Always Polemics

Art credit: my lovely friend @freddiespencerchapman Hi there! I'm an autistic Jewish (atheist) nonbinary woman (pronouns she/they, age 21+) and a graduate student who studies children’s informal learning. Check out my gradblr tag if you want to see my academic rants, shitposts, and grad school memes. My fandoms are: Steven Universe, ATLA, Star Wars, Crazy Ex Girlfriend, and various obscure fantasy/sci fi books and movies (like the Dark Crystal) My hobbies are: writing/poetry, playing my electric guitar, all types of music, baking, and art appreciation. Orientation: ace lesbian/lesbian ace. Thanks for stopping by!

[dogpuppy]

[mousegirlheart]

dehydrated mouse :(

[jokes-randomness-galore]

*Hydration beam*

[mousegirlheart]

weh :(

[dankxsinatra]

[trochaic-mutant-ninja-tetrameter]

[donnerpartyofone]

It's hard to say this without sounding like a right wing dickhead, but the thing about progressive spaces is that they may naturally attract people who are always on the lookout for excuses to start a fight. Like you can find yourself faced with someone whose political outrage is totally justified, and whose humanitarian ideals are right on the money, but simultaneously they are carrying a ton of psychological baggage about being wronged and getting revenge, and they will exploit literally any opportunity to live out this psychodrama with anyone in their line of vision. I have thought of several related anecdotes since I started typing this post, but I'll limit myself to the thing that inspired it, which is that I just visited this ultra-lefty cafe/bike shop/community gathering space where I've heard that the proprietor is constantly in a fight with everyone around her. When I paid for my stuff I noticed that there was no tip option, but I thought I had heard something about this, so I snuck away to look at the website and it made me really glad I didn't ask! I think there should have been a really enticing and exciting way for her to say "I've decided to be the change I want to see in the world, so I'm paying my baristas a full living wage, I'm making sure EVERYONE feels welcome and comfortable here, and I'm selling products I believe in!" -- but instead all the web copy sounded more like "You're either with me or against me, you're a fucking piece of shit asshole if you can't handle the inclusive atmosphere here, and by the way tipping is for fascist cavemen and if you ever try to tip someone you are refusing to relate to them authentically and you are enforcing a dangerous and evil power dynamic that should be purged from human society (so therefore I pay my staff well)." Like everything she stood for was totally agreeable, but why did she have to put it like it was directed at her worst enemy, rather than at the kinds of people she wants to attract? If the word on the street is to be believed, the reason for this posturing is that she spends quite a lot of energy making as many enemies as possible, and she probably likes it that way. I guess I'm just reminding myself, and perhaps others, that while one might think of "politics" as being broadly social and theoretical, no individual can fully separate the political from the intimately personal. Even somebody who seems to want to uplift and protect their fellow humans may be getting some perverse inner satisfaction out of that valiant crusade, and you may never realize it until you find yourself in a confusing fight with them.

[author-by-night]

I ran a LARP for a few years explicitly aimed at being queer friendly and accessible, and eventually cut it short mainly for this exact reason. You wouldn’t believe the amount of abuse my staff and I took for reasons that felt genuinely insane. I got called ableist for telling someone they couldn’t be invincible in my game of make believe, more than once. Defended myself, multiple Jewish players, and a conversion student from accusations of antisemitism based on alleged lore we’d never written / suggested / that simply and plainly did not exist in game. Had a staffer try to talk to someone about how a joke she made was uncomfortable only for this person to retaliate in epic proportions full white woman crocodile tears style, trying to get this staffer removed and eventually escalating into a full public hate campaign when she didn’t get her way. All that’s still just the tip of the iceberg.

Progressive spaces are naturally populated by traumatized people, and unfortunately trauma makes people more difficult. (I’m not excluded in that. No one is.) Running a progressive space is doubly difficult because a lot of left-facing trauma was inflicted by authority, so you’re setting yourself up to be the windmill that someone tilts their displaced rage at. I don’t really know what the solution is, but I do know that this is one of the huge reasons it’s so hard to find community: the people with a bone to pick can’t reach the ones who actually hurt them, but they’ll sure find you along the way, and the safer they feel around you the safer they’ll feel coming after you.

[ariaste]

Once again I am begging everyone to read Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It by Chris Voss.

Voss spent 25 years as a hostage negotiator, meaning that his job was to talk to guys on the phone who had literal guns to innocent people's heads. He KNOWS how to compassionately de-escalate a conflict and have productive, constructive conversations with people who are highly activated and reactive.

Especially if you are neurodivergent, read this book. The communication tools are specific, concrete, easy to implement, and will dramatically reduce the psychic damage you're taking just from trying to navigate the conversation.

[crossroadsbishounen]

dave and busters what the fuck is a sticky creebler

[stickycreebler]

First of all put some respect on my name

[seven-oh-four]

(sobbing on the floor) i'm amazing digital worthless

[pennaraptor]

you dont see a lot of chickens you can pat like a doggy

[loreleywrites]

im always saying this

[ggcrono]

[nakamorijuan]

セーラースターＰｌａｓｔｉｑｕｅ

[americanfrontier]

oh and when i was a year old, after i got my foot amputated my parents were pushing me around in a stroller at a street festival in miami and i was chewing on my foot or whatever and this street performer came up to us and was like “aw i bet that tastes good!!” and my dad was like “yeah look at what she did to the other one!!!!” and pulled back the blanket covering my left leg to show a stump with a huge scar on it and i’m pretty sure my dad terrified that poor man

[cwudining-deactivated20181015]

A friend of ours worked in a movie theater.  One night, a rowdy little boy decided to kick over all the stands that held up the red velvet cords.

After several attempt to stop him, she finally declared, “If you keep kicking those over, your leg will fall off!”

No sooner had she said this than she looked up and was mortified to notice a man standing on a pair of crutches with one leg.

Before she could apologize, he looked down at the boy and sighed, “I used to love to kick those.”

The kid ran away.

[beyondthisdarkhouse]

My small hand looks normal enough that many people don’t notice for quite some time that it’s missing fingers, and I sometimes get people questioning if my hand was always like that but they never noticed, or if something recent happened to them.

So as a kid I absolutely loved when people tentatively asked me what happened to my hand and I’d unsuspiciously say, “What about my—” looking down at them, “notice” the missing fingers, and suddenly scream-recoil away as though I’d never seen the issue before. Managed to give quite a fright to multiple well-meaning adults about it. ✌️😎

[stealingpotatoes]

happy ides of march i 3D modelled Caesar so i could make him do fortnite dances

[thesanityclause]

this is art, this is why we make art

[vinceaddams]

It's nice that loud noises don't stick to clothes like smells do. That would be really bad if they did.

[dubadoowop]

Land-creature watching.

Darling likes the rabbits ❤️ Somebody get some bunny ears for this siren STAT.

[sadgi]

can I get a job as an editor but the only thing I do is correct when someone uses the word "prone" when they mean "supine"

[sadgi]

thank you wikipedia for this really good image

[sadgi]

a helpful mnemonic for everyone

[succubusboyfriend]

you have permission to pick that 2 year old "abandoned" project back up. it's not mad at you for setting it aside. and maybe time and distance have helped ease or erase the things that made you put it down in the first place.

[mapleejay]

does anyone else think about how brave all their friends are and get really emotional about it

[mapleejay]

I'm glad everyone is alive rn