Peanut Butter Muse

[correctopinionhaver]

so many mental health issues these days are due to the fact that we no longer put the gargoyles on buildings that used to scare away the evil spirits that cause mental illness

[thekidsfromyestergay]

This was on a post about how it's ignorant and privileged to wear headphones in public and I fear its already become a part of my vocabulary. Must everything harbor a moral failure.

[animentality]

[memorycycle]

dino saurs were not scary monsters they were mamas with eggs and when they drank water they were like fuckk yessss waterrrr

[elbiotipo]

I'm not really a dog person myself but I have admiration for how unique dogs are in the history of humankind. The first domesticated animal and domesticate in general, the first non-human integration to what we consider society (even if, again, in a non-human role, but dogs are very much part of a family and a society). There has no other animal as changed by domestication, and virtually every human society from Eurasia to Africa to the Americas to Oceania has them. And also the fact that wolves must have been our closest parallels in the ice-age steppes, both highly social and complex apex hunters. It's really fascinating.

[elbiotipo]

Ironically I was thinking about this when reading a book about the semi-domesticated hyenas of Harar, Ethiopia (Among The Bone Eaters by Baynes-Rock), where the authors makes the point that hyenas, like wolves, were also the other animal close to us, as in being socially complex predators. But unlike wolves, hyenas were feared and demonized. They were after all, scavengers in the night who lived in the same caves as us, ate from our graves and ate our children (this is in the archeological record by the way, there are many ancient humans with hyena bite marks). Hyenas are as big as wolves, with strange laughs and appearances. Wolves won our trust and became dogs, hyenas were displaced from Eurasia.

Yet as the hyenas of Harar demonstrate, they can have a role in human societies, and they could have even been domesticated. Our other favorite pet companion, after all, is another exclusive carnivore, nobody else than the domestic cat. Perhaps in the depth of history, there were human societies that formed kinship with hyenas, cheetahs, painted dogs, foxes, and other animals.

[girlcodedhamlet]

it's very frustrating seeing otherwise well-structured posts about media literacy and critical thinking bookended with statements about "nowadays", "nobody has literacy anymore", "this generation is so anti-intellectual", and the like, unquestioningly falling into better past fallacies.

Do we really think the 80s and its Satanic Panic were better at critical thinking? what about the 40s? the Victorian era? societies have always had problems with critical thinking and literacy, because most societies have dealt with propaganda, corrupt leadership, difficulty providing education (due to poverty or discrimination or other issues), and/or people who resist critical thinking (due to privilege or circumstance or what have you). we can criticize media trends without pulling a "well back in the GOOD OLD DAYS" about it.

[retroactivebakeries]

the siege warfare princess wants to come over to your house and play ^_^

[retroactivebakeries]

[gayvampyr]

trying to explain why i like horror to people who don’t: ok so you know how it’s fun to be deeply disturbed and unsettled

[unspeakablearchives]

I wondered, do you know any safe resources for pirated books? I've had an itch to read some dystopian novels lately but I'm not in the financial means to buy any books, and I thought you'd be knowledgeable on this given what your page is about!

Quick easy methods:

Anna's Archive (combines results from numerous other download sites like LibGen, Sci-Hub, zlibrary, IPFS, etc. extremely popular and successful, check this Wikipedia page for working links, since they change)

Scribd (very irritating because they keep trying to get you to pay, but noteworthy because its all user-uploaded with little oversight, leading to some weird, unusual, rare, and diverse offerings.

Things that aren't technically "piracy" (and thus not as cool), but still very helpful:

Internet Archive (more older books, but you might be surprised how many modern ones they have)

Many local libraries in the US now offer free services like Libby or Hoopla which let you digitally check out books to read as much as you want

[weaselle]

I know i've said it before, but if you are concerned it could be real and not a scam, the best way to avoid getting scammed is to return contact separately.

Here's how that works:

say you get a text from your internet provider, let's say it's Comcast (whom i hate). So you have this text that says it's from Comcast about your bill with a contact number and a clickable link -- could be real, could be a scam.

Don't touch anything about this text. Open a web browser and look up the customer service number for Comcast. Or get the number from the bill they send you. However you do it, get the contact info for Comcast from a trusted source, like an official phone directory or the Comcast website itself.

Get in touch with them using that information.

So. Let's run the example both ways it could go.

If it IS a scam: you reach out to Comcast and tell them you were contacted about a problem with your bill, they look you up in their customer database, and they tell you there is no problem with your bill.

If it's NOT a scam, you do the same thing, they look you up, and they explain the problem. In this case, neither Comcast nor the employees involved give a single shit whether or not you clicked the link in the text vs. going through their official website.

This works the same for the your bank, the IRS, Amazon, political causes, charities, everything.

By handling any questionable incoming calls to action this way, you significantly protect yourself from scams and malware and shit

[oneheadtoanother]

[presidentdragon]

"that time of the month" "monthly visitor" "feminine hygiene products" GRRAH!!! SHUT UP SHUT UP!!! PERIOD!! MENSTRUATION!!!! TAMPONS!!! PADS!! MENOPAUSE!!!!!!!!!!!

[tyke-dyke]

VAGINA!!!!

[presidentdragon]

[lastoneout]

[weepingwidar]

Kat Lyons (American, 1991) - The Snake Bird (2025)

[everydaylouie]

bull in a china shop

[charmwasjess]

I don't think Jocasta Nu gets enough credit for this moment where she purges the entire Jedi Archive data to keep the Empire from being able to access that trove of knowledge for their purposes:

It's just the valor of surviving Order 66, somehow, impossibly getting away, and yet still coming back into her gutted home-turned-tomb to do this excruciating, ultimate act of sacrifice. Destroying this last physical manifestation of her people's culture, identity, and her own life's work. It's such a Jedi moment: letting something deeply important go, not out of apathy or coldness, but to protect others.

Jocasta as a character is so defined by her exchange in AotC, telling Obi-Wan that if something isn't in the Jedi Archives, it doesn't exist. So many fans have interpreted that as to stand for the arrogance of the Jedi, not the pride in her life's work collecting and maintaining a resource as incredible and massive as the Jedi Archives. I think this act is even more powerful answer to those charges; far from Jocasta Nu being a posterchild for the Jedi doggedly clinging to an institution for the sake of itself, she's willing to throw all of that away in an instant if it means one less weapon for the Empire.

[depsidase]

[alaskanay]

American Kestrel | Raptors of North America