another morning comes

[firstfullmoon]

when susan sontag wrote “I must change my life so that I can live it, not wait for it”

[loontattoo]

see unfortunately I have this condition where if I am not explicitly told that I am a part of the ingroup then I will assume I must be part of the outgroup

[ddeck]

i cannot overstate how good it feels to watch older movies where the actors were still allowed to look kinda weird and not be conventionally attractive. like it is genuinely healing

[mysweetoddbird]

sorry but once you notice how often ppl use a southern accent as shorthand for being unintelligent you can never unsee it. classism is baked so deeply and why are you acting like anyone who talks the way my grandfather talks is stupid.

[mortalityplays]

whether they're Good Media™ or whatever aside, I think mainstream liveplay ttrpg shows have been a fucking disaster for the hobby. it's hard to imagine anything that could have fucked the expectations:results differential for people more than having celebrities do college improv with dice (and an entire media production team behind them) and telling a generation of new players that's what tabletop gaming is like

[mortalityplays]

liveplay ttrpg shows are not 'professional gaming', that's the whole problem I'm talking about. they're entertainment products which make format, content and form choices that would be nonsensical or obstructive at an ordinary table. it's not just "oh if only 'hobbyist' gaming groups (🤮) could pay for all that kit and lighting and professional writers and voice actors".

liveplay production involves story meetings aimed at making the narrative maximally entertaining to a watching audience (not the players, who are also professionals who are there to entertain that audience!). It involves editing (trimming out downtime, uninteresting mistakes, technical issues, moments where the vibe is wrong or there's friction in the room). it involves a room full of production crew watching every move the GM and players make, sensitive to wastage of their time and effort if things don't go to plan. and not for nothing, it involves an entire team of people who need to keep game publishers happy by playing and displaying their products correctly and certainly never criticising them or openly adapting around their shortcomings for the sake of the group's enjoyment.

I've played at tables where we've been lucky enough to have fun props and miniatures and printed maps and sound systems and even a bit of lighting, and where everyone in the group was a seasoned player with writing and performance backgrounds, and the experience was still full of normal natural constructive frictions that are largely if not completely absent from entertainment liveplay shows. player disagreement is normal. stopping mid flow to argue about a rule and look it up and help each other with system technicalities is normal. the music just not working today is normal. the party choosing a direction the GM didn't prepare for and having to adjust their in-character choices a little and tolerate some hastily cobbled together fluff to meet them halfway is so normal it's a running joke. someone finding a scene a little too much and asking for a break or redirection is normal. someone saying something a little ill judged in the moment and having to walk it back with as much grace as possible is normal. storylines not going to plan and petering out without major dramatic resolution, or npcs being ignored and cast off with a shrug is normal. all this shit and more is normal because a normal table is structured around the organic decision-making of a bunch of players who are primarily in it for their own fun and sense of transport, not for an invisible imaginary fandom slash consumer market. which are all the things that make ttrpg play inherently a pretty bad vehicle for storytelling, incidentally!

someone else in the tags expressed their frustration at these shows 'professionalising' the hobby, and while I do recognise and sympathise with the feeling that these shows normalise a level of polish and commercial buy-in that's destructive to the diy culture of tabletop gaming, I still have to push back on the idea that these shows are representative of 'professionalised gaming'. they're not. they're sports anime.

[vulpes-nothus]

To give a non-D&D example, in Remember the Titans, the big climactic match was a very close call where the Titans barely eeked out a win.

The actual players and people who were there for the actual match were very verbal and tried to sue for defamation when the movie came out, because the real Titans fucking stomped the other team, 67-0 or some shit.

But the makers of the film felt like the story of one of the first non-segregated american football teams was not dramatic enough if they just flat out won a match after a teammate got hospitalized. So they rewrote it, negating a rather major historic accomplishment from the public memory in the process.

Which is all I see whenever a player rolls a die the camera never pans to while screaming "NAT 20" while the rest of the cast cheers. Just more writing rooms deciding what would be cool and interesting rather than just letting random things happen, even if random things happening is literally the point of the fucking dice.

[victusinveritas]

[shitpostingkats]

The reason Qifrey is so awesome and relatable is because he wants to live. Man in his twenties being ominous as hell and breaking laws left and right and messing with forces beyond comprehension and lying to the cops and doing horrible things to the people who love him most and constantly destroying his own mental health and you peel back the layers and the motivation is "God I want to grow old someday."

[jadespiral]

Manga Spoilers

God and the way in which he transforms from ‘I have to live because Olly wants me to live’ to ‘I want to live’ is so incredibly important to me. He was ready to give up, to let the Silverwood take him but Olly stops him. Olruggio traps him in a hellish pact because he wants his friend to live and he knows his friend wants to as well, Qifrey just has to come to that realisation.

[teaboot]

Dear Teaboot, how does one cope with hating their parent(s)?

You should know that I've written and erased a number of answers before coming to this conclusion.

Anger is not an emotion unto itself. Anger is an expression of fear, of helplessness, of frustration, of grief. Where there is Anger, there is something deeper, like the roots of a vine that might strangle you. If you cannot reach the roots, you will not kill the vine.

Anger, though, serves a purpose- to inspire urgency, to act, to move in the defense of self or others, to call out injustice.

Anger is only an evil when it is acted on without discipline. When it is allowed to become a reflex motivator, when it skips higher thought and speaks directly through the teeth and the hands. This is anger without control.

This question has forced me to ask myself if there is a difference between anger and hatred.

Is hatred irrational? Anger may be as well. Is hatred directed to the innocent? Anger can be, too. Is hatred akin to cruelty? Anger, again, is not innocent of needless suffering.

So what purpose must hatred serve, in pursuit of a just world? What can hatred do that anger cannot? What does it mean to hate something?

I'm not a scholar. I haven't studied these things academically. But thinking of my own experiences, and remembering the exact circumstances and contexts and the nuance of every little piece on the board, I can tell you that there was revulsion, and there was myself, and there was forces beyond my control.

I think that Hate is when anger fears it cannot win. I think Hate is when you are faced with something that you want to believe you have possibility of overcoming while suspecting in some way that you cannot. I think that Hate is when you are afraid of the thing that enrages you.

Hate, if you ask my opinion, is a bit like being mauled by a bear, knowing that you will not survive, and going for the eyes regardless, because it doesn't get to grow old and happy if you can't either.

Good for the continued existence of your peers. Bad for everything else.

So I suppose, if you are in a position where a bear is mauling you- metaphorically- hate probably isn't your biggest obstacle right now.

But if the bear is out there somewhere, on the other side of the forest, and you are sitting in a hole somewhere in a stiff rigor of rage and spite and terror, then I think it may be best for you to tell yourself now:

The bear will kill. Killing is in the nature of the bear, and a bear is helpless to change its nature. Knowing the nature of the bear, I will stay away from it, and deter it, and stay away from its path, and I will pity it for the nature it cannot compel itself to resist, and for the wonderful things it will never experience.

I do not need to fear the bear, because I understand its nature. I do not need to hate the bear, because I needn't fear it. All I must accept is that there is a bear, and it is wise to stay away from it.

It's unfortunate that the bear must live this way. It's unfortunate that you share your forest with a bear and not something kinder. But if you cannot change it, and it cannot change itself, then all you can do is accept that it is a bear.

And knowing that: be loud, travel with friends, and carry a big stick.

[deja-ru]

OP I needed your tags when I reblogged this and I hope that's okay. They spoke to me.

[free-my-mindd]

[texaschainsawmascara]

[thelonelyjew]

Eric Andre is Jewish btw. I feel like a lot of people assume he isn't bc of racism or bc they assume every word out of his mouth is sarcastic but he is Jewish and has talked about it.

[imkeepinit]

Judith Butler, philosopher: ‘If you sacrifice a minority like trans people, you are operating within a fascist logic’

[directactionforhope]

Feels like a good time to remind certain people that this is coming from Judith Butler, who is not just a leading feminist philosopher, but also THE COFOUNDER OF QUEER THEORY

The literal cofounder of queer theory as an academic field says that abandoning trans people is fascist logic.

The voices in our community trying to exclude us may be loud, but they are not right, and they do not speak for the community as a whole or our history or anything at all.

Trans people belong here. We always have, and we always will.

[local-lesbian-tree-demon]

they should invent a body that feels normal to be inside of

[batshit-auspol]

Occasionally as an Australian you'll be talking to someone from overseas, and you'll discover a common phrase you took for granted is, in fact, not universally known outside of our country.

Turns out casually dropping "fuck me dead" into conversation will give unsuspecting Americans an aneurism.

The more you know.

[batshit-auspol]

Imagine being on a work call with an Aussie and they suddenly announce they're gonna blow a load in response to a problem.

[fred-the-dinosaur]

Not Aussie but I asked an American once if she was taking the piss ( i.e. pulling my leg, joking. Perfectly cromulent and friendly english expression)

and she got really upset because she thought I was threatening to piss ON her

[honiibbang]

This is killing me

[batshit-auspol]

Rifling through the tags, here's some other terms which are apparently causing mass carnage whenever they escape our borders:

Having a goon (i.e. Sipping on a delightful wine)

Having a gaytime (Eating an icecream)

Having a sticky beak (Investigating)

Take a squiz (To have a sticky beak)

Get stuffed (To express a revelation is most frightful)

Chuck a sickie (Take a day off work due to the humours being misaligned)

Chuck a wobbly (When one's temperament becomes visibly upset)

Carry on like a pork chop (Acting most silly indeed)

Thongs (flip flops)

Hot chook (Pre-cooked supermarket rotisserie chicken, otherwise known as the Bachelor's Handbag)

Fair suck of the sauce bottle (Let's be real)

Shits me to tears (Something is mildly annoying)

Not here to fuck spiders (Expressing a situation is serious)

Having a piss-up (A social gathering)

I'll shout you (offering to goon an old chum)

A cruisy place (a relaxed atmosphere, where one might shout and goon the night away while enjoying many a gaytime in your favourite thongs)

[buginateacup]

Some usamerican friends of mine recently learned the Aussie meaning of snail trail (the line of hair from the bellybutton heading south). They were horrified to say the least

[natnormalatall]

roald dahl was antisemitic and misogynistic. george orwell was openly homophobic. edgar allan poe married his 13 year old cousin. dr seuss cheated on his wife (and was racist as well as antisemitic!). hp lovecraft was racist as fuck. anyways they’re fucking dead it’s not like you’re enabling their behaviors in the afterlife or something. then again I think they bleed into the books so uh keep an eye out for that

the difference between these old white guys and jk rowling is that the former group is all dead. jk rowling is alive and using your money to oppress trans people

[alphacrone]

can't believe the plot of leverage is literally 'man gets hired to be a project manager for Crime and then is forcefully adopted by the employees he doesn't want'

[alphacrone]

and it fucks

[guerrillatech]

[aflo]

posting this on twitter will get you put into witness protection

[truestoriesaboutme]

The magic of childhood is that you were constantly encountering new things. The best way to feel that way again is to fill your life with new experiences.

[teashoesandhair]

OK lads but. Why is the r slur coming back. It's 2026. Why am I hearing so many of The Youth use this word liberally and at whim. Do you need me to ground you. Do I need to sit you on the naughty step. Do you need me to strap you into the Learning Chair and deliver a 4 hour lecture about the history of the r slur, ableism, and why using that word is neither big nor cool. Or do you just need me to punch you in the mouth.

[rickktish]

The Euphemism Treadmill

[VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:

I think we have to accept the fact that the R-word is permanently coming back and it's functionally changed meanings to no longer directly refer to disabled people.

I mean, if you think about the words "idiot," "imbecile," and "moron," those used to be genuine medical classifications from the 1910s until the 1960s when they started to feel offensive. Then doctors switched to the R-word, which also functioned as a real medical classification for about 50 years, until it became too insulting and we again had to replace it, because it simply didn't serve the same scientific purpose anymore.

This entire cycle is called the euphemism treadmill, and the idea is that words around sensitive topics will always grow more negative over time, making us come up with new words that will then also get negative. On the flip side, however, once we sufficiently distance a word from its historical usage, it stops taking on the same offensive power and just becomes colloquial instead.

Like very few people really use the words "idiot" or "imbecile" to overtly mock an intellectual disability anymore, and, in the same way, the R-word is slowly just shifting into something people say with their friends.

That doesn't mean it's a good thing or that you should say the word - in fact, I think it's counterproductive to even call people idiots and morons. However, it is undeniably true that the people who are afraid to say the R-word right now are going to get old and die out, while younger generations keep saying it with no knowledge of where it came from.

The real problem is why the euphemism treadmill exists in the first place, because unless we communicate with kindness and intentionality, we'll always keep making new words offensive.

END TRANSCRIPT]

[teashoesandhair]

I wish I had something more articulate to say than 'fuck that shit with a toilet brush', but alas, it's late and I'm fed up of this shit, so: fuck that shit with a toilet brush

[rickktish]

How you interpreted this video: "I think we have to accept the fact that the R-word is permanently coming back and it's functionally changed meanings to no longer directly refer to disabled people...the people who are afraid to say the R-word right now are going to get old and die out, while younger generations keep saying it with no knowledge of where it came from."

->#“people are gonna say slurs so just let them say slurs” how about no

How I interpreted this video: "That doesn't mean it's a good thing or that you should say the word - in fact, I think it's counterproductive to even call people idiots and morons... The real problem is why the euphemism treadmill exists in the first place, because unless we communicate with kindness and intentionality, we'll always keep making new words offensive."

-> We can't control other peoples' choices, only our own. When we use words that are intended to insult or hurt, even sarcastically, we're contributing to the problem, even by using words that have already been separated from their origins by the euphemism treadmill process (such as idiot, moron, and imbecile.) The best way to navigate this linguistic shift is by speaking intentionally and kindly, choosing not to contribute to the euphemism treadmill by seeking to avoid speaking with the intention to cause offense or harm in the first place.

[teashoesandhair]

We can't control other peoples' choices, only our own. When we use words that are intended to insult or hurt, even sarcastically, we're contributing to the problem,

Yeah, it's almost like the entire point of my OP was 'don't use that word', innit?

The best way to navigate this linguistic shift is by speaking intentionally and kindly, choosing not to contribute to the euphemism treadmill by seeking to avoid speaking with the intention to cause offense or harm in the first place.

So by not using the word? So by doing the exact fucking thing I'm talking about? So your entire reply continues to be absolute grade A, top tier bullshit?

It's not 'speaking intentionally and kindly' to defend the use of an ableist slur, even if you say your pleases and thank yous and top it off with a nice little curtsey.

How I interpreted this video: "That doesn't mean it's a good thing or that you should say the word - in fact, I think it's counterproductive to even call people idiots and morons… The real problem is why the euphemism treadmill exists in the first place, because unless we communicate with kindness and intentionality, we'll always keep making new words offensive."

I mean this so sincerely, you've just seen a white man speaking fast and using terms that sound impressive, like 'euphemism shift', and you've decided that yes, this random white man wearing glasses sounds authoritative, I must hang onto his every word, and that is why people using the r-slur is not the real problem... the real problem is... people being big meanies!'

No, stranger, the real problem is people using a deeply offensive, ableist word in the same fucking goddamn derogatory context; it hasn't shifted into anything. The context hasn't changed. It was a medical term in the '60s, then it became an ableist slur, and in the grand old year of our Lord 2026, it's still a fucking ableist slur. That's it. That's all. Curtains closed, white man talking fast runs off stage, I'm pelting him with rotten onions.

I'm going to be a big meanie myself now and tell you to fuck off, and maybe that won't be offensive in 10 years' time, so it's probably fine for me to say it anyway.