Trans pride flag color-picked from Blue and Magenta!
One of the most frustrating things about the right to repair movement is that a lot of its proponents will not only insist that advocating for accessible design is a meaningless distraction from the “real” fight, but straight up argue against accessible design as a concept.
Like, bro, you think Apple uses six imperceptibly different sizes of screws to hold an iPad together for fun and games? You think Microsoft hides critical settings under four layers of submenus that change every time there’s a major update because they’re having a laugh? Inaccessible design is one of the cornerstones of corporate strategies to obstruct the right to repair.
I just can’t fathom the level of cognitive dissonance that lets a person champion the ability to modify and repair your own hardware and software as a basic human right, then turn around and tell anybody who suggests that maybe we should make it easier for non-experts to actually exercise that right to git gud.
(I often suspect the real problem is that the right to repair movement has substantial overlap with the open source movement, and the open source movement is full of gatekeeping dipshits who think you ought to need a fucking diploma to be allowed to own a computer.)
Also, it has to be stated: If your videogame with an extremely iconic or otherwise popular franchise manages to sell more than 3 million copies yet still fails to post a profit or meet “financial expectations”, then that means something incredibly fucked up has happened in terms of management, production and/or budgeting.
If that happens several times, maybe you should start looking at what people you have in charge of management, starting with your board of directors.
stop making excuses for playing hogwarts legacy.
“the people who worked on the game need to be supported tho 🥺”
the people who worked on the game already got their cut and went home. your money is just going towards jkr and the corporation
“but harry potter was my childhood 🥺”
same. but this isn’t revisiting old media. this is an entirely new product. and you’re allowed to grow out of things and move on when the dead horse gets beaten and your media literacy skills improve.
“but i pirated it 🥺”
playing the game cannot be moralized through piracy because giving money to jk rowling is not the only issue here. the game is violently antisemitic. playing it cannot be evened out through piracy, charity donations, etc. the world doesn’t work like that.
“can’t you just let me have fun? 🥺”
if playing a game made by a racist, transphobic, antisemitic, fatphobic bigot (and a team including at least one alt-right influencer) where the entire plot is to defeat the jews goblins because of white wizard supremacy is fun to you then i think you might need to seriously consider why.
if you are playing hogwarts legacy and/or supporting it online you are choosing to value a video game over the lives of jewish and trans people. you are allying yourself against jewish and trans people. if people hate you for choosing a video game over human lives you have no grounds to be upset.
sometimes doing good things and being an ally is difficult. sometimes it means not doing something that you wanted to do. it’s sucks but that’s life. get over it and shut up.
one of the things that i think we should pay attention to, socially, about the disney v. desantis thing is that it is really highlighting the importance of remembering nuance.
in a purely neutral sense, if you engage in something problematic, that does not mean you are necessarily agreeing with what makes it problematic. and i am worried that we have become... so afraid of any form of nuance.
disney isn't my friend, they're a corporate monopoly that bastardized copyright laws for their own benefit, ruin the environment, and abuse their workers (... and many other things). this isn't a hypothetical for me - i grew up in florida. i also worked for the actual Walt Disney World; like, in the parks. i am keenly aware of the ways they hurt people, because they hurt me. i fully believe that part of the reason florida is so conservative is because it's been an "open secret" for years now that disney lobbies the government to keep minimum wage down, and i know they worked hard to keep the parks unmasked and open during the worst parts of Covid. they purposefully keep their employees in poverty. they are in part responsible for the way the floridian government works.
desantis is still, by a margin that is frankly daunting, way worse. the alternative here isn't just "republicans win", it's actual fascism.
in a case like this, where the alternative is to allow actual fascism into united states legislation - where, if desantis wins, there are huge and legal ramifications - it's tempting to minimize the harm disney is also doing, because... well, it's not fascism. but disney isn't the good guy, either, which means republicans are having a field day asking activists oh, so you think their treatment of their employees is okay?
we have been trained there is a right answer. you're right! you're in the good group, and you're winning at having an opinion.
except i have the Internet Prophecy that in 2-3 months, even left-wing people will be ripping apart activists for having "taken disney's side". aren't i an anti-capitalist? aren't i pro-union? aren't i one of the good ones? removed from context and nuance (that in this particular situation i am forced to side with disney, until an other option reveals itself), my act of being like "i hope they have goofy rip his throat out onstage, shaking his lifeless body like a dog toy" - how quickly does that seem like i actually do support disney?
and what about you! at home, reading this. are you experiencing the Thought Crime of... actually liking some of the things disney has made? your memories of days at the parks, or of good movies, or of your favorite show growing up. maybe you are also evil, if you ever enjoyed anything, ever, at all.
to some degree, the binary idealization/vilification of individual motive and meaning already exists in the desantis case. i have seen people saying not to go to the disney pride events because they're cash grabs (they are). i've seen people saying you have to go because they're a way to protest. there isn't a lot of internet understanding of nuance. instead it's just "good show of support" or "evil bootlicking."
this binary understanding is how you can become radicalized. when we fear nuance and disorder, we're allowing ourselves the safety of assuming that the world must exist in binary - good or bad, problematic or "not" problematic. and unfortunately, bigots want you to see the world in this binary ideal. they want you to get mad at me because "disney is taking a risk for our community but you won't sing their praises" and they want me to get mad at you for not respecting the legit personal trauma that disney forced me through.
in a grander scheme outside of disney: what happens is a horrific splintering within activist groups. we bicker with each other about minimal-harm minimal-impact ideologies, like which depiction of bisexuality is the most-true. we gratuitously analyze the personal lives of activists for any sign they might be "problematic". we get spooked because someone was in a dog collar at pride. we wring our hands about setting an empty shopping mall on fire. we tell each other what words we may identify ourselves by. we get fuckin steven universe disk horse when in reality it is a waste of our collective time.
the bigots want you to spend all your time focusing on how pristine and pretty you and your interests are. they want us at each other's throats instead of hand in hand. they want to say see? nothing is ever fucking good enough for these people.
and they want their followers to think in binary as well - a binary that's much easier to follow. see, in our spaces, we attack each other over "proper" behavior. but in bigoted groups? they attack outwards. they have someone they hate, and it is us. they hate you, specifically, and you are why they have problems - not the other people in their group. and that's a part of how they fucking keep winning.
some of the things that are beloved to you have a backbone in something terrible. the music industry is a wasteland. the publishing industry is a bastion of white supremacy. video games run off of unpaid labor and abuse.
the point of activism was always to bring to light that abuse and try to stop it from happening, not to condemn those who engage in the content that comes from those industries. "there is no ethical consumption under late capitalism" also applies to media. your childhood (and maybe current!) love of the little mermaid isn't something you should now flinch from, worried you'll be a "disney adult". wanting the music industry to change for the better does not require that you reject all popular music until that change occurs. you can acknowledge the harm something might cause - and celebrate the love that it has brought into your life.
we must detach an acknowledgment of nuance from a sense of shame and disgust. we must. punishing individual people for their harmless passions is not doing good work. encouraging more thoughtful, empathetic consumption does not mean people should feel ashamed of their basic human capacities and desires. it should never have even been about the individual when the corporation is so obviously the actual evil. this sense that we must live in shame and dread of our personal nuances - it just makes people bitter and hopeless. do you have any idea how scared i am to post this? to just acknowledge the idea of nuance? that i might like something nuanced, and engage in it joyfully? and, at the same time, that i'm brutally aware of the harm that they're doing?
"so what do i do?" ... well, often there isn't a right answer. i mean in this case, i hope mickey chops off ron's head and then does a little giggle. but truth be told, often our opinions on nuanced subjects will differ. you might be able to engage in things that i can't because the nuance doesn't sit right with me. i might think taylor swift is a great performer and a lot of fun, and you might be like "raquel, the jet fuel emissions". we are both correct; neither of us have any actual sway in this. and i think it's important to remember that - the actual scope of individual responsibility. like, i also love going to the parks. Thunder Mountain is so fun. you (just a person) are not responsible for the harm that Disney (the billion dollar corporation) caused me. i don't know. i think it's possible to both enjoy your memories and interrogate the current state of their employment policies.
there is no right way to interrogate or engage with nuance - i just hope you embrace it readily.
I’m sure it’s a coincidence that I never see transmasc glowup threads and that it definitely has nothing to do with the fact even the most “woke” trans allys view T as something that ruins you/makes you ugly. Surely It Doesn’t Have Anything To Do With That Right
I have seen transmasc glow-up threads...kind of. It's mostly just "after" pictures of famous trans men who are very conventionally attractive, skinny, muscular, able-bodied, mostly white, etc. Occasionally I'll see a before and after of a trans man as part of a larger thread of general trans people.
To your point, I think a lot of us don't want to put pictures of our faces and bodies on the internet because of how the internet treats people who have testosterone puberty and don't come out looking like super models (like, we just look like normal people) (or we look androgynous) (or feminine) (or odd)
Absolutely this. I don't ever participate in those in case people call my transition a "glow down" or some shit. My happiness is not quantifiable by how hot you find me.
Anonymous asked:
i pointed this out to another person talking about that asshole in the transandrophobia tag but “need strap from a boy with breathing problems” is such an obvious jab at the fact that binding improperly can cause breathing issues and harm to your ribs. because that’s totally a normal thing to make jokes about!!
ppl will literally be like “actually transphobia against trans men is funny!!! and i only care abt y’all when i’m fucking u!!!!!!” and not see how that’s wildly transphobic (and lowkey also extremely misogynistic.)
trans men only exist to y’all when you want to mock us or fuck us huh.
like idk how else to explain to y’all that 1. being trans doesn’t exempt you from transphobia or sexism, and 2. these discussions 99.999999% of the time have absolutely fuck all to do with trans women. y’all just don’t want to listen to us so you play mad libs with our words to make them say whatever you think will be most effective at demonizing us.
also effective immediately, calling trans men “mras” is a transphobic microaggression.
"please offer me a seat" disability accessibility print, now available on our redbubble shop!
With today being May 22...it's now been fifteen years since the original Blue's Clues was aired on the main Nickelodeon network.
Check out these mental health focused nonprofits, right here on Tumblr
Meet: Blue💙Sprinkles💜Magenta💗Green Puppy💚
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This content is a just-for-fun AU based off the Blue’s Clues franchise, created with love, and expanded creatively by the community surrounding it. To learn more about it, visit the F.A.Q.
