@blac-kitten - Tumblr Blog

David Attenborough’s documentaries will, at some point, be considered history documentaries rather than ‘nature’.

Another weird and frustrating phenomenon when you get sucked into an argument with conservative types (something I usually try to avoid bothering with anymore) is that there’s this very narrow set of people they’re convinced are key figures, even “leaders” on any given topic. Talk about climate change and they bring up Al Gore. Talk about women’s rights and they bring up Anita Sarkeesian.

To this day I have NO IDEA what any of those people have ever said on those topics, and in most cases, I never even heard of them outside of conservative complaints and memes. I would never know the name Anita Sarkeesian if she wasn’t one random blogger out of thousands that an obscure niche of people went positively ballistic over. I’ve never heard of anyone accepting the existence of global warming just because non-scientist Al Gore said to.

If I tell them this they never believe it. They’re completely convinced that the beliefs they hate actually revolve around some random youtubers or B-list politicians they randomly elevated into their own bugbears and the idea that the people they fight hardest against actually have barely any influence or fame outside their own subculture seems almost impossible for them to accept.

kajedheat

George Soros.

I always see people saying George Soros pays people like me to protest (I wish), or buses people to vote on battleground states, some way or another he has us under our thrall.

I don’t even know who the fuck George Soros IS

I don’t even feel bothered to Google him and find out- he’s utterly irrelevant to my life. But apparently all liberals are on his payroll somehow.

bogleech

I, too, never heard of George Soros before just recently.

They could make up absolutely any name in these arguments and it would have just as much meaning to me. “You’re only pro-vaccine because you’re shilling for Jiminy Ferpendoodle!!!”

ampersandworm

I’ve heard this referred to as the central fallacy of the authoritarian mindset: It’s not that authoritarians don’t care about facts, it’s that facts aren’t real until they are confirmed by an Authority. Of course no liberal believed in Global Warming until Al Gore said so! Why would they believe it, until Someone In Charge said it? And moreover, if you can prove That Person Isn’t Really An Authority, the facts will change! See also:

Why Creationists are obsessed with disproving Darwin - not his theory, but the man himself. As if casting doubt on Darwin-a-dude-born-in-eighteen-fucking-oh-nine-for-chrissake-’s personal beliefs will somehow completely disprove the ensuing two centuries of scientific research.

Why various idiot politicians try to legislate away Global Climate Change, as if making laws against the ocean will stop it from rising.

I’m sure you could add on ten thousand bullet points but it’s Saturday and I don’t wanna do the research when I could be cleaning my kitchen and playing Minecraft.

brainstatic

Al Gore was the only major politician talking about global warming 15 years ago, but they haven’t updated their talking points. They also point to Al Sharpton as some kind of currently relevant leader, because again, their talking points haven’t been updated in decades.

The Soros obsession is basically just anti-semitism. He’s probably the biggest Democratic mega-donor, but he’s hardly the only one. The tropes surrounding him are nakedly anti-semitic. It can barely be called a dogwhistle at this point.

antifascistatheist

republicansaretheproblem

commodifiedsouls

Now that’s what you call gross incompetence. (Link.)

asking-jude

Source

littlesoy-deactivated20190519

Mean girls but cady only becomes a plastic bc shes gay for regina n at the end she realizes janic is the one for he all along

millennial-review-deactivated20

the-anarcho-raver

Beginning in August of 1956, COINTELPRO (derived from COunter INTELligence PROgram) is a series of covert, and often illegal, projects conducted by the FBI aimed at surveilling, infiltrating, discrediting, and disrupting American political organizations.

including anti-Vietnam War organizers, activists of the Civil Rights Movement or Black Power movement (including Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Black Panther Party), feminist organizations, anti-colonial movements, as well as many groups belonging to the new left. (Many non-violent groups were targeted and portrayed as violent) Their goal was to “expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, neutralize or otherwise eliminate” the targeted groups.

According to attorney Brian Glick in his book “War at Home”, the FBI used four main methods during COINTELPRO:

- Infiltration: Agents and informers did not merely spy on political activists. Their main purpose was to discredit and disrupt. Their very presence served to undermine trust and scare off potential supporters. The FBI and police exploited this fear to smear genuine activists as agents.

- Psychological warfare: The FBI and police used myriad “dirty tricks” to undermine progressive movements. They planted false media stories and published bogus leaflets and other publications in the name of targeted groups. They forged correspondence, sent anonymous letters, and made anonymous telephone calls. They spread misinformation about meetings and events, set up pseudo movement groups run by government agents, and manipulated or strong-armed parents, employers, landlords, school officials and others to cause trouble for activists. They used bad-jacketing to create suspicion about targeted activists, sometimes with lethal consequences. (Psychological warfare in this age is also conducted through the internet, in addition)

- Harassment via the legal system: The FBI and police abused the legal system to harass dissidents and make them appear to be criminals. Officers of the law gave perjured testimony and presented fabricated evidence as a pretext for false arrests and wrongful imprisonment. They discriminatorily enforced tax laws and other government regulations and used conspicuous surveillance, “investigative” interviews, and grand jury subpoenas in an effort to intimidate activists and silence their supporters.

- Illegal force: The FBI conspired with local police departments to threaten dissidents; to conduct illegal break-ins in order to search dissident homes; and to commit vandalism, assaults, beatings and assassinations. The object was to frighten or eliminate dissidents and disrupt their movements. (In some cases, police murdered targets.)

The reason this is still relevant today is that these tactics are still in use. In addition to new tactics via the internet.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO

the-anarcho-raver

This is something every leftist needs to know about.

lets-talk-about-politics

While the NRA was silent, verdict — and the release of a police video — drew outrage and fear among black gun owners.

The NRA was silent because it doesn’t profit enough from black gun owners. It profits far more from the political force of the police, which operate as an enforcement mechanism for our white supremacist laws and norms.

When the NRA controls the conversation around the Second Amendment, when they donate mostly to Republican Congressmen to make sure they control the conversation, then they get to decide who gets more or less protection. And the police get more, while black people get less.

macrolit

Giveaway Contest: We’re giving away fifteen miniature-sized, vintage paperback classics by Fyodor Dostoevsky, Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Thomas Hardy, Edgar Allan Poe, Somerset Maugham, Emily Bronte, and others. Won’t this little collection lovely on your shelf? :D To win these classics, you must: 1) be following macrolit on Tumblr (yes, we will check. :P), and 2) reblog this post. We will choose a random winner on July 15, at which time we’ll start a new giveaway. And yes, we’ll ship to any country. Easy, right? Good luck!

afloweroutofstone

I know, I know, but this is still really funny

star-anise

The most valuable thing I learned doing a Masters degree with depression, anxiety and ADHD was to change my “things I’m bad at” list to “things I can’t do on my own.” Stop thinking of them as things I could do if I tried hard enough, and accept that I can’t accomplish them by effort and willpower alone; they’re genuine neurocognitive deficits, and if I need to do the thing, then just like a blind person reading or a mobility impaired person going up a storey in a building, I need to find a different method.

I’m “bad at” working on long-term projects without an imminent deadline or someone breathing down my neck? Okay, let’s change that: I can’t work on long-term projects without an imminent deadline and someone breathing down my neck. So let’s create an imminent deadline and recruit neck-breathers. Find a sympathetic prof who will agree that 3 weeks before the due date they expect me to show them my preliminary notes and bibliography. Get a friend I trust to block off an hour to sit with me and keep asking, “Are you working on your project?” Write a blog post about my progress. Arrange to trade papers and proofread them with another student.

Accept your limitations and learn to leverage them, instead of buying the neurotypical fairytale that they’ll go away if you just try hard enough.

fromxruin

I really like this post because its not an anti recovery post but its also not one of those posts that says “you can do anything if you just work extra hard at changing your attitude” So many times i see mentally ill people killing themselves trying to do something that is just too hard to do and then they feel guilty. Ive done this myself. I used to beat myself up over not having a job because there are plenty of disabled and mentally ill people who work. So why cant i? I kept trying to do something that was too hard for me until i accepted that no matter what there was no way i would be able to work a standard full time job and manage my BPD. But it wasnt because i was BAD at working. I just couldnt handle a full time job where i had to be very social and work under a lot of pressure. So i had to make a compromise. Im not giving up on working. Im just compromising and working at finding something that better suits me and my mental illness. Im focusing on building a career that i can handle and thats okay. Also as OP said its helpful to find people who are supportive. I have friends in my life who have made the last year much easier on me because instead of just telling me to get stuff done, they ask me if i need help doing the thing and that has been so great for me. I find even with all of my anxiety, i can do things on my own better if someone has done them with me first. Im better at going and getting my ID renewed because someone went with me the first time. I can take that subway trip through the city because i already did it a few times with a friend. Finding balance has really been the key to helping me manage my personality disorder and i think that the OP’s message is an important one for anyone who is mentally ill. You arent bad at doing something, you just might need a little help doing it or you may need to find your own way and if you still have too much trouble doing the thing maybe theres something else you can do instead.

tainbocuailnge

yknow what. it’s in the am hours. ive had at least 2 alcoholic beverages tonighit. and i have decided that once im out of tech school im gonna get a degree in ye olde literature just so i can write a groundbreaking paper about how cu chulainn (the actual myth one not the anime one) is a fucking trans icon. my guy is incredibly trans. lets just take a good look at the facts here folks

-these stories were written down by monks with an obviously christian agenda they edited the story to adhere to, in some parts more obviously so than others. considering the roman catholic hatred of trans people at the time, it would not be unreasonable to assume that if cu chulainn was in fact trans in the originals that were being written down said monks would attempt to cover that up by making him cis.

-dude changed his name which is a very trans™ thing 2 do obviously

-the whole thing with the curse and how he was the only one ready to throw the fuck down while all the other men were in bed with the pains of birth like this is such a classic example of using gendered language in magic shenanigans to ur advantage

-often described as being small & beardless “this is supposed to show he’s young” but is it really??? it’s not uncommon for masculine women to be mistaken for young men and him being both notably small and unable to grow a beard is brought up several times in text. either way it’s not like being young and being trans are mutually exclusive. really makes you think.

-alright here’s the big kicker that really says Cu Chulainn Is Trans 2 me in big shiny letters: he had to prove himself as Really Being That Tough over & over again to a frankly ridiculous degree. multiple times (at least 2 in the tain bo cuailnge that i can remember rn) there’s some enemy fuck who knows god damn well the one in front of them is cu mother fucking chulainn who has been absolutely obliterating his enemies by the hundreds but the moment they see him & notice he’s beardless (again, this is usually interpreted as meaning he’s young but that doesn’t necessarily have to be the case) they’re like “nah I’m not fighting that get me a real enemy” and cu has to put on a fake beard to convince them he really is A Big Tough Dude Who Can Kick Your Ass. another time in the tain cu used his sick sword skills to make a fool of someone who was mocking him and the fucking idiot didn’t stop even after cu literally shaved the guys head clear & cut off his clothes with a sword. there’s one story (called bricriu’s feast) of a competition where cu easily beat everyone by a wide margin in everything they compete in but none of the other contestants wanted to accept the result so they kept bringing in other judges trying to get someone other than cu to be declared winner.

there’s this really weird refusal of people in the ulster cycle to accept that cu chulainn is as good at things as he is (specifically things considered masculine like fighting) and idk about all yall but that really fucking screams good old fashioned transphobia to me lads. like trans folks are still dealing with this shit in modern day with athletes not being allowed to compete with their own fucking gender bc it ~wouldnt be fair~ or other such nonsense. this fuck shit with ppl absolutely refusing to acknowledge cu as possibly being good at Man Things is incredibly Trans Relatable™.

-ALSO i just remembered this but there’s also at least one and i’m pretty sure more than one time where cu talks to people who are like “yea we’re trying to hunt down cu chulainn” and they don’t realise he is in fact that very same cu chulainn or are even remotely suspicious of him which would make a lot more sense if they mistook him for a woman

in conclusion: hes trans

tainbocuailnge

this post made its way around to my dash somehow and a few people tagged it with variations of “now I gotta read up on cu chulainn” and boy can I help yall out with that!!

here is a free online archive of nearly every mythological text from the british isles, all in english. the ones featuring cu chulainn are the ulster cycle

here is a free online book that compiled the ulster cycle into one complete thing, prefaced with a lot of interesting meta discussion and comparisons to other mythologies

both of those prioritised accuracy over readability, so if reading ye olde english is difficult for you I recommend buying “the tain” by thomas kinsella. it put more emphasis on readability and is far easier to digest. it’s about 10-15 dollars on amazon last time I checked

diningwithdana

Black Goth Appreciation Day

Today’s post is an appreciation day inspired by @victoriankisses17‘s recent video. Watch and read here for a compilation of photos and inspiring quotes from black goth bloggers.

“For all my black goths out there who struggle with acceptance from family members, patience is key when it comes to educating and answering questions about your…’lifestyle’, as they call it. Answering them without an iota of sarcasm and malice, being concise with your answers and dispelling stereotypes helps the relationship run smoother.It also helps if you research the history of Goth (the music, the fashion variants, the philosophies, the literature, etc.) because if you answer the questions with “I wear black because it matches my soul and angst!” you will garner raised eyebrows and people won’t take you seriously, something you don’t want. Trust me, I know from experience.Being informed about the changing subculture of Goth not only helps you get more educated, but your friends and family will know that you are mature and serious about the subculture;” […] – My Experiences as a Black Goth and the Lessons that Came with It, Dejanae Jackson

Photography: @jasminedenise (Jasmine Denise Photography), Bliss photographed by Ari Seth Cohen, Erica, unsourced images. If you recognize anyone please source! We do not want artists going uncredited.

This blog is reader funded. Help me make more posts and comics like this by donating on Patreon or Paypal at [email protected].

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