vastsexual - Tumblr blog

[vastsexual]

Wake up, babe, new religion just dropped

[vastsexual]

patreon | prints

[vastsexual]

we ask that the defense not say "me when i lie" while the witness testifies

[vastsexual]

in light of police across the country cracking down on pro palestine protests with brutal force, it feels like a great time to remind everyone to shut the fuck up around cops. don't make small talk, dont act friendly, don't fucking engage with them!! if you are arrested DO NOT speak without a lawyer present. protest organizers, get into contact with local pro bono lawyers who can be there for your arrested comrades. no matter what, if cops are there, shut the fuck up unless you are actively doing a protest chant. dont tell cops why you were there, dont tell them if you're affiliated with the school you may be protesting at, dont tell them if you came there with anyone, dont tell them anything!!!

[vastsexual]

Who are you, Louis?

[vastsexual]

seven years ago in the name of tolerating free speech from all political perspectives my nasty ass evil university let an army of tiki torch wielding nazis shouting jews will not replace us march through grounds threatening the lives of students and community members with zero police presence. and today they retroactively changed campus policy around tents so they could send in the cops to bust up the gaza memorial vigil. genuinely fucking stomach turning

[vastsexual]

christ on a cracker (the last supper, oil on saltine)

[vastsexual]

[vastsexual]

maybe whistleblowers just happen to come forward around the time they're about to die. no one ever considers that

[vastsexual]

guys why the fuck aren't we talking about what's happening in the uk right now

nobody outside the uk is talking about this. why is nobody talking about it

[vastsexual]

Brits!

Sunak says there'll likely be an election in the second half of the year

PLEASE make sure you're registered and have photo ID. If you don't have one of the forms of ID listed here: https://www.gov.uk/how-to-vote/photo-id-youll-need

you can get a free voter authority certificate here: https://www.gov.uk/apply-for-photo-id-voter-authority-certificate

Or you can apply for a postal vote (via the same link)

(It's a bit different for NI but there's links from the above)

Tories out!

[vastsexual]

Local journalist live tweets private meeting whose main agenda is all those media leaks.

[vastsexual]

The Rwanda bill has been passed. People seeking asylum in the UK are no longer safe. This bill has been criticised by many human rights groups, yet parliment have still decided to go ahead with it. People are seeking safety in the UK, and are being turned away. Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that "Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.". The Rwanda bill prevents this. There is no conformation that people sent to Rwanda will be safe there. This is a blatant violation of human rights. Asylum seekers are human too, and they should be treated as such.

[vastsexual]

Fun fact about the early Catholic church is that, despite spending generations being persecuted by the Roman empire, it took less than 15 years under Theodosius I to go from “the empire is Catholic now” to “and also every other religion is banned.” You can literally read St. Augustine move from “state religious persecution is unacceptable” to “state religious persecution is cool actually” over his lifetime as Catholicism came to power. I’m sure there’s no broader lessons to be learned there

[vastsexual]

How likely do you think it is that BoJo the Clown "forgot" his ID on purpose as part of his class clown routine? I just have this feeling he wasn't getting enough attention and decided to stage a pratfall.

I love your political satire type posts btw ❤️

I... Hmm. I don't think so? Class clown is his persona, but not his deliberate chosen behaviour - he laughs stuff off frustratingly well, but he doesn't normally like to appear incompetent. And in this particular case, he has vested interest in making the photo ID thing look smooth and effective, because (a) as a voter suppression tactic it's one of the few things softening the catastrophic Tory loss, and (b) it was his damn idea in the first place. Or at least, he was its champion.

But, nothing surprises me anymore with that guy. But I actually think it's more likely in this case that he genuinely thought that it wouldn't matter because he's famous and important, so as ever, the rules wouldn't apply to him. He truly learned nothing from Partygate

[vastsexual]

REVENGE OF THE SITH (2005) dir. George Lucas

[vastsexual]

Okay let me try this one again. The Trolley Problem sets up a scenario that sucks to be in. You either kill one guy, or you kill five guys. Nobody likes these options. We all don't want this be happening. That's kind of the point. It's a moral quandary. It's supposed to feel bad.

Now, according to a recent post floating around on tumblr, choosing either of the two options demonstrates "learned helplessness" and makes you a neolib sheep. The only correct answer, the post states, is to reject the question altogether. (Or to change the parameters of the question to include an option that saves everyone, thus eliminating the moral quandary.)

It sounds nice, doesn't it? Fuck this bad situation, we control our imaginations, so let's imagine a situation that doesn't suck. Hah! Bet you didn't think of that!

Here's the problem. Even though I think most situations generally have at least one solution that is both Feasible and Not Terrible, I have to admit that there are some situations (as in, not zero of them) where all the feasible options are unpleasant. This is a natural consequence of living in a world where A Lot Of Things Suck.

But if shitty situations do exist, even if it's super super rare, then it's not unreasonable to ask, "How should we make decisions when we find ourselves in a shitty situation?"

This is the beginning premise of the Trolley Problem. It says, "Hey what if you were in an unambiguously shitty situation? There are many shitty situations, so let's imagine one that is contrived enough to get everyone on the same page regardless of political affiliation, AND really emphasizes the key parts that I want to discuss."

Tumblr says "let me stop you right there. What if instead...we imagined a different scenario that wasn't as shitty?"

Well, okay, but then we're not talking about the same thing anymore. That doesn't actually count as an answer to the problem, you're just changing the subject to a completely different thing.

Tumblr goes on to say, "Exactly. That's the only thing you should ever do when confronted with an ethical quandary. Frankly the fact that you are willing to even consider a scenario that sucks suggests that you are fundamentally incapable of considering less shitty scenarios."

I just want to say I think that's bullshit. I don't think every problem is a trolley problem, but I do think that some problems are a trolley problem. And I think that those problems are worth discussing, even though they don't feel good. The trolley problem exists as a framework to discuss those problems.

Maybe our aversion to difficult decisions has an impact on our ethical reasoning, and maybe we should actually question how our ethical standards hold up under the weight of that aversion. So maybe moral quandaries like the trolley problem are worth discussing. And if you don't want to engage with the quandary, then don't - you don't have to concoct a whole essay about how the quandary is inherently morally bad.

It's possible that what you really want to say is that it sucks when people treat certain situations as trolley problems, when those specific situations actually do contain unambiguously feasible and unambiguously perfect solutions. I would agree with that.

But like. Let's not pretend that you can reduce all of ethics down to unchallenging black and white moralism.