The Uncanny Valley

[bkdk]

punk is a culture in which you go against societal norms and fight against bigots and the current quality of society and combat sexism racism homophobia and the whole lot while listening to loud music and wearing cool jeans but punk has been warped into this culture of cis white dudes with mohawks who smoke and ARE the bigots and who think you arent punk if you cant name 12 obscure punk bands and their lead singers middle name and what their drummers ate for breakfast on the morning of july 16th 1996

[cupio-ace]

the only crush i have is crushing anxiety

[blossomfully]

I,” she says, “am always stuck. I am always stuck between giving people everything because I am dying to create meaningful relationships and giving them nothing at all because then if they leave, at least I’ll be left whole.

S.Z. // Excerpt from a book I’ll never write #138 (via blossomfully)

[nevaehtyler]

capitalism is a bitch

[bogleech]

Wyomingites are monstrous giants who decide the fate of normal-sized Californians with an iron fist

But seriously though this is why the electoral college system doesn’t make sense in modern America. It effectively reduces the validity of your vote as an individual if you happen to share your state with more people. It pretends every state is like a mini-country with its own unique and special interests rather than treating all Americans as a single population.

[tlatophat]

Because they are? That’s why each state has a Governor and a Congress? Because the needs of the people in Wyoming are not the same as the needs of the people in California? We’re a Union of separate States under a Federal representative government; aka UNITED STATES (note the plural?). That’s why there’s two houses in the national Congress, and why Presidents compete for States, not popular vote alone. Because each state IS significantly different from the others and have their own unique problems, cultures, habits, and needs. And while each person in Wyoming has more ‘voting power’, it’s because their state is only worth 3 Electoral votes. Without the Electoral System, the greater Midwest would be absolutely worthless to Presidential candidates. They wouldn’t need to care about the problems in Wyoming, Montana, Arkansas, Kansas, etc, leaving these states effectively voiceless in elections, their concerns unaddressed. The system ensures that the states with the largest populations have the highest values, but the states with smaller populations still carry significant weight, compelling Presidents to actually at least give a show of caring about their problems and perspectives. Welcome to a representative republic; where you can’t just do whatever you want simply because you have more people. The power and rights of the smaller states are protected by the Electoral College and other systems so that no State is voiceless in government. So please, go to Texas and tell them they have the same problems as people in Maine. Or tell a man from Chicago that he might as well be from Brooklyn. Yes, we’re all Americans, but to pretend the States don’t have their own unique needs and cultures is just turning a blind eye to reality.

[bogleech]

The president ends up impacting things that DO affect our entire population the same. Health care laws. Environmental regulations. Whether or not we go to war.  The individual states have their own governors to worry about their differing needs. The U.S. president is equally the problem of everyone regardless of where they live.

[poultrymancy]

Our choice in president effects the entire country, where as individual state laws effect individual states, and are voted upon by said states. The electoral college does not decide individual state laws, California can not weigh in on laws in Wyoming.  At this point in our nation, electoral colleges do little but directly cause vote inequality. The point is, getting rid of the electoral college would get rid of sectioning out votes by states, and make every US citizen’s vote equal.  No one state would be deciding anything, instead the populous of our country would make the decision, you know, like a democracy.

[bogleech]

Yep, and no matter how anyone tries to rationalize it, one state is not one interest group. One state is home to many different demographics in many different circumstances and does not suddenly give way to a whole different set when you step over the state line.

Look how Arizona voted this year, for instance:

Trump won the popular vote in Arizona by less than 5%.

This is a state which is, incidentally, listed as “37% Hispanic,” and only about 51% white.

We know that 60-70% of white people voted red this election nationwide, while some 80-90% of minorities voted blue because Trump’s entire campaign treated them as enemies of this country.

If it’s not fair for California’s larger total population to have more say than Wyoming’s smaller total population, then why is it fair for Arizona’s only marginally larger white population to decide the entire state’s vote? If we went by total popular vote rather than the electoral college system, then the voices of the minority populations in these states would have actually mattered and their interests heard fairly, instead of drowned out by a 5% margin.

People are arguing that the electoral college exists to give “smaller populations” BY STATE an equal say, and yes, that is technically what it’s doing - by erasing smaller populations within those states. It is doing the exact opposite of leveling the field.

[slightlypsychicparade]

Not to mention that the Electoral College doesn’t even do a good job of making sure that all states get representation, since it’s feasible to win the White House with only 11 states out of 50. Which is bullshit.

[meret118]

Not to mention no presidential candidate goes to campaign in Wyoming anyway because there are so few people in it, nor do they campaign much in any state where it’s already known which party it will vote for due to the electoral system. If every individual vote in the country was added together candidates would actually visit MORE states, and not just concentrate on the swing states.

[micdotcom]

Remember when Islamophobia wasn’t conservative policy? 15 years ago, George W. Bush reached out to Muslims across the globe, highlighting the dangers of Islamophobia. (x)

[thresholdofzero-deactivated2018]

How the FUCK have we gotten to a place where we feel wistful for G.W. Bush?

[liberalsarecool]

Just a short few months ago, Trump was pledging to force United Technologies to ‘pay a damn tax.’ He was insisting on very steep tariffs for companies like Carrier that left the United States and wanted to sell their foreign-made products back in the United States. Instead of a damn tax, the company will be rewarded with a damn tax cut. Wow! How’s that for standing up to corporate greed? How’s that for punishing corporations that shut down in the United States and move abroad? In essence, United Technologies took Trump hostage and won. And that should send a shock wave of fear through all workers across the country.

Bernie Sanders, “Carrier just showed corporations how to beat Donald Trump”

Trump is the worst negotiator for the working class. Trump has never represented anyone but himself. He has no understanding of working for someone else. 

Government is the last place a con artist like Trump should be given power.

(via liberalsarecool)

[catsbeaversandducks]

Mohammad Alaa Aljaleel, the Cat Man of Aleppo, was officially nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize 2017 and I really hope he wins it!

If you’d like to help the cats, please join this group.

Via Nobel Peace Prize to Alaa

[ladugard]

I want gay cafés

Like gay bars except no drunk people or loud music, instead there’s coffee and cinnamon buns and pleasant conversations

[cryztalgemz-deactivated20150904]

see? this is what we need

a non-alcoholic, non-sexual space for LGBT groups that is inclusive to younger people

[kurtwagnermorelikekurtwagnerd]

im here, im queer, and i can’t drink beer

[pan-sexuallyconfused]

Kinda weird that this doesnt exist actually

[destinyrush]

What a time to be alive

[note-a-bear]

So where all them bundy land conservatives at? Where all them small government-big gun people?

We’re witnessing the assault on a sovereign nation by our government, but apparently it doesn’t count to the same folks who love to say “don’t tread on me”

[crye-11-tactical]

^Because most of those people are smart enough to do their research and know that the protests are on private property and the pipeline has full permission from the land owners to build there

[note-a-bear]

Does it hurt to be that gullible?

[vannozza-deactivated20170918]

[therealklt]

Allow me to introduce you to a Mr. Mitt Romney. A haphazard skew of a man, whose political career, much like his wit, is an act of uncomfortable brevity. To his immediate right is a door-to-door salesman, of sorts, whose peddled wares are more than just stowed encyclopedias or finely crafted Tupperware. Mr. Romney is about to learn that legacies aren’t built with the brick and mortar of intentions, but of deeds. Dip your quill and get ready to sign. Your dotted line: The Twilight Zone.

[therealklt]

[therealklt]

[the-worm-that-gnaws-in-the-night]

[acetoxy-deactivated20151215]

[jodiefoster]

the bar for 2017 is set so low it’s incredible

[crookedhillary-delete-deactivat]

if we avoid nuclear war in 2017 it will have been a smashing success but even that’s up in the air

[geekybombshell]

If the mean people in our lives were crappy 100% of the time, it would be easy to leave them. We would shrink from becoming friends with them or jump aboard the nope rocket in the early stages of trouble, and we would feel only relief when they are gone from our lives. The problem is that very few people are evil all the time. They don’t wear villain costumes purchased at ForeverEvil. They don’t laugh maniacally and stroke their evil goatees while monologuing about their evil plans. They appear in our lives as People-Who-Would-Be-Awesome-Except-For-That-One-Glaring-Problem. They have potential to be awesome, and sometimes they are awesome, and they make us feel awesome, so we relax and let out that breath we’ve been holding in, and then BAM! They show their mean side, and we do a ton of mental work trying to reconcile the mean stuff with the awesome stuff. Breaking up brings relief, as you lose the constant mental labor of managing the relationship AND the stress of being constantly disappointed and hurt, but it also brings grief. Shitty people who forget your birthday and give little backhanded compliments and gossip about your secrets sometimes give really good hugs, or presents, or are your favorite people to get drunk and watch figure-skating with, or were the sole witness to an important time in your life. The good times were real.

Captain Awkward

I cannot express how much of a lightbulb moment it was when I realized people did not have to be unilaterally awful in order for you not to want to be in a relationship with them

(via geekybombshell)

[malelavellan]

oh my christ

[nyclocale-deactivated20170724]

You don’t know this new me; I put back my pieces, differently.

B.A. (via nyclocale)