Yet Another Menagerie of Interests

what i post on the average day is anyone's guess pfp by makowka on picrew

[dragon-in-a-fez]

Martina McBride didn't win Country Music Association Song of the Year for a song about how burning your house down with your abusive husband still inside it is good, noble, and an allegory for the American Revolution for people to act like the genre belongs to bootlicking fucks

[dragon-in-a-fez]

other things people didn't do for you to act like country music belongs to bootlicking fucks:

Garth Brooks winning video of the year at the ACMs for a song about how none of us are free as long as there's racism and homophobia

Reba McEntire charting with a gothic horror song about an innocent man being executed by an incompetent judge and a corrupt sheriff

Willie Nelson being, well, his entire self tbh

Dolly Parton recording the hating capitalism banger of all time

Kacey Musgraves telling everyone to ignore the haters, smoke weed, and be a bisexual slut

[dragon-in-a-fez]

how the hell did I leave Morgan Wade off this list. wrote a song about being depressed, alcoholic, and suicidal and how mental illness stigma sucks, saw how much people connected with it, wrote a Part II of that song about how she's doing better now but you're never totally free of the risk of relapse. fucking icon.

[dragon-in-a-fez]

I specifically curated this list so people couldn't be like "ah yes but you see here is my simple binary of good and bad country music which always works", I made sure to add different genders, eras, subgenres, etc and y'all are still pulling that shit in the tags!

listen. Alan Jackson, the archetypal mister big hat man sitting on a tractor singing about a pickup truck, wrote a shockingly normal song about 9/11 that was like "yeah I don't know jack shit about politics but my copy of the bible says we're supposed to love everyone" and then went on the radio and explained how he specifically wanted to write a song about that day that "wasn't vengeful". Miranda Lambert took the southern leftist slogan "y'all means all" and made it the title of a corny ass pop-country song for the Queer Eye soundtrack. Kenny Chesney stole a horse from a cop and Tim McGraw put the cop in a chokehold defending him, and I know that's not about their music but it is, and this is very important, fucking sick as hell

it's fine if you only listen to female country artists or pre-1990 country artists or whatever the fuck you want but stop acting like you've cracked the secret code to dividing a whole genre of art into good pure anti-establishment folk songs vs bad corrupted right-wing sellout pulp

[dragon-in-a-fez]

updating this post for 2025:

Luke Combs covering Fast Car and keeping the line "I work in the market as a checkout girl" and doing an interview about how he couldn't change a single word because it's not his story. king shit

Morgan Wallen doing I Had Some Help, literally the first song that spoke to me as a male survivor of domestic abuse. also shoutout to the guy for getting caught saying a racial slur and responding by specifically telling his fans not to defend him and raising a bunch of money for the Black Music Action Coalition. bro had an engraved invitation to the culture war and said "nah I'd rather be normal"

Shaboozey just absolutely obliterating the drunk roadhouse anthem glass ceiling

Maren Morris and Brothers Osborne with a song that okay, released in 2019 but I didn't hear until recently, about how good friends mind their own business and let you love whoever you want and also get high with you when you're broke

Kimberley Perry! If I Die Young Part 2!! "actually I'm glad I lived, bitch" ass song that I bet is gonna mean a LOT to kids fighting depression

Kelsea Ballerini and Noah Kahan with Cowboys Cry Too. okay it's shallow and corny but genuinely a shallow and corny song about how men shouldn't be afraid to have feelings is what a lot of men need

[dragon-in-a-fez]

bringing the full version of this post back around because people are pissing me off today

[maxxie-or-smth]

you've met me at a very "yeah i'm trying to work on that" time in my life

[lamignonette]

[transmascmarypoppins]

why is this post completely broken in every way imaginable

[cecilsrandomeverything]

Broken notes… deactivated account… removed image….

Finally, we have them all.

[spacefinch]

In addition: OP’s name is just… gone. No “[insert username]-deactivated[insert a bunch of numbers]” as is the standard for deactivated blogs.

Just the world “deactivated.” Look upon their post, ye mighty, and despair.

[chatblancofficial]

It’ll be almost impossible to find this post unless it wanders across your dash.

[huewrite]

It wandered across mine. I shall help it travel forward.

[gossamermouse]

this is not a place of honor

[jackviator]

[dinosaurana]

Oh hey post of Ozymandius, good to see you again standing on your feet in a desert where no one remembers you

[argumate]

I keep thinking this! very frustrating

[argumate]

fuck!

[homunculus-argument]

I don't even know whose job it was to teach people this, but did they just stop teaching people what a bicycle bell means?

One would think that hearing a very distinct, clearly audible, reasonably loud and rapidly approaching sound of any kind would make any reasonable mammal turn to look at the direction of the sound, just purely by instinct?? If a deer heard something nearby go DING DING DING DING DING DING at its general direction, it would at least look up to see whether the source of the sound is a threat or not? Just a quick "is that something I need to be concerned about?" type of glance.

The enshittification of pedestrians has reached the point where they have less traffic survival skills than deer.

[homunculus-argument]

How exactly does one slow down and weave around pedestrians who are blocking the entire way in a formation in which it would be impossible to pass them even on foot without elbowing one or two?

[nerdyinfluencertastemaker]

This is literally why we need bike lanes

[homunculus-argument]

The pedestrians ignoring the bike bell are on the bike lanes.

[sailor-crusader-deactivated2025]

You have GOT to stop acting like "criminals" are a different breed of human that are more violent just because.

[thelawfulchaotic]

Criminal law is so bonkers disconnected from the reality of everyday life that things are crimes that people just Do.

Have you ever had on your person a prescription drug for someone else? Held for them, brought to them, picked up for them? If it was on the controlled substance list, you opened yourself up to a felony.

Ever pulled your sibling’s hair? Gave them a nougie? Hit them, tripped them, grabbed something out of their hands? You could have been charged with domestic battery.

Did you play with fire as a kid? Most people do, at least a little. Hope it wasn’t in a place with grass, because burning grasses is a felony here.

Your parents leave you in the car while they went into the store? Felony child neglect, these days.

Ever had a pet die from something that made them lose a lot of weight? I had a client convicted of felony animal abuse resulting in death even though the only veterinarian witness testified he didn’t know what caused the animal’s death and did not do a necropsy.

Ever thrown something at a car? Empty soda bottle, snowball, water balloon? Felony missile at occupied vehicle.

People can be convicted of brandishing a firearm for having it in a holster. For concealed carry of a firearm if it’s on the other side of their body from an officer observing (and therefore “hidden”). Got a knife in your pocket or a brass knuckle keyring self defense device? That’s a concealed weapon.

Did you know that child protective services safety plans are sometimes taken out as protective orders? My client didn’t, when she went to try to buy a firearm to defend herself against an abusive ex. She was under a CPS protective order to not have the ex around her children. Charged with felony fraud in firearm affidavit: attempting to buy a gun while under a protective order.

Had a kid convicted of arson for burning some variant of nerf darts in his room and not even trying to set anything else on fire.

I have seen convictions and charges for everything on this list.

And always remember, almost half (45%) of people are in prison for probation or parole violations, huge swathes of that number for doing things that would be legal and fine for you and me but are not fine because they’re on probation.

This is why overpolicing matters: because normal shit gets regularly criminalized for certain populations.

[thelawfulchaotic]

Forgot a big one! Have you ever shared painkillers or anti-anxiety meds or other controlled substances (obtained with a prescription) with other family members?

That is in fact drug dealing. The defense to it is “accommodation” — as in, I was accommodating someone, not dealing for profit — and accommodation, uh, slightly reduces how bad of a felony it is and does nothing else.

The person who is accommodated also has committed felony possession of controlled substance.

This is why people with Adderall prescriptions only use the original pill bottle. Because they could get charged with a felony at any point if they don’t, just because an officer thinks it’s not theirs.

[the-breath-in-air]

I work with kids who are on probation and a big one for then is about 'affiliating with known gang members.' Which is difficult to manage when you've been placed in a school for expelled students - many of whom are on probation for gang-related charges. Or...hey...not sure how a kid can avoid associating with gang members when their neighbors and uncles and siblings and parents whom they live with are also gang members. What precisely is a teen supposed to do when their mom is the one driving them around town at night to do shit?

I had a student get arrested and incarcerated for months because his probation officer found a bag of thc candy in his room. We're in California; he shares a room with an older brother. Everyone in that house uses marijuana. And now this kid is shouldering all the blame and guilt for that.

I had a student get arrested for talking back and being 'disrespectful' to his probation officer. An angry, traumatized teenager shouted at his P.O. and the result was him getting hauled away from school in cuffs.

Two students at my school got into a mutual fight - no one was injured. One was on probation and one wasn't. The one not on probation was suspended for a couple of days, and when he returned he's enrolled in our anger managment group. The one on probation was hauled away in cuffs and now he will spend Thanksgiving and possibly Christmas in juvenile hall.

I dont know what I'm concluding with all this except, yeah...so many people get labeled as 'criminals' as kids and it is damn near impossible to shake off that label once it's been assigned. The system we have is horrifyingly unjust.

[only-cat-memes]

[phaeton-flier]

Bear religion probably fucking rocks. You're a fucking bear, you're the deadliest thing on earth, once a year an endless supply of salmon just flings itself up the river to gorge on and then you nap for 3 months.

[freesiadotcom]

Huh.

Maybe the open window will help

[petefoxshend-deactivated2018062]

“Big Pharma” okay are we talking about how privatization and monetization has deeply corrupted the field of medicine or are you talking about how you think chemicals in the water are making the frogs gay

[greyramblings]

“GMOs”? Are we talking seeds that grow sterile plants and patenting genetic modifications then destroying any competition no matter how small they are? Or are we talking life saving rice with vitamin a to make sure kids don’t go blind in regions not suited for other high vit a veg? … or are we talking about your chidoodle?

[finnglas]

when i was a tiny baby queer (aka a 24-year-old), i went to my first pride festival probably three months after i kicked ex-gay therapy to the curb and came out to my parents. being the people they are, my parents came with me. they weren’t really sure about this whole gay thing, but they loved me and wanted me to be safe and happy and wanted to be involved in what was important to me, so they came along. (i also think my mother still might have thought i might get drugged or murdered or beaten by a protester of which there were plenty.)

anyway i wanted a memento of my first pride, you know, and this one vendor was selling keyrings, and i liked it, so i bought one. do you remember those italian charm bracelets that were all the rage like 10-15 years ago? it was a keychain like that, and it had a rainbow rooster, a rainbow cat, and then just a rainbow, and so I bought it.

i run into my mom a couple of vendors over and she goes oh you bought something? what’d you get? so i showed her, and i was like, “I’m not sure why it’s a rooster and a cat. Seems kind of random. But I liked the rainbows.”

and my mom, who was some form of minister’s wife for most of my childhood and teenagerhood, stares at me like she thinks i’m joking.

“What?” i say.

“…it’s a cock and a pussy, Jules,” she says flatly, and that is the story of how i died at the age of 24 while attending my first pride festival.

[finnglas]

I love how every June this one gets dug up and passed around again, lmao.

[finnglas]

oh no is this what we’re doing now

[finnglas]

…relic…

*crumbles and blows away on the wind*

[kedreeva]

I thought y'all might like to see Niagara Falls lit up for Pride.

Hope you had a good one!

[cowboyified]

[cowboyified]

[cowboyified]

[depsidase]

[amazon-me-bitches]

LEAVE THE LEAVES, IT DOES NOT HURT YOUR GRASS GROWTH AT ALL BTW. anyone who tells you otherwise is trying to sell you something, LEAVES HELP THE SOIL AND ARE BIODEGRADABLE. STOP THE BIG LAWN GOLF COURSE BULLSHIT.

also if you rake up your lawn the very second a single leaf falls on it I kind of never want to hear you on about how you "LOVE FALL SO MUCH" again. bitch no you don't or you would like it to LOOK like fall too. every single excuse I have heard for keeping your creepy sodded weed free/life free lawn has been stupid as all get out. -Leaves are good for soil -"weeds" are not a real thing and your yard should have diversity and natural growth in it, especially clovers!! -you want butterflies and bees to thrive don't mow your yard in the fall/winter they hibernate in the tall grass also birds need seeds from it sometimes. -it should be illegal to not have a tree in your yard, at your first chance please try to plant some trees, they have endless benefits. -stfu about 'ew but bugs!' please get off the internet and go touch grass, I am actually worried for you. -Don't over till your soil, once topsoil is gone its pretty much gone, it takes YEARS to rebuild it. THIS IS HOW THE DUSTBOWL HAPPENED AND IT CAN AND WILL HAPPEN AGAIN. treat the land with respect.

[plantnerderyallday]

It not hurting grass growth is entirely dependent on species of tree and climate. Here, oaks and big leaf maples will 100% kill off patches of grass.

The solution to this, of course, is to leave the leaves, note how far out from the trunk(s) they kill grass, and declare that area a garden bed and plant it with understory plants/plants that can handle getting a bunch of leaves dumped on them. Ideally with plants native to your area and that naturally grow under that species of tree or similar. But you can also throw in some helebores and bleeding hearts to appease HOAs/neighbors with opinions.

Also, do keep an eye out for non-native weeds that like to create monocultures. Everyone should be familiar with noxious weeds and invasive species and know how to deal with them. They can and will crowd out native species and this does have negative effects.

A lot of bees and other insects do hibernate in the hollow stems of plants and birds feed on seed heads, so it's a good idea to find out what plants native to your area provide that kind of habitat and include them in your garden. Here we have a species of golden rod, pearly everlasting, triteleia etc. I wouldn't recommend demanding on lawn gasses to provide this ecosystem niche as there's a very good chance they aren't native to your area and some insects won't use them because of that.

Another note: a lot of people are worried about bugs, and I get that. But here's the thing: in a balanced ecosystem, the predators of bugs are there as well, so you'll actually see fewer of the "pest" bugs. Pesticides are usually non-selective, meaning they kill everything. "Pest" bugs reproduce and thus recover their populations much faster than predator insects, so by spraying you end up with population explosions of whatever was bothering you in the first place. What really helps is creating habitat for predator species because they then keep those populations under control. This is one of the ways organic vegetable producers do it.