just a guy

sou , 22 / multifandom artist

[fasrgswragf-deactivated20250703]

[crimegoku]

Capulets vs Montagues

[magicalgirlmindcrank]

Two houses, utterly devoid of dignity

[soudont]

we are so back

[mas-o-kissed]

“This kink is problematic when you think about it” ohhhhhh shit ok lemme head on over to the kink store and trade these kinks in for one that make my jackoff fantasies morally superior

[northstareclipse]

As someone who has overcome substance abuse, I find this decade’s framing of addiction incredibly insulting.

Somewhere along the line, we decided that any repeated behavior, any source of pleasure, any coping mechanism, any habit that isn’t monk-like and productivity-optimized must be labeled an addiction. You like scrolling art before you create? Addiction. You watch comfort shows after work? Addiction. You check your phone in line at the grocery store? Addiction. You drink coffee with breakfast? Addiction. The word has been stretched so thin it barely means anything anymore, except “a behavior I personally disapprove of.”

Addiction is not “I enjoy stimulation.” It is not “I have habits.” It is not “I seek input before I produce output.” Addiction is a specific, devastating pattern of compulsion, harm, loss of control, and often self-destruction. It dismantles relationships. It corrodes trust. It hijacks the reward system so thoroughly that survival itself becomes secondary. It is not equivalent to liking Pinterest boards or needing music to focus.

When everything becomes addiction, nothing is. The language gets diluted, and with it, the gravity of what actual addiction is. People who have clawed their way out of substance abuse know the difference between compulsion and preference, between destructive dependence and deliberate engagement. Collapsing those distinctions into a trendy moral panic about “dopamine” is not enlightened. It’s sloppy. Unserious, even.

There’s also something deeply puritanical about it. The 2020s seem obsessed with pathologizing pleasure. If something feels good, it must be suspect. If it captures your attention, it must be hijacking your brain. If it isn’t explicitly productive, it must be rot. We’ve replaced older moral frameworks with neuroscience-flavored shame, but the tone is the same: you are wrong for enjoying things.

What bothers me most is how casually the word is thrown around in creative spaces. If you gather inspiration through music, images, movement, conversation, suddenly you’re “stimulus addicted.” If you can’t brute-force a novel in a silent white room with no input, you lack discipline. Never mind that many artists throughout history have relied on immersion, community, environment, and cross-media inspiration. Now it’s framed as weakness, as though the only legitimate art is produced under self-imposed sensory austerity.

This framing flattens nuance. There is a difference between avoidance and incubation. There is a difference between doomscrolling to numb out and deliberately engaging with material that fuels your imagination. There is a difference between compulsively chasing a hit and consciously choosing input that enriches your work. But nuance doesn’t trend. Alarmism does.

There’s also a strange individualizing move happening here. Instead of asking why people are exhausted, overstimulated, underpaid, isolated, or burnt out, we zoom in on their coping mechanisms and label them addictions. Instead of examining structural monotony, economic precarity, and social fragmentation, we scold individuals for having “bad dopamine habits.” It’s easier to diagnose people’s scrolling than to confront the conditions that make endless scrolling appealing.

Calling everything an addiction also erases agency. It suggests that people are perpetually hijacked by their brains, incapable of intentional choice unless they purge all sources of easy stimulation. That’s not empowering. It’s infantilizing. Adults are capable of enjoying things without being enslaved by them. Adults can have rituals, comforts, and creative processes without it being pathology.

When I hear the word “addiction” tossed around to describe normal human behavior, it doesn’t sound like insight. It sounds like moral grandstanding dressed up in pop psychology. And for those of us who have actually lived through the wreckage of substance abuse and fought to reclaim control, it feels like watching something serious get turned into a meme.

We deserve better language. We deserve distinctions. We deserve a culture that can tell the difference between compulsion and preference, between harm and habit, between numbing out and nourishing ourselves. Not everything that holds our attention is a disorder. Not everything pleasurable is a vice. And not everything repetitive is an addiction.

[razberry-slice]

Fidgeting with my art style some so I decided to draw BLU team in regular clothes

course that turned into drawing them and their opinions on crossdressing/ wearing 'girl' clothes because... because.

[eddies-ashtray]

luv how male animals gotta fucking dance around and cry and shit for female attention and sex. and then men irl complain about fat women and body hair like get on ur fucking knees and beg me actually

[eddies-ashtray]

like these tarantulas dude?? the male has to tap out a rhythm she likes and if she doesn’t?? she’ll literally eat him.

[caustic-light]

Alpha males: "This is nature. You don't see animals acting like queers don't you?"

90% of nature documentaries: "Until now the female has been very impressed by the males drag performance of Orwell's Homage To Catalonia, soundtracked exclusively by Maria Carey songs. A demanding performance like that knows to impress. But... Oh No... One note in the final tune was one cent flat. It doesn't look good for the male now. She is ordering an orbital laser strike to burn his beautifully groomed plumage from space. It will take all year to regrow, effectively ending this one's mating season early. Better luck next time, little guy. Women are a tough audience."

[fashion-runways]

XI SCORPII Mold Me Not Collection 2023 pls help me get out of debt donating to: ko-fi.com/fashionrunways or dinahlance-shop.fourthwall.com

[clubsdeuce]

anytime im playing on a TF2 server and i want to throw it into chaos I ask "which merc do you think would make the best husband?" it doesn't matter if the server is filled with straight men. everyone has a very strong opinion on this.

[joshus-lobster]

Your Honor, OP tossed a live grenade in on purpose.

[clubsdeuce]

i very clearly yelled grenade while throwing it

[the-rain-monster]

Cookbooks

A NYC grad student working on food stamps for her thesis has released a free cookbook for those living on $4/day.

[vastderp]

SIG NAL BOO OO OO OOOST

[roachpatrol]

hello

[isozyme]

oooooh this is so nice!

[ransomdracalis]

I believe it’s important to eat well, even when you’re strapped for cash. It’s good for your health and energy! This cookbook is full of delicious and healthy recipes, the ingredients of which are fairly inexpensive.

[fuckingrecipes]

I ACKNOWLEDGE THIS WOMAN AS A FELLOW WARRIOR AND A FANTASTIC HUMAN BEING. 

[fleetfootfox-deactivated2019011]

Boost so hard. Feeding yourself well is a challenge when you”ve got little income

[vrabia]

I HAVE BEEN USING THIS COOKBOOK FOR MONTHS AND IT’S AMAZING 100/10 RECOMMENDING EVERYWHERE

(just to give you an idea, my food budget is 30 euro/week at most [about $38] and I have to maintain a healthy diet due to weird medication side-effects and yeah, basically this book is a lifesaver if you’re broke but need to watch what you’re eating)

[adramofpoison]

Reblog to save a life. Because it’s easy to find food for $4/day, but most of it tends to be garden variety junkfood

[natashakhan]

(The pdf is free, I repeat, the pdf is free) 

[fashion-runways]

CHRISTIAN DIOR Fall/Winter RTW 2026 if you want to support this blog consider donating to: ko-fi.com/fashionrunways

[ewaneneollav]

[wolchefant]

this is what it feels like to be insane

[miyakoriee]

i've been rewatching...

[fashion-runways]

KIMHEKIM Fall/Winter RTW 2026 if you want to support this blog consider donating to: ko-fi.com/fashionrunways

[bearballing]

oh my gooooddddd fucking kill yourseeeeelllvvvveeesssss

[bearballing]

entire article makes me homicidal

Women's Olympic sports limited to biological females from 2028 - IOC

The women's category of Olympic sports will be limited to biological females from 2028, says the International Olympic Committee.

"this will keep out pretty much all intersex people and a lot of black women but oh well! btw men don't have any such test to go through"

[librarycards]

Adding my tags as a reply bc fuck it:

Has anyone mentioned how this opens up every woman competing to even more sexual abuse than she would have most likely already experienced during the process of elite athletic training? Like, any woman who wants to compete is being told that the price of going to the olympics is being molested. This is a structural, required component that is now part of the rules.

We need to talk about these "exams" as a form of sexual violence. Because they are.

[karlmarxmaybe]

Hi it's good that we're pointing out how this is bad for cis women (because it is) but also I think it is worth pointing out that

THE ENTIRE POINT OF THIS LEGISLATION IS TO CATEGORICALLY BAN TRANS WOMEN FROM THE OLYMPICS. THAT IS THE MAIN PROBLEM AND WHAT ANY SERIOUS CRITIQUE OF THE LEGISLATION MUST FOCUS ON.

[so-i-did-this-thing]

Your wardrobe just isn't accessible. All of your recommendations are so expensive.

Hmmmm, what kind of reaction are you looking for, Anon? I am not your enemy.

You need to rethink what "accessible" means wrt clothing. (Especially bearing in mind you are on the blog of a guy who likes to wear vintage style suits, which puts us firmly in "luxury items" territory.)

We are currently living in an era where those who make clothing are criminally under compensated, with ever increasing demands to cut costs, yet produce faster. Fashion is both a sustainability and labor issue.

We are also living in an era where even the raw materials for clothing are undergoing enshitification and this has fucked with people's perceptions for how long clothes should last.

But I am determined to build a wardrobe where pieces last for 10+ years, if cared for properly. And I know I have some things that absolutely will outlive me.

For these reasons, I am not going to recommend $15 or even $50 dress shirts, especially given they will fall apart after a season or two.

My wardrobe is a 25+ year long project of discovering what I like, how to assess quality, and getting my finances in a place where I can buy good pieces. My closet is not meant to be achievable overnight or even within a few years, because it sure as hell didn't happen that way for me.

Trying to build a fashionable wardrobe (again, the word is *fashionable* because presumably that is why you are here) on a budget?

1) Thrifting and garment swaps are still options (be sustainable and get the quality of the past!), with more choices if you can get garments altered. Gem.app will always be high on my recommendations list for this reason.

2) Making relationships with sewists and tailors and working out fair compensation (be it money, trade, being a pattern tester, etc) is an option

3) Saving up where you only buy 1 or 2 new, quality pieces of clothing a year is an option and should actually be the norm for everyone - we all buy too many clothes (myself included) and need to reset our expectations for how big a wardrobe should be + how often to change clothes

4) Learning how to make garments on your own is an option (one I am taking), especially given free resources such as libraries, YouTube tutorials, the Internet Archive, etc.

Good clothing does and should cost money and time. Especially if you want to wear tailored garments made from nice fabrics, which is my style and presumably why you came across my blog. (It's important I reiterate this point.) Honestly, the fact I can find a 3-piece wool suit new, in a vintage cut that fits me off-the-rack for $1k feels like stealing.

I spent most of my adult life climbing the Old Navy > Gap > Banana Republic fashion ladder, not realizing that nearly all of that clothing is cheap crap, especially things made post-2005. Now that I can afford nice stuff, there is a world of difference between my $15 flannel shirts and the $90 ones. Vimes Boot Theory, but with the caveat that the $15 shirt should not even exist.

(I love Vimes Boot Theory, but it needs a companion theory from the perspective of the bootmaker.)

It may sound shocking to you, but nearly all my wardrobe recommendations sit on the low end of price vs quality. I still have to mend my clothes, fix poor workmanship, and alter things to fit.

If you want decent quality clothing ("decent" = lasting for years), you honestly should be expecting to pay at least $100 for a new dress shirt, $300 for new boots, $300 for new woolen trousers. And yeah, $1k for a suit. These are bare minimum fair prices for off-the-rack.

You have to get comfortable with the fact that you will be paying some combination of time + money if you want nice things. (Even inexpensive things that are good quality take time to learn about, find, and maintain!) But the outcome - longer lasting stuff that makes you feel good - is hopefully worth the investment.

Garment construction deserves fair compensation and if your current salary is locking you out where you cannot get a few good, new things a year, the problem is that your own labor isn't being fairly compensated. Scold your boss, not me.

Again, I am not your enemy. But you need to recalibrate your thinking about what our standards for clothing should really be, with all the labor involved to achieve those standards.

And one more time - you're also complaining that my luxury fashion wardrobe is a luxury. Please also learn how to prioritize your wants vs your needs.

[draconym]

I just saw an acquaintance use "👖🛝" in place of the word genocide and. like. at what point are we going to decide that this kind of self-censorship is too degrading to abide anymore.

[draconym]

"grape" "sewer-slide" "the panini" I feel like I'm surrounded by Rugrats who overheard the grown ups talking about the news.

[draconym]

I'm tired of seeing people excuse algospeak because "corporations are making us do it." Why are we all letting them do that. The Internet is real life. Get mad about it.

[whitebisexual]

The concept of being 4 months clean from ai...

[sleepytabbycat]

idc what you guys think I'm proud of him

[astronomical-bagel]

Several AI services (chatbots 🫩) are purposely addictive, the same way people can become addicted to gambling or shopping. We’ve literally seen in real time how ChatGPT has caused psychosis and delusions in people; it can have a huge affect on someones’s mental stability. Just because it isn’t substance-based doesn’t mean that doesn’t count as an addiction, and shaming people who are trying to move on and improve themselves is counterproductive. Im proud of that dude and his 4 month mark!

[astronomical-bagel]

Hidden Mental Health Dangers of Artificial Intelligence Chatbots

AI chatbots can fuel emotional dependence and blur boundaries. Emerging research highlights significant mental health risks. Here are import

The reality of chatbot-induced delusions

Large language models often prioritise agreeability over truthfulness to the detriment of users

AI addiction includes the overuse of AI chatbots and companions, often leading to adverse psychological effects.

Some articles to back my statements, and this isn’t even mentioning about the predatory chatbots who do this on purpose