I am, unfortunately, all panic and no disco

i wonder if anyone else in the world has the same password as me

we really are so lucky to have dan and phil for a lot of reasons, but one that really sticks out to me is their willingness to use they/them pronouns for anyone whose gender they don’t know. most other youtubers don’t do that, and if they do, they’re not nearly as consistent as dnp. when they invited people onto the rize streams, when they read liveshow comments, when they talk about moments with fans, they always use they/them.

not only does that show respect to their fans’ identities, it also shows a recognition of how many of their fans are lgbt+. on top of that, they’re helping to normalize using they/them even for people who may be cis, rather than just the people whose gender you can’t tell right off the bat.

dnp are endlessly supportive of the lgbt community & respect the hell out of their fans and i live for it

Have you ever seen a violinist going APESHIT?!

Be sure to check out IAmDSharp!

GO OFFF

Ok so I’ve been playing for 18 years and i’m a string teacher. Can i just say how IMPORTANT it is for young kids to see a BLACK, MALE-PRESENTING PERSON playing, nae, SHREDDING on a violin? I’ve know maybe 5 black people who played stringed instruments throughout my schooling and teaching (predumably because i’m an upper middle class white woman). In districts where the population is predominantly black, funding is always low, so the instruments are crappy. Kids quit, or the program is dismantled. I’ve seen very few professional string players who are black.

Obviously there are black string players. We just don’t see them because they “don’t look like” string players.

This person is the real deal. They were clearly classically trained, and seems to have some fiddle training as well. How cool is that?

He in a cape too so extra points

PADS AND TAMPONS SHOULD BE FOR FREE REBLOG IF YOU AGREE

A teensy thought

Skulduggery Pleasant is, to its fans, as Harry Potter was to ITS respective fans. Like, Harry Potter, but for the goths, emos, social outcasts etc… 

Season One

Charles: Jake, do you like Amy?

Jake:

Season Six

Anyone: *breathes in Amy’s direction*

Jake:

theory: fortnite dancing is good for kids

reasoning: for a lot of kids exercise is boring. fortine dancing isnt

other reasoning: theyre fucking children and controversially i think fun should be allowed

Also: it’s funny and at a moment’s notice they are trained and ready to throw down

 - Derek Landy on Character Deaths

(a.k.a. why he killed oNE OF MY FAVOURITE CHARACTERS)

Bonus:

I’m so excited to see what 2019 brings. Yes it means no pinof, possibly no more dnpg or dil, but it means they’re moving on. Both of these things were started when they were both young and now that they (and us) are older, their content is changing. I can not wait to see what they come up with and can’t wait for the hype that will surround it. Change may be hard but it usually brings some really amazing things along with it and I for one, haven’t been this excited for the future in a long time.

“So-and-so identity I’m prejudiced against is gonna use up all the LGBT resources!” like this is fuckin Age of Empires II or some shit

Reblog if you can’t build any more castles or upgrade your longbowmen because some sneaky asexuals are camping on all the wood and stone

But the LGBT movement DOES have resources. Campaigning funds. Charity funds. Credibility. And it’s being wasted on a redundant movement of people no-one could give two shits about. Take the resources away from the ‘UwU no-one thinks we’re VALID’ asexuals and give it to the gays and bisexuals that get abused, discriminated and killed

okay, but have you considered:

the entire fucking point is that we are a movement entirely composed of “people no-one could give two shits about”. that is why we are abused, discriminated against, and sometimes killed.

“people no one could give two shits about”, especially when the lack of concern for them is directly tied to who they will or won’t fuck, is exactly who those resources are for.

and every time we grow the movement, and get more people, we also get more resources. strength in numbers. unity. solidarity.

it fucking works, man. since i was a kid, we went from “it’s not obvious that killing these people should be considered a crime” to recognition of marriage, most or at least a lot of health coverage and medical standards of care covering transitioning, and so on. it’s working.

and when i mentioned “asexuals” to some coworkers, one of them said “holy shit there’s a word for that? that’s me!” and now a programmer who has a decent salary and no kids to spend it on thinks of us as his people and wants to support LGBT things because he feels like that’s his problem, not someone else’s problem.

for future advocacy: please consider the possibility that, in a community full of people many of whom were homeless in their mid teens because no one could give two shits about them, dismissing people on the grounds that you don’t personally think anyone should care about them is actually a bad look.

also, being jealous because not every birthday party is YOUR birthday party is not cute after you turn three.

reminder that Channing Tatum is bisexual

a gentle reminder that you did well this year. you met new people, learned new things and felt new feelings. you did so many things that made you scared. you picked yourself up off the floor after feeling completely defeated or heartbroken. there were some really tough nights but you survived them all. you made people happy just by existing. you accepted many goodbyes but the serendipitous meetings made up for them. it was your own hard work that paid off but you always downplay it or compare yourself to others. that’s not fair on yourself. you’ve come so far from the first day of this year. you have more wisdom and strength now. yes, other people seem more “successful” but does that even matter? please don’t think so lowly of yourself to only think about your failures. 2018 was your year of growth. I hope you take a moment to be kind to yourself, and believe that 2019 will be even better.

My heart will always be soft. I will never stop looking for the good and love in everything. You can’t take that away from me.

what’s christmas even like in non-christian families? in completely non-religious families? like what do you tell your children? “well, kids, we’re eating a whole lot of food and spending a fuckton of money spoiling you because some other people somewhere believe their holy lord and saviour and the greatest person to walk the earth was born 2000 years ago. here’s a playstation.”

yeah pretty much

i legit didnt know non-christians celebrated christmas… literally never crossed my mind 

We do, and basically it’s like “Hey kids, let’s decorate a tree, exchange presents, eat a fuckload of food, and get a picture with the creepy mall Santa that probably will be arrested next week”. I didn’t even know it was a religious holiday until I was 9

Christmas was celebrated here (in Norway) for several thousand years before Christianity got here. There was literally nothing Christian about it in the beginning, the Christians just figured it’d be easier to say that Jesus was born on a day that was already celebrated than to make up a new holiday and force it on people

Pretty much every culture in the northern hemisphere has had a celebration in the fuck-all heart of winter purely because it’s depressing as fuck when it’s cold all the time and dark for 90% of the time

So long before jesus was born someone was like

“k it’s cold and dark and the view outside is literally identical to our concept of hell but I made you this candle stop being sad”

Yep, Easter existed before Jesus died on this day. Basically pretty much every “Christian” holiday was put on a pagan holiday, like lots of churches were also built on pagan places of worship. That’s how they made Christianity a success. We call that marketing now. 

Christmas is rooted in pre-Christian Solstice celebrations. By Dec. 25th, days are getting noticeably longer. Light is triumphing over the dark. Spring and life will eventually return. In the dead of winter, the promise of renewal. It’s an ancient and powerful thing, that has been integral to human culture and religion in every culture around the globe. 

Christians couldn’t get people to stop celebrating their solstice feast days, so they replaced the ‘rebirth of the sun’ celebrations with a ‘birth of the son’ celebration. Literally all they did was tweak existing mythology and relabel old traditions. 

Christmas is far, far older than Christianity. Don’t flatter yourselves. 

Additionally the birth of Christ was probably sometime in the spring or summer. (we base this on tax times and lambing seasons). By and large*, Christians didn’t start celebrating the birth of Jesus in December until 336 when Roman Emperor Constantine did a whole bunch of shady stuff to give his momma’s religion more power/importance and basically set Christianity on the sucky ass path it’s been on every since. (fyi it was Pope Julius I who made it an official holiday a few years later).

*There is some speculation on why this was so easily accepted. One reason being that for reasons not quite known the date was already associated with Jesus’s birth. In the second century Hippolytus wrote in passing that Jesus’s birthday was on December 25th and I think this gets largely ignored because it doesn’t fit with the currently popular historical narrative. That said humans have long had traditions of combining/appropriating regional holidays as populations move into and out of areas and we have ALWAYS had a mid winter holiday for reasons.

tl;dr: The most readily identified secular Christmas observations/symbols/etc aren’t Christian at all, so it’s not remotely odd to me that Christmas is celebrated by nonchristians. It’s odder to me that nonchristians get all riled up when those secular symbols are attacked. (like holiday reindeer cups, etc)

ps. I realize that those symbols are not secular to everyone, but in most current observances there is little knowledge or understanding of their religious roots. 

“CLIMBS UP ON SOAPBOX”

ALSO BECAUSE I’M NOT DONE

Christmas trees? Why the fuck do we drag a tree into our house and decorate it in the middle of winter? Because the evergreen is an ancient pagan symbol associated with immortality and rebirth, as it’s the only tree that is green in the dead of winter. Romans used fir branches to decorate their homes at Saturnalaia. Pagans in Europe used fir and holly branches to remind themselves that rebirth and growth would return, as even the coldest winter could not kill all the green growing things. It doesn’t have fuckall to do with Jesus, kids. 

Santa? The wise old man who rides a sleigh drawn by eight reindeer through the sky on Yule Night? Based on Odin, the Allfather of the Norse Gods, who rode his eight-legged steed Slepnir on a hunt through the sky on Yule night. Children would leave their boots out, filled with hay or root vegetables for Odin’s mount as an offering. If this pleased Odin, he would leave gifts in return, for all gifts must be returned in kind. 

Sound familiar?? (Right and the reindeer? A hugely important animal to most of the Northern European cultures where solstice celebrations originated. They also have ties to the Horned God, the god of the hunt, which associates them with Odin’s ride with the Wild Hunt on Yule Eve. Again, ain’t got shit-all to do with Jesus.) 

Christmas. 

Ain’t. 

Christian. 

*builds a soapbox big enough for the both of us, passes you a cup of eggnog and a spiced cookie*

Don’t get me started on St. Nic. 

Saint Nicolas (the Wonderworker) was a wealthy, 4th century Turkish saint (so the likelihood of that round white man with the white beard…yeah…pretty slim *snickers at pun*) with a reputation for secret gift giving, ie putting coins in shoes…which I wonder where that notion would have come from? I mean on the one hand, yes, previously existing traditions from others, but also, shoes are handy? and a place someone is likely to absolutely not miss a thing.

But really, THAT’S IT. He didn’t leave toys for children or build them or any such thing. What we have is just have a good ol’ case of FUSION going on wherein the Christians were super excited to have someone of their own who could take on the traits of a figure most likely already common in their time/geography. Because I’ma guess folks really didn’t want to give up this kind of fun.

It REALLY helped that St. Nic’s feast day was early December. 

The holiday took off during the Middle Ages in areas where anything pagan had better be rebranded as Christian or folks couldn’t keep it. St. Nic was handy, became Sinterklass and heck yes took a whole bunch from Odin cause you know…Odin needed a Christian face if he was going to continue spoiling kids with sweets. 

As it stands now, St. Nic is nearly lost in all but name, but man…when people start getting super passionate about their white santa I like to drag him out and wave him around.

GESTICULATES WILDLY AT ABOVE POST WHILE SHOVING COOKIE INTO MOUTH

And St. Nick became associated with the earlier Odin myth BECAUSE he shared some features compatible with the Odin myth and was a suitable Christian figure to use to cover up the older, pagan roots of the tradition!

SANTA IS EITHER A TURKISH MAN OR THE POWERFUL KING OF A PAGAN PANTHEON TAKE YOUR PICK EITHER WAY YOUR JOLLY LITTLE WHITE SANTA IS A LIE.

AND THEN THE ELVES. FUCK ME THE ELVES. 

Tied inextricably to the myths of the ‘little people,’ and of course to the powerful Sidhe and the dwarves of Norse myth, who crafted wondrous gifts for the gods in their marvelous workshops.  

The Fair Folk were well known for punishing those who crossed them, and conversely richly rewarding those who pleased them. Or, in other words, “The Naughty and Nice.” 

“Swigs eggnog, drops mic.” 

Okay so like my favorite awful Christmas movie is the Life and Adventures of Santa Claus because holy heck it takes all the pagan elements cuts them up and stitches them into this wild but somehow historically honest (not accurate, honest, there’s a difference) quilt and yes, the naughty and nice fair/forest folk just– *flails until you reassure me that you’ve seen this claymation masterpiece*

This is why our tree is basically forest, fey, and mythological creatures because honestly the magic and wonder of the season is what I love the most.

Also, I sorta hate round fat jolly santa and I think we could have largely helped me get over that as a child if he had just ridden a beautiful giant grey horse.

NOW

DO WE EVEN WANT TO GET INTO THE MESS THAT IS YULE LOGS?

OH FUCK I THOUGHT NO ONE ELSE EVEN KNEW ABOUT THAT MOVIE MY MOTHER WATCHED IT WITH US WHEN I WAS A LITTLE BUDDING FILTHY HEATHEN AND SHE WAS ALREADY A FULLY FLEDGED FILTHY HEATHEN.

My tree is all vintage glass ornaments that I’ve gotten from thrift shops because I love the sheer beauty of them and because I feel like my pagan ancestors would have also loved them. 

And OH FUCK YULE LOGS, traditionally cut from an oak tree, which has such deep rich symbolism in old pagan mythology that it’s worthy of a whole essay on its own, decorated with evergreen and holly for rebirth and immortality, and burned on the solstice to celebrate the return of light and warmth.

There’s an old, old rhyme for this; 

May the log burn, May the wheel turn, May evil spurn, May the Sun return.

And then of course the ashes were used as powerful protection and fertility charms. 

CHRISTIANITY CONTENT; 0.000000%. 

“Offers spiced mead and gingerbread.” 

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this and…

HOLY CRAP, OTHER PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT THAT MOVIE?! IT’S MY FAV FUCKING XMAS MOVIE AND WHEN I SHOW IT TO PEOPLE THEY’RE LIKE…WTF DID I JUST WATCH?!

Now….can I get on this spiced mead and cookies business?!

YEEAAAAAHHHHHH I love this whole thread! 

In my country, in the little town my grandparents used to live, people still burn a decorated log at Solstice and masked men in furs dangle big cows’ bells to scare the darkness away. I live in Romania.

So can I make tshirts that says

CHRISTMAS IS A LIE - HAPPY YULE!! with all the “traditional Christmas” symbols like reindeer and evergreens and such because thats all Pagan symbolism anyway??

I wanna make this shirt. I live in the bible belt. I need it.

I get so mad when YET ANOTHER PERSON says that atheists shouldn’t celebrate Christmas. Like, no? First of all, all the pagan symbolism Christianity tried to convert to another meaning because “uwu, pagan is bad, pagan means barbarian, here take Christianity for your country to even mean something in 10th century”, second of all, excuse me? Okay, so you will exclude me from spending good time with my family at the table, eating some food I actually get to eat once or twice a year, giving them presents and watching how happy they are because my parents deserve so much to sometimes get and not only give?

The most important thing in Christmas is family and being kind to each other and having a good time and that’s the thing they WANT TO TEACH US (sometimes) but instead of focusing on that, church focuses on a guy who we only know because of a book written by ANOTHER HUMAN that is said to not be read literally but like a metaphor. See the problem? You can add ANY MEANING to the metaphor and if there isn’t an author to correct you (hell, even if there were, people could not listen), you can do whatever you want with it.

LOOK HOW GOOD THE LATEST ISSUE OF TEEN VOGUE IS

ADS FEATURING SAME-SEX COUPLES

TALKING ABOUT THE STIGMA SURROUNDING FEMALE SEXUALITY

ACTUAL BODY POSITIVITY

DISCUSSING SEXUAL FLUIDITY

SEX ED THAT’S NOT JUST ABOUT STRAIGHT COUPLES

TALKING ABOUT CONSENT

TEACHING ABOUT DEBATE AND HOW TO STAND UP AGAINST HATE SPEECH

TROYE SIVAN AND HARI NEF TALKING ABOUT THE SOCIETAL PRESSURES OF COMING OUT

GIRL GROUPS THAT TACKLES RACE AND BEING QUEER

AN ARTICLE ABOUT MEN WEARING MAKEUP

thank god for teen vogue, these are the things teens really need to be learning about.

it’s nearly 2019 and i’m still reading posts that say james changed for lily so here is a friendly reminder: lily called james out on his immature and gross behavior and so james took a step back and grew tf up, because he realized what he was doing was wrong, not because it was the only way he could go out with lily