Intersectional Or Bust

Your comfort should not mean more to you than our lives.

[zevveli]

I still think that my favorite urban legend/folklore fact is that there are certain areas in New Orleans where you cannot get a taxi late at night not because it isn’t safe, but because taxi companies have had recurring problems of picking up ghosts in those areas who are not aware that they are dead and disappearing from the cab before reaching the destination and therefore stiffing the driver on the fare causing a loss for the company.

[elsajeni]

An occupational hazard of cab driving I had not previously considered

[princessnijireiki]

I love that the nola problem here is not “ghosts in my taxi cab,” but “ghosts are FUCKING BROKE DEAD BASTARDS & I GOT BILLS”

[siderealsandman]

Horror is when ghosts get into cabs and scare drivers Magical realism is when cab companies have to develop policies to prevent ghastly fare-theft

[samcahntent]

Can’t call it Jackass unfortunately

[liesonthefloordramatically]

Hot take: people who argue that saying “mood,” “same,” “F,” “oh worm?” etc. add nothing to a conversation don’t realize that they function the same way as aizuchi, i.e. signalling that you’re still paying attention to what the speaker is saying, which is harder to do when you can’t see the other person.  In this essay, I will

[corrugatorsupersilly]

No go on, I’m listening

[thessalian]

Hell, they don’t, I will. In this essay I will discuss how the textual and meme-based forms of aizuchi are not only a sign of our changing methods of communication with the advent of technology, but a particular advantage to those who have problems deriving shades of meaning from vocal tone or facial expression, and arguments made against textual and meme-based forms of aizuchi are speaking from a platform of ableism.

Technology has made a lot of changes in the way we communicate. When it’s face-to-face, we can get away with nods, that little ‘yeah, good point’ purse of the lips, raised eyebrows, that face-scrunch that just says ‘doubt’ … facial expressions, in short; really complex ones, often with an aural component. We read more from those than we realise, but at their base level, they show that we’re not only hearing the noises and nodding in the right places, but listening.

Enter the telephone. Suddenly a speaker can’t see where their conversational companion’s eyes are pointing, what they’re doing with their hands, what their posture’s like, or even if there’s someone on the other end of this bit of plastic they’re talking into. I imagine that aural aizuchi became common to the point of being considered a conversational necessity with the telephone, because when telecommunications technology was in its infancy, back in the days of party lines, it was shaky and unreliable (think Comcast) and there was every chance that your call could be disconnected without realising it. So interjecting with aural cues helped when it came to building trust in the communications medium that was the telephone.

When the internet turned up, it took away even the aural component, and the problem that arose with the telephone repeated itself on a grander scale. Not only could someone not necessarily be sure that someone was paying attention (yes, they might be online, but are they looking at the chat box or did they alt-tab out?), but any exchange was stripped of emotional content. The conversational cue words used to denote attention being paid can come across as sarcastic, dismissive or overly abrupt when stripped down to words on a screen, without the nuance lent to it by vocal tone and facial expression.

The solution? Create a whole new dialect, combining pictures and text to capitalise on a shared cultural foundation. If you’ve ever seen the ST:TNG episode “Darmok”, it’s a bit like that. There are a lot of different cultural cue points (thus “There’s a horse loose in a hospital!” instead of “Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra”), and we abbreviate a lot, but in principle, it’s the same. We communicate in metaphor, allowing our shared cultural background carry the emotional nuance that’s lacking in text alone.

What seldom gets brought up is how this has helped those who have issues parsing facial expressions. For some people, parsing all but the most basic facial expressions is a hit-and-miss exercise requiring a lot of work, and vocal tone hits them the same way. When we started communicating online in what I can only call a memetic dialect, we started conveying concrete, text-proven emotional context in our conversations. This must have been a relief for anyone who has difficulties reading facial expressions and vocal tones, since people can lie about what’s going on behind their face but an established cultural foundation at least pins down what their conversational partner or partners meant to convey. Also consider: when this memetic dialect came into use in face-to-face conversation, it gave a solid emotional context to certain words that can be referenced outside of the forum-and-text-chat medium. In short - words and phrases mean things and, once that meaning has been established, it carries over into whatever mode of conversation is in use.

The fact that we as a culture created a memetic dialect to effectively communicate emotional context via a medium entirely stripped of the standard emotional cues is incredible, and I honestly believe that anyone who takes issue with “same” or “mood” used in text conversation (or even verbally, since the thing about memetic anything is that it spreads; that’s the point of a meme) should probably be obliged to analyse their own speech for useless words. At least that might help make the point that everyone uses filler words or aizuchi, but modern forms of it actually make sense not only in terms of adapting to suit a medium, but also adapting to be equitable to those who may have issues with emotional context in other sources.

[the-aro-ace-arrow-ace]

i love your comment, i really do.. but  memetic dialect. 

[madmaudlingoes]

For more information, look up “backchannel” or “phatic expressions.”

[amiontherightplanet]

Ahahahahahaha

[bellaxiao]

[falconpunchyourmom]

Parallel Earth.

[thefingerfuckingfemalefury]

AMAZING

[thaebae]

I LOVE

[honey-pot-hobbies]

As a white person I feel obligated to reblog this because we need to see this sort of shit more especially in tv shows and stuff like that, will help the future children be less dickish

[sweetsweetemo]

These pictures speak so loud

[sunflower-cane]

Yall remember when i was called ableist for saying "hewwo uwu i have a cwonic iwwness" and they wanted me to do a voice clip to make sure i had a speech problem, otherwise theyll chalk it up to be making fun of people all because i used a popular meme?

I think about that alot.

[sunflower-cane]

Its not as iconic as gunsandcuffs calling me a typical liberal female and saying incel is a slur and then proceeding to comment and start fights on every post i amde for the next month

[defectivegembrain]

Health isn’t beauty. You can be both unhealthy and beautiful.

Health isn’t morality. You can be unhealthy, even if it’s related to your own actions, and you can still be a good person.

Health isn’t worth. I can promise you that if you’re unhealthy, you’re still an important person.

[heathens-and-kings]

“I want to speak to a manager,” the middle-aged woman said in her stern I-used-to-be-a-soccer-mom-ten-years-ago voice, looking down at me over the top of her Gucci reading glasses.

A wicked grin split across my face and the gates of Hell opened up behind me, releasing a gust of hot wind that whipped my apron around my body and forced the woman to shield her face. Demons came forth, dancing around in flames with songs of, “She wants to speak to a manager. Did you hear that? She wants to speak to a manager!” before erupting into earsplitting shrieks of laughter, none louder than my own cackling.

I took in the woman’s look of utter horror before my eyes rolled back into my head and I growled,

“I am the manager.”

[owawaaa]

a thing for one of my favorite posts on this site

[alwaysbewoke]

always reblog. no matter where i see it, i reblog it!

[zanabism-deactivated20200529]

stuck up white woman who hates being around people especially people of colour: I should be…a nurse…some kind of…caretaker…a high-empathy based role of sorts…

[killer-snail-deactivated2019112]

Stuck up white man who believes no one is ever right but him: I should be…a doctor…a police man, perhaps..some kind of job where I must listen without bias to solve the problem ..

[waterfall-social]

Re-introducing Waterfall.social!

Six months ago, we launched our site. It was small, a few bugs here and there, but people liked it. Some of them stuck around, giving feedback and encouragement, and six months on, we’re proud to show it to you once more!

Developed solo over the course of six months, Waterfall is built from the ground up to provide a familiar, functional experience, focusing on creators and community, taking all the good bits from Tumblr and making them worth using, quickly becoming the fastest growing alternative over the last six months!

Waterfall is easy to use if you just want to blog and share neat stuff. If you’re an artist, Waterfall features a constantly evolving system to ensure that you’ll be credited for your work. If you upload art, and someone tries to upload it later? It’s automatically converted into a reblog of your original post. Someone steals it anyway, or you see something that breaks the rules? Don’t worry - all reports are manually reviewed, with an average response time so far of less than six hours from report to the content or blog being removed.

Perhaps most importantly, there’s no company behind Waterfall - it’s fully independent, with no shareholders to please. Just one guy and a couple volunteers keeping an eye on the content. This means no ads all over the place, and no decisions made to sell anything to you. Every single core feature of Waterfall is free, and will be forever, and we’ll never monetise your stuff.

The site is still in development, but we already have a ton of the most important features you could want!

Reblogs!

Sideblogs! Want to keep content seperate? Each has their own follows and likes list. You can also send asks from them instead of your main blog!

Have a blog dedicated to a certain focus as your main that you’ve gotten bored with? It’s easy to switch your main blog to another.

Works on mobile! The browser version has very few issues on mobile, and a dedicated app is under development.

Dashboard skins! Don’t like our colour scheme? Pick a different one. More are on the way, and you’ll soon be able to create your own.

Prevent personal posts from being reblogged just by adding a simple tag (#dnr or #do not reblog)!

Blocking! The system is constantly iterated on as workarounds are found.

Worried the staff aren’t active and don’t know what’s going on? Let’s put that to rest.

A community Discord! Find blogs, report bugs, and get help directly from the staff.

Manual report reviews! Your salad won’t be flagged for nudity.

Active staff and development team! Reports are usually reviewed and acted on in less than 6 hours, and bugs are fixed within an average of 36 hours from report to resolution. Patch notes are transparent on what’s fixed, and the kind of reports we get are published every quarter (the latest one is here!)

And lastly…

Free and no wait list!

That’s not all! The site is still in heavy development, with the following slated to be added within the next two months:

Commission marketplace! Currently being tested amongst a handful of volunteer artists, you’ll be able to use us to find customers and, optionally, protection against scammers.

Frequent Images! Have a sprite or meme you use a lot? No need to keep reuploading it, the post editor will keep it handy for you.

Comments and drafts!

Queue overhaul! Don’t just post once per hour, control it down to the minute.

Pools! Follow an entire topic instead of just a blog.

Blog Themes! Select users are trying out the beta now.

Polls! No need to link to strawpoll anymore, it’ll be built in to the site.

Like the site? A Tumblr importer will be available in a matter of days.

Interested in trying Waterfall? Our Terms of Service are here, our Privacy Policy here, and Community Guidelines here.

Feel free to check us out!

[transclementines-moved]

I got these! My main on there is also @lettuceforchristmas

[riggedforsuccess]

they specifically prohibit nazism, hate speech, child pornography, and pro ana stuff (as well as taking some very clever steps to prevent art theft and reposting), so im definitely getting an account

[amiontherightplanet]

[champagnemoon]

Reading this just made me mad as hell lmao

[exih]

rich people are unironically like “poor people can save money easily bc a box of oatmeal and a box of a crackers is only $3 and that can last you a week” like they genuinely want poor people to live like peasants

[themanicnami]

Nothing like spending time with the family and 4 days solid of fat jokes and slut jokes because i have triple Ds

[hag-lad]

Periodic reminder that I hate terfs, and I’ll never care what excuses they make for their transphobia!

Trans women are integral to the lesbian community, and always have been! And they always will be! ✨

[memesnotwelcome]

This is something that I don’t even think outside pressure from national businesses/organizations will be able to pressure them on. If the damage to interstate commerce doesn’t get them to back away from this profound intrusion into the lives of women, then reasonable states need to band together and start offering travel incentives.

For the people that don’t have the means to leave: tax write offs for moving expenses, 1st year employment tax packages for new hires that moved from Alabama, tax credits for people that have advanced degrees from Alabama Universities. The only thing conservatives care about more than God and fetuses are their fucking wallets.

[noping-out-deactivated20241117]

Gee do you think maybe there would be more experienced disabled actors if you hired more disabled actors so they could gain experience.