I Like Things That Make Me Happy

So I’ve been breathing oxygen for over 18 years. You can call me Cheese! My pronouns are xe/xem/xeir or they/them/their but at this point I’m okay with anything. Im autistic and I like cats and TOH. I vent a lot so you might wanna filter that out (tag is "#tw vent"). Cheese out! (https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/1414503/)

[rights4allmeansall]

you’re valid by the way. no matter what your sex, gender, race, ethnicity, appearance, height, weight, body type, skin tone, eye color, hair color, hair texture, disabilities, or conditions are. you’re valid. no matter what your abilities, tolerance levels, energy levels, or sensory perceptions are. you’re valid. no matter what your nationality is. or your language. or your culture, religion, spiritual beliefs, traditions, rituals, holidays or political ideologies are. you’re valid. no matter what your ancestry is, or your accent, or your dialect. if you’re not hurting anyone, it doesn’t matter. there’s nothing wrong with it. it doesn’t matter what your government does. you aren’t them. you aren’t your parents’ mistakes. you shouldn’t be judged by your enemies. your personality traits are perfect the way they are unless you genuinely want to change them—not because of what anyone else says or thinks—but because you see something you want to improve for nothing other than your own well-being. your emotional expression isn’t too much or not enough, it’s just right. your stress responses are okay. your coping mechanisms are valid. if you’re not harming anyone, & that includes yourself, don’t let anyone tell you anything. no matter your humor, style, risk tolerance, decision-making abilities, leadership style, work ethic, conflict resolution skills, problem-solving abilities, communication methods or love languages. it doesn’t matter that you haven’t figured it out or that it’s different than the norms or that others don’t understand it. it doesn’t matter if you’re a lot of something, a little, both, neither, or if it fluctuates. it doesn’t matter if no label fits so you invent your own. that makes it real, & that makes it valid. your orientation is valid. however you perceive romantic, sexual, & platonic love is valid. your relationship status is valid. your family structure, birth order, socioeconomic status, migration history, interests, hobbies, & passions are valid. no matter your activism involvement, volunteering history, criminal history, or education level—you are valid. you don’t owe anyone anything. your existence isn’t a crime, so your life doesn’t need to be a punishment. anyone who cares about your learning style, intelligence, legal knowledge, digital literacy, philosophy or whatever else is the problem, not you. your job, talents, skills, diy abilities, & how much drive you have don’t matter. what you drive doesn’t matter. how “far behind” you are doesn’t matter. it’s all enough. it’s just right. if you’re not hurting anyone, your preferences are valid. your media consumption, music taste, & collecting habits are valid. your geographic location means nothing. your awareness levels can always be improved, like everyone else’s, but they don’t need to be “fixed”. you’re not an object or a project. you aren’t broken, & you don’t need fixed. you should always strive to heal, but you should never be forced. your housing doesn’t matter. your fitness levels & dietary choices are valid as long as you’re doing the best you can with what you have, where you are, & what you know. your allergies are valid. your health practices, sleep patterns, & chronotype are valid. your identity is valid. whatever you say you are, if it’s not hurting you or anyone else, it’s valid. your beliefs, values, & priorities are valid. they’re yours, not anyone else’s. your superstitions are valid. whatever you have access to or don’t have access to, in your control or not, is not anyone else’s business as long as you’re not hurting anyone. how you express yourself, whatever your writing style is, your age & memory capacity—they’re all valid. they don’t make you better or worse than anyone else. you don’t deserve anything you’ve ever been through, you weren’t asking for it, & there’s nothing you could’ve done. your trauma is valid. whether it was a one time thing, repetitive, or all the time. whether you remember it or not. whether anyone believes you or not. whether you believe yourself or not. it’s valid. your social media use is valid. your

favorites, least favorites, likes, & dislikes are yours, not theirs. they can have a say, but you have no reason to listen. whatever your hopes, fears, joys, sadnesses, regrets, & fulfillments are, you deserve every good thing that’s ever existed & i will always be begging the universe to provide those things for you. if you’ve shifted, mini-shifted, attempted to shift, or have only thought about it—you’re valid. if you cosplay or role-play, you’re valid. no matter what species you are, if you aren’t hurting anyone, you’re valid. let all judgements fall on deaf ears unless they come from people who selflessly have your best interests at heart. & even then, hear them out, but decide what’s best for yourself as the only person that truly knows you at all. no matter what your goals, dreams, ambitions, or desires are, i hope if they’re beneficial to you at no harm to others, they all come true. i hope your nightmares cease & you can look in the mirror & you can be alone in your head in silence & it’s the most comfortable & safe place you’ve ever been. if you’re plural, i hope every single being in your system is the happiest they’ve ever been. i hope you find so many people that love you for you & you cut off all people who don’t. i hope all your worries, flaws, weaknesses, obstacles, & limitations only catapult you higher than you ever thought you could soar because of them. i hope you celebrate all of your strengths & accomplishments without thinking of what you could’ve done differently. i hope you don’t worry about the future & just enjoy the present. no matter how privileged you are, i hope you never feel invalid. no matter how problematic you are, i hope you never feel unloved. your mistakes don’t define you. your thoughts don’t define you. you can always grow, change, & be better tomorrow. no matter your relationships, connections, trusts, & conflicts, you deserve a community of people who uplift you, not who bring you down. no matter your routines, reactions, or adaptations. no matter your resources & diagnosis’ or lack thereof. no matter your pasts, presents, futures, or timelines. no matter your ecosystem, genetic variation, reproductive method, or lifespan. no matter the color of your skin, the depth of your heart, how hard you work, or how well you keep up—you’re valid just as you are, & you have nothing to apologize for. whether you show up, show out, stay in, or crash out, you’re entirely valid & nobody can ever change that, take it away from you, or make you question it unless you let them. whether you read or you don’t, you’re popular or you’re not, you’re on top of the world or shouldering all of it’s weight, it’s for you or against you—it’s your world, your life, & you have full power over who are & who you become. as long as you’re not hurting anyone without their consent, your identity is yours to do what you wish with freely, always, & you haven’t done anything wrong. if you have done something wrong, or a few things, or several, or many, or the majority of everything you’ve ever done has been wrong—intentional or not—it’s not too late, you’re not too lost, & this world has not lost it’s place for you, regardless of if you’ve ever found that place to begin with. it does exist, it is yours, & you have the right to come back whenever you’re ready to stop hurting & start healing. in my journey to change the world, i’m fighting for every single one of you. even if you hate me, don’t like me, or don’t know me. i love you from the bottom of my heart with the deepest love possible, i believe in you with every ounce of my being, & i will never ever give up on you or stop fighting for you. i want you happy, healthy, & safe at all times, & i’m here for you forever. so if you ever feel like you’re alone or the world would be better off without you, you’re wrong. the world is infinitely better for having you in it, even if you haven’t found your role or purpose just yet. you will. it’ll all be okay in the end. & if it’s not okay, then it’s not the end🫂❤️‍🩹

[thelawfulchaotic]

I'm extremely curious regarding the story of how an octopus fell in love with you once. How did you meet the octopus? How do you know it was in love with you? Why did it fall in love with you? I NEED to know

Okay. cracks knuckles. I was exaggerating a bit about falling in love, what do I know about the internal experience of the octopus? But it was fucking cool as hell. This is what happened, as accurate to my memory as I can manage.

My family was visiting Australia for about a month, in Northern Hemisphere summer/Southern Hemisphere winter (June/July?) of like... 2013? I think it was just before one of my years of law school, or right before law school in general. We spent a week of this visiting Sydney, where we stayed at a place right on... Manley Beach? Is that something? I'm not looking it up, so if that's not a place name, that's just my memory failing me.

It was winter but the weather was gorgeous and we decided, fuck it, let's go swimming. The water was Ice Fucking Cold. This wasn't a huge problem given the warm weather. I was submerging slowly in the rocky area, like, down at the left side of that stretch of beach? Left side when you're facing the ocean. It wasn't just tide pools, it was pretty deep, up to my waist. The bottom of it was large rounded rocks with some vegetation in between, the occasional fish. The water was also super clear.

I was kind of bouncing around in the water when I felt something wrap around my ankle.

Knowing Australia's (we're not going to debate about whether it's deserved or not) reputation for horrifyingly deadly wildlife, I yelped. My mom was close by, and she was like, what is it, and I conveyed the situation to her. She said that it was just seaweed, don't be silly.

The next time I felt something curling around my ankle I actually saw it. It was an octopus with a body bigger than a baseball but not much bigger -- what's slightly bigger than a baseball? A mango? And its tentacles were like a foot to a foot and a half (1/3 to 1/2 meter) long. So it was little, and it was scooting away across the seafloor, and it was clearly tentacled, and right in front of my eyes it turned into a damn rock.

"That was NOT seaweed," I remember saying.

I kept still, and the rock uncurled a tentacle and then another, and it crept back across the rocks towards me. At this point I could see it really well. It reached out to me again, and at this point my curious ape tendencies took over and I reached into the water when it reached up to me. Its tentacles wrapped around my hand and fingers. It's so hard to describe. It was almost velvety, if rubbery ocean skin could be velvety. Its little suction cups were so strong and they were moving, they were alive. The whole tentacle felt like pure muscle. This was all fucking wild. And I was by far not the only one in this rocky area -- there were my two parents, there were some other people further in. This octopus was clearly curious about me. It was tasting and thinking and then it played a little tug of war with me.

Someone yelled something about 'does it have blue rings' which it did not. I had no idea how good that was at the time. Except for the size, I just think it matched what a Pacific octopus looks like, which is to say: it had no color, and it was grey, and it was all colors.

Some dudes were nearby and I think they had a camera on me? And they were like "How are you not freaked out, I would never get in the water again" and I was privately thinking this is so fucking cool I'm having a cosmic experience but what I said was "DO I NOT LOOK FREAKED OUT." So I guess I was also a little freaked out.

I went over on a solid rock ledge and sat up out of the water and it attached itself to the vertical rock surface under the water and reached tentacles up and out of the water for me, like "where are you going???" So I held its tentacles some more.

At this point, my mom tried to take some pictures. They look like me with some plain boring rocks. You cannot see the octopus in a single one of them.

Eventually we had to go, but like. Holy shit. The interaction was so clearly sentient that I have not been able to even consider eating octopus since. It wanted to know what was up with me and hang out. It was detecting something about me that was interesting that was not apparent to anyone else there, so its senses must be wildly different.

Insane happening.

The dumbass conclusion to this story (not that dumbass because it involves an artist getting Cash Money) is that my father, in his infinite wisdom, decided to spend Two Thousand American Dollars on commissioning a wood sculpture of me with the octopus from the artist James Phillips.

AND THEN HE JUST LEFT IT WITH ME.

This thing is red wood the size of a child carved with a chainsaw and it lives in my house.

[thelawfulchaotic]

It’s hard to photograph and I’m not home right now but here it is:

Please note I was not a child but a whole ass adult for this. I sent the artist a description of what happened and this explanatory drawing:

He carved that out of one piece of wood with a goddam. Little ass chainsaw

[autistichalsin]

The test for allyship isn't how you treat an oppressed person who is your friend, family, spouse. It's how you treat an oppressed person you absolutely can't stand who is vile and loathsome in every way.

Do you gender trans people correctly even when they're being absolutely terrible people? Do you refuse to use the r-slur against someone who suicide baited you but is neurodivergent? Do you refuse to snark at a mentally ill person who is being genuinely unpleasant, "go take your meds!"

Do you allow members of marginalized groups to be terrible people without judging their entire demographic for it? One of the most invisible yet vital forms of privilege is the right to be terrible people as an individual rather than as a group. Do you acknowledge that there are bad people in every group, that it doesn't make their group less worth fighting for? Or do you shake your head if you happen to get mistreated by some who belong to a group and insist the entire group is awful and not worth your allyship?

Oppressed people can see how you treat those of us you like, but do you still treat the worst of us with the basic dignity you treat the worst of other groups with?

[thelawfulchaotic]

If empathy is a muscle, this is how you get SWOLE. This is how you grow BEEFY. I’ve got stacks of empathy muscles. I’ve got an 8pack of empathy and love for humanity’s flaws.

Once upon a time I felt I was a useless pit of a person who did not deserve to live. To fight this voice, I found the “””worst””” people I could and defended them in court regardless of what charge, what they could pay, who they were. I wanted to prove to myself that everyone is worth defending, because if everyone is worth it, so am I.

Pleased to inform you that everyone is worth defending. Human rights are worth defending. Humans are worth helping, even though a lot of them fail and fall even with help. And it’s worth it standing up for oppressed people always always always.

[faux-friend]

When a black person states that something you did was racist, chill the fuck out. Its annoying dealing with you panicking trying to dissociate yourself from racism. If you're not black, black people already assume youve said nigga or its variant at least once in your life. If they're interacting with you and bringing something up, its because they want you to stop doing that so they can still interact with you(if ur already friends)

You WILL be racist. You WILL do racist things. You have ALREADY done both. Learn and move on. There's no ideological purity you can hold on to, i promise. Proving you can take the criticism without making it a big deal and practice what you preach is better than any clean slate.

Be the kind of person black people don't have to gamble on. Shut up and lock in

[thelawfulchaotic]

And truly to the white folks who think this it’s hard to walk the “woke” line:

In real life, truly it is not. It’s so easy. The bar is so low. Practice some variants of these:

“Oh shit you’re right”

“Oh damn I didn’t see it that way before”

You’ll feel bad because it feels bad to realize you hurt someone else. But you can’t make your feeling bad soo Big that their original hurt matters less. That’s an insecurity response — that’s you looking for them to validate you. You don’t need that! You’re fine! (And realistically you may find that validation comes much more easily when you’re attentive and empathetic!!)

Even better: validate them!! “Hey it takes a lot to speak up and call me out, I really appreciate that.” Because honestly they are doing you a favor, probably! They’re showing you the quicksand you stepped in and throwing you a rescue line.

If you do have an intense emotional reaction, step away and come back later. It’s okay to react! It’s rude to make your reaction their business.

Most Black folks irl are frankly just happy when white people verbally acknowledge the existence of racism. The bar is so low. The bar is ankle height. I also get a lot of mileage out of genuine compliments.

Missteps are not only okay, they’re necessary. You have to do them in order to learn how to be a kind human. They don’t make you bad!! And Tumblr with this shit is like playing a video game on extreme difficulty — irl it’s almost always on easy mode in comparison.

[thelawfulchaotic]

hi!! sorry if you've been asked this question before, but as someone who wants to be a lawyer, how do you deal with defending people that morally you really don't agree with? thanks!

I get a lot of versions of this question, and I answer it seriously every time, because it’s both important and not important at all. Anyone who asks respectfully gets my whole ass answer.

It’s just not really about that. My job isn’t about defending the idea of hurting someone else. It’s about stopping the state from inflicting further hurt, torture, pain. It’s about pushing back for some fairness against a monumentally stacked system. And it’s about stuff that’s normal human stuff that counts as crime for some reason.

Yeah, it’s hard to do a sex abuse case. Sometimes the images stick around and it bothers me. But honestly? Mostly those cases have real plausible theories of innocence or they’re cases that I will lose because the evidence is there, and the question is not whether the perpetrator will go to jail but how long.

Those cases are so rare, though. I get so much pointless bullshit. Felony of a teen taking mom’s car without permission. Two kids that try to break into a car and get so scared by the alarm that they run away. Trespassing on dad’s house because his new girlfriend wants you to stop coming around. It’s just human stuff, and the violence of the state is not necessary or helpful.

I also reject the idea of punishment completely. The state has a responsibility to stop people from hurting other people again. But inflicting pain doesn’t do it, we know this by now. So I argue for mercy and for real solutions to real problems. I’m here to build a future, not get caught up with doing violence to someone because of the past.

So yeah, sometimes it’s hard, but mostly my conscience is dead clear: I’m not responsible for the crime. The damage has been done. I want to start the healing process, and I want it for everyone involved. When that’s not possible, I just want to tell the authorities they don’t get to just Do What They Want.

The more I do this job, the more I am a genuine pacifist who is against violence in all forms, and actually I don’t see a contradiction between that and what I do for a living. State violence is a pervasive evil that tears apart families, communities, and countries, and it’s far more damaging and awful than any individual crime. The average prosecutor has more blood on their hands than a serial killer, but it’s invisible: people who died in jail, who froze to death on the street, who were shot in a drug deal. Their violence begets violence.

When I get blood on my hands, it’s because I put my hands over the wounds and try to stop the flow. I’m okay with it.

Also: people don’t ask doctors how they can stand to treat bad people. Why ask me?

[bemusedlybespectacled]

#i find people have such an inherent misunderstanding of the roles of defense attorneys (understandably but still)#in that most people i talk to seem to be envisioning me personally defending the right of people to commit crimes or that like. Crime Is#Good Actually#‘yeah this person did X but they should never face any consequences ever please and thank you judge’#(and people think this would WORK??? a different tangent on a lack of legal education and cop shows being awful etc)#meanwhile i am simply protecting people’s rights. yes even those people’s#idk i could write my own post but op Gets It and also a prosecutor just filed the DUMBEST motion ive ever seen and i need to respond to that#instead lmao (via @anixit26)

The number of people who respond to my post about how even the guiltiest person in the world deserves rights with "but not [crime I think makes you undeserving of rights]!" is truly insane. People really truly think that being accused of a crime makes you irredeemably evil and protecting the rights of those accused means you are also evil.

[othert]

The “criminal justice reform” movement is in danger. Efforts to change the punishment bureaucracy are at risk of being co-opted

[goldenchips]

I drew a little comic as a prequel to the drawing from this post about furries having fluffy binders!

[goldenchips]

Bonus panel!

Because I think he absolutely would happy cry but it broke the flow a bit so see it separately :3

[parkchanwoohoo]

Realizing that I am not employing enough of my free will to become a nuisance at work

[raine-of-auroria]

Me watching this:

[cowboybarbaryn]

I’m not letting this rot in the tags

[everythingfox]

Most unserious animal

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

everyone shut the fuck up and look at this baby oarfish

scrungly ass little creetchur...

[hungry-mongoose]

*nibbles post*

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

oh my god a mongoose is eating the baby

[anglaised]

and im always saying this

[twiggy-boy]

"what is this BABY doing in space!???"

-Rocky, probably

[scrupulosity-comics]

title of this is just ‘lesbian sex’

[scrupulosity-comics]

lot of terfs have been reblogging this so I may as well publicly state that the woman on the right is modeled with permission after my transfemme friend. if you relate to it as strongly as many of you claim in the tags I urge you to reflect upon that with empathy and compassion about the depth of experiences you truly do share with trans women.

otherwise fuck off I guess. my art is not fuel for your hatred.

[taurusdreamgrl69]

[frend-zee]

big fan that bloodymary is out and proud with it trending, but everyday we breach containment is a singular step closer to markiplier finding out that he is being shipped with ryan fucking gosling, and that is a concept that frightens me

[frend-zee]

Hey guys who is Apollo and why does he have a dodgeball

[stixy]

Bro is cooking

[wholesome-animal-images]

[ratsoupee]

field trip cancelled

Based off hit tumblr post: