sometimes i just want to scream

she/her or hey you wails of anger and ennui into the blue void of the internets. posting stuff I actually like @saltingthecookingwine

[socialmaya]

[hotvampireadjacent]

[plumslices]

If we don’t microdose delusion we won’t make it through this reality babe….

[leebrontide]

So I remember reading about this study in grad school where they have a bunch of clinically depressed people and a bunch of non-clinically-depressed people a game that was partially chance and partially skill, and asked them to estimate how much control they had over the outcome.

The depressed people were far more accurate in estimating how much influence their actions had on the outcome of the game compared to their nondepressed counterparts, who consistently overestimated the effects of their own choices on their chances of winning.

Then I remember this other study (CW animal testing) where they put rats in a bucket of water that they couldn’t get out of, so they’d have to swim. There was a fairly consistent point at which the swimming rat would falter, and stop swimming, fated to drown.

Except that that’s when the researchers would pull the rat out of the bucket, give it a nice rest warmth and a meal.

When those SAME rats who had been rescued before were put in the same situation again, they swam much LONGER than they had before.

Why? The risk was the same either way- drowning. You’d have thought that the fear of drowning would keep them swimming to their maximum length no matter what.

The researchers conclusion was that the rescued rats had something they hadn’t had the first time- they had more hope. A miraculous rescue could come, and that let them swim for longer, just in case.

I think we do microdose delusion because sometimes that little overestimation of our chances, of our luck, keeps us swimming that little bit longer, just in case something good happens. And sometimes, that little margin really does make the difference. 

[vanwolffen]

“All right," said Susan. "I'm not stupid. You're saying humans need... fantasies to make life bearable."

REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.

"Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little—"

YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.

"So we can believe the big ones?"

YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.

"They're not the same at all!"

YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET—Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME...SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.

"Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what's the point—"

MY POINT EXACTLY.”

-Terry Pratchett, Hogfather.

[syn0vial]

hey, don't just leave the quote there! the last line is what MAKES it!

"YOU NEED TO BELIEVE IN THINGS THAT AREN’T TRUE.  HOW ELSE CAN THEY BECOME?"

[txttletale]

i understand that tumblr sucks in an absolute sense but i find it very very odd whenever someone makes the claim that it's somehow significantly worse than other social media in terms of bigotry. i just don't know how you can say that after spending even ten minutes on X The Everything App

[txttletale]

facebook is regularly used to organise fascist violence. it just feels like a claim lacking in perspective ykno

[pouryourselfacupoffuckrightoff]

It’s wayyyyy better here than on fucking Reddit.

[prismatic-bell]

Man, living in the 20s sucks. Just got out of a massive war in the Middle East, went through a pandemic, high tariffs, trickle-down economics, farmers are suffering hardcore, religious extremists trying to force Christian-only curricula in public schools, skyrocketing oil prices, rising antisemitism and xenophobia, fights over birth control, only ten years out from a financial panic...

I sure hope President Coolidge can put a damper on some of this stuff before he leaves office in '29.

[depsidase]

[smashcut]

On the day of Dick Cheney’s death, I’m thinking about a lot of horrible consequences of his actions, but I’m also thinking about Lauren Hough telling Dick Cheney to waterboard her “if it makes him feel better” when she repaired his cable.

[typhlonectes]

[tlirsgender]

Can my Indigenous ass say the progressive christian impulse to no-true-scotsman their entire religion, appealing to "what jesus actually taught", *specifically* in a way that points to "modern" christianity as deviating from this, implying it used to be better, is completely fucking bonkers. You can't RETVRN your way out of genocide. Christianity has been about pillaging for the last 2000 years & if you sincerely want to change this I can respect that but be so fucking fr when you talk about how "modern christianity" isn't what jesus taught. Neither was the roman empire innit

[tlirsgender]

I've said this before but it's all so....... "this isn't what jesus taught" is like, step 1 of recognizing the hypocrisy. But then nobody wants to keep thinking about it past that point. It's been lies justifying unfathomable violence this whole time

[tlirsgender]

& if you want to play that game the christian bible also says to convert the entire world so. It's not looking great. The pillaging is kind of a central pillar of the ideology. Or did you just think the problem with christianity was homophobia, or some nebulous concept of racism that's simply "hate" and doesn't include robbing people of their cultures

[tlirsgender]

"Why are all these white christians racist all of a sudden? :(" I have terrible news about how the last 2000 years have been going

[specialagentartemis]

being an archaeologist in tumblr is so funny because I see so many text posts and go. Imperialism pre-dates capitalism. Rebellion against empires pre-dates capitalism. Money pre-dates capitalism. Social inequality pre-dates capitalism. Misogyny pre-dates capitalism. Wealth inequality pre-dates capitalism. Unilateral rule by oppressive rulers pre-dates capitalism. People’s dependence on their job for their survival pre-dates capitalism. Capitalism as an economic system is about 200-250 years old max but these problems are much, much older, and capitalism supports, entrenches, or exacerbates many of these problems… doesn’t mean it invented them and doesn’t mean they will simply cease to be problems After Capitalism.

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

#saw a post the other day that referred to paying taxes as a ‘modern problem’#sorry man but that’s like one of the oldest problems in the book

[qqueenofhades]

More and more often these days, in what is surely a sign that everything is just absolutely fine, I find myself recalling the wise words of the prophets written on the subway walls:

[pouryourselfacupoffuckrightoff]

which roman emperor made his horse a consul? Caligula? Anyway, it did not actually happen. It’s obviously not clear at this point but one theory is that the idea come from a joke about how the fucking horse had 18 personal servants, bejeweled tack, ivory manger, etc so the emperor might as well make the horse a fucking consul.

It was probably just as stupid. Except our subway walls probably won’t get dug up in an archaeological dig cause it’s practically all digital

[chaumas-deactivated20240115]

when the rapture occurs my plan is to wait on a balcony above a crowded street and throw a big net out so I can james and the giant peach my way up into heaven

[chaumas-deactivated20240115]

me riding my catch of naked christians to gatecrash paradise

[depsidase]

[bedupolker]

I do appreciate studies giving hard data that may seem obvious to us (e.g. physical discipline is bad for kids, responsible marijuanna use probably won't give you turbocancer, UBI is pretty dope, people who get healthcare die less) but I sure do wish the opposing sides actually cared about hard data

[quasi-normalcy]

Our survival is your survival.

[yell-hound]

“i’m an American and I hate America” skill issue! I love it enough to want to help change it for the better :)

[clueingforbeggs]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Some level of patriotism, some level of love for your country, is required.

Because I've seen the alternative. I've seen what hatred of a country, especially if it's your country, what 'tear it down and start again' does. And it doesn't help anyone. It often hurts the very people the 'I hate [insert country here]! Everyone should hate [insert country here]!' people claim that they're hating the country on behalf of.

If you want to improve your country, you have to love it first. If you're struggling with that, I can completely understand it, but try to find something you can hold onto.

For me, the first thing was the Olympics and Paralympics. Those are a few years off now, but there's a world athletics championship going on in Tokyo right now, and I happen to know America is competing in it, because some American women won an event today. If you can, turn your TV on and watch it. If you've got someone in an event, cheer them on. Celebrate if and when they win. This may sound like one of the last things you want to do, but if you can, try to sing along with your anthem as it plays for a gold medallist.

(I don't know your anthem off by heart, but if there's anything in there you can find inspirational, especially if it's to do with the idea of improving your country, I recommend making a mental note of it. I don't actually know if that's possible, but it is with one of my country's national anthems. The amount of times I've stepped back from a situation, taken a few deep breaths, and repeated the last stanza of it to myself is... Uncountable. Try another patriotic song if there's nothing in The Star Spangled Banner. It seriously helps when you're dealing with something shitty going on in your country)

If you're an American and you hate America, it does not need to stay that way. You just need to start looking for good things, and then you'll find more will fall into place. At some point, some years down the line, you'll look back and realise that, without even knowing it, you've built your own idea of patriotism, of what it means to love your country, an idea that you've probably been told is impossible to have and hold if you have and hold certain other ideas.

The people who told you that are lying to you, or they've been lied to themselves and are now spreading it.

[prismatic-bell]

A lot of people don't know our anthem has multiple verses, because if that was more widely known we'd have to deal with the fact that the third verse cheers for the deaths of slaves ("no refuge could save the hireling or slave"). There is a pretty good possibility this was referring to British conscripted soldiers, since it wouldn't make a whole lot of sense for escaped enslaved people to try to hide in the middle of a naval battle, but given our history with slavery, it's, uh...a troubling lyric, to say the least. The last verse also includes the line "then conquer we must," and while in context it's pretty clearly referring to the Brits, that is. Also not a line. I would want to use. Given our further history with Native Americans and countries like the Philippines.

HOWEVER.

You inspired me to look up the full lyrics, and I found out someone of unknown origin has written a replacement for the "hireling and slave" verse that's actually really good???

When our land is illumined with Liberty's smile

If a foe from within strike a blow at her glory

Down, down with the traitor that dares to defile

The flag of her stars and the page of her story!

By the millions unchained, who our birthright have gained

We will keep her bright blazon forever unstained!

And the Star-Spangled Banner in triumph shall wave

While the land of the free is the home of the brave

I don't know if this was a deliberate jab at Trump or not, but this lyricist is talented as hell. I was actually confused at first because it fits the tone of the original so well and I knew the verse definitely included the actual word "slave" because I studied it in high school.

I'd also suggest, frankly, reading the Constitution. It's imperfect; it was one of the first such documents created, and it was the first to suggest power should come from the governed. It was written by privileged men in a deeply uncertain time and some of them absolutely do not pass the smell test for ethics by modern standards. (John Adams was pretty okay. I'll argue for Mason even though in some ways he was a real shithead.)

BUT. Though they often didn't live up to their lofty ideals (and though some of them we're still failing to attain today), I'd argue that the ideas they set forth are good, and worth preserving. I've said before and will say again that it's our founding documents, not our flag, to which I pledge my allegiance.

Seriously, read it. Read the Articles of Confederation and some of the Federalist Papers while you're at it. If your response is "yeah that's great and all but they didn't extend that to—" okay! Then YOU extend it! YOU help push toward the world where those ideals apply to all people! We can do it if we work together!

But it takes a certain level of love for the people around you. And nobody can force you to have that. You have to build it yourself.

[civresearcher]

The Star-Spangled Banner Verse You've Probably Never Heard

We only sing the first verse, but the national anthem actually has four. In the midst of the Civil War, poet Oliver Wendell Holmes penned ye

NPR thinks the author of the "When our land is illumined..." verse is Oliver Wendell Holmes, and my instincts agree with their research.

You may also like this.

Comments & analysis: Breakfast at the Century Club, New York, May, 1879. / SUCH kindness! the scowl of a cynic

I'm not as sure as i once was that the love is what got cut into the rock around these parts, but like you said we have to push for the meanings we want going forward.

[prismatic-bell]

NPR usually knows their stuff. Right on, Oliver.

[wilwheaton]

someone finally admitted it