smileystudies @smileystudies - Tumblr Blog

Embrace your divine feminine energy by taking part in traditional women's hobbies & interests like experimenting with radioactive materials, developing mathematics, programming computers, piloting aircraft and practicing marksmanship.

enki2

sinnahsaint

Which is why it’s important to not be mean.

Their cult teaches them that the world is full of scary monster people who hate them for being so good and loved by god. If you swear at them and call them names or get in their face you’re just doing the cults work for it.

I’m not saying you have to listen to their presentation or try to debate them (and really getting into a debate without thoroughly understanding what they’re being taught will just make things worse)… I am just saying to be polite and say no thank you like if they were trying to hand you a flyer for something you don’t care about.

It’s easier for them to see the world outside their bubble as less scary if they see everyday people just going about their business and being as nice to them as you are to everyone else. This goes doubly for anyone who happens to dress modestly, not swear, and not drink or smoke because whatever you believe, they’ll see you as a “good” person who happens to strangely have no interest in their “message”, and that might be enough to get some curious about the possibility of themselves living in the real world.

It’s sometimes hard to be nice to people who seem to represent something you dislike. Just remember these “elders” are sheltered young men, some of which are getting their first real contact with people of other/no faiths.

They are not your enemy. They are victims.

traycakes

They aren't being sent out to actually convert people, they are being sent out hoping that they will be harassed and treated poorly so they view those outside the cult as dangerous and evil and stick to the safety of the familiar group.

You being mean to some teenager isn't sticking it to anyone, you're doing exactly what their church elders want to happen.

atlinmerrick

PLEASE READ THIS.

Please read this.

Don't do the church's work for them.

motherkatereloyshipper

If you're kind to enough of them, they put you on a block list.

They were such sweet kids, they'd turn up at my door with the thatch of raspberries out front and try to share their word with me, and I'm me, so, I fed them.

Then it was one of the wee 'elder's' birthday, so I made him a cake, and all the little lads came, and they asked about my books and board games and CCGs, I was just a nice frumpy middle aged Jewish lady, I was no threat, so I fed them and made them cakes and took them to the local gaming store and listened when they talked.

One loved yu-gi-oh cards, and it turns out, one of the other wee lads, we'll he loved him back, so I got them in touch with some resources so they had support and a different way to pay for college, they're still together 15 years later, they have dogs, they send me ecards on their birthday. No-one figured out I'd.helped them, I was just the nice lady who made them tea and listened when people were slamming doors.

The next one really wanted to be an artist, so I left out art books and resources, my eldest shared their coptic markers, they draw comic books now, no idea why his folks were insisting he needed to be a dentist, but, he's not a Mormon anymore, (not a Jew either before anyone makes any counter conversion claims).

The first 2 lads were the only dramatic ones, the rest went back into the network but, like Hugh of Borg, they spread the word, sometimes I'd get Mormons from other cities come and make the journey to break bread at my Sabbath table and be seen.

I still think very fondly of that time.

Many of those boys still email me now and then.

Most of them aren't Mormons anymore.

Someone higher up spotted the pattern and suddenly no more Mormons at my door.

I was blacklisted, for kindness.

So there you go, if you don't want Mormons at your door, just love those kids for a couple of years, feed them, help them, and eventually, no more will be allowed to visit

frostfire425

Image description: A photograph of two 19-year-old white men wearing white polo shirts and striped neckties standing next to each other, smiling at the camera and pointing to The Book of Mormon between them. Bold white text has been added along the top and bottom of the photograph to say, “Excuse us, we're 19 year old kids venturing out into the world for the first time and know shit about life. Would you like to hear about what we were forced to learn from a book written by a 19th century con-man?”

bisexualbaker

I remember being approached one day while I was sitting in a park, crocheting a present for my brother. At least one of the two young men seemed a lot more interested in what I was crocheting than in the conversion talk he was supposed to be giving. I said I wasn't interested for various feminism-related reasons, and we agreed that doing good things for people was indeed pretty cool, and they went on their way. I think of that kid whenever posts like this come up.

vaspider

A couple of years ago now, someone got a hold of my phone number and tried to harass me by putting me on a bunch of calling/mailing lists for various churches and so on -- knowing, of course, that I'm Jewish and not at all interested -- and when I got a message from a very clearly teenaged Mormon, I felt... really annoyed. Not on my behalf -- my skin is way, way too thick to be bothered by that kind of nonsense -- but because this was just mean to do to a kid. They were trying to make me feel bad, but they were also setting this kid up to possibly be yelled at, and that's just... cruel.

I called back, and he sounded so excited when I identified myself. I felt very bad kindly telling him, "I'm so sorry. I'm not the person who gave you my phone number. Someone was trying to use you to be mean to me, and while hearing from you doesn't bother me, I'm very happily Jewish and not interested in converting. I'm just calling you to let you know, because I respect your time and your humanity. I'm sorry the other person didn't do that. That was unkind of them."

We had an exchange or two more, and I said that if there's a way to mark my number as 'do not call' so nobody else's time is wasted in the future, that would be a good idea for both of us. "I don't like the idea of you being used as a weapon to try to hurt me. That's mean to us both."

And so now my number is on their DNC list, and it ended up being a pleasant 5 minute chat.

transcendental-dustpan

I was raised Mormon, and the above are all good ways to deal with Mormon Missionaries. Because of what we were taught, those outside the church being nice is one of the better ways to get a mormon to doubt, especially if you’re exmo. I know a lot of us exmos have trouble with being nice to mormons at first because we feel wronged and hurt by those in the church, but it goes nowhere. Mormons are taught apostates are evil and “anti-mormon”, so if you’re nice they realize that teaching was wrong, which can lead to them doubting other teachings.

Also being nice is just good.

leahberman

february; sequoia national forest, california

instagram - twitter - website

what-even-is-thiss

Museums not giving stolen artifacts and bodies back is bonkers. Like what if someone from China went into Arlington cemetery and dug up JFK’s dead body and took him and his eternal flame back to China and refused to give him back like that would be pretty messed up and kind of weird right like put John back that’s not where he goes but that’s basically what the British museum does every day

what-even-is-thiss

Imagine if somebody went into all the Catholic Churches in your area and cut out all of their stained glass windows to display in a sterile white room 5,000 miles away like that’s the level of ridiculousness we’re dealing with here. Those aren’t your windows, man. What the fuck.

arsvitaest-deactivated20260111

Janet Fish, Glass and Shells, 1990. Oil on canvas.

cottageaesthetic

gaylor-moon

Welp.

secondbeatsongs

Hey, real talk though? If you're in the USA, right now you need to call your representatives. 11.8 million people could lose health insurance because of this, as well as a lot of other shit going down, so speak up.

Go to 5calls.org, put in your location, and make the calls. Do it after business hours if you're worried about actually to a person, but do it.

We're running out of chances with this, please please do this now, while it's still possible to stop this.

partlysmith

Due to the amendments made, this is going back to the House to be voted on again, so yes, you should still call them.

I'm not great at talking to people, and I can't express enough just how easy 5calls makes this process. The longest call I've had with them took 3 minutes. That's it.

anscathmarcach

All this discourse over who does "painting with light"

Hiroshi Nagai's paintings need sunglasses to look at.

They look like how it feels to walk across a parking lot on a 98° summer day without a speck of shade in sight.

They look like heaven but also like you'd burn your bare feet on the ground.

Even when you can see shade you know it's not enough and the minute you step out you'll be burnt to a crisp like a vampire.

And it's BEAUTIFUL

wilwheaton

“Psychologists call this paradox “precarious manhood.” In an influential 2012 paper for Psychology of Men & Masculinity, psychology professors Joseph Vandello and Jennifer Bosson defined it as “hard won and easily lost,” writing: The precarious manhood thesis has three basic tenets: First, manhood is widely viewed as an elusive, achieved status, or one that must be earned (in contrast to womanhood, which is an ascribed, or assigned, status). Second, once achieved, manhood status is tenuous and impermanent; that is, it can be lost or taken away. Third, manhood is confirmed primarily by others and thus requires public demonstrations of proof. In other words, men are allegedly the “stronger” sex, but their status is forever ephemeral. One small slip-up — a bright pink shirt, a girlish scream, a same-sex sexual encounter — and your “manhood” can be stripped away, perhaps permanently, leaving men who buy into this system in a constant state of anxiety, which ironically makes them seem fragile and paranoid. This is the standard form of masculinity in the MAGA world. Donald Trump epitomizes it, of course. He’s forever bragging about how strong and tough and perfect he is, but he’s also forever whining, accusing everyone else of trying to undermine, cheat or demean him for no legitimate reason. He wants people to believe he’s all man, but he views his manhood as something that everyone wants to steal from him just for the hell of it. Trump’s followers never notice, because they live in the same world, where “real” manhood is both essential and impossible. The rise of authoritarianism is always intertwined with precarious masculinity. It contains the very same paradox. Authoritarians claim to be “strong,” but in reality, they are so weak they cannot withstand dissent or diversity. They crave control because freedom scares them.”

— Joe Rogan beef shows MAGA male fragility

krsonmar

The alt-right manosphere, with its pipelines from the pickup-artist communities and Gamergate, need to be recognized by every voter in every country as political tools. Secure men are so much harder to politically manipulate. This is part of why feminism and the visible existence of queer communities in public life are under attack.

And it’s worth noting that this scene exploded during the long non-recovery from the 2008 crash. The middle class has never recovered from that, which means we have all been struggling to just barely hang on for close to 20 years now. Insecurity, in the sense of terror for our ability to survive, is the new normal. An excellent recipe for fascism. Everyone is craving strength, stability, security of multiple kinds.This movement claims to have answers toward those things. People vote conservative when they’re scared, and we all live in a prolonged state of fear now. The fear is the constant, the only thing that changes is what the threats are.

Reason #4853 that I’m a feminist is that secure men help build healthy, thriving communities. Insecure men self-isolate in an increasing manner and then attack what’s outside their community, or homestead, or bunker. The antidote is community, and that comes from men who are allowed to be multi-faceted instead of limited and paranoid. Teach men that their masculinity is tenuous and has to be constantly guarded, and you make a populace so much easier to divide into ever-smaller fractions.

teathattast

norondor

reblogging this to add that I often think about the old man yaoi mangaka on bluesky who said "the phrase that finally convinced me that the English language is truly beautiful was 'this shit is so ass'"

#English #as Shakespeare would have loved it

rau-studies

09.06.25

at the end of may i really thought that after the Big Scary Assignement things will get easier. unfortunately, they have not. i've also been really anxious about things that aren't that serious at all, but my brain thinks otherwise...

vexheart

dreamerarcher

Make it three years...

only-cat-memes

terrible-tentacle-theatre

Fun fact: the guys at our college’s geology department prop out the doors with their samples. I totally understand why but as someone whose work with samples is necessarily super delicate and sterile it fucks me up so bad

bears-official

lol idk if you watch nautilus live at all but watching them process bio & geo samples side by side evokes exactly this Thing (the descriptions are gold too… “here are the 30 steps we use to preserve bio samples, and as for rocks, well, we let them dry, bag them, & put them in the Rock Box)

terrible-tentacle-theatre

Good to know there’s enough Biologist Salt™ to go around

thepioden

Paleontologists occupy a weird and highly uncomfortable slice of this Venn Diagram

thepurplegeologist

in my own experience with geology most precautions with samples are to preserve the life and safety of the geologist, most of the rocks are fine.

laboradorescence

i am continually reminded of one of my colleagues, who wanted to collect a sample of gypsum on a field excursion but was too lazy to take off his backpack and get his rock hammer. so he said “eh, it’s soft enough” just fucking punched the rock until a piece fell off like it was fucking minecraft

#if I leave my samples out nothing happens to them #unless they're vector embeddings #in which case the environmental conditions had better be ideal for my laptop