“When I first heard it, from a dog trainer who knew her behavioral science, it was a stunning moment. I remember where I was standing, what block of Brooklyn’s streets. It was like holding a piece of polished obsidian in the hand, feeling its weight and irreducibility. And its fathomless blackness. Punishment is reinforcing to the punisher. Of course. It fit the science, and it also fit the hidden memories stored in a deeply buried, rusty lockbox inside me. The people who walked down the street arbitrarily compressing their dogs’ tracheas, to which the poor beasts could only submit in uncomprehending misery; the parents who slapped their crying toddlers for the crime of being tired or hungry: These were not aberrantly malevolent villains. They were not doing what they did because they thought it was right, or even because it worked very well. They were simply caught in the same feedback loop in which all behavior is made. Their spasms of delivering small torments relieved their frustration and gave the impression of momentum toward a solution. Most potently, it immediately stopped the behavior. No matter that the effect probably won’t last: the reinforcer—the silence or the cessation of the annoyance—was exquisitely timed. Now. Boy does that feel good.”
— Melissa Holbrook Pierson, The Secret History of Kindness (2015)
Brown University students are launching an indefinite hunger strike for Palestine
they are asking for their university to divest from companies profiting from the genocide in gaza and openly call for a ceasefire and will not eat until the university governing bodies hears and considers a divestment resolution. if you are not familiar with the physical toll a hunger strike takes on the body, it might be worth looking up to get a better sense of what a significant action these students are taking. the university's highest governing body is having their first meeting of 2024 on february 8-9th so let's rally around them to muster even more pressure on brown university.
brown university contact page: let's state our support for these students and let brown university know the world will be watching what happens next!
additional reading: coverage of this story in the university's student news paper - get to know some of the hunger strikers
Thinking about how Diavolo’s feelings transcend time and how in the Nightbringer UR+ card Demon Lord’s Castle Tour this conversation happens.
When asked, “Do you wish to see your father?”
Diavolo responds:
“I suppose I do . . .” isn’t the typical reaction to how a child would feel about wanting to see their parent. Especially when said parent has essentially been in a coma for a year.
Along with how Diavolo describe his father.
It makes more sense why when you learn in Lesson 56 how Diavolo was treated by him growing up.
Diavolo can tell when others are lying but is unable to understand his father’s intentions.
Diavolo mentions that he lived a very sheltered life growing up. That from a young age his father never allowed him a chance to talk to anyone outside the castle.
His childhood friend was Mephistopheles. A demon literally RAISED to be his friend. Putting a barrier between the two because Mephistopheles would put Diavolo on a pedestal.
The isolating childhood he experienced riddled with his strict father constantly scolding him.
Despite everything MC is so important to him he wants to see his father again so we can meet.
I really wish that "asexuals don't have to want sex but lot of them will still have it with their partner!" wasn't centered in like every asexuality acceptance post. I think it's genuinely damaging to asexuals and their relationships. A lot of us don't want sex. A lot of us are sex repulsed. A lot of us don't even wanna talk or hear about sex. A lot of us don't enjoy porn or wanna "hand out drinks at the orgy". Some of us have sexual-related trauma. Some of us are sex repulsed, not 💖✨sex repulsed but actually really cool about it✨💖
Allos are out here getting into relationships with aces and then pull a pikachu-surprise-face when their partner doesn't wanna have sex with them bc everyone constantly emphasises says how we totally will do it for them. Some of us won't. That's okay. That doesn't constantly need to be followed up with "but a lot of aces will so don't worry!!!!!" We don't have to make every post about us in a way that makes allos comfortable. It's not necessary to reassure allos at every turn that we're not all that asexual and they don't have to worry about us being different in a way they might notice. Allos need to accept and internalise that some people aren't gonna want to have sex. No terms and conditions. No "unless" "but" or "except". Just none.
when I first started self-shipping: maybe this character would like me back. we’re sorta dating. oh, and maybe I’d be friends with this character? they might find me annoying…
me now: this character would always have my back. we’re friends until the end of the line. multiple characters have unrequited crushes on me. my f/o has dedication to me like no one’s seen before. we’re madly in love. we’re best friends. we’re soulmates. it’s even deeper than that.
In my early twenties I know more theology than most men in the churches I've attended who are twice my age. This isn't a boast, I am no scholar. I say this in abject horror and despair.
Sometimes I think I’ve got a good idea of sans character then I remember deep down I consider him kinder then papyrus and I have to come to terms with the fact that I have also fandom-fied him and it hurts, anyway congratulations on staying true to his character your the strongest soldier out there
lol don't beat yourself up. i wouldn't use "kind" as a qualifier, but i do think papyrus can come across as much blunter than sans. he's loud and banging and over the top in a way that exaggerates his other attributes, and one of those is his social awkwardness. he's shameless! both when he's being positive and uplifting AND when he's being a bitch. sans is more... contained. less vocal. but that's something that applies to his character in general.
more than anything i think—as jaded and more pessimistic as sans has become with time and his reset knowledge—both him and papyrus start from the same core personality. papyrus' kindness is obviously important to his character, but people tend to play it up too much in my opinion. he's just as capable of disregarding people's suffering and unhappiness for his own interests (empress undyne ending, king mtt ending, remaining our friend in spite of our actions) as his brother. he's just... very loud about his positivity and caring for other people and DOES want what's best for everyone... when it's not particularly inconvenient to him. lol.
when a lesbian makes a lesbian appreciation post but then adds a tag saying that their lesbian appreciation doesn’t include trans lesbians even though trans lesbians are lesbians and the post is supposed to be appreciating lesbians:
'I flirted with the idea that instead of being trans that I was just a cross-dresser (a quirk, I thought, that could be quietly folded into an otherwise average life) and that my dysphoria was sexual in nature, and sexual only. And if my feelings were only sexual, then, I wondered, perhaps I wasn’t actually trans.
I had read about a book called The Man Who Would Be Queen, by a Northwestern University professor who believed that transwomen who were attracted to women were really confused fetishists, they wanted to be women to satisfy an autogynephilia. And though I first read about this book in the context of its debunkment and disparagement, I thought about the electricity of slipping on those tights, zipping up those boots, and a stream of guilt followed. Maybe this professor was right, and maybe I was only a fetishist. Not trans, just a misguided boy.
About a year later, on the Internet, I come across a transwoman who added a unique message to the crowd refuting this professor. Oh, I wish I remember who this woman was, and I wish even more that I could do better than paraphrase her, but I remember her saying something like this: “Well, of course I feel sexy putting on women’s clothing and having a woman’s body. If you feel comfortable in your body for the first time, won’t that probably mean it’ll be the first time you feel comfortable, too, with delighting in your body as a sexual thing?”'