“well. plays the cards i’m given” has profoundly changed something in me. litany against wallowing in an unsatisfactory situation

jpgs that radically altered my worldview

Climate change is real and happening faster than scientists thought.

Sometimes I think we ought to start calling it “climate chaos” to get the urgency across.

Based

“Authors should not be ALLOWED to write about–” you are an anti-intellectual and functionally a conservative

“This book should be taken off of shelves for featuring–” you are an anti-intellectual and functionally a conservative

“Schools shouldn’t teach this book in class because–” you are an anti-intellectual and functionally a conservative

“Nobody actually likes or wants to read classics because they’re–” you are an anti-intellectual and an idiot

“I only read YA fantasy books because every classic novel or work of literary fiction is problematic and features–” you are an anti-intellectual and you are robbing yourself of the full richness of the human experience.

"you are functionally a conservative" is such a good and clarifying insult

Literally right after I saw this post, I saw another post in a discord chat for BOOK EDITORS in which an outspokenly liberal editor talked about how Nabokov should have never been published because he wrote about p*dophiles and described women's bodies in ways that made her uncomfortable. She described his writing as "objectively terrible" and said she wanted to burn his books. And other editors were bringing up classics they didn't like and talking about how they wanted to throw them in the trash. This wasn't like a light "unpopular opinion!" conversation. This was actual book editors talking about how books should be destroyed and censored.

There is something so scary and toxic in global culture right now. The revival of fascism is influencing everyone's mindset and approach to art, regardless of where they fall on the political spectrum.

I see far more books being censored today than when I was a kid. Librarians handed me The Catcher in the Rye, The Sexual Politics of Meat, and Animal Farm when I was literally 8-11. My mom would never have taken a book away from me. I read everything from the Tao Te Ching to the Qur'an to atheist texts under my desk at school. Teachers thought nothing of it or encouraged it. Books seemed universally acknowledged as sacrosanct to me.

Now I can't find any adults who don't hesitate or want to make exceptions when it comes to censorship. Even the most liberal social activist librarians I know go, "well except for book X..."

Functionally conservative. It's so important to have the language to express that.

Thank you for this addition!

And, following up on the previous post …

“This makes me uncomfortable” is NOT a valid reason for censorship

These fucking book editors should remove themselves from the profession ASAP 😡

The only reason a book should be removed, the ONLY reason, is “we are keeping it in the restricted section for research because its only intended function is to cause harm.”

And to be clear, when I say this, I’m talking about shit like To Train Up A Child and The Protocols of Zion. One is a text responsible for the deaths of multiple children because it’s an abuse how-to, and the other is entirely fabricated “protocols” from a group that never actually existed but is claimed to represent all Jews, and it’s basically one long antisemitic screed.

And even these should be available. Just. Not where they’re gonna be used to start a white supremacist cult.

Every time someone says "ingredients" I say "ingredience" in response and then I realize I just sound like I repeated them because it sounds the fucking same out loud

me when i say inch resting

the thing is that they're so fascinated by sex, they love sex, they can't imagine a world without sex - they need sex to sell things, they need sex to be part of their personality, they need sex to prove their power - but they hate sex. they are disgusted by it.

sex is the only thing that holds their attention, and it is also the thing that can never be discussed directly.

you can't tell a child the normal names for parts of their body, that's sexual in nature, because the body isn't a body, it's a vessel of sex. it doesn't matter that it's been proven in studies (over and over) that kids need to know the names of their genitals; that they internalize sexual shame at a very young age and know it's 'dirty' to have a body; that it overwhelmingly protects children for them to have the correct words to communicate with. what matters is that they're sexual organs. what matters is that it freaks them out to think about kids having body parts - which only exist in the context of sex.

it's gross to talk about a period or how to check for cancer in a testicle or breast. that is nasty, illicit. there will be no pain meds for harsh medical procedures, just because they feature a cervix.

but they will put out an ad of you scantily-clad. you will sell their cars for them, because you have abs, a body. you will drip sex. you will ooze it, like a goo. like you were put on this planet to secrete wealth into their open palms.

they will hit you with that same palm. it will be disgusting that you like leather or leashes, but they will put their movie characters in leather and latex. it will be wrong of you to want sexual freedom, but they will mark their success in the number of people they bed.

they will crow that it's inappropriate for children so there will be no lessons on how to properly apply a condom, even to teens. it's teaching them the wrong things. no lessons on the diversity of sexual organ growth, none on how to obtain consent properly, none on how to recognize when you feel unsafe in your body. if you are a teenager, you have probably already been sexualized at some point in your life. you will have seen someone also-your-age who is splashed across a tv screen or a magazine or married to someone three times your age. you will watch people pull their hair into pigtails so they look like you. so that they can be sexy because of youth. one of the most common pornography searches involves newly-18 young women. girls. the words "barely legal," a hiss of glass sand over your skin.

barely legal. there are bills in place that will not allow people to feel safe in their own bodies. there are people working so hard to punish any person for having sex in a way that isn't god-fearing and submissive. heteronormative. the sex has to be at their feet, on your knees, your eyes wet. when was the first time you saw another person crying in pornography and thought - okay but for real. she looks super unhappy. later, when you are unhappy, you will close your eyes and ignore the feeling and act the role you have been taught to keep playing. they will punish the sex workers, remove the places they can practice their trade safely. they will then make casual jokes about how they sexually harass their nanny.

and they love sex but they hate that you're having sex. you need to have their ornamental, perfunctory, dispassionate sex. so you can't kiss your girlfriend in the bible belt because it is gross to have sex with someone of the same gender. so you can't get your tubes tied in new england because you might change your mind. so you can't admit you were sexually assaulted because real men don't get hurt, you should be grateful. you cannot handle your own body, you cannot handle the risks involved, let other people decide that for you. you aren't ready yet.

but they need you to have sex because you need to have kids. at 15, you are old enough to parent. you are not old enough to hear the word fuck too many times on television.

they are horrified by sex and they never stop talking about it, thinking about it, making everything unnecessarily preverted. the saying - a thief thinks everyone steals. they stand up at their podiums and they look out at the crowd and they sign a bill into place that makes sexwork even more unsafe and they stand up and smile and sign a bill that makes gender-affirming care illegal and they get up and they shrug their shoulders and write don't say gay and they get up, and they make the world about sex, but this horrible, plastic vision of it that they have. this wretched, emotionless thing that holds so much weight it's staggering. they put their whole spine behind it and they push and they say it's normal!

this horrible world they live in. disgusted and also obsessed.

You write all this and don't even say the fucking word woman and then in the tags you say "We support sex workers" You're just as fucking bad as everyone else.

oh, i see you and a few people like you are struggling with this content. no worries. let's try to work through this together. If you put on your good reading eyes and big thinking cap, try to go back over the post and see if i do or do not use the word "woman" or "women." (HINT: I might also use man). then use these Key Reading Notes to guide your interpretation: - do you think it is possible that any person can experience the results of a puritanical culture that degrades and dehumanizes normal human behavior? (THINK: Taylor Lautner was 15 when grown adults begged him to be their husband, their hands shaking, tears in their eyes. Did he have to use the word "woman" in his experience? - how can society trap sex workers in a horrible loop of both scrutinizing their experience while also demanding excellent performance? how is a video of someone in ropes only okay if it is selling perfume or a car? why are artists on this site blocked by the porn ban, but none of the bots are? what conditions are we creating for victims to come forward? how are we preventing abuse in the industry that is obviously making a few specific people a lot of money? (KEY NOTE: is it only women in porn? is there a reason that when you picture pornography, you assume only women must be present? it's a visible connection to your misogyny: there is often also a man in the scene. that man is also a sex worker. why might it be that you were picturing the woman on her knees?) - who are you fighting here? (NOTE: with your hands up, flinching, you try to devour the world because the anger in your heart burns louder than the kindness. this will annihilate you. you sit and you scream and it makes no difference. you throw your hands against the wall and it changes nothing. where is the word woman? here, right here, here you go: woman. woman. woman. was it worth it? does it help? does it save any one person? elicit any real response? make that wretched white heart of yours burn a little lower?

- when was the last time you actually reached out and helped a stranger? the last time you actually invested effort in your community? the last time you looked someone in the eyes and said - oh shit. we are both people. and we both deserve our humanity.

She's doing her best.

You don’t have to love your body

I really needed to read this today. Thank you.

Potato girl has her life goals in order.

This is a game changer. 

Contrary to popular belief, there are three states a cat in a box might be: Alive, Dead, or Bloody Furious.

- Lords and Ladies, by Terry Pratchett.

Reminder that associating hair length with gender is not a culturally universal concept and that many indigenous folks in North America don’t cut their hair for cultural reasons that have nothing to do with gender.

Reminder that a native guy should be allowed to wear his hair in long braids without people calling it gender nonconformity or saying he’s breaking gender norms, because hair length has nothing to do with his gender norms.

Reminder that a queer native woman should be allowed to wear her hair long without being automatically read as femme presenting, that she can be butch with long hair, because long hair is not associated with femininity in her culture.

Reminder that many native folks cut their hair for solemn reasons, usually mourning, and remarking on it as a reflection of personal style or gender presentation can be deeply disrespectful. No, she didn’t just get a fierce butch haircut - she cut her hair because someone died. No, he didn’t cave to a gender conforming haircut - he cut his hair because someone died.

Reminder that this is not universally practiced by native folks and, like all cultural practices, some people are more strict in their adherence than others.

The aliens are gonna be so confused when humans first board their ships and start doing this, and by GOD I hope at least one of them is going to have a camera when it happens.

See this is why Twitter is superior for up to date news because Tumblr doesn't have threads like this from artists about a huge corporation like Marvel Studios dropping AI generated title sequences to new show Secret Invasion:

Yes you should read the whole thread.

Some great extra points by fans here:

The director of the Marvel Studios show doesn't even understand that AI steals other artist's original work???

Another great thread here comparing title sequences through history of cinema:

Go read from more artists on Twitter about this topic. Please.

For anyone about to say, mcu used ai because it's like skrulls, NO because skrulls aren't art thieves.

what a shame doctors don’t prescribe vacation to secluded seaside towns like they used to

I'm sorry, I don't want to come across as harsh, but this is honestly ignorant as fuck.

I'm not gonna claim to know everything about the importance of studying dead languages, but I think I can safely say that it would probably be a really bad thing if we lost these languages to time if we didn't have people studying them.

We can lose hundreds if not THOUSANDS of years of story-telling history if these languages end up forgotten.

I can't put it into clear words right now because I'm busy or go int depth because I only have a common sense understanding, but I just wanted to address this. So if anybody on Tumblr who's more qualified to speak on this kind of matter wants to explain, then please take the floor for me.

And last but not the least:

Things do not have to be "useful" to have value.