You gotta try this pole!

[raeseddon]

*Takes deep breath*

I miss the days before social media where fans were mainly assholes to each other because there was no reliable way outside of conventions and other public facing events to talk to creators.

At least we weren't causing creators to burn out or retreat from public life nearly as often when, if someone didn't like where the story was going, all we could do to vent our frustration was to scream at each other over fan forums and in chat rooms. Yeah, people still got hurt, things got out of control, but we weren't ruining the life of people who just wanted to tell stories. To want to tell a story is the most human instinct we have; the thing that really sets us apart from the rank beasts of the Earth, it shouldn't be a minefield where the people who ( supposedly) like your show need to be constantly and personally appeased by the creator lest they turn on them.

The echo chambers within echo chambers social media perpetuates by existing have literally ruined lives and put voice actors, creators, and artists into therapy and creative burnout.

As much as I try to remind myself that the average Very Engaged Fan is less than half my age and lacks the life experience and ability to emotionally regulate, it doesn't fly anymore.

I spent my time in fandom growing up at the height of the ingrained mysogny epidemic of the late 90's/early 00's where liking a female character or a hetero ship in certain fandoms would get you *mercilessly* bullied. It was a time where it felt like, if you weren't a slash shipper, or a shipper at all, finding like minded people was a Sisyphusian undertaking. And if you liked a female character who "got in the way" of a really popular slash ship, the shippers made sure you knew that there was nothing for you there. Non-shippers and het shippers were in a similar boat in certain fandoms where all they had was each other, and we clung to every Gen/ non-shipping fic like a squirrel to the last acorn on earth.

At least back then, yeah, creators would get annoyed/angry fan letters or the occasional heckler at a convention but there wasn't this fucked up social expectation that they spend time on social media, eyes on the swivel for Drama because of how it has the habit to snowball and come rolling down the hill like an avalanche of delusional vitriol headed right for them.

I lived through the dumpster fire that was the Netflix Voltron fandom and I've never seen anything close to how bad TADC fandom is. Imagine being told by your fans that the characters you've made the main point of view characters are wrong. Not that the characters have a "bad take" on something but that they aren't "really" the main characters.

The way some fans have the apparent ability to re-write the show as they're watching it terrifies me because it's the first time I've ever seen someone ask the question "are we watching the same show" and the answer is apparently no, we very much aren't.

And that's not even getting into the entitlement problem. Like, I know it gets talked about to death but it's actually starting to scare me how creators clearly aren't seen as people with feelings and instead puppets that should dance for their fans because "without the fans, creators are nothing." And AI is making it worse. For all the backlash it gets in fandom spaces, there are people out there, (usually the ones to huff and pout because the creator didn't do the thing they thought they should do with their story,) can make their own personally tailored version of canon and live there in an echo chamber of one. Or even if they don't engage with it on the level of creation, they sure do live in a version of canon that only exists in their head and resent actual canon and the people who enjoy the show as it is. Mix that with piss poor reading comprehension, whether complex themes can be comfortably transmuted into the most reductive readings imaginable and it creates this environment so toxic, is it any *wonder* creators and others in the space burn out at the rate they do?

I dunno man, I just miss when the worst stray a creator would catch would be a sour grapes 'well I'm gonna stop watching/reading, how about that?!' as if the person saying it was their only fan and the creator needed them there to remain popular, and it was easy to ignore. Now all it takes is one fan to whip up a hate storm because younger fans don't know how to just, not engage with something that upsets them. They have to declare that it upsets them, then spend the rest of their time in the fandom being miserable and making everyone else miserable.

Isn't fandom supposed to be for people who *like* something?

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

I follow some non-consumer and pro-recycling facebook pages and like. I'm not sure how to explain this exactly, but some of them have a frankly unhealthy relationship with preservation and recycling. People will photograph an ancient threadbare shirt that's full of massive holes and 30% mould by volume and say "this was in my mum's basement and she wanted to throw it out! How do I save it?" People will show a stack of thirty empty margarine containers and say "what use can I find for these? I don't want to throw them out." Someone detailed their strategies for making sure that they only walk around their house barefoot or with slippers, never walking int heir socks, in order to make sure the socks wear out as slowly as possible.

Responsible reuse and care of your belongings is one thing, but for some of these groups, if they monitored food and exercise the way they monitored general consumption it would be an eating disorder.

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

This isn't a healthy relationship with possessions.

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

Right after this post was somebody bragging about how they're freeing themselves from consumerism by giving up manicures and pedicures so it's. A very mixed bag of standards.

[unfortunate-beetle-and-friends]

Mood.

I walk a very thin line between recycling/anti-consumerism and my hoarding tendencies (don't think it's ever reached the point of full blown disorder but I'm very aware it's a constant lowkey battle to keep it that way) and my perfectionism paralysing me into keeping stuff until I can dispose of it in the Absolute Most Optimal Least Polluting way.

Any obsession can become disordered (I don't necessarily mean pathologically, but extreme to the point where it does you more harm than good or more harm than is safe/justifiable), and I think we forget that.

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

Unless it's made of easily recyclable or compostable materials like metals, glass or organics (NOT recyclable plastic, that doesn't count), it's basically all landfill. Dispose of chemicals and electronics in the appropriate way, put the glass and metal in the bins appropriate for whatever your local area's recycling system is, and everything else is landfill. "Oh, I can save this boot" it's still landfill, just a bit later than it would otherwise be. "Oh, I can recycle this old shirt into a bag" still landfill, just in your cupboard for a bit first.

For products for which a large-scale, practical and economic recycling system does not exist (recyclable plastic doesn't have such a system, it's a grift; recyclable metals and glass very often do have such a system but it depends on the material and product and where you live), there is no such thing as optimal disposal. There is only optimal production. Your environmental impact is measured in the effect you have on new things being produced and shipped. Once it is made in a factory, it is already landfill, it's just staying in your house for a bit first.

Trying to repair old boots at home doesn't save them from landfill -- the question is, did your repairing the boots stop you from having to buy new ones, and if so, did that stop new ones from being produced and shipped to your country? Does buying a new pair instead help because you don't have to buy the materials you'd use to repair them, and if so, did that have any effect on whether those materials were produced and sent to your country? In a modern economy, your effect re: repair vs. new is likely to have absolutely no environmental effect at all for most goods, though it does depend on specifically where you live and what the good is and how it's made. Either your old boots go to landfill and you buy a new pair, or you fix your old ones and the new pair goes straight from the warehouse to landfill because the company bought one too many pairs to sell. (It'll probably go on sale and mope around warehouses for a few years first, same as it otherwise would in your closet; this is a completely irrelevant temporary stop).

Depending on the industry, your individual shopping choices can have an impact, especially if it's part of a larger organised movement like a proper boycott (or even just an unorganised drop in sales as lots of people simply decide to stop buying so much). Your individual shopping choices can also have a big effect on your own budget; repairing old shoes is usually much cheaper than buying new ones. But if you're focusing on the optimal way to dispose of something (again, unless it's something dangerous that requires specific disposal methods or something that's part of an existing large-scale recycling network), you're focusing on something way too late in the game to be environmentally relevant. What matters is the impact on production and shipping; once it's produced, it is already landfill.

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

Important side note, because this is the piss on the poor website: there's nothing wrong with having a recycling or upcycling hobby. It's not bad to repair the boots, even if you can afford new ones. It's just not practical environmentalism. If environmentalism is the goal then a focus on reducing the wastage of things you already own is a waste of time and energy and often counterproductive; if your goal is environmentalism, then focusing on limiting the impacts of production and transportation of goods is far more useful. But lots of people just prefer to make, repair or upcycle stuff.

Sometimes those old torn sheets would make a nice rug, not because that would have any practical impact, but because you feel like making a rug and have a cool idea for a pattern. Sometimes mending that shirt is better than replacing it because you like the aesthetic of visible mending. Sometimes collecting coffee jars to store your pasta in doesn't have any effect on throwing out the packaging the pasta came in or save the jars in the long term, but you think it looks nicer in the pantry. It's not bad to do these things (indeed the skills you can develop and the general mindfulness towards waste might have positive effects on other things you do), it's just not a moral obligation for environmental reasons. And like anything, if you get anywhere near as obsessive over it as laundry basket person in the picture, that's probably not great for your own wellbeing.

[raeseddon]

My aunt is a hoarder. Anyone who lives with/around someone with that disorder knows it starts small. I see people who refuse to throw things out when they have passed the point of saving, for whatever reason, be it sentimental or some weird pride they get in using something until it's literally trash, and can't help but worry that that person will be living in their own filth ten, fifteen years down the line. The thing that initially tips someone over the line from "salvaging" to hoarding isn't at all obvious at first, especially when the trigger has nothing to do with the concept of wanting to be surrounded by *stuff*. It was my grandmom's declining health and subsequent death that tipped my aunt over the line. Her grief manifested by first refusing to throw anything grandmom had touched away, and spiralled into full blown OCD that was completely out of control after her death. It extended from just grandmom's stuff to anything in the house at all. We're talking about a woman who would pull cat food cans out of the recycle bin because they weren't clean enough, even though the sink was so full and crusted with decomposing food that she *couldn't* clean it.

Keep an eye on the people around you who are salvagers; not every one of them will end up a hoarder, but if the explanations they make as to why they haven't thrown out old tech, old clothes, things from dead relatives that clearly had no sentimental value to that person but were clearly things *they* just never got around to throwing out start sounding irrational, intervene early. Get them help. Find a psychologist who specializes in borderline hoarding, because again, the root cause isn't always what you expect from the reality TV shows. Sometimes it's grief, sometimes it's undiagnosed OCD, sometimes it's love, which is the hardest to untangle because they'll ask you what's wrong with doing what makes them happy and helps them feel like they're helping solve the problem that we live in a throw-away, hyper consumerist society. A lot of people start with genuinely good intentions, find that it scratches an itch in their brain they've never been able to explain and next thing they know, it spirals out of control.

It took decades of arguing with my dad about how my aunt needed help, but he'd been caring for her the only way he knew how (which was to let her live in her own filth to avoid arguing about it) and that's the other thing about "salvagers" -- the people around them know it's a problem but if you have a bunch of very non-confrontational personalities in the mix, things tend to spiral faster because maintaining the relationship tends to outweigh the fact that someone is on the precipise of a life-consuming problem.

It's not easy, but it's better to see the early signs and get help before the person is drowning in filth and ruining their health in the process. My aunt managed to become diabetic because she stopped cooking for herself at home and either ate out or bought pre-made meals that were massively high in sugar and carbs, which she was then in denial about for years until the untreated diabetes led to strokes and seizures. We've spent thousands of our own money cleaning the house up so she could safely move back in after her last diabetic stroke (close to 10k we couldn't really spare) only for her to probably go right back into assisted living very soon because she's not eating and losing so much muscle tone so fast it took a half and hour for dad and the live in nurse to get her from her hospital bed to the car for a doctor's appointment.

Take it from someone who's living it. Learn the signs, however subtle, and don't be scared to confront them about it before it's past the point of no return.

Trying to be responsible in the age of climate destruction by repairing and re-using stuff is fine, but it's also a lot of work and people don't always realize how much work it is until they're buried in "Oh, I'm gonna use that for (insert alternate use here)."

It sucks, but one of the reasons we turned into a throw away society to begin with is because it actually takes time to get to all the things around our homes we know we could be re-using stuff for, and the hit of serotonin we get from feeling like we're doing a good thing even if we never get around to it is something we can return to every time we look at that beloved old t-shirt we *could* turn into rags, or the mug with a broken handle that *could* be a cute flower pot if we put some drainage holes in the bottom. And for some people, the *thought* of doing it becomes more important than doing it because once it's done, they have to find something else to re-use and it's a never ending cycle.

The reality is that some people have so little that makes them genuinely happy and gives them any sense of control, that surrounding themselves in these re-use projects-- whether they go through with them or not-- is kinda all they have. And that's when the line between salvaging and hoarding really blurs.

[draconym]

Me: Fuck, the paper towels I want are on the top shelf.

The Sir David Attenborough That Lives In My Brain: Being smaller-than-average presents an added challenge to foraging ... but necessity is the mother of invention. A little creativity turns a baguette into a tool, and voilà--

(paper towel roll falls on my face)

Sir David Attenborough, pleasantly: Success.

[hjbender]

Talpa's Triumph & Wildfire's Fight Against Fate

The last 2 episodes of the season still pack an emotional punch

(Okay so I actually watched episodes 18 and 19 like. Months ago and I'm just now getting around to posting about it because I won't let myself start the next season until I say my piece about the season finale.) So let's bring on the haha heartbreak 👉👉👉

Talpa is so high on Yoroi Cola® and size kink that he doesn't even mind wrecking his own house just to get this little red cockroach. Which, honestly, relatable.

"I will name him George and I will hug him and pet him and squeeze him—"

Talpa/Arago's original dialogue is so much more sinister than the English dub. Literally tempting Ryo with his one (1) weakness: his friends*.

*It kind of makes sense that Ryo feels so strongly about his friends. His own family is pretty much absent, so his friends have become his family.

⬆️Me running from my responsibilities

Talpa using the power of the Ronin armors to attack Ryo was supremely cruel but I think we all like it when the bad guys fight dirty.

I found it interesting that Ryo was first able to dodge Rowen's attack, then Sage's, but Cye's attack bludgeoned the entire hell out of him and almost killed him when that huge stone structure broke off Talpa's castle and missed Ryo by mere inches. And it got me thinking:

Water is way deadlier that we like give it credit. There is no running from water. It's soft and gentle when it wants to be, but it's also hard as concrete and extremely heavy. The power of a million gushing gallons is unstoppable. And the people of Japan are well acquainted with the destructive power of floods and tsunamis. That Cye's water attack is followed by Kento's earthquake attack just. I mean. Ryo was already weak, but now he's hanging on by his last thread.

Sage looks so scary and weirdly hot here I feel as confused as Ryo looks

Ryo's real superpower is crying profusely and looking positively beautiful while doing it

Wake up guys new Pondering My Orb meme format just dropped

FINAL EPISODE S1

How it's going and how it feels

Ryo is gone, all the armors have returned to Talpa, Earth has a new ruler, the bad guy won, the heroes are defeated, it's time to lay down and accept it. Game over, man, game over.

There was so much talking going on in the English dub, holy shit. I never realized. Like 90% of the flashback scene was just wall-to-wall redundant blabbering. They really did write the English version as if it was going to be viewed exclusively by sugar-loaded, bloodthirsty 10-year-old boys with raging ADHD.

This sequence still gives me a strange mix of feelings

No really, it's a beautiful sequence and change of pace. It almost makes the viewer believe that maybe everything's going to be all right... (spoiler: it's not)

I'm catching a lot of things that I didn't pick up on as a kid. Like Talpa's pride being 100% responsible for his undoing.

He had it in the bag. All the armors, all the power, control of both the netherworld and the mortal world. But he couldn't resist gloating. He wanted to stick it to Ryo one last time, really mock him and rub his nose in it, and that ignited so much righteous rage in Ryo that he burst out of Talpa's chest like a xenomorph on Miami bath salts.

That is how we DO IT BWOOOAAAAAA

GET HIS ASS. TEAR THE BITCH APART etc etc. And he did. And there was much rejoicing 🎵

Even though everybody looked kind of poorly drawn at the end, it's okay, who even notices through the tears of joy... 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐍𝐎𝐖

[raeseddon]

Being the Nasutei fangirl that I am, it's impossible for me not to think about what must be going through her head at the moment Ryo is absorbed and how that influences her character going into season 2. They were inches away from losing, and Nasutei clearly brought Jun with her to see the fight play out in part because if they lost, they were at ground zero and they'd die quick if it came to that.

I've always seen the bond that Nasutei and Ryo have as unique compared to the others-- it was just them and Jun when they were running around reviving the others and I really think that--especially after Dr. Yagyu's murder-- that they leaned on each other more than the others do. It's heartbreakingly obvious going into season 2 that Nasutei is at least a little convinced that if they're not careful, she could lose him. They won, but could still lose because of how far they had to go to win. (And given what Arago later planned to do with Kikoutei, if he wasn't so short sighted you might argue that Arago planned to bring Kikoutei out of Rekka [but was arrogant enough to believe he could still control Ryo and it.])

[hjbender]

It just hit me:

Sage was the first of the team that Ryo set out to revive after they were all separated.

And Sage was the last of the team to fall defending Ryo from Talpa.

These two have tenaciously fought beside and for each other. Through blindness and injury and even unto death.

That's some fucking romantic shit right there

Sage gave his life to protect Ryo, refused to leave his side* even though Ryo insisted.

*I feel the English dub handled this scene better. Sage said, "I'm not gonna leave you." That implied a choice, a personal decision. It might not be the smartest decision, but that didn't matter. "I can't just leave you," implies a lack of options and just seems a little cold. I don't know. Maybe it's a nuance that was lost in translation.

Benevolence and grace. What a beautiful combination.

Although that last screenshot kind of looks like a Frank Frazetta poster.

[raeseddon]

I still get emotional at this scene. Even if you don't ship it, these two, I think felt the weight of it all equally and Seiji refused to abandon Ryo even when it "made sense." What's interesting to me in hindsight is that Seiji was almost the main character, not Ryo (there's some art where Ryo is wearing a necklace with Kourin's komon and Seiji with Rekka's) and it's an interesting thought experiment to imagine what that would have been like, especially given how things wrap up in Message, with Seiji basically reaching Enlightenment directly while Ryo is more a Bodhisattva-- essentially a Buddhist saint who refuses Enlightenment until the whole of humanity reaches that point (or, in this case, all those caught up in the Armor Legend, even Suzunagi, who's been dead several hundred years.) He "stays behind" for Suzunagi because he also needs to understand why they all feel so lost even though the armor is gone and they should have moved on somehow-- instead they're in stasis, and each comes to their own similar, but different ways to move forward.

[eraserheadadult]

one time in college i was in a creative writing class and this guy was holding up the critique with what i can only describe as like cinemasins dinging another student's writing. and at some point the professor said "the plot is the fork and the prose is the meal. you are critiquing the taste of the fork"

[shinesurge]

Guys if you want queer shit written by queers on our own terms you're going to have to start seeking out weird independent media. I'm sorry that's the only place you can regularly find it idk what to tell you, we can't keep acting like there's nothing if we're not getting blockbusters and triple A titles or whatever it is we're waiting around for. The thing you keep saying you want is already being offered for free by one person making a passion project on the internet and you would both benefit enormously if you interacted with it instead of lamenting that the only options we have for representation are pandering afterthoughts from corporate shit

[fandomsandfeminism]

I say this with so, so much care: Real queer shit written by real queers can and will sometimes make you uncomfortable. That's one of the defining features of weird, independent queer media. And weird independent media more broadly. Art that comes from true individual passion and authenticity has edges and bite to it that mass market corporate products intentionally do not. Has a rawness that can offend.

You are allowed to feel uncomfortable about it. But don't ask for queers to self censor for your comfort.

[queerslurheritageposts]

Queer Slur Heritage Post

[brainless-moe-white-lotus]

Bitches will be like "prev tags omg" on my post and I check the preg tags and it's like "blorbo from my shows"

[world-heritage-posts]

world heritage post

[astronomical-bagel]

Happy late anniversary to the post that changed tumblr’s (and the entire internet’s) vernacular forever

[providencehq]

my monstrous, nanite wife black knight

alt versions under readmore:

BK if she never got the meta nanite or even has any control over any nanites and just goes EVO like everyone else. I wanted her to be more or less a monster rather than the knight look she takes on being the monster she is 'suppose to slay'. Alt idea where inside the odd mouth/tentacle situation, she can pop out and be this centaur and be the human underneath the monster skin but I want her to suffer, monstrous form through and through for her.

[raeseddon]

Oh this is fantastic.

[wilwheaton]

it's just the craziest thing

[teaboot]

please god above can someone explain to me why we're still working on self driving cars when trains exist

[teaboot]

"we're training them to interpret road signs!" Train goes same place every day. No road signs.

"when forced to choose between old lady and child, which is more ethical for the car to hit?" Fence around train track. Nobody on the road.

"people with disabilities preventing them from driving themselves can be independent" Yes but also. Train.

"reduces the dangers of fatigue with long distance trucking" Train.

"the technology is not yet price effective for the average driver" Train.

Seriously come on choo choo bitches let's goooooooooo

[gender-evil-rose]

Invest in public transportation

[quasi-normalcy]

Humanity perfected transportation with trains in the 19th century and everything since has been a decadent excrescence

[prokopetz]

Maintaining a diversity of ongoing personal projects is important because it enables you to procrastinate on one by aimlessly tinkering with another, thereby creating the possibility that you'll finish one of them by accident.

[thefairytaler]

I was discussing the incident mentioned later in this piece with my wife yesterday and I saw another post by someone earlier doing something mentioned in here and I'm finally going to say something about it.

There is a serious problem in leftist spaces, especially online, especially on Tumblr, when it comes to language.

The way people are expected to speak just to even enter these spaces is incredibly complex, to the point of being outright hostile to those who haven’t already spent time in them. And it’s not just newcomers; people who have important things to say, people speaking from lived experiences, people who don’t have English as a first language but still deserve to be heard, are constantly talked down to or even pushed out entirely for not using the "right" words.

This gets even worse when you factor in how often new terms are coined in English, and then people are shamed for not immediately knowing or using them.

I saw someone reblog their own post saying something like, "I know for a fact more than half of y’all didn’t understand a fucking word I said here."

And honestly? That stuck with me, because yeah, I’ve felt that before. Not because I don’t value critical thinking! because I absolutely do! I just made a post on that too! but because so many of these posts are written in a way that makes them Functionally Inaccessible to anyone who doesn’t already have the right background knowledge. And at a certain point, if you actually want your words to have an impact, if you actually want to create meaningful change, then you’re going to have to accept some things:

People will not always use perfect language.

2. People will not always know the exact terminology you personally prefer they use when engaging in discourse.

3. Dismissing or attacking people for how they say something, instead of engaging with what they’re saying, is actively harmful.

And more than that, if you genuinely want people to understand and engage with the things you’re talking about, especially people who don’t speak English as a first language, especially people without access to higher education, especially people who don’t even know where to begin when it comes to self-education (because yes, that is a skill that has to be taught) then you are going to have to be the one to adjust sometimes. You are going to have to let people say things imperfectly. You are going to have to take a step back and engage with the message rather than just the words being used to express it.

One of the experiences that made me realize that I, as a non-native English speaker, was not welcome in Tumblr leftist spaces was when I spoke about real-life oppression I had experienced. I left one word out of my post, a word which honestly, was not even important when talking about an incident that had Happened To Me, not theory, not hypotheticals or any what-ifs of oppression, a story, a story about something that happened to me.

And because of that, people sat in a Discord server, picking apart my words, accusing me of awful things, and then came into my askbox throwing jargon and buzzwords I’d never even heard before, then got mad at me for being frustrated that this was happening.

Think about that. People who are directly impacted by oppression are being pushed out of spaces meant to discuss it because the way they speak doesn’t conform to certain expectations. That is not justice. That is not solidarity. That is not progress.

There is a fundamental disconnect here between theory and praxis. Ironically so many of you do not know what praxis is, because most of you engage with a lot of theory, and not a lot of praxis, you use the word praxis a lot, but, ironically, you have no idea what it means.

{to put my money where my mouth is, it means Doing Something, in the simplest possible terms}

In theory, leftist spaces should be accessible. They should be places where people can speak openly about their experiences, learn from each other, and work toward meaningful change. But in practice? There’s a gatekeeping of language so intense that many people, particularly those who are marginalized in ways beyond just their political beliefs, are outright excluded.

And this is something I need people to sit with: The assumption that the "right" language is easy to learn, or that anyone who doesn’t use it is being willfully ignorant, is an inherently privileged stance. Knowing where to find information, how to process it, and how to integrate new terminology into your vocabulary is a skill that is largely tied to education. Having the time to engage with leftist literature and theory, to stay up-to-date on every new term that gets introduced, is also a privilege. And the fact that so many people refuse to acknowledge this, that they expect perfect articulation from everyone, regardless of background, and punish those who don’t measure up, is a huge problem.

Worse still, the same people who act as gatekeepers of this language often fail to communicate their ideas in a way that is accessible at all.

This doesn’t mean that complex ideas should never be discussed. It doesn’t mean that people shouldn’t strive for accuracy in their language. But it does mean that if your goal is to educate, if your goal is to spread awareness, if your goal is to help people understand and join the movement, if your goal is to engage with fellow oppressed people, then you have a responsibility to meet people where they are. You have a responsibility to make your language understandable.

Because if people can’t even process what you’re saying, then what’s the fucking point?

And before anyone says, "Well, people should put in the effort to learn!" Let me make something very clear: They do.

People who are new to leftist spaces, or who are coming in from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds, are often trying their best to engage. They are listening, they are learning, they are processing. But if the response to every mistake, every slightly off phrasing, every unfamiliarity with a new term, is immediate hostility,

or even if it's just 'hey I see you're sharing a personal moment, but can you change your language to make me, personally, more comfortable with you discussing your oppression?' then you’re not teaching.

You’re just making sure only the people who already think and speak exactly like you get to stay in the room.

Your language, your terminology, your theory? none of it means anything if you can’t make it accessible to the people who actually need it. And it means nothing if you use it to Exclude rather than Include.

[silvergryphonart]

I was explaining online why it’s ridiculous to think that men who want to assault women in public toilets would fake being trans instead of just walking in. And a stranger joined in to say that I was exactly right AND the “transsexuals” are usually not interested in women anyway, so of course we should all leave them alone to pee.

If I told this well-meaning person off for using outdated terms, they would probably stop speaking out against bathroom bills! Using that term in 2025 suggests that this person doesn’t spend much time in trans-positive spaces online. They’re doing something hard. They spoke out in support of trans rights, in a public forum where their friends could see, using arguments that have a good chance of showing bigots that their fear isn’t sensible. Saying “actually, you’re hurting people by saying we should get to be safe with the Wrong Words” would be robbing ourselves of an awesome ally.

[naamahdarling]

Honestly one talk with a queer elder who referred to herself as transsexual set my head on more straigt than 99% of what I see on Tumblr.

[rickmctumbleface]

[raeseddon]

It's because the Hands Off protests "only" effect Boomers and the disabled, in a lot of Millenial and Gen Z's eyes, and they're letting their broadstrokecresentment of all Boomers, wether they participated in defrauding them of their future or not, get in the way. I say this as a permanently disabled person who will lose most if not all of their health coverage when the cuts happen. The reason there aren't as many younger people at the Hands Off protests specifically is because they think the Boomers are getting "what they deserve" and it's really, really frustrating and depressing.

[luulapants]

oh by the way, since I guess people haven't heard? don't fucking get on a plane in the US right now (may 5, 2025) if you can help it. a ton of air traffic controllers have walked off the job. it's a nightmare, flights are getting cancelled and diverted. i know two different people who were just left in the wrong state. and this is also prime conditions for another crash. stay on the ground right now.

[cwispyyy]

Added context, this is specific to Newark

[luulapants]

Important context!! This is NOT the fault of the ATCs, and "walked off" was the wrong phrase to use. ATCs have been understaffed for years because of their awful working conditions and inadequate pay. With the added trauma and stress caused by the DOGE coup's harassment campaign against federal workers, plus multiple traumatic failures that have happened since January, a situation like this is inevitable.

[memingursa-deactivated20250625]

[loving-parasite-moved]

Huge fan of when my speech patterns rub off on people enjoy when thay happens

[loving-parasite-moved]

NEVERMIND MY GRANDMA JUST SAID SKILL ISSUE

[orcboxer]

you grow a beautiful tree and then balk at its fruits?