[pangur-and-grim]

accepting the whole autism thing has actually brought me so much calm, because when I was kid everyone seemed instinctively repulsed by me and I never understood why. ESPECIALLY the adults! which is a little fucked, because who are you supposed to go to about bullying if the teacher is participating? and even my family members seemed disgusted by me on some level, so I was like a cartoon parody of a human being where my closest friends were my pet rats. but reading studies on autism now, and learning about the double empathy problem, and about how neurotypical people ARE repulsed by autistic people in an uncanny valley sort of way and DO dislike them upon first encountering them (unless, ironically enough, they’re told that they’re autistic) - that’s actually been so cathartic. especially now that I’m older and have an okay-ish handle on masking, and so am no longer live in a nightmare world where literally everyone in my life seems icked the fuck out. I don’t have to discount my early memories. I can be like ohhhhh yeah that’s just something that happens. I didn’t do anything particularly bad and it’s not that I wasn’t trying, I was just born with the cursed sigil on my forehead. like ohhhhh they were reacting to the curse, ohhh okay, cool cool, that’s actually fine. I’m actually alright with that.

[pangur-and-grim]

it also helps to look at old photos, because it’s like jesus christ, that’s literally just a little kid. like nobody that small should think that they’re that hated

[homoquartz]

i’ve warmed up significantly towards the concept of small talk ever since i learned that its sole purpose is to make friendly noises.

as long as you smile and nod, people are satisfied. it’s just to show that you are nice and there with good intentions. we’re small in a big world and have to rely on other people to be decent to us. so we do our little human dance to each other to say, “i’m not here to hurt you. here’s something we have in common, like the weather or sports or itchy sweaters, so we both know we’re on the same team. we both agree on a basic fact, like that it is rainy or that being itchy is uncomfortable, and this proves we can get along. i’m being light-hearted and non-threatening right now.”

small talk isn’t to get to know a person. it’s just a greeting to affirm you’re buddies in the universe.

i am motivated by wanting the other person to know i am friendly, so i have gotten pretty decent at small talk when i used to hate it.

[piratedgender]

[themisally]

[felp0n]

Lighting study that turned into a fake assassin's apprentice book cover

[mapsontheweb]

Map of regional rug patterns of Iran.

[matarsack]

This map is actually accurate. If you go to its source, WikiRug and click on each province, it will direct you to a wikirug page about that particular rug.

[thememedaddy]

[evergreen-femme]

[dragon-in-a-fez]

apparently the cops arrested fuckin Bicycles Georg today

[dragon-in-a-fez]

someone found this guy's house on google maps and I'm screaming

[pileofknives]

[bxy]

murano glass pomegranate seed lucky charm 5x6x7 in

[kjscottwrites]

[consolecadet]

These remind me of this drawing by Franz Kafka from the 1900s. We've been feeling this way for a long time.

[smol-civet]

prev, i'm sure you mean my guy Leonid Pasternak

[loveridden1999]

anyways remember when toni morrison said "sometimes you don't survive whole, you just survive in part. but the grandeur of life is that attempt. it's not about that solution. it is about being as fearless as one can, and behaving as beautifully as one can, under completely impossible circumstances."

[loveridden1999]

everyone say thank you toni morrison

[noonwalkdiary]

i was so fucking sad when i was 14 and now when i fold my laundry or see a pool of moonlight on the floor of my bedroom i know that miracles exist. i see love in everything. love sees everything in me too

[infiniteoreos]

undiagnosed autistic people will be like "I don't get upset when my routine changes though!!" and it's because they've built a set of if-then loops in their head to pick from one of 6 different strict routines and they do get incredibly upset when they're unable to keep to any of the 6 scripts. I'm john normal

[akajustmerry]

friend sent me an Instagram reel yesterday with 1000s of likes that was basically like "pride and prejudice is timeless actually because it's about an autism4autism romance 🥰" and then the creator proceeded to cite moments in the book and film where Lizzie and Darcy are "socially awkward" and....listen. I'm far from an Austen scholar, but I have taught Austen novels as an educator and this kind of psycho-pop analysis that views characters as individuals with autonomy over their actions, rather than tools in a story written at a particular time to say something about that time, pisses me off more than I can say without sounding like an asshole. I'm sorry but Darcy isn't rude and awkward and even cruel to Lizzie because he has autism, he says and does those things because he's a wealthy upper class land owning man raised to see a middle class woman from a large family with no male heirs like Elizabeth as inherently beneath him which he expresses to her multiple times because it is socially acceptable for him to do so in a society where someone like him is privileged above almost all others. He is "socially awkward" around her because of misogyny and classism (PREJUDICE) and she is "socially awkward" around him because a woman of her standing at that time simply wouldn't have had much to do with the gentry but to actually push back against the shit that Darcy says would be social suicide for her whole family so she protests the only way she can which is refusing his advances (PRIDE). not to be the "context collapse is the death of media literacy" guy. But this is the problem with the kind of head empty, let people enjoy things, if I can't relate to it what's the point type crowd. Youse think you're being so quirky justifying incoherent and anachronistic interpretations with your rampant individualism, ensuring that other people never confront anything that challenges them in these stories like patriarchal misogyny and classism. Pride and Prejudice becomes an "autism4autism romance", completely undermining the historical context of its status as one of the great social satires about the class and gender politics that Austen so expertly observed around her. This attitude is why we have nonsensical historical dramas that actively hate history like fucking edgy bdsm "Wuthering Heights", Bridgerton, The Buccaneers, and even a 2025 Frankenstein movie where the monster is just misunderstood and does no wrong uwu etc. because individual relatability and catharsis is king over anything actually saying anything about anything now. Everything is relatable and nothing is meaningful.

[moveslikekeithrichards]

as a teacher it is inevitable sometimes that you will flip your shit and overreact. being able to apologize for it is just as important a skill as Not overreacting. no matter how good at being chill you are there will come a time when you flip your shit and overreact. you cant rely on keeping your shit stable alone. You Gotta Be Able To Apologize. add humility to your arsenal

[moveslikekeithrichards]

astonishing amount of coworkers will be like "you dont have to apologize to them" when i get too cranky with a kid for not listening & its like Well You Do Actually. because theyre still learning how to be people. and you need to explain to them Why the rules exist instead of expecting them to follow simply because You Are The Authority, and you need to pick your battles lest you drive yourself and everybody else insane, and you need to think "would it be reasonable if somebody demanded this expectation of Me," and you need to give a little grace and cut a little slack sometimes because Theyre Still Learning How To Be People

[moveslikekeithrichards]

you also need to be able to recognize when an expectation is unreasonable and change it, and you need to be willing to either hold yourself to the same standards as them or give a good and fair explanation why you arent, and for jesus h christs sake you HAVE to let them TALK there is no greater setup for failure than a teacher who expects silence in their classroom all the time. give them good reasons why they need to be quiet during certain times and help them with volume maintenance but Let The Fuckers Talk

[billbug]

looks like i was googling some dark sorcerer shit last time i used my web browser

[dailyclassicart]

Félix Vallotton - "The Ray" (1909)

[vsingers]

new favorite tweet

[anxeious]

[threeture]

[kungfunurse]

Also his deeply underrated ability to clap back

[captainclickycat]

Reminds me of that story about the teacher or lecturer or whatever who told their class "hey, the ceiling has 'gullible' written on it" and anyone who looked up discovered that yep, the word "gullible" really had been written on a piece of card and taped to the ceiling. And after letting that sink in for a while the teacher said something like "those of you who looked up have just demonstrated one of the most important tenets of research: check the source."