Many lgbt teenagers and young adults growing up on the internet today have socially conservative beliefs that they voice at all times that they got from their conservative parents which they’ve never challenged because they think the life experience of being gay or trans makes them politically progressive

This is why I hate it when people say something homophobic and then go “so you’re really accusing me, a whole ass lesbian, of being homophobic 🙄” like yeah

There's a model of culture that I like to cite for this idea, called the Iceberg Model:

The LGBT youth (and young atheists, too) will cut off the stuff "above the water" but not really examine the stuff down below that line that they have as part of their upbringing.

So you get young LGBT people making comments like OP cited, or young atheists acting with an Evangelical persecution complex, and going, "Don't call me Culturally Christian!"

This is the sort of thing I keep talking about when I’m saying identity is not the same as ideology.

Who you identify as (who you are) says absolutely nothing about what you believe (your ideology). 

Same goes for any subcategory.

“I can’t be racist, I’m black.” If you're making “ching-chong” jokes about Asian people, you’re still racist.

“I’m can’t be misogynistic, I’m a trans woman.” If you’re slut-shaming sex workers, you’re misogynistic.

“I can’t be queerphobic, I’m non-binary.” If you’re saying bi/pan/trans people can’t bring their hetero partner to Pride, gueeeess what.

Punching down within your own culture is still punching down.

Also people disagreeing with you doesn’t mean they’re any kind of -phobic if the argument has nothing to do with your identity. You’d think this is obvious but some insecure/unhealed people really do use that attack against others as soon as they encounter any disagreement or conflict. And the tone of discourse these days encourages people to believe those accusations without questioning.

"bUt i tHiNk mAKeUp is fUn" that's nice. i would like to be allowed to exist without it without being socioeconomically punished for that choice but what's important to focus on here is that you're just having the funnest time ever

This doesn’t happen unless you’re so ugly that you need makeup to look normal (in which case this post is a bit of a self-own)

cool misogyny! i forgot that being beautiful is the only moral way for a woman to exist. what an Epic Own on behalf of a multibillion dollar industry!!!!

Otakar Mrkvička - Full Moon over Prague Castle (ca. 1930s-1940s)

Be sure to check out an article by Human Rights Watch to learn how in Iran the fight for women’s rights has evolved over the years 👇.

Experimental archaeology is so cool.

This is the transhumanist horror story I want to read

How to wear a knife strapped to your thigh with a garter like a fucking lady while managing not to slice yourself open because you were fool enough to carry an unsheathed weapon next to a squishy part of your body that moves when you walk.

Vital Information for your Everyday Life.

Excellent for the villain(ess) who’s prepared for everything.

I’ll also take a second to plug Aquatic Knives. Not only are they designed for quick ease of use, lightweight and waterproof, but they also usually come with rubber adjustable double-thigh-or-mid-calf sheath straps. I have one like this:

And the button on the top of the sheath means that it can be pulled out for quick use by pressing down on it, but it will stay rigidly in place otherwise. Aquatic knives are also a great knife to own because they’re almost always designed for wet conditions, which means that even if you have sweaty palms you’ll be sure to have excellent grip.

SUNRISE, BERKELEY PARK, GRAND PARK

JULY 3, 2023

If you are having trouble catching that mouse, then perhaps it is not meant to be. Perhaps try something else? Maybe a cockroach, or a lizard. Mice do not taste that good, regardless. I recommend abandoning pursuit of mice altogether. Meow.

Seein' too many Twitter refugees asking if they'll get in trouble for saying "kill yourself" to people and while no, you're not gonna get nuked from orbit, that is maybe something you just shouldn't be doing in general perhaps?? Maybe telling people to kill themselves is bad actually?? Some of y'all are wild, why is the first thing you can think to ask on a new platform if you can send one of the worst kinds of harassment to people?? Grow tf up and learn how to use the block button. It'll do wonders for your mood, trust me.

"It's a joke!"

dashboard is like a pond sometimes

lots of silly gooses

Hang on, you guys.  I’ve got a crazy idea.

This is the most horrible thing I’ve seen all week and at the same time I can’t stop laughing.

One of my favorite hobbies is thinking about the fucked up implications of this fantasy world map my parents got me for christmas

[Image ID: photo of a map. On the left side of the map is Middle Earth, with the Shire and Mordor labeled. To the direct right of Mordor is Whoville.]

I FOUND THE FULL ONE AND ITS SO MUCH MORE CHAOTIC.

HYRULE SHOOK ME TO MY CORE!

THIS WORD HAS TWO KINGDOMS RULES BY A BEING IN A TOWER!

The existence of Oz and Neverland is wild too. Does this mean that there is a REAL Earth outside of this? Could Wendy hang out in Westeros?

In the next LOZ, link has to fight a huge steam breathing, fast moving blue snake called Thomaz

The map of Wait Whut World.

Horse archery and heavy cavalry

While many tend to associate heavily armoured cavalry with tactics similar to Europe in that they are solely lancers, meant to charge into enemy formations and break them, in most of the world heavy cavalry didn't tend to serve solely this role. In essentially all of Asia heavy cavalry tended to be equipped with bows and served the same role as more lightly armoured horse archers while also being able to double as shock cavalry when the situation called for it due to their heavier equipment. These tactics were also adopted in North Africa, due to direct influence from the Turkic slave soldiers in use by the Islamic caliphates.

Of course many people do tend to associate horse archery with lighter cavalry and this is understandable as most horse archers did tend to be more lightly equipped in the steppe armies. But this isn't because they're horse archers, but rather the opposite. Because it was the default for cavalry to be archers, and when one is lightly armoured the best role to serve would be that of a horse archer. However by no means does horse archery require lightly armoured troops.

One specific way of utilizing heavy cavalry, popular all across central and west Asia though by no means limited to it, would be to equip heavy cavalry with lances in addition to their bows. The most famous users of this tactic would probably be the Mongols which made very liberal and effective use of their heavy cavalry in this manner. The cavalry would serve the regular horse archer role at first - harrassing the enemy at range - but when the situation called for it they'd swap to their lances and charge into the weary enemy ranks. If the enemy didn't break immediately (which they often did) they'd pull back, regroup and charge again.

This might then raise the question in some of you which is - how does one carry both a bow and a lance at the same time? Luckily for us, we have got sources for this. Below is a depiction from an early 14th century Ilkhanate manuscript, depicting the lance tied around the foot and arm to leave the hands free for bow- or indeed in this case sword - usage.

Another source for how to hold a lance while using a bow on horseback can be found in the Silahşorname by the late 15th century Ottoman author, Firdevsî-i Rûmî. The translation below was done by a friend of mine: "The second way is that if you wish to shoot arrows while on top of a running horse, whether it be in battle against an enemy or other places or in hunting, then it’s necessary to secure the lance between the strap of the right stirrup and the horse’s chest while making the horse run. That is to say, put the lance between the strap of the right stirrup and the horse’s chest and tuck its blade high up. As in tuck the lance into your right elbow and have the blade of the lance behind you so that it stays secure. And after that, your horse can run and you can make your shot. Shooting arrows in this way is the legacy of Behram-i Gur, who was the sultan of Persia, he was a hunter and an archer."

The attribution of this technique to the 5th century Behram-i Gur is definitely a fabrication by the author of the book, no doubt to mythicise the usage of the weaponry in this manner. regardless, the technique mentioned is pretty interesting. While there's scores more to say about this topic I think leaving it here for this time is good enough. I will however leave you with a video series below which is an extremely well researched overview on heavy cavalry in the Mongol armies, and definitely a must watch if you have any interest in this topic.

i made a little jacket ❤️

its surreal to me that there are grownups who fr believe abortion is murder. grow the fuck up

Thinking about when I worked at a shitty restaurant + one night it was just me + 3 other women on closing shift, so some guy came in the back and waved a knife around, presumably for money but I’m not actually certain, bc he was met with the bartender holding a much bigger knife, a tiny teenager wielding a cast iron pan, an elderly woman holding up a crockpot of clearly boiling water, and me, turning on the meat slicer with eye contact for maximum effect. He left, but the moral of the story is not girl power or whatever, it’s just. Why the fuck would you threaten a room full of underpaid and sleep-deprived blue-collar workers surrounded by lethal weapons.

Even ignoring the quantity of workers or weaponry, I think there’s something special about specifically

not the

not the shar

not the sharpest kn

Disgruntled Confederates founded the Klan. Some of them may or may not have voted Southern Dem but it was not started by the Dem Party. Further everyone who was awake in history class knows the parties switched platforms in the 1960’s during the Civil Rights movement when the Democrats expelled the racist southern “Dixiecrats.” The latter were quickly recruited by the RepubliKKKans as part of their infamous “southern strategy” to win over the Confederacy and it’s legions of poor, angry, white trash.

This fallacy about Dems and the Klan is a major propaganda point of the RepubliKKKan party. It is regurgitated by every Republikkkan politician, political pundit, and especially the handful of African-American useful idiots who have joined the GOP to join in their orgy of stealing every dime possible from voters and the government itself.

A mother is burying her 14-year-old twin daughters, Anna and Yuliia, who were killed in a recent Russia’s terrorist attack on Kramatorsk.

Girls were visiting their mother, a surgeon at the Kramatorsk hospital. Before returning to their village of Dobropillia, they decided to go for a pizza. The twins were killed by a Russian missile attack on the cafe in the Kramatorsk city centre.

Russia inflicts unspeakable pain on Ukrainians by murdering our people every day. Russia must be brought to justice for its atrocities.

Photos: Jan Grarup