We Keep Rowing

tired homo. jp/en.

[gabagoofs]

[pileofknives]

[recursive-wizard]

Don’t forget that the US civil rights bill only passed after six weeks of rioting that were the direct result of MLK’s murder. Peaceful protest paved the way, but violent protest got it over the finish line.

[flipocrite]

It’s understandable why the state would not want you know that, but that’s also why it’s imperative that you do.

[error-404-fuck-not-found]

king's family doesn't "believe" the FBI killed him, they know it for fact because the FBI admitted to it in a civil case brought against them in the early 90s. the court documents are a matter of public record. read them yourself. the king family won that suit against the united states fucking government for assassinating martin luther king jr

[emiett]

A zine I made as an example for my kids comic class

[emiett]

A zine I made as an example for my kids comic class

[raccoonmilf]

Chat, is it considered “abusive roommate behavior” to release a raccoon into the living space after you have asked your roommate for months to please clean up their messes (they do not pay any of the mortgage)

[raccoonmilf]

For context, when I used to live alone I would do something called “Princess Time” where I would do an initial sweep (to remove any significant hazards) and then I would release a raccoon into the living area and clean. This helped because I would 1) feel like a princess and 2) the raccoon would bring attention to things my ADHD brain had decided to ignore and I’d quickly clean that stuff up.

So like, if I’m expected to clean the house now, I will be doing it in the way that is most effective for me. And anything that has not been cleaned up after months of having sit-down talks and sending reminders and being promised things will change, might be deemed “trash” by the trash panda and thrown away.

[raccoonmilf]

We haven’t done since we moved into the house, because I didn’t want to cause my roommate or their cats destress or have their things destroyed by a raccoon

[raccoonmilf]

I am a raccoon biologist and one of the few people in the state allowed to take in captive bred raccoons that had been possessed illegally. The raccoon in the photos is Moonshine, but she is currently at the animal sanctuary where I work as I had been quarantining multiple new intakes from an abuse case. I still have two males (Rum Tum Tugger and Electra) left in my home enclosure as we are getting them neutered and then hopefully sending them to an AZA accredited zoo.

I wanna make things very clear that underneath all the whimsy, I am a trained professional.

[raccoonmilf]

Those vibes are likely because I’m the original creator of Dashcon and my personality has not changed since 2012 lmao

[fipindustries]

[veryberryskye]

yeah i like to give my blessing to the most pathetic looking weak little knight at the tournament. she can’t even look me in the eye when i give her my flower and she stutters out that she’ll do her best or something of the like. i think its funny when she has to cry and beg my forgiveness and i get to say “such a shame, i suppose my hand in marriage will have to go to someone else…” and then i get to hear her whimper like a dog. ive done this like 6 times alrea-

did she just win.

[the-stew-goblin]

I shall prepare a stew for the wedding! Extra salt!

[veryberryskye]

wait wait wait stew goblin wait

[peachdelta]

get ready for the wedding

[should-be-sleeping]

Everyone please behold this baby tree:

It's so much smaller than the support posts, they had to secure it with caution tape.

[should-be-sleeping]

Caution: baby!

[should-be-sleeping]

One day (but not this day)!

[should-be-sleeping]

Update:

Thriving!

[should-be-sleeping]

Now taller than a human person!

In case you were wondering!

[should-be-sleeping]

Update:

Filling out, and up!

[should-be-sleeping]

[should-be-sleeping]

We threw it a birthday party once spring arrived. 🎂

[should-be-sleeping]

🎉

[kaijuno]

[hometoursandotherstuff]

[biomaterial]

The night gardener once asked me if I knew how citrus trees died: when they reach old age, if they are not cut down and they manage to survive drought, disease and innumerable attacks of pests, fungi and plagues, they succumb from overabundance. When they come to the end of their life cycle, they put out a final, massive crop of lemons. In their last spring their flowers bud and blossom in enormous bunches and fill the air with a smell so sweet that it stings your nostrils from two blocks away; then their fruits ripen all at once, whole limbs break off due to their excessive weight, and after a few weeks the ground is covered with rotting lemons. It is a strange sight, he said, to see such exuberance before death.

When We Cease to Understand the World, Benjamín Labatut

[biomaterial]

thank you for the insight

[qrgirl-deactivated20220303]

the space race may be the funniest point in history period and i'll stand by that. the US is like "yes whoever gets into space first will prove once and for all that our economic model is superior and that we are, in general, the superior country of superior and smarter people." then the soviets just went and did it and the US freaked out and needed to cover their ass so were like "WE MEAN THE MOON, WE MEAN THE FIRST TO LAND ON THE MOON."

[fanderburker]

[skluug]

yeah its cus walking on the moon was cool as hell and all this other boring shit sucked ass

[togglesbloggle]

When I was a freshman in a red-state college, I had a professor who taught Newtonian physics with a super thick Russian accent.  The student body was unusually conservative for a state college, so there was a sort of general bemusement about learning physics from a Russian, but even back then the Cold War was far enough in the past that not even the red tribe was inclined to stir up trouble about it.

He was aware enough of this to get off on trolling the class, though.  Whenever some force diagram in a homework assignment needed to be weightless, instead of being some generic spacecraft it would be “Mir” specifically.  And he’d always use ‘cosmonaut’ instead of ‘astronaut’, that kind of thing.

One day about halfway through the semester, he’s doing this with in-class examples on the board, and one of the students finally gets up the guts to troll back a little.  So this kid shouts from the back of the auditorium, “Hey professor, what’s the difference between a cosmonaut and an astronaut?”

And this beautiful man spins around on one heel to face the class, whiteboard marker triumphantly over his head, clearly having been waiting for this moment the entire semester: “Cosmonaut go to space first! Ha!”

[80sanime]

[jethroq]

[seithr]

[un-monstre]

In hindsight being a “gifted kid” is so funny. You have substantial difficulties with socializing and fine motor skills but we’re going to ignore that because you’re really good at reading chapter books

[molsno]

speaking of wikipedia, I was reading about the vietnam war recently, and I was appalled to find out how much weight wikipedia gives to usamerican perspectives of the war. I specifically wanted to know about the aftermath of the war and what life was like for the people living in vietnam, but wikipedia had very little to say on that matter. in the aftermath section of the vietnam war article, wikipedia contains only a few paragraphs, which are mostly spent fearmongering about the re-education camps where the vietnamese government sent the southern military officers and collaborators who fought on the side of the imperialists that ravaged the country for decades

even when wikipedia isn't proliferating red scare propaganda, they're still centering usamerican perspectives. take this sentence, for example:

"Agent Orange and similar substances have caused many health issues for Vietnamese people and the US crews that handled them."

why is there any mention at all of how agent orange affected the us crews that handled the substance? does this matter? the usamericans that were handling agent orange were the ones who were using it to poison the landscape of vietnam. these chemicals have caused severe health problems for millions of people in vietnam for decades after the war. why should anyone care that the imperialist colonizers of the usa who caused this health crisis also faced consequences? they went home to the usa, where they no longer had to live with these chemicals in the environment, and they had access to robust healthcare infrastructure that wasn't in ruins from being bombed for decades. cry me a fucking river

wikipedia's "neutrality" is explicitly imperialist. don't forget that

[so-i-did-this-thing]

Sorry if this is weird but I'm a younger trans kid and I suppose you'd be smarter on this with you being y'know. Way fucking older. Sorry about my language can't rlly help it

How the fuck are you supposed to survive right now. Genuinely what the fuck r u supposed to do.

That's it. That's the question. Okay cya first bump dude

You learn to hold on to your anger at your oppressors while still leaving room to celebrate as much as you can.

I'm not sure where you're from Anon, but lot of us in the US are confronting oppression that others worldwide have already been enduring for generations. It's scary and I think many of us, especially we who are white, forget that people before us - and who currently live alongside us in our own country - have been coping with oppression much longer. And I think it's very important to be humble here and recognize that us "newbies" have a lot to learn from other communities -- those who have endured systemic racism, endured generational poverty and war, incarceration, etc.

This is not a call to see "who has it worse". It's a gentle, "take a deep breath and see how people can still thrive the best they can." It's a reminder that human beings have always sought solace in each other, be it through art, mutual aid, etc. And how human beings persist with their identities and express them however they can, even when expressions of those identities are outlawed.

Take advantage of what you still have access to. A lot is still being fought over on our behalf, especially in the courts. Transition is not universally banned and even if it was, we still have sympathetic allies. The news can be overwhelming, so pull back a little if it's too much -- political pundits attempt to predict, and trans pundits know it is wiser to be pessimistic so people can plan. But all that pessimism also makes it easy to forget what we still have.

Engage with queer art and make your own. It doesn't have to be profound (I write trans fanfic); you just need to see yourself in it. Especially support working queer artists where you can, even if it's checking out a writer's book in the library -- they are putting a lot on the line to stay visible.

Engage with queer history - we have always been here. Learn the stories of those who loudly -or- quietly stayed true to themselves, and draw inspiration from them.

Meet other trans people, especially IRL. Hang out in person. Build and share resources, keep lights on and mouths fed. Organize what you can, even little things like swimming at a safe person's house or having a potluck or clothing swap.

Remember that humanity has an entire history of people doing their best to live and love in the absolute worst of conditions. We can be angry that the future we hoped for is in the process of being taken from us, and if it is stolen, we still should persist to the best of our abilities.

And above all, turn your despair into planning. Figure out other opportunities for your healthcare, education, work, legal protections, etc. Maybe you will need to start using telehealth or cross a border for care. Maybe it's time to download DIY resources and print out to keep in a safe place. Maybe a career/education change is in order, or it's time to do redundant estate planning with a spouse. Maybe we'll have to return to secret parties to truly be ourselves. We all need to have backup plans.

So, yeah. I will not patronize you and say, "things will get better." The future is anyone's guess. But even when things do go to shit, there's art and meals to be made, birthdays to celebrate, animals to pet, and people to love. Including yourself. ❤️

[byjove]

I truly hate that “women are more emotionally wired than men” bullshit. Men are creatures of hysteria and I say this as a man.

[byjove]

Absolutely, I think this is at the core of this. So many dudes will get so upset they punch holes in the walls and hold grudges against their girlfriend from 7th grade as a 30 year old but treat women like they’re overly emotional and oh so sensitive for crying when they hurt their feelings. These guys don’t even notice they’re LOUDLY expressing their emotions and then tweeting about how unfair it is men aren’t allowed to express their emotions.

[cumaeansibyl]

I once saw somewhere that men like this don't think of anger as an emotion and it explained so much. They're not being emotional, they're having a rational response to a situation. And that means they don't have to try to control their anger because if it's rational then everything they do as a result is rational even if they end up in the ER because the wall they punched was cinderblock. Or, less violently, if they end up torching important relationships because they decided being angry means you get to say whatever terrible shit you want.

Being angry is fine! Perfectly reasonable in many situations. But it's an emotional response, and one that needs some looking after, because the impulses it prompts can be very bad ideas.

[phantomrose96]

I wonder if “we have to torture this special character. in the lab facility. with secret science.” is an interest all 12-year-old children share or were we just the generation exposed to Maximum Ride

[phantomrose96]

You’re right. How could I forget to credit anime for its role in putting the special character in the secret torture facility (for science).

[sympathischeufos]

Genuine question: Isn't this just Bond villainy and/or medieval torture dungeon? Or what kind of facility are we talking about?

[phantomrose96]

The Facility is a critically important part here. See it’s a Science Facility. It’s run by a very shady clandestine organization, which is incredibly powerful. They’re maybe part of the government, or if not the government then something Illuminati-like.

As such The Facility is very high tech, and likely buried underground or hidden somewhere no normal person can access. The Torture being done is for Science, which the Facility is for. It’s all scientists in lab coats doing the torture. There is so much lab equipment and probably a lot of devices hooked up to the special character which will beep and go off the charts when the special character has a violent mind explosion. This part is important.

[phantomrose96]

A lot of really good mentions in the notes here

Mewtwo

Secrets of Nimh

Wolverine

Akira

Elfen Lied

Shadow the Hedgehog

And a special mention to the couple of people identifying that a 12-year-old stuck in school all day is, perhaps, in a way, a special character being tortured in the science facility.