No content just reblog machine

18+ here sometimes. I don't tag cause I'm tired. Block me if you need to. BLM. Stop Asian Hate. Pro Queer. Pro Ace, Kink, and Pro Trans binary and trans nonbinary folks, they are all queer you ahistorical asswhipes. Prochoice. Pro Vax. Pro Reparations. Pro Having a Nice Planet to LIVE ON. Alt right convert to intersectional fact based justice or die. Soft conservatives get well soon join reality whenever you're ready

[keplercryptids]

i’ve been on hold at my library for a book about asexuality for a few weeks and i just read an article about some concepts in the book re: consent. and holy shit. blew my mind. i’ve NEVER read about consent in the context of a relationship with an ace and an allo that resonated so strongly with me, and as a person in such a relationship!! it’s so!!! i’m even more excited for the book now.

for anyone interested, the article is How to Negotiate Better Consent: An Asexual Perspective and the book i’m waiting for is Ace: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society and the Meaning of Sex.

[keplercryptids]

god okay, just to gush about this more, the author suggests using the categories of enthusiastic, willing, unwilling and coerced consent (rather than just “enthusiastic consent” or “no means no”). i really recommend reading the whole article linked above, but what blew my mind is the distinction between enthusiastic and willing consent. it gets broken down like this:

Enthusiastic consent:

When I want you

When I don’t fear the consequences of saying yes OR saying no

When saying no means missing out on something I want

Willing consent:

When I care about you though I don’t desire you (right now)

When I’m pretty sure saying yes will have an okay result and I think maybe that I’d regret saying no

When I believe that desire may begin after I say yes

and like!!! it made me realize i may have never actually enthusiastically consented in my life, but like, that doesn’t mean i have never or cannot consent! i almost always fall into the “willing consent” framework and i’ve never seen that….validated anywhere. anyway, it’s just given me this perspective about my sexuality and consent in general and better ways to relate to my partner and!!! idk!!! thank goodness for other ace people, is what i’m saying.

[queeranarchism]

This is very useful and a lot of sex work can also be best understood as willing consent, where the indirect consequences of having sex (getting paid) are what is desired and the direct consequences (having probably-mediocre sex with someone you don’t actively desire) are not considered so negative that they outweigh the indirect consequences.

Which is a definition of consent that gives sex workers agency and sees their consent as a choice made again and again based on the pros and cons, not something that is coerced and also not something that always exists by default simply because they are sex workers.

Recognizing willing consent is probably validating for a lot of people who have consent to sex without meeting the definition of enthusiastic consent. 

[lily-stabby]

So imagine a DnD character who's whole motivation is 'X guy killed my parents and I need to find them' and the party just thinks 'ok, revenge quest, that's normal'

But when they finally find the guy the person with dead parents is just like "Hey buddy, long time no see. It's a shame we got separated, here's some money" and they're super chill.

The party is just confused and goes "Wait, why are you giving him gold?"

The guy just goes "Cause I owe him money?"

The party "But he killed your parents???"

"That's why I owe him money!"

[just-illegal]

[homunculus-argument]

It's strange to me how some people seem to consider animal instincts as something that compels them to work like machines, like an automation, instead of an emotional whim that they lack the capacity to pause and wonder about. Like the things we consider human instincts, a random "hmm, I want to do this for some reason", and then go about doing it. An emotional whim that overtakes them, instead of a scripted, coded command.

Maybe migrating birds just start to feel like going south. Building a nest just for fun seems like a good idea. Being overcome with the sudden urge to sing, and - immediately afterwards - the desire to beat the shit out of this other asshole who is trying to sing on your goddamn turf. The fact that they are things that need to happen to ensure the survival of the species doesn't mean they aren't also things that they want to do. Birds only do things that they want to do, they spend all their time doing whatever the fuck they feel like doing at that exact moment.

Human instincts aren't involuntary compulsions, either. They are urges to do something, whether or not you know or understand where these desires stem from. The idea that humans are free of instinctive behaviours because of ~power of intelligent reason~ is just as goddamn absurd as the idea that we, too, are slaves to them. No, what makes the difference is having the capacity wonder why, how, and where the instinctive desire comes from.

An animal who instinctively reacts to an unnatural situation in a way that doesn't serve the survival of this individual or the species as a whole isn't broken, it's just doing something that feels right. I don't think that a shark who bites an electric cable doesn't understand it doesn't have any nutritional value, it just goes "ooh, this looks like something that would be fun to bite."

What makes us human is being able to look at a softly shining, bright-coloured, soft and deliciously scented pod of laundry detergent, being aware of the instinctive desire to take a bite out of a delicious, fragrant, ripe fresh fruit, and being consciously aware that in this particular situation, it would absolutely not be fun.

[serratedpens]

[utopians]

sorry to keep harping but the thing is. like. people pretty much universally have profoundly complex and richly textured lives outside of the internet. like everyone you'll ever meet will have their share of complicated relationships, personal struggles, identity issues, et cetera. and these people will likely have deep inner lives and senses of self that an outsider is not easily privy to yk. but then you get all these Posters with a superiority complex who log into the fandom blogging website, see a fandom blogger blogging about fandom, and for some reason forget that other human beings have a rich inner world and assume that this little niche interest site somehow represents the totality of the fandom blogger's life and that they can deduce some sort of damning portrait of a Life Consumed by Media from the fact that they sometimes blog about fandom on the fandom blogging website. and then they make stupid ass posts like the aforementioned. it's so pretentious and self important and mean spirited with zero substance. Banished to the salt mines for 10000 years

[utopians]

*stands in a bowling alley angrily tapping my foot as I notice everyone around me doing nothing but bowling* it's so fucked up how obsessed with bowling everyone is. nobody has an identity outside bowling. these people must have no sense of self when they aren't bowling. unlike me... if only I could write some sort of post to enlighten these poor fools...

[humorstar]

[sagely-n-a-i-v-e]

I want you guys to notice how the dog spot is almost completely 100% dry, meaning doggo did not move until the rain had stopped.

I would like you to further notice that the only part of the dog spot that has any water at all is the tail portion, which would seem to indicate doggo picked up his tail at some point to wag it.

Doggo had a fantastic time in this sudden burst of rain.

[earthdungeon]

spider pronouns it/ze/bit/xe

[radiofreederry]

[lordnot]

Yes, such a claim makes him look like a small-minded piece of shit. To us. But we still shouldn't help Musk create revisionist history.

Musk bought Twitter because he fucked around and found out. He wanted to fuck with Twitter's stock price by feigning interest in buying it. Since that's illegal, he was then cornered into actually buying it for an insanely inflated price.

He's a transphobe. He's a bad father. But he's also a fucking idiot.

[gamer-crow-deactivated20250412]

This. Please remember that he committed blatant market manipulation by not disclosing that he owned shares of Twitter when he was fucking with the stock market. The SEC was watching him very closely already, and so when the cost became more than what the entire company was worth, he had no choice. Remember when he had his gaggle of lawyers try to get him out of it by saying Twitter didn't disclose all of the information? That wasn't Twitter, it was him trying desperately to get out of a purchase he didn't want in the first place.

[runawaymarbles]

Which phrase from Admiral John Benbow (1653-1702)'s description of Port Royal are you?

The dunghill of the universe

The refuse of the whole Creation

A shapeless pile of rubbish confusedly jumbled into the emblem of choas

The nursery of Heaven's judgment

The malignant seed of all pestilence

The receptacle of vagabonds

The sanctuary of bankrupts

As sickly as a hospital

As dangerous as the plague

As hot as Hell and as wicked as the Devil

Voting ended onSep 15, 2023

[sapphling]

sitting anti-kink posters down in front of a wrestling match and explaining kayfabe to them with the patience of a preschool teacher

[sapphling]

You see that one? He's called the "heel." He looks mean and says a lot of scary things, but it's not real and he's actually very nice. When he says "I'm going to break you in half" you don't have to be scared because it's pretend. These two talked about this beforehand, and now they're playing pretend together. Can you think of any other situations that might be like this?

[sapphling]

no that part was real

[prokopetz]

My secret to actually finishing publishing projects is that when I don't feel like working on them, I procrastinate by pissing around with the innumerable tiny housekeeping tasks associated with the project that would otherwise bring things to a crashing halt at the 99% mark, so that when I eventually do get to the 99% mark, they're already done.

Like, you don't feel like actually writing the thing?

Screw around with the layout and formatting of your credits and copyright notices page.

Put together a spec for an illustration you imagine you might one day commission, if you ever find yourself in possession of a budget.

Fire up your graphic design software and compose a completely unnecessary diagram or visual aid.

Tinker with the wording of the promotional blurb on the itch.io page you set up in a previous bout of procrastination even though the product doesn't actually exist yet.

Any non-trivial publishing project has a billion peripheral little tasks that need taking care of, most of them sufficiently small and sufficiently different from Writing The Thing that you can probably convince your brain that doing them when you "should" be writing counts as procrastinating – and that list may look a lot less intimidating when it's framed less as "a billion things I Have To Do" and more as "a billion things I can distract myself with to avoid actually writing".

[prokopetz]

My secret to actually finishing publishing projects is that when I don't feel like working on them, I procrastinate by pissing around with the innumerable tiny housekeeping tasks associated with the project that would otherwise bring things to a crashing halt at the 99% mark, so that when I eventually do get to the 99% mark, they're already done.

Like, you don't feel like actually writing the thing?

Screw around with the layout and formatting of your credits and copyright notices page.

Put together a spec for an illustration you imagine you might one day commission, if you ever find yourself in possession of a budget.

Fire up your graphic design software and compose a completely unnecessary diagram or visual aid.

Tinker with the wording of the promotional blurb on the itch.io page you set up in a previous bout of procrastination even though the product doesn't actually exist yet.

Any non-trivial publishing project has a billion peripheral little tasks that need taking care of, most of them sufficiently small and sufficiently different from Writing The Thing that you can probably convince your brain that doing them when you "should" be writing counts as procrastinating – and that list may look a lot less intimidating when it's framed less as "a billion things I Have To Do" and more as "a billion things I can distract myself with to avoid actually writing".

[littlegermanboy]

guys i just got the best anon ever idk if i can post this i want to keep it framed in my inbox forever.

[littlegermanboy]

i can’t choose a favorite part of this it’s all so good.

[homunculus-argument]

"Captain, I have concerning information about the humans. Did you know that they have the technology to undo death and obtain various different types of immortalit-"

"Was there tangible proof for the claims, or is this something you've only seen mentioned in human communications?"

"Wh- Only in communications, captain. Why?"

"Those reports are fase. As a general rule, never believe human data that has only been recorded in their own communications. A vast amount of the information they transfer to each other is false, concerning things, incidents and specimens that never happened and do not, in fact, exist at all."

"What? Why? I thought their communications systems have an organic base in their own physical bodies, how could anyone have infiltrated-"

"No, they do that on their own. They produce reports of completely false, baseless data themselves, for their own amusement. They use their main means of communication to create falsified, fanciful information of incidents, situations and fictional people purely to entertain themselves and each other. More than two thirds of human communication consists of deliberately false, fictional data."

"But why would th- Wait. Are they doing it right now?"

"You fool! YOU BROKE THE FOURTH WALL!"

[both get sucked out into the vacuum of space]

[captainjonnitkessler]

I truly, TRULY do not know how to say this, because the fact that I have to say it makes me feel like I am losing my grip on reality. But no, in the post-capitalistic anarchist utopia, I will not be relying on “autistic minecraft girlies” to be building inspectors because - and this may shock you - one of those occupations takes years of education in how to read and interpret hundreds of thousands of lines of regulations based on complicated math and physics that were the result of decades of tragedy and death, and the other one involves playing a children’s video game.

[captainjonnitkessler]

I have no idea why this is suddenly getting notes, but it’s auspicious timing since my code class started today and I get to spend the next ten days learning how to parse the thousand pages of the National Electric Code to make sure I don’t accidentally blow up a hospital or something.

The original post annoyed me not because I think it’s a mainstream opinion that needs to be taken seriously, but because it’s part of a larger trend of hypocrisy I’ve noticed among leftists. Construction is an important trade that takes a lot of skill and knowledge, but things like inspections and engineering can be done by anyone with a passing interest in architecture. Worker’s rights and safe working conditions are of the utmost importance, but actual safety regulations and building codes are just bureaucracy meant to keep us dependent on the government. You should unionize and demand the full value of your labor, but tradespeople who charge a fair price are scum and union members who retire millionaires after a lifetime of manual labor are class traitors who get the wall. We need to respect blue collar workers and how difficult their work is, but also we should abolish the division of labor because those jobs are so simple that people can just take a class in high school to learn how to do them. A lot of leftists claim to respect labor but constantly show that they still buy into the “blue collar labor is unskilled work for people too stupid for academia” stereotypes.

I don’t really have a point but after ten hours of reading densely packed legalese about the minute differences between classifications of hazardous locations and all the extremely particular precautions you need to take to stop them from blowing up the first time you flip a light switch, it’s really annoying to get online and see people advocating for getting rid of building codes because they’re “authoritarian” or whatever.

[catchymemes]

[is-the-owl-video-cute-deactivat]

Not just any paper maps, they had textbook sized atlases of the entire delivery area with each street meticulously mapped out.

These were insanely handy and a new edition came out just about every year to stay up to date on construction and road changes. I remember stocking my car with these for any of the cities I tended to travel to because they were the only way to actually get anywhere unless you wanted to call a friend and get very in depth instructions on how to get there.

[ralfmaximus]

AAA is now mostly known for roadside assistance, but at one time their primary business was MAPS.

For a few bucks a month you could become a Triple-A member and yeah, roadside assistance was one of the perks. BUT ALSO you could pick up the phone, call their 1-800 number, and tell the human operator who answered that you were planning a road trip.

They'd get your starting and destination address. Ask a few questions: what kinds of hotels you liked, preferred gas stations, any interest in touristy things?

Then in 7 to 10 days you'd get a thick package in the mail of carefully customized maps. Each map was the size of a paperback book cover, perfect for holding in the passenger's or driver's lap. Each was enumerated starting at #1 and ending at #whatever number of minimaps the trip required, with a hand-drawn highlighter path drawn on the map marking the route from one edge to another; entrance & exit points for that section of the route.

Motels, gas stations, and (if requested) tourist traps were indicated in color coded ink -- again, by hand. Sometimes detours were drawn in red marker, overriding the printed map because AAA kept up to date on road closures & regional disasters.

These maps were customized for your particular trip, and were invaluable since GPS did not exist. Unless you were familiar with the local region, the alternative was buying a map at the next gas station and guessing.

GPS is amazing and I wouldn't want to give up the ease & simplicity of Google Maps, but my god the old tech was miraculous too in its own way.

[pjharvey-moved-deactivated20250]

people need to accept that some gay/lgbt people are terrible and some gay/lgbt people are boring and it doesnt make them Actually Straight or anything

[pjharvey-moved-deactivated20250]

big pet peeve of mine is gay internet users talking about ellen degeneres and pete buttigieg and acting like they’re “basically straight” as if both these people aren’t literally married to someone of the same sex sleeping in the same bed with them and having gay sex with their gay spouses and as if ellen degeneres coming out wasn’t such a huge moment in the lesbian community and pop culture as a whole that the biggest lesbian website for decades after that was called afterellen like unfortunately being gay doesn’t make you immune to being friends with war criminals.

[miraculous-stardust]

this unironically. i’m in a public policy program that hosts lots of activists and organizers as speakers, and one comment that sticks with me was “if you like every single person in your community, it isn’t big enough”. that’s the struggle of organizing, of intersectionality, of coalition-building, of getting shit done. it’s reality that even people with similar goals and identities are still going to disagree— often. and sometimes other queer people are boring, conservative, etc etc etc.