make a mistake or disobey Allah at some point that the eye of his fear from Allah’s punishment will monitor so that his worship will be sound and his state of servitude to Allah will be correct. This meaning has been indicated in the authentic hadith when the Prophet (salla’Allahu alayhi wa sallam) said, "If you committed no sins, Alläh would have removed you and replaced you with other people who will sin and ask Allah's forgiveness upon which they will be forgiven." End ID]

~ Excerpt taken from Captured Thoughts by Ibn Jawzi

@escapaldi 💜💜💜

Edit:

An addendum that I just thought to add is that because the story of Christ is different in the Qur���aan (we don’t believe he was killed) the part about Christ despairing isn’t a proof we use in Islam for this concept of imperfection in faith. However there’s other things/stories in the Qur’aan that support such an idea such as the story of Yunus (Jonah) alayhis sallam as well as stories from the time of the Prophet Muhammad (saw) such as the above Hadith

In fact a whole section of Islamic faith is belief in the unseen, and there’s stories from the Prophet Muhammad (saw) which clarify that belief in the unseen is part of faith because it tests our faith; if all the proof were laid out, everyone would believe.

Conclave (2024) dir. Edward Berger

[buffyspeak]

none of the tbosas x thg are 1:1 parallels because that would take away their nuance and dimensionality. that being said the character most like sejanus was gale but some of y’all aren’t ready that conversation because you blindly hate gale without consideration for his complexity. anyway

[enneagram-reblogs]

Relating to the World in a Time of Uncertainty: The Harmony Triads. From NineTypesCo by Steph Barron Hall.

This concept is called Harmony Triads. They are represented by equilateral triangles overlaid over the Enneagram symbol so that each triad includes one heart type, one head type, and one body type. The Harmony Triads explain how each Enneagram type interacts with the world, and they can be especially helpful when navigating uncertainty. Any time we uncover a new way of looking at the Enneagram, we can find that there is something more to learn about ourselves and those around us.

[dreamerwriternstargazer]

Don’t leave this in the tags

‘Love is the one thing that we’re capable of perceiving that transcends dimensions of time and space.’

“Eulogy from a Physicist” by Aaron Freeman, with quotes from Interstellar by Christopher Nolan, and images from NASA, Interstellar, Getty, Petrichara, and Reuters.

1- NASA: GOODS-South.

2- NASA: NGC 1850.

3- NASA: Iberian Peninsula.

4- Christopher Nolan: Interstellar.

5- NASA: From the Earth to the Moon.

6- Hannah La Folette Ryan: Subway Hands.

7- Adams Evans: Heart Nebula.

8- NASA: Exploring the Antennae.

9- NASA: Crescent Moon from the International Space Station.

10- Petrichara.

11- Getty Images.

12- NASA: SMACS 0723.

13- Reuters

[suzannahnatters]

Going back to revisit stories you haven't read in years is such a wild ride, you never know what you're in for. The gamut runs from "whoah this is terribly racist/ableist/misogynist" to "this is a much richer and more transcendent experience than I remember" to "yes I loathed this the first time I read it as an immature twerp and while I can see now that Valid Decisions Were Made...I STILL DON'T LIKE IT AND NOBODY CAN MAKE ME WOOOOOOOO"

[fandomrelatedshowerthoughts]

If you believe the PDB typings of both shows' ensembles, when you look at the main characters' Enneagram type or wing, The Librarians has a lot of Rejection Triad/Relationist Triad energy and Warehouse 13 has a lot of Attachment Triad/Pragmatist Triad energy and TBH you can tell from the general vibes of the show not just character types. So therefore if there is a new way one could make a show in that very specific subgenre those two shows share without either ripping either of them off or obviously trying too hard to not rip either of them off, there needs to be one completing the triad triad by having Frustration Triad/Idealist Triad energy and every character in the main ensemble having either a core type or wing of 1, 4 or 7

[immanuelfruhmann]

Der Idealist und seine Feinde

Ein Ideal ist eine verhärtete Überzeugung, eine überwertige Idee, an die alles angepasst, an die alle angepasst, in die alles und alle hineingezwängt werden. Der Idealist hat somit die zwanghafte Vorstellung, alle/s müsse/n sich um sein Ideal drehen, alle/s hätte/n sich nach seinem Ideal zu richten. Daher werden von ihm alle Arten von Zwangshandlung gesetzt, damit stets dem Ideal genüge getan…

[selfindulgenttwaddle]

Care to take a leaflet?

We’ve all been there. You are walking down the street, minding your own business, and a clinically cheerful chugger with a bolt-on grin moves to block your path asking for “just a moment of your time”. If you are lucky, your averted gaze and mumbled “no thank you” sees them seeking out their next victim. If you are unlucky, you end up taking away a leaflet, or worse. I tend to be very good at…

[crimsonphantasmagoria]

I think it's cute that one of the first pieces of Solas approval you can get from Solas is from saving the scouts on the mountain pass in the prologue of Inquisition. And to be clear, this whole time my guy has been like 'we need to hurry' 'we need to concentrate on the Breach', and then you save the scouts, but just saving them isn't what gets you the approval. Saying 'it was worth saving you if we could' is what gets you the approval. It's the declaration that your intent was always to try and save them, if you could, despite the urgency of your task. He's always pretending to be a ruthless pragmatist, so much so even he forgets that he's really an idealist.

[crapeaucrapeau]

Something I've really come to appreciate in ME1 is how all three Council members are consistently and coherently characterized during what little interactions we have with them, and especially how they are different shades of pragmatism.

Now this is interesting because when you delineate characters through foil dynamics, you usually give them contrasting traits : a pragmatic character would be contrasted with an idealistic one. Yet since we're talking politicians, idealism is unlikely. What do we get instead ?

Valern's pragmatism is very much all about short-term efficiency : getting the mission done is the only thing that counts. Results are the only things that counts. He's a textbook example of what a cynical pragmatist might be depicted as ; which is perhaps why Esheel, in a Renegade!Timeline ME3, seems to have nothing but contempt for him.

Sparatus' pragmatism, on the other hand, always manifests itself as caution. Did you take this in consideration ? Do you have proof to back up what you claim ? Can you stop being a maverick for two seconds ? Can you conclusively demonstrate to me that you took every other possibility into account and that you did, in fact, make the best available decision ? It's pragmatism but focused on the long term, on not jeopardizing the future for the sake of the present. Strategy instead of tactics.

And as for Tevos, she usually has the last word, always mediating the reactions of her co-Councilors and the Council's responses as a whole. The feeling you get is that her pragmatism is all about flexibility and compromise : what's done is done, what's most important is that we agree on a mutually beneficial course of action. She juggles egos, unruffles feathers and calms everyone down so that they can move forward.

This is very nice because, in a sense, each of them is a perfect vanilla representation of their respective governments, in keeping with ME1's heavy worldbuilding duties : Tevos is very much the compromising centrist asari are supposed to be, favoring people working together (at practically any cost) over what they're working for ; Valern is all about the short-term mentality of the salarians, and the certainty any problem they cause can be fixed no matter what, in a never-ending parade of problems whose resolution cause other problems ; and Sparatus is risk-averse and perhaps the most conservative of the three, in that he is very afraid of any significant change upsetting the status quo, always calculating how this or that decision might change the grand strategic stage of the galaxy.

[dreamerwriternstargazer]

I just wanted to add this to my scrapbook of a tumblr blog because…

I really love this creator, I found her during one of the worst years of my life (2018) and I found her videos so cute and fun and they really encouraged me to be braver as an artist, to play and experiment

And then she disappeared for a bit, about 2 years ago. She mentioned she had a chronic illness in some videos or posts so I just hoped she was okay

And then yesterday she posted again. While I am having yet again a very difficult year

And I can’t explain it, it just… it just filled me with so much hope and relief, to hear her story and to… to be able to relate it to mine

Especially now, I just got another chronic illness diagnosis the other week and I was absolutely torn up

I feel like I’m in one of the difficult seasons she describes. And it meant the world to hear someone else talk about the exhaustion, and the determination, and the choices she had to keep choosing, it meant so much to hear someone who understood, in the midst of my own hard days.

So yeah, here it is. This was a very important Glimmer today ^_^

[kenyatta]

The world of corporate intelligence has quietly ballooned into a market valued at over $20 billion. The Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) market alone, valued at around $9.81 billion in 2024. This exponential growth reflects an important shift: intelligence gathering, once the exclusive domain of nation-states, has been privatized and commodified. [...] The methods these firms employ have evolved into a sophisticated doctrine that combines centuries-old espionage techniques with new technology. Understanding their playbook is important to grasping how democracy itself is being undermined. [...] This practice is disturbingly widespread. A report by the Center for Corporate Policy titled “Spooky Business” estimated that as many as one in four activists in some campaigns may be corporate spies. The report documented how “a diverse array of nonprofits have been targeted by espionage, including environmental, anti-war, public interest, consumer, food safety, pesticide reform, nursing home reform, gun control, social justice, animal rights and arms control groups.” The psychological doctrine these firms follow was laid bare in leaked Stratfor documents. Their manual for neutralizing movements divides activists into four categories, each with specific tactics for neutralization: 1. Radicals: Those who see the system as fundamentally corrupt. The strategy is to isolate and discredit them through character assassination and false charges, making them appear extreme and irrational to potential supporters. 2. Idealists: Well-meaning individuals who can be swayed by data. The goal is to engage them with counter-information, confuse them about facts, and gradually pull them away from the radical camp toward more “realistic” positions. 3. Realists: Pragmatists willing to work within the system. Corporations are advised to bargain with them, offering small, symbolic concessions that allow them to claim victory while abandoning larger systemic changes. 4. Opportunists: Those involved for personal gain, status, or excitement. These are considered the easiest to neutralize, often bought off with jobs, consulting contracts, or other personal benefits. [...] Some firms have industrialized specific tactics into product offerings. According to industry sources, “pretexting” services — where operatives pose as someone else to extract information — run $500-$2,000 per successful operation. Trash collection from target residences (“dumpster diving” in industry parlance) is billed at $200-$500 per retrieval. Installing GPS trackers runs $1,000-$2,500 including equipment and monitoring. The most chilling aspect is how these costs compare to their impact. For less than a mid-level executive’s annual salary, a corporation can fund a year-long campaign to destroy a grassroots movement. For the price of a Super Bowl commercial, they can orchestrate sophisticated operations that neutralize threats to their business model. Democracy, it turns out, can be subverted for less than the cost of a good law firm.