something or another (sara, post-twitter edition)

I was NOT anticipating coming back here. Shows what I know.

[this-is-multigenderphobia]

Reminder that tumblr keeps banning trans women's accounts for no reason and actively stated that.

Reminder that this is not about a single event, this is a repetitive pattern that happens *regardless* of if the trans women's blogs violate tumblr's guidelines or not.

Reminder that if it's only trans women calling this out, tumblr has an easier time covering it up because they just ban them.

Reminder that you've got to speak up against this bullshit now, that you've got to be loud, that you've got to support trans women because the places where they can speak are dwindling.

Reminder that pride includes trans women and you cant celebrate pride while ignoring the way trans women are getting silenced.

Reminder that we've got to help each other. It's pride month. Transphobes keep getting platformed and able to keep saying every hateful stuff they want. Help the community any way you can. Be loudly supportive to trans women and loudly against this discriminatory moderation

[i-post-hilarious-tweets]

[butterfly-sapphic]

Do threats and punishments make people change their behaviour to the desired? Or does it make them prepare for the punishment? The answer will shock you.

[apolladay]

Did you at any time in your schooling do a wood shop class?

yes

no

results

Voting ended onFeb 4

[scififly]

When I was 12 I made a chair with a plan I made myself. It lasted a few months tops. I consider it a learning experience.

[jstor]

Self-Publishing and the Black American Narrative - JSTOR Daily

Bryan Sinche’s Published by the Author explores the resourcefulness of Black writers of the nineteenth century.

In the 19th century, Black authors turned to self-publishing to overcome systemic barriers in mainstream publishing. As Bryan Sinche explores in Published by the Author: Self-Publication in Nineteenth-Century African American Literature, self-publishing was often the only avenue available due to exclusionary practices in white-dominated print culture.

Self-published works were–and, arguably, still are–acts of agency. Authors used their works to piece together family histories and document lived experiences. Self-publishing also allowed for freedom in genre and form. This mode of publishing wasn't without risk, however: printing costs could lead to financial ruin, and some authors, like David Walker, faced outright censorship. Yet, it still provided opportunities to challenge dominant narratives and ensure voices that would otherwise be silenced were heard.

The linked article from JSTOR Daily highlights the resilience and resourcefulness of Black writers who used self-publishing to claim their space in the literary world.

Read a free chapter from Published by the Author.

[jediknobi]

but what if Luke Han and Chewie got captured on their way to save Leia and Obi-Wan had to wander the corridors of the Death Star for weeks trying to find a way to rescue them like Bilbo in the elvenking’s halls while Vader turned the whole station upside down screaming that he KNOWS Obi-Wan is here and he WILL find him as his officers grew concerned about his mental stability 

[lilaccatholic]

Consider: Obi-wan has had to put up with SO FREAKING MUCH from Anakin over th years that he’s more than a little thrilled to get to mess with his former padawan so Vader’s just running around screaming “HE’S IN THE DAMN VENTS I’M SURE OF IT.”

And everyone on the ship is just quietly trying to calm him down because of course no one could be in the vents, or cutting up the capes in Vader’s closet, or writing embarrassing memories on his mirror.

But there’s Obi-wan

Messing with everything

Having more fun than he’s had in 20 years.

[callmeshei]

#fandom stuff#star wars#vent crawling is a canon jedi activity but it’s not like vader can SAY that And it’s not like he can fit in them either

[ladysarai]

…Oops I entertained myself after showing this to @nutterzoi:

[flowers4therapture]

a single andes chocolate mint from the olive garden can fully nourish an adult human for up to 96 hours

[elodieunderglass]

This is genuinely the idea behind Kendal Mint Cake

[hylianengineer]

Say what now?

[elodieunderglass]

Kendal Mint Cake is a sort of highly dense lump of sugar flavoured with peppermint oil. It does not spoil, and somehow contains 2x more sugar and glucose than sugar or glucose. It is a purposeful product intended as an emergency ration to give a boost of energy when mountaineering. It is associated with hikers and mountaineers in the UK and is sold in camping/outdoor stores. Typically you keep a packet permanently in your camping bag or car or emergency kit, and just never move or remove it. If the time comes, it’s there.

I gestured a hand across an explanation of a Scottish field geologist character named Ken(dal Mint Cake) stating that he always has a packet of Kendal mint cake somewhere and received a message from a friend saying “I didn’t know you also knew (guy that Ken could conceivably be based on)”. I didn’t. This is just a portrait of too many extant guys.

There are several species of this man crashing cheerfully around the UK receiving deep spiritual pleasure from crouching in a puddle in a howling gale up a mountain nibbling pieces of violent mint sugar and apparently metabolising sufficient joy from this to polish off Kendal Mint Cake in marketable quantities for over 100 years.

Unless they made too much of it originally and are still selling it.

It isn’t sugar cube. It’s sugar to the fourth power. Nobody sounds reasonable talking about it.

[elodieunderglass]

Tumblr users rising to the challenge . You’ll note the recurring theme

Step 1: go on an entirely optional adventure

Step 2: get into an unpleasant condition in bad weather

Step 3: become very uncomfortable and hateful

Step 4: Kendal mint cake

Step 5: access stratosphere with tits blown off

Step 6: summit

Step 7: say “that was lovely”

[skull-bearer]

If only it had been founded 35 years earlier, the Franklin expedition would have found the NW Passage while carrying their boats like a pack of very determined sugar fuelled ants.

[so-i-did-this-thing]

How have we gotten this far without showing the packaging, oh, you know this stuff has cocaine in its DNA.

[wrens-roost]

"This is Ankh-Morpork, you know. We've got extra pronouns here."

GNU Terry Pratchett

[iconuk01]

The full quote is fascinating though, and adds an interesting context as it's Angua (a werewolf) and Carrot (human, but raised by dwarves) discussing a dwarf colleague, Cheery.

"Female? He told you he was female?" "She," Angua corrected. "This is Ankh-Morpork, you know. We've got extra pronouns here." She could smell his bewilderment... "Well, I would have though she'd have the decency to keep it to herself," Carrot said finally. "I don't think it's very clever, you know, to go around drawing attention to the fact." "Carrot, I think you might have something wrong with your head," said Angua. "What?" "I think you might have it stuck up your bum."

Sir Terry Pratchett - "Feet of Clay"

This is CARROT being the asshole. Carrot who has, throughout all the prior books, been depicted as basically the best of all possible people. He is noble, brave, considerate, kind. He is the good guy in the entire City...

... and yet, he grew up dwarf, and has picked up their more conservative views on gender identity.

Discworld dwarves start out in the books as basically a people without visible gender differences (thanks to the woman growing beards just like the men) and using "he/him" pronouns as their default. Anything else is seen as breaking the most basic of social conventions. (Dwarf dating is described early on as being two dwarves who like each other spending an inordinately long time trying to find out, as tactfully as possible, what gender the other dwarf is)

Carrot does immediately adopt the "she" pronoun for Cheery, which is but wishes she didn't make such a fuss about it. He's prepared to tolerate her choices, but he doesn't APPROVE of them, and thinks that that is enough.

Carrot, because he IS Carrot, does learn to open his mind on this subject, perhaps his final frontier of bias, but I do love that it's addressed as something he has to work on, and succeed.

And to Terry Pratchett's credit what started out as a throwaway joke about dwarf sex, gradually becomes a multi-volume subplot which is a fascinating exploration of gender and social identity as more dwarves start to "come out" as being female, and not just identifying as female, but changing their form of dress to something which matches who they are (they keep their beards though, because to a dwarf, that has nothing to do with gender, and everything to do with being a dwarf) and how their society has to adjust, with differing levels of comfort, to this new reality.

[thefingerfuckingfemalefury]

Carrot was also prejudiced against the undead early on as well. And the fact that he unlearns these views is a good example of a common theme in Pratchett's work

The overwhelming theme of Pratchett's work is change. Not good vs evil but progress vs stasis/going backwards. The protagonists of Pratchett's stories are people who can take on board new ideas and change and grow and adapt. Some of them start out as very stupid people with very stupid views in fact until they learn and grow and improve. The villains on the other hand are people who desperately want things to either stay the same or regress back to some imagined "Good old days" that they prefer.

[homoqueerjewhobbit]

While we're talking about Terry Pratchett gender, there's also golems, who are basically lumps of clay that have been brought to life but don't actually have any gender or secondary sexual characteristics so everyone defaults to male and he/him. As the books story goes on some of them decide to try being women just because.

[yukinojou]

Feet of Clay came out in 1996. I cannot overstate how pronoun discourse wasn't anywhere on the radar then. I'm fairly terminally online, active in fandom, and the first I can remember is some timid discussion of neopronouns in the mid-2000s, where "how could you tell other people to use them for you" was a major puzzle. (I still love neopronouns - zie/hir appeals to me in a way they distinctly doesn't, genderfluid though I am.)

[prismatic-bell]

ALSO also also

1) I don't have the book to hand, but when Cheery comes out she changes her name to Cheri, because "sometimes, when you shout who you are to the whole world, you need to do it quietly." It's such a beautiful expression of coming out being a process, and one that needn't be undertaken all at once.

2) Pterry had the best goyische take I've ever seen on golems, and I will die on that hill. It's not perfect, but it is really well-done, and it was done with respect, and to me that might be even more important than perfection.

[strawberry-wizzard]

I had the book to hand because I reread it recently. The quote goes:

When you've made up your mind to shout out who you are to the world, it's a relief to know that you can do it in a whisper.

[prismatic-bell]

THERE we go.

[venusianmystique]

If y’all are interested in helping out the trans community in Jamaica after hurricane melissa, Transwave has opened a mutual aid fund

TransWave Jamaica

TransWave: Empowering Jamaica’s Trans Community Since 2015 Founded in 2015, TransWave has been the leading organization advocating for the t

[hyperlexichypatia]

The thing about the "hypocrisy" of conservatives bleating about "pedophiles" but supporting Trump is that to a lot of conservatives, the definition of "pedophilia" is "that which supports young people's autonomy or individuation from their parents/authority."

That's why a children's book that says "Be yourself! Everyone is different! You don't have to fit in!" is "pedophilia," but Trump raping a 13 year old girl isn't -- it was done to her against her will, so it didn't facilitate her dangerous autonomy. That's fine. Like child marriage -- it's perfectly fine, because the parents force it on the children. Parental authority is preserved.

A point my partner has made is that discussions of historical or cross/cultural variations in "age of majority" really underestimate the depth of patriarchy. "At what age is a girl considered a woman?" presupposes that a woman can ever meaningfully be considered an adult, which, in many forms of patriarchy, she really can't.

In the broadly liberal tradition, "children" are, broadly, defined as a class of people denied bodily autonomy and civic rights, but spared from the responsibilities of hard labor and harsh punishment; while "adults" are defined as a class granted bodily autonomy and civic rights, but subject to hard labor and harsh punishment. Which is why ageists (and ableists who infantilize disabled people throughout the lifespan, sexists who infantilize women throughout the lifespan, etc) think they have a real gotcha with "Well if you think young people (disabled people, women, etc) should have bodily autonomy and civic rights, then they have to have jobs! And go to prison! Or else you're Having It Both Ways!"

But many patriarchal authoritarians have never accepted this vague and never-actually-evenly-applied liberal construct in the first place. Everyone should be subject to hard labor and harsh punishment, and no one should have civic rights or bodily autonomy. Everyone should be subject to the authority of the patriarchal order. There is no "contradiction" between "a 14 year old should be married and a 24 year old should not be allowed to transition." They aren't saying that a 14 year old is "old enough/mature enough to decide for herself" whether to get married; and they're not really saying that a 24 year old is "too young/too immature" to transition. Marriage is an obligation and gender conformity is an obligation. Hard labor is an obligation and obedience is an obligation. The concept of being a "child entitled to protection, safety, and support" does not exist, and neither does the concept of being an "adult entitled to autonomy, self-determination, and political representation." They aren't even going to understand "If a 14 year old can be tried as an adult and go to prison, why can't they vote?" as a question. Everyone should be subject to prison and no one should vote. Life is about obligation and obedience, and age has very little to do with it.

[hyperlexichypatia]

The thing about the "hypocrisy" of conservatives bleating about "pedophiles" but supporting Trump is that to a lot of conservatives, the definition of "pedophilia" is "that which supports young people's autonomy or individuation from their parents/authority."

That's why a children's book that says "Be yourself! Everyone is different! You don't have to fit in!" is "pedophilia," but Trump raping a 13 year old girl isn't -- it was done to her against her will, so it didn't facilitate her dangerous autonomy. That's fine. Like child marriage -- it's perfectly fine, because the parents force it on the children. Parental authority is preserved.

A point my partner has made is that discussions of historical or cross/cultural variations in "age of majority" really underestimate the depth of patriarchy. "At what age is a girl considered a woman?" presupposes that a woman can ever meaningfully be considered an adult, which, in many forms of patriarchy, she really can't.

In the broadly liberal tradition, "children" are, broadly, defined as a class of people denied bodily autonomy and civic rights, but spared from the responsibilities of hard labor and harsh punishment; while "adults" are defined as a class granted bodily autonomy and civic rights, but subject to hard labor and harsh punishment. Which is why ageists (and ableists who infantilize disabled people throughout the lifespan, sexists who infantilize women throughout the lifespan, etc) think they have a real gotcha with "Well if you think young people (disabled people, women, etc) should have bodily autonomy and civic rights, then they have to have jobs! And go to prison! Or else you're Having It Both Ways!"

But many patriarchal authoritarians have never accepted this vague and never-actually-evenly-applied liberal construct in the first place. Everyone should be subject to hard labor and harsh punishment, and no one should have civic rights or bodily autonomy. Everyone should be subject to the authority of the patriarchal order. There is no "contradiction" between "a 14 year old should be married and a 24 year old should not be allowed to transition." They aren't saying that a 14 year old is "old enough/mature enough to decide for herself" whether to get married; and they're not really saying that a 24 year old is "too young/too immature" to transition. Marriage is an obligation and gender conformity is an obligation. Hard labor is an obligation and obedience is an obligation. The concept of being a "child entitled to protection, safety, and support" does not exist, and neither does the concept of being an "adult entitled to autonomy, self-determination, and political representation." They aren't even going to understand "If a 14 year old can be tried as an adult and go to prison, why can't they vote?" as a question. Everyone should be subject to prison and no one should vote. Life is about obligation and obedience, and age has very little to do with it.

[notaplaceofhonour]

the level of pettiness this implies makes me think of the last two Jews in Afghanistan who hated each other so much they would denounce each other to the Taliban, get arrested together, and spend their entire time in jail bickering so relentless their captors released them out of annoyance.

I just bet there’s another Jedi in Mos Eisley that once told Ben that he actually thinks blasters are the more civilized weapon or something

[pamfieldsphotoshoppedinjail]

Benobi had such Old Jewish Man energy to me.

[fnord888]

It would be funny if nuclear waste warning messages become an attraction for future historical linguists.

I mean look at this thing:

A parallel text in 7 languages, with 4 different scripts between them! And pictograms! All designed to be preserved intact!

[max1461]

maybe nothing of value to you is here

[mylordshesacactus]

That is legitimately a massive problem that the nuclear waste warning projects are aware of and trying desperately to counteract.

Like, every post about them on tumblr going “lmao let’s be real, if I saw this shit I would stop at nothing to explore it” is highlighting the central conceit of the yucca mountain project.

The project is VERY aware of humanity’s tendency to explore, and the people involved are tormented constantly by the fact that ANYTHING they do to indicate “this specific place is extremely deadly and there’s nothing valuable here, GO AWAY” is going to become a fucking MAGNET for treasure hunters, explorers, adventurers, mystery enthusiasts, conspiracy theorists…like, the MOMENT it’s discovered, people will flood that place.

That’s what makes the project so fascinatingly difficult! There’s so much they have to convey, but at the same time, they have to do so without making the site itself interesting in any way, and without making it significant. Many possible warnings don’t incorporate a message at all, focusing instead on simply making the site as ugly, inconvenient, and unimportant-looking as possible so that it’s just never disturbed because nobody is interested in getting close. (It’s why seemingly crazy ideas like the color-changing cat priesthood are actually more viable than the seemingly “practical” example above, which still depends on written warnings guaranteed to be extremely interesting to future humans AND depends on the idea that those future humans will be able to decipher any of our languages. The most viable ideas focus on exploiting superstition and the subconscious, rather than LITERALLY trying to communicate “This place is not a place of honor” etc in as many words. Those are general ideas to be gotten across, not a script.)

The impossible catch-22 of the nuclear waste warning projects is that they absolutely MUST communicate the level of danger and the importance of keeping your distance…while also being acutely aware that warnings on the walls of ancient burial sites about the horrible curses that would afflict anyone who disturbed them did jack-fuck all to dissuade archaeologists.

Anything we do to make the warning seem important will guarantee it’s disregarded, but if we fail to make the warning unmistakable enough, we’re responsible for whatever happens to the humans ten thousand years in the future who suffer from our mistakes.

[patheticperipatetic]

If the area is to become unappealing why not put a landfill over it. To get to the death rocks you’ll have to dig through undecayed cabbage

[odonata523]

See above re: archeologists. Who just LOVE garbage dumps for what they can learn about people’s day-to-day lives.

[aeshnacyanea2000]

‘And there’s the sign, Ridcully,’ said the Dean. ‘You have read it, I assume. You know? The sign which says “Do not, under any circumstances, open this door”?’ ‘Of course I’ve read it,’ said Ridcully. ‘Why d’yer think I want it opened?’ ‘Er … why?’ said the Lecturer in Recent Runes. ‘To see why they wanted it shut, of course.’  *

* This exchange contains almost all you need to know about human civilization. At least, those bits of it that are now under the sea, fenced off or still smoking.

– Terry Pratchett - Hogfather

[finding-flight]

I can’t belive they just dropped “color-changing cat priesthood” with zero explanation, so I googled it and here you go:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_cat

[artistic-arteries]

[mothman-etd]

What I find extra funny about the Pratchett quote was he was the press office for a nuclear power plant before he was a full time author.

[stellanslashgeode]

You know what’s always broken immersion for me? Jocasta Nu flippantly telling Obi-Wan that Kamino doesn’t exist if it’s not in the archives despite him having eyewitnesses and data of its gravitational effects.

George knew anything about librarians Jocasta Nu would have skipped her lunch to call up a dozen other repositories to see what they had and she’d have gone along with him just to document the error. Even after Kenobi telling her it’s okay, she can chill.

Somehow, I think she’d sense Dooku fucking messed with her goddamn data, too and she’d take that personally.

[roachpatrol]

ultimately i think kindness is the most radical thing you can do with your pain and your anger. it’s like, you take everything awful that’s ever been done to you, and you throw it back in the world’s teeth, and you say no, fuck you, i’m not going to take this.  you say this is unacceptable. you say that shit stops with me.

humans are fucking terrible and this awful world we live in will fucking kill you but if you are kind, if you are brave and clever and try really hard, you can defy it. you can impose on this bleak and monstrous structure something beautiful. even if it’s temporary. even if it doesn’t heal anything inside you that’s been hurt.  

i’m gonna sleep and i’m gonna wake up and i swear by everything in this deadly horrible universe i’m gonna make someone happy. 

[roachpatrol]

i’ve seen a number of comments and tags where people feel that they must swallow or repress their anger in order to engage in kindness. that is not at all what i am recommending here. radical kindness is an expression of anger. it is not passive. it is not repressive. it does not require you, in any way, to forgive those that have fucked you up. it does not require you to be quiet. 

it just requires that you be kind. viciously. vengefully. you fight back. you plant flowers. give to charity. play games. pet someone’s dog. scream into the dark. paint and write and dance, tell jokes, sing songs, bake cookies. you have been hurt and you don’t have to deny that hurt. you just have to recognize it in other people, and take their hand, and say: no more. enough. fuck this. no more. 

have a cookie.

i will say this again: we are all going to die. the universe is enormous and almost entirely empty. to be kind to each other is the most incredible act of defiance against the dark that i can imagine. 

[gothiccharmschool]

it just requires that you be kind. viciously. vengefully.  

Bolding for emphasis. Because I am angry at the state of the world right now, so very angry. And I am trying to channel that anger into helpful, kind actions. 

[thelostknee-deactivated20210422]

And here I thought a perfect post didn’t exist.

[stability]

[poetical-irony]

my naem is skwid

i am not fish.

i mite be sick

so im in dish.

the doctor touch

it give me shock.

i do not trust

so now im rock

[saxifrage-wreath]

 O how I love                                                                                                         this wordplay trik                                                                                                   Which started out                                                                                                 With cows that lik                                                                                                   But now can show                                                                                                 How sqwid in shock                                                                                               Can camouflage                                                                                                   Now sqwid is rock

(via @lady-merian)

[buzzcutssn]

[bred-by-insanity]

[onion-souls]

$10 budget Raiders of the Lost Ark

[king-moogle]

I looked for the original tweet and found more

[angryjewishcockroach]

I told my dad today about the Passover frog debate and his response was that it was really one little frog which father bought for two zuzim so I think that puts an end to that debate

[angryjewishcockroach]

🎶Frog gadya, frog gadya🎶