little bird

adder || they/them

[9fruit]

we need to bring back the simple art of just “come to my house and we hang out without an activity or pretense or meal” my friend hung out on my couch for seven hours today we just gabbed… no specific plans no activities involved. likeee let’s just hang out on my couch forever and ever amen

[duallpa]

SABRINA CARPENTER on the set of "Fast Times" (via Instagram)

[twistcmyk]

art block

[anistarrose]

(visibly shaking, clenching my fists as i speak) i enjoy characters who are lying to their friends about everything

[butchtoks]

[orcboxer]

Fun facts about immigration in the US you might want to share with friends and relatives for no particular reason

The United States actually had open borders until 1924

The Immigration Act of 1924 had an overall negative impact on the economy and foreign relations with Asia, but Hitler praised it.

ICE didn't exist until 2003

Illegal immigration is not actually classified as a crime. If it was, cases would be handled by the judicial branch, and defendants would receive the benefits of due process. But because it isn't, it is handled by the executive branch, and defendants do not get due process. That means no lawyers, no jury, and no real judge.

Immigration "court" processes about 30 people at a time, including children, and the "judges," who are not required to have any experience or education in law, face no consequences for wrongful deportation, they are only evaluated based on how many people they process.

Before 2025 there were an estimated 20,000 wrongful deportations, with many confirmed and several reported on in mainstream media. That number skyrocketed in 2025.

There were more deaths in ICE concentration camps in 2025 than any year prior. If nothing is done about it, that number will increase in 2026.

[orcboxer]

Sources

The US had open borders before 1924. (which is not to say everyone was permitted, they excluded people based on race and disability, but 1924 is when the US was first considered to have closed borders)

Negative economic impact from the 1924 Immigration Act (fewer patents) (economic harm to US-born workers)

Department of Homeland Security, formed in 2002, created ICE in 2003

Hitler praised it, because it was openly just eugenics.

Wrongful deportations (sources within sources)

2025 deaths in ICE custody

[thebristolboard]

“The Militarization of the Police Department – Deadly Farce,” an original painting by Richard Williams from “The 20 Dumbest People, Events, and Things of 2014″ in Mad magazine #531, published by DC Comics, February 2015.

[spaceraptor]

Here’s the original, for comparison. And here’s a bit more about the artist and why he created the piece above for MAD Magazine.

[pennamerequired]

Richard Williams on Norman Rockwell:

“For most people, he was the painter of ‘America,’” he added. “But even he said his vision was what he wanted ‘America’ to be. It was a mythical ‘America,’ a place where all people were decent, honest and full of good will. His work was full of gentle humor that made you feel a little better; even if you knew it wasn’t really true… you just wished it was. My parody of Rockwell’s painting simply says, ‘That myth is dead.’”

[1-420-666-6969]

I think it’s relevant to add that even Norman Rockwell chose to leave his cushy job at the Saturday Evening Post because he wanted to make artwork that was more radical. The Post had rules that wouldn’t allow him to do artwork depicting black people as anything other than servants. The job paid really well and that was a huge reason he continued on. But he wanted change that and so he moved to Look magazine.

A lot of people know about the very first piece he did when he left the post which was the The Problem We All Live With which depicts Ruby Bridges walking to school under federal protection.

But I don’t think enough people know about Murder in Mississippi which depicts three real civil rights activists who were murdered by the Ku Klux Klan and sherriffs. The magazine ran the sketch instead of the finished piece because they felt it had a more striking statement to accompany the article. Norman Rockwell would finish that version after publication which is here

Rockwell’s legacy is sanitized because he decided to maintain his job at the Post for so long despite his frustrations with not being able to express himself. The civil rights movement was just his final straw to change what he could with the little time he had left. Look magazine received a lot of hate for Rockwell painting these as well.

Another favorite piece of mine is The Right to Know which depicts an integrated populace questioning their government. In 1968, the year of Vietnam and the year the Fair Housing Act only just got signed in months prior:

But I think it’s important to include the caption Rockwell originally wrote for the piece as well. I think it represents how a 74 year old Rockwell felt about the America he believed in and the people in it:

We are the governed, but we govern too. Assume our love of country, for it is only the simplest of self-love. Worry little about our strength, for we have our history to show for it. And because we are strong, there are others who have hope. But watch us more closely from now on, for those of us who stand here mean to watch those we put in the seats of power. And listen to us, you who lead, for we are listening harder for the truth that you have not always offered us. Your voice must be ours, and ours speaks of cities that are not safe, and of wars we do not want, of poor in a land of plenty, and of a world that will not take the shape our arms would give it. We are not fierce, and the truth will not frighten us. Trust us, for we have given you our trust. We are the governed, remember, but we govern too.

[batboyblog]

I’d just like to briefly say even Rockwell’s seemingly feel good Americana pieces are often more political than people today realize for example

likely the most famous picture of a Thanksgiving dinner ever painted and you see it all the time.

What you may not know is its actual title

“Freedom From Want” it’s a part of a series of 4, including this now famous meme

“Freedom of Speech” These paintings were illustrations of FDR’s “Four Freedoms” speech where The President laid out a vision that would become what the Allies were fighting for in WWII universal human rights that became a part of the UN charter.

So this homey American Thanksgiving scene was also a bold statement that no one in the world should go hungry

Rockwell’s work was very political, he used that Americana small town America vibe of his work to make what he was saying feel very close to the viewers he was trying to reach and also his optimism of the human spirt but for sure not blind to the need to build a better world.

[lustcannibalism]

I hate when I go to copy a picture and it doesn’t paste. Do not disobey me.

[happyllamaglama]

when the weird relative shows up to the farm

[krisrisk]

i have never seen an animal moving this silly

[bluewizardnonesense]

“Camels are far too intelligent to admit to being intelligent”

“Camels are largely made of knees, going in all directions”

“Camels gallop by throwing their feet as far away from them as possible and then running to keep up”

-Sir Terry Pratchett, discworld series

[tamanduaclaws]

Seconding @ellynneversweet's tags 😂

[tenorgender]

god didn't give me a dick because he knew I'd get hard when I heard a rich choral harmony

[notbecauseofvictories]

"I am going to get a good grade in ___________, a thing that is both normal to want and possible to achieve" drifts through my brain with positively alarming regularity.

[evan-collins90]

‘Aquarium Bath’ by Arnold Mammarella & Marcy Voyevod

Scanned from ‘Before and After: Bathroom Makeovers’ (2006)

[itspapillonnoir]

BLOODBORNE ⤅ ( 13/? )

[nothorses]

you do kind of have to actively shape how you feel a little bit. you can't just like, passively wait for the world to impress and inspire you. you have to choose to look for it & you have to choose to find it.

[batbetbitbotbut]

take your feelings out for regular exercise to build their strength and endurance

[johnnytwentythree]

[redlipstickresurrected]

Kazuo Kasai aka 笠井一男 aka Kasai Kazuo (Japanese, b. 1955 Japan) - Gotham Calling in Manhattan, 2024, Paintings: Watercolor

[calcazars]

let it be known that i touch grass frequently and I’m still like this.