the Doubter

White able-bodied thin polyamorous panromantic demi-polysexual cismale feminist service-hatch for knowledge and aesthetics. Photographer. Singer. Language lover. Linguist. University student. Rugby fullback/hooker/winger, referee, and enthusiast. Former poet. AvPD. Depression. HSP. flickr.com/photos/combustiblewater The loneliest people are the kindest. The saddest people smile the brightest. The most damaged people are the wisest. All because they do not wish to see anyone else suffer the way they do.

[sclerodium]

Item: The Tragedy Mask Rarity: ✷ Epic

What video game ending hit you hardest?

Feed your dashboard by answering my question, blogger.

OOOOOGH I LIKE THIS ONE

So. My favourite game is Chants of Sennaar. Slight spoilers for the ending incoming. I could go on for hours about how beautiful the storytelling and symbolism and languages and world and characters and graphics are and how much I LOVE LOVE LOVE Chants of Sennaar.

I’ve played through the entire mostly non-replayable puzzle game 3 times, and I’ve only ever gotten the perfect ending because I can’t bear to leave that world unconnected.

The ending absolutely crushes me every time. Having the symbol of the connections between peoples morph into the glyph for each culture’s most treasured concept—God for the devotees, duty for the warriors, beauty for the bards, transformation for the alchemists, exile for the anchorites—is just such a perfect representation of how different values can appear as rotated versions of each other, and at their root, they are all based on humanity. I find that fitting, given that the antagonist is a robot seeking to isolate the people of the tower.

It reminds me of the current day relationships with artificial intelligence (specifically LLMs. Let’s not conflate ChatGPT with life-saving innovations in technology) and how it seems that people are forgetting how to connect.

It’s important today in the real world just as it is for the people of the tower in Chants of Sennaar: we have to help each other. We have to learn about each other. We have to love each other.

I sought you, you found me.

Don’t let Exile win.

[ravenclaw-timelord]

Taylor Tomlinson: Prodigal Daughter (2026)

[bigbigtruck]

this accuracy of this bit fucking bodied me as someone who is/has been both.

[miraclemaya]

i sometimes see like "leftist" critique of nuclear power and it's like yes i agree that is bad but 100% of this is issues caused by capitalism disregard of life and well being of it's disposable classes, while the power source that runs much of the world is actually inherently damaging when burned to create power. same sort of shit with solar right like, yes mining for lithium creates some horrific events, but why is it brought up like a gotcha almost it's insane to me, like oil prospecting has caused untold amounts of violence as well, and also in a world without imperialism, oil would still be doing untold amounts of harm!

[moniquill]

Also? The mining of lithium/cobalt/neodymium is not -inherently- more dangerous than mining for other things. Capitalism did that. It is possible to build a world where rare earth metals are mined exclusively by well-trained, well-compensated adults with proper PPE in an OSHA-Approved mine.

Know why that isn't the standard? Capitalism. Human rights cut into profit margins.

[bob-artist]

Brotherhood of The Orb

[bob-artist]

[keikomivra]

TED LASSO | 3.08: WE'LL NEVER HAVE PARIS

[windymirkwood]

In This Together

*Tried to upload the HQ version.

[auditorycheesecakes]

the only bad thing about garlic is all the paperwork you have to do before you can even cut it up

look at that

layers and layers of bureaucratic bullshit

[accordionsrule-deactivated20240]

OP I hope you realize how strongly you have impacted my life. I think about this every time I use garlic. EVERY TIME.

[the-memeblades-chosen-one]

it really is ok to be Basic™, ya know?

scented candles are comforting and nice, sweet coffee drinks and black coffee drinks are both valid, romcoms are called “feel good” for a reason and you can watch them to feel happy it’s not a crime, decorate your room with fairy lights, drink hot cocoa with marshmallows, listen to that cd that everyone talks about and that you hear playing in the Starbucks all the time, popular things become popular because a lot of people like them and it’s ok to also like those popular things it doesn’t make you boring. I could go on but you know what I mean.

your interests and simple pleasures are meant to entertain you, not meant to make you look entertaining to others.

if you enjoy Basic™ things then embrace that enjoyment. that’s for you. enjoy it.

[the-memeblades-chosen-one]

reminder to enjoy being Basic™ today and always

[junkalopes]

[necoho]

CollegeHumor did a great sketch about this.

[sandersstudies]

Me, Catholic, walking into a Protestant church with no depictions of Mary: where's my mom

[pajamaslam-deactivated20190101]

the switch from ‘a girl worth fighting for’ to coming upon the decimated village in mulan is THE MOST kick-in-the-teeth mood change IN ALL OF CINEMA

[furikomaru-deactivated20190920]

That scene shift did more for our generation’s understanding of the horror of war in ten seconds than Game of Thrones did in eight seasons, and it did it without showing us a single dead body. 

[genresavvygentleman]

OKAY BUT HOLD ON THOUGH.

I’ve spent the past… five? Let’s say five - the past five years analyzing the structure of Disney Musicals as part of the process to write my own/a parody of them, and the thing is that all the modern ones have roughly the same number of songs - except Mulan.

Mulan has about half, because after AGWFF ends with that unresolved final phrase, there are no more songs until the end credits, which isn’t even sung in-universe.

Mulan wasn’t even the REALM of fucking around - when they arrive at that village, when the true horrors of war are brought into the story, not only does it interrupt THAT song, it breaks the entire fucking mold - the movie’s damn genre changes; it is no longer a musical.

And the Huns represent this from the start - Jafar and Hades are notable for not having proper villain songs, but Jafar does get his Prince Ali refrain and Hades and his plan get sung ABOUT by the muses. No scene with the Huns has any singing, they are mentioned once in song (the second line of Man, natch), and they of all Disney Villains are probably the most serious - no jokes, no witty asides, no sassy delivery of dry humor. The Huns are an invading army who plan to straight up kill a fuckton of people, including children, and AGWFF’s sudden end is the moment when our happy go lucky MUSICAL protagonists finally come in contact with them and their work directly - and it breaks them. Because shit like the Huns cannot exist in happy go lucky musical world. They just exist in our world. The real world. And you can’t sing your problems away here.

The end of A Girl Worth Fighting For is a brilliant use of metanarrative sensibilities to convey a message. It is utterly perfect.

[truelight8]

Daaaamn, Tony. That’s fucking deep, my guy

[genresavvygentleman]

I didn’t spend two years and thousands of dollars on a Master’s Degree in literature to NOT over analyze every text I engage with.

[justqueeerious-deactivated20220]

therapist: and what do we do to control our hyperfixation?

me: find a new one

therapist: no

[travelsofabrokegirl]

life is so full of beauty gyeongju, south korea

[loopnoid]

your childhood is gay, and there’s nothing you can do about it!

or, a celebration of some children’s characters we love to relate to (even if it makes cishets mad). hope you all had a happy pride month 🌈

[oistrong]

I’m all for fighting for marriage equality in the LGBT community. But we’re so focused on that no one knows about this problem.

[juxtapoesition]

W…wait Thats a thing????

[supremesalt]

Yep! The man I refer to as my husband? We aren’t actually married. We can’t be.

If I married him, the government would literally expect me to care for him and be his sole source of income. He would lose all of his benefits, including SSDI. Spouses are expected to share income and that effects ALL of his benefits, even his health insurance. We simply can’t afford to be married.

But it goes even further than that. If I were disabled, our incomes would STILL be combined, meaning BOTH of us would have our benefits cut.

For people reviving supplemental income, their benefits can be cut anywhere from 25% of their current income all the way down to 0%

In fact, one of the stipulations of receiving income under the adult disabled child program (which provides benefits for people who were disabled before age 22) is that they LITERALLY never be married.

I normally don’t link to blog posts as resources, but since social service resource sites like to dress this problem up and make it seem smaller than it really is, I’m gonna call it appropriate! Check it out!

https://www.advocate.com/commentary/2015/06/29/op-ed-why-no-matter-what-i-still-cant-marry-my-girlfriend

I’m upset about the situation in case you couldn’t tell.

[somecunttookmyurl]

Disabled people in the UK do not have marriage equality.

If you so much as LIVE with a partner you lose a massive chunk of income

[actualmythicalcreature]

Disabled Canadian chiming in - it’s the same here. I can even be kicked off disability for living with a romantic partner for longer than 6 months because then I’m considered common-law, and said partners income is deducted dollar for dollar from my benefits. Things like alimony, spousal support, and child support are also deducted dollar for dollar from my benefits - so you also get in shit for having previous relationships. If I have a roommate, they can request I PROVE that I’m not in a relationship with them by getting character references to swear it. Essentially, anyone whose unlucky enough to love me, is considered my financial caretaker. It fucking sucks.

[iwrotesomeofitdown]

Same in Germany with unemployment benefits (which disproportionately affect disabled people). I receive a pension because I broke my arm in a stair fall in the university. Even though this pension is a partial invalidity pension meant to compensate that it affects my ability to work, it is counted as income when calculating my health insurance and mandatory social security payments. As I am self-employed in part time (and so is my spouse) due to disability, we don’t get family plan insurance. We both pay 17% of each of our gross incomes to health insurance, and 19% to social security. 36% of our gross income is more than 50% of our net income. It would be cheaper if I didn’t work at all. Then my insurance would be free. But i‘m a lawyer, I studied a long time to be one, and Germany has strong worker protection laws for disabled people. Which means if you hire a disabled person, it’s near impossible to fire them, which is supposed to protect them from employment insecurity. Which is great. But if you’re not 200% better than all other applicants combined, it means a company won’t hire you and can easily use whatever imperfection your resume contains to justify it. Which is why I’m self-employed (along with the fact that I need physical therapy twice a week for an hour plus commute and no employer really let me do that in the past even though they’re obligated to accommodate disabled employees).

[date-a-jew-suggestions]

If you would report an undocumented immigrant to ICE you would have reported me to the Nazis and I don’t fucking trust you

[prismatic-bell]

A note:

I live in a state where you “have to” report anyone you suspect of being undocumented (that wonderful hellhole of Arizona). Now in practice this law has fallen far short, thank goodness. But if you live in such a place and they start enforcing it, here is how you get around it:

Assume everyone who doesn’t speak English is visiting.

Never ask about their job, because if they tell you they work here then you know they’re not visiting. You see them a lot for several weeks or months? Hm. Someone in the family must be ill. That’s terribly tough. They always dress in old, ratty laborers’ clothes? I feel you, my dude, I can’t afford new clothes either, and my dad has the fashion sense of an aardvark, so sometimes it’s not even about “affording” them. They say they’ve been here for years? You must have misunderstood. Spanish isn’t your first language, after all. First and last name? It never came up, or you don’t recall–you meet a lot of people.

And then, if you’re asked: no, you haven’t seen anyone residing illegally in the United States. Just people visiting.

[date-a-jew-suggestions]

Very good very important addition

[appropriately-inappropriate]

Essentially, this is the civil society version of a work-to-rule strike.

Don’t do more than is expressly asked of you, and do what you are asked with such an intense attention to protocol that not asking you at all becomes more effective than even bothering.

In this case:

“Have you seen an illegal immigrant?”

“Could you describe an illegal immigrant, officer?”

*officer describes a person who is in the country without appropriate paperwork, or who has crossed the border illegally*

“No, sir, I haven’t seen any illegal immigrant.”

And this is correct. You have NOT seen an illegal immigrant, because you have no way of knowing if Jose Fulano is here legally or not. And since you can’t see his paperwork (or lack thereof), and did not personally see him cross the border illegally, you are only answering precisely the question asked.

[dancingwiththelostboys]

I’m not American, and I have like, three followers, but this is important.

[thelawfulchaotic]

So, I’m a lawyer, who deals with immigration though does not specialize in it. But here’s the thing(s): 

1) Even someone who’s working could be here on a migrant (or other sort of) visa (hey, there are a few thousand per year, and *someone*’s got to get them, right?) or could be waiting for their case to resolve in immigration court, after having come to America to join a born or naturalized American family member. 

2) Even people who are working improperly could have come into the country legally – and just overstayed their visa or be violating the conditions of their visa, and you have no idea what the niggly little regulations that govern that might be. 

3) If a law enforcement officer asks you about a neighbor/friend/etc., take this moment to remind them that, unlike them, you cannot ask a random person off the street for their ID and be entitled to a response. 

4) Even if someone has told you that they are undocumented, you still don’t know, do you? Humans lie all the time. How could you know for sure? You can’t, because they can’t prove that they have a lack of papers. Just because you haven’t seen papers doesn’t mean they don’t exist! 

5) Don’t ever talk to cops in general. Why are you talking to a cop? Stop that, as soon as it is safe and feasible. 

Love,

a very tired public defender

[jehovahhthickness]

Me, if any law enforcement officers asks me anything at all

[lesbianrey]

tbh a lot of men’s ‘anger issues’ exist simply bc they can get away with it and just aren’t told to curb their emotions in the same way that girls and women do, especially women and girls of color. the right to be angry is a privilege that often goes underlooked, it’s very telling the types of people who are socially allowed to be angry and those who are not

[salty-inc]

Just something I really want to share on here because it’s important.

[salty-inc]

Hey, Hearing people, it would be great if you rebloged this.