My Musings

[directactionforhope]

Every time you catch yourself going, "Fuck, are humans just inherently evil and naturally inclined to selfishness and harm???" you HAVE to remember that that's literally a core ideal of Christianity.

So if it feels inescapable and like evidence of it is everywhere, whether at times or always, that might just because you're in a Western country where you're surrounded by Christians who believe that, fundamentally, in their worldview. And also they talk and make art about it all the time and run the vast majority of news outlets. And spent over a thousand years burning any art or texts that disagreed with them. Etc. etc.

If you're gonna come to as drastic and painful a conclusion as that, at least take the time first to make sure you're not working with biased evidence (surrounded by too many people and cultural products that believe original sin is real)

And if it turns out the feeling WAS partly the result of cultural Christianity, then hey, that's great news, because it means there's that much (and it really is SO MUCH) less evidence that humans inherently suck. Which is good, because we don't

[vasyan-pupkinyan]

ignore that cultural trauma, ask an archeologist / paleontologist.

how often do we find human remains / burials attributable to a peaceful death of old age, or at least to disease / wild animals? and attributable to human violence, i.e. with traces of weapon impacts?

to use an old quote, the last ape became the first human not when he picked up a stick to reach some fruit, but when he used that stick to bash another ape over the head and take away his fruit.

[directactionforhope]

I disagree with pretty much all of that, actually. Modern archeology is only just in the process of pulling itself out of hundreds of years of racism, bias, colonialism, disproven assumptions, widespread graverobbing, and massive, blatant pseudoscience; many ideas and publications in the field that older than about 20 years are of highly questionable provenance.

I personally am much more convinced and compelled by newer theories that, if any piece of technology made us human, it was not the weapon - it was the carrier bag, the story, and/or fire. (But not fire with the primary purpose of violence, mind you - fire with the primary purpose of heat and food and sanitation)

Here's a quote on this from one of my absolute favorite thinkers and writers, Ursula K. Le Guin:

If you haven't got something to put it in, food will escape you- even something as uncombative and unresourceful as an oat. You put as many as you can into your stomach while they are handy, that being the primary container; but what about tomorrow morning when you wake up and it's cold and raining and wouldn't it be good to have just a few handfuls of oats to chew on and give little Oom to make her shut up, but how do you get more than one stomachful and one handful home? So you get up and go to the damned soggy oat patch in the rain, and wouldn't it be a good thing if you had something to put Baby Oo Oo in so that you could pick the oats with both hands? A leaf a gourd a shell a net a bag a sling a sack a bottle a pot a box a container. A holder. A recipient. The first cultural device was probably a recipient. . . . Many theorizers feel that the earliest cultural inventions must have been a container to hold gathered products and some kind of sling or net carrier. So says Elizabeth Fisher in Women's Creation (McGraw-Hill, 1975). But no, this cannot be. Where is that wonderful, big, long, hard thing, a bone, I believe, that the Ape Man first bashed somebody with in the movie and then, grunting with ecstasy at having achieved the first proper murder, flung up into the sky...? I don't know. I don 't even care. I'm not telling that story. We've heard it, we've all heard all about all the sticks and spears and swords, the things to bash and poke and hit with, the long, hard things, but we have not heard about the thing to put things in, the container for the thing contained. That is a new story. That is news... It sometimes seems that that story is approaching its end. Lest there be no more telling of stories at all , some of us out here in the wild oats, amid the alien corn, think we'd better start telling another one, which maybe people can go on with when the old one's fin- ished. Maybe. The trouble is , we've all let ourselves become part of the killer story, and so we may get finished along with it. Hence it is with a certain feeling of urgency that I seek the nature, subject, words of the other story, the untold one, the life story.

-via Ursula K. Le Guin, The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction. Originally published 1986, new edition with forewords and commentaries published 2024.

[directactionforhope]

Oh also if any technology did make us human, archeological evidence currently very strongly argues it was when we harnessed fire and invented cooking.

Fire is literally the reason our brains are larger than any other species of ape's, because harnessing fire meant we spent radically less energy spent on digestion - and those excess resources instead changed the evolution of the human brain.

Also fire is probably the reason we're not fully covered in hair anymore, evolutionarily - because we evolved in equatorial Africa, where not wearing a fur coat everywhere was an evolutionary advantage due to, you know, the temperature of it all. Once we could make our own heat to survive the cold nights and winters, less insulation was a huge evolutionary advance in equatorial regions especially

Why Fire Makes Us Human

Cooking may be more than just a part of your daily routine, it may be what made your brain as powerful as it is

Wherever humans have gone in the world, they have carried with them two things, language and fire. As they traveled through tropical forests they hoarded the precious embers of old fires and sheltered them from downpours. When they settled the barren Arctic, they took with them the memory of fire, and recreated it in stoneware vessels filled with animal fat. Darwin himself considered these the two most significant achievements of humanity. It is, of course, impossible to imagine a human society that does not have language, but—given the right climate and an adequacy of raw wild food—could there be a primitive tribe that survives without cooking? In fact, no such people have ever been found. Nor will they be, according to a provocative theory by Harvard biologist Richard Wrangham, who believes that fire is needed to fuel the organ that makes possible all the other products of culture, language included: the human brain. Every animal on earth is constrained by its energy budget; the calories obtained from food will stretch only so far. And for most human beings, most of the time, these calories are burned not at the gym, but invisibly, in powering the heart, the digestive system and especially the brain, in the silent work of moving molecules around within and among its 100 billion cells. A human body at rest devotes roughly one-fifth of its energy to the brain, regardless of whether it is thinking anything useful, or even thinking at all. Thus, the unprecedented increase in brain size that hominids embarked on around 1.8 million years ago had to be paid for with added calories either taken in or diverted from some other function in the body. Many anthropologists think the key breakthrough was adding meat to the diet. But Wrangham and his Harvard colleague Rachel Carmody think that’s only a part of what was going on in evolution at the time. What matters, they say, is not just how many calories you can put into your mouth, but what happens to the food once it gets there. How much useful energy does it provide, after subtracting the calories spent in chewing, swallowing and digesting? The real breakthrough, they argue, was cooking.

-via Smithsonian Magazine, June 2013. Emphasis mine. In the time since this article was published, what was considered a "provocative theory" in 2013 has become a matter of increasing scientific evidence and scientific consensus.

Richard Wrangham lays out his theory as a whole in his 2010 book Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human.

For more current summaries on the history of fire, and scientific and archeological evidence for its role in human evolution:

Evolutionary fire ecology: An historical account and future directions. August 2023. BioScience, volume 73, issue 8, pages 602–608. Permalink: https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biad059, paywall-free.

The discovery of fire by humans: a long and convoluted process. By J. A. J. Gowlett. June 2016. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, volume 371, issue 1696, epage 20150164. Permalink: doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2015.0164, paywall free.

Or, less scholarly:

Fire and the Brain: How Cooking Shaped Humans | AMNH

It takes a lot of calories to power a human brain. Find out how cooking and gut microbes help us make the most of our food.

[reasonsforhope]

Humans are not defined by our capacity for violence.

Current archeological evidence suggests that humans are, if anything, defined by the hearthfire.

By cooking. By our ability to keep ourselves warm. By our ability to provide for ourselves and each other. By humanity's millennia-long quest to beat back the ravages of starvation and hunger.

By our millennia-long quest to make our lives, and the lives of those we love, more and more into something we can live

[striving-artist]

OP and the refutations are excellent and lovely resources. I am not that good of a person bc it is 1am. I'll try to come back in the morning and add better sources than wikipedia.

But wrt to the person being hella wrong in the first reply. That hypothesis is referred to as the Warlike Ape or the Killer Ape theory, and its from the 50s and 60s. It's still got its tendrils woven through the pop culture conceptualization of evolution, especially when someone is using the wrong definition of "Fittest" and/or lives in the manosphere.

That's where you see the idea that humanity succeeded thanks to an inherent and superior capacity for violence as uber hunters. It supports the thing that alpha-gym-bros are claiming; strong equals success, and preemptive murder means you're winning. Science no longer believes that.

Quick note; current belief is that chimps are about 100x more aggressive than humans are. If violence was the winning strat, we'd have died out. Chimps scare the hell out of me.

The Killer Ape theory started with an article by Raymond Dart called , and then expanded more by Robert Ardrey in African Genesis, plus his follow ups. It is absolutely steeped in colonialism, racism, sexism, etc that created an assumption of what they were looking to find. Same sort of biases that led to things like the Piltdown Man and people looking for a singular missing link so they could show evolution as a March of Time.

There are many fossil specimens that got pointed to as evidence for humans being an apex predator early in the evolutionary timeline, based on stuff like finding mostly skulls and leg bones, which they sorta thought meant we were bashing folk in the skull with femurs. For speed, I'm just going to use a single, easy, example.

The Taung Child (its only a skull), was discovered by Raymond Dart, the guy who proposed the Killer Ape theory.

Its the skull of a (we know now) 3yo Australopithecus africanus, and it was a Big Fricking Deal in the 1920s bc it was evidence for human evolution happening in Africa, not asia. It was a whole thing that he was arguing for it to be a human ancestor, and that we evolved from apes, and was eventually accepted by the scientific community. That's neato, and Dart was not a crank. He did some really important work. But. He was working from how he interpreted the fossils he found, and within the preconceptions present at the time.

Here's why its my example.

The Taung child has puncture damage to the skull and for a long time, a dominant theory was that our evolutionary ancestors brutally murdered a child.

Fossil interpretation is hard, y'all. That skull is 2.8mya, not complete, and it was removed from context before science got hold of it. I'm sure that Dart was confident and sincere in his write ups.

However.

In 2006, science said hold up, nah, this damage looks what we see when an eagle snatches a primate and eats it. The now dominant theory is that australopithecines were prey, not predators. Definitely not apex predators.

There are lots and lots of fossil specimens of hominins that died violently. No argument there. But when you have a few pieces of a skeleton, you're interpreting partial evidence of what happened millions of years ago, and you're only seeing damage to the bones. Soft tissue damage(like disease) isn't visible. The history of specimens being found and removed from context is not helping, but there's a couple times when people when back and found out that 'brutal murder victim' was found in a pile with a bunch of small mammal bones bc a big cat or bird kept accidentally dropping them into a cave.

Finally, there's the (sorta ironic) survivorship bias involved. I've seen stuff saying humans started burying people 100kya or 250kya or maybe 500kya, and we start finding lots of evidence of human kindness and caretaking. (obligatory shout out to my man, Shanidar-1) That's cool as hell, but before that, a body left out is very unlikely to fossilize. Even something like a shallow burial, which is possibly a thing before 500kya, is not going to get you fossils. Body gets dug up by animals, scavenged, eaten, scattered.

Ps I can't backtrace the implied quote about hitting with sticks, but, again, its 1am, and I only tried for a few minutes.

[stoically]

Also, just to put it out there, humans are hilariously bad at violence (or anything really, without tools). No claws, a head built for looking not grabbing with teeth, overly dexterous and easily breakable hands and feet, thin skin with no fur to protect from other things trying to bite us. We’re built for tools. Not ‘raw brutal strength’. Which tends to be what violence does excel with. I, personally, have a hard time believing we’d have the shape we do if the primary driving force behind it was violence. But carrying more resources? Given ourselves a shelter nature didn’t provide? Starting a fire to keep warm? Yeah, those things make sense for how we’re built.

[elodieunderglass]

Intersex mallard for the collection

Ohhhh, that one genuinely could be!! As you probably know, it can be really hard to tell, because of how ducks arrange things.

I’ve written a fair amount in the “manky mallard” tag about how mallards can be difficult to observe, because of their irritating personalities their tendency to fuck other birds and reproduce unexpectedly puzzling-looking animals. If you spot an unexpected-looking mallard, it almost always has some mixed domestic ancestry, or a parent that was a different species of duck. I’ve seen mallards trying to pull baby Canada Geese; I would not be surprised by any claimed origin for a manky mallard. Anything that lays eggs, probably up to and including attractive iguanas, is fair game for a mallard to have a go. You could hand me a small fire-breathing dragon or perhaps an echidna, and say that a mallard got into the breeding pens, and I’d be like “okay. I’m not in charge. Does it have blue speckles and a faint ultramarine glow? Does it fluoresce with secret sigils under UV? Sure, I’ve heard mallards do that.”

This one, though, as I’m sure you know, might indeed be “intersex.”

As you may also know, there is another option, based on the refreshingly different way that mallards manage things - we might instead frame that as an individual going through a sex change. And I did write sex change. Nobody knows exactly how they want to handle the language, but it’s called “spontaneous sex reversal” and it’s a thing that mallards are known for because, of course, they are mallards.

Mallards, being birds, do not bother with the same sex chromosomes that humans do; they probably consider us quite fussy and mundane. They’re operating on a different methodology, in which ‘male’ is the ‘default’. Female ducks have two ovaries, of which they only use one; if anything happens to it, there is no more estrogen, so the duck ‘reverts’ to male characteristics. Apparently, the disused other ovary can switch to a testis, as I believe some birds of record (possibly chickens?) have proven by switching in their lives from brooding to siring offspring. which is an interesting feat. It’s the sort of thing mallards would do.

Various reasons for the ovary going dark are usually related to damage or disease, but can possibly just be age. We don’t see enough of it to know why it happens, just that it does. Ovary off, plumage switches over to “male,” beak changes colour, etc.

So between spontaneous sex reversal, juveniles, eclipse plumage, patterns introduced by fucking other ducks… who knows. Who knows, with mallards.

“Guess what I am,” the mallard says, precisely as irritatingly as a small child asks that.

“I don’t know, are you a manky mallard?”

“NO! GUESS.”

“Are you a juvenile crossbreed developing mating plumage?”

“That’s a bit of a personal question, don’t you think?”

So I don’t know. I don’t know! This could be intersex, particularly manky, a duck going through spontaneous sex reversal, or a new invention they’ve come up with to piss us off, like “it’s 2026, we’re all doing speckled brown tummies, dark bandana-like markings and septum piercings now” and I’d believe it.

One to keep an eye on! Thank you!

[stoically]

I think the fandom has been sleeping on something huge.

We all love the headcanons about Huntr/x and the Sunlight Sisters being total badasses, with fans losing their minds when they find out. But honestly… there’s an unbroken legacy of “bad ass” energy in K-pop girl groups of three that goes back hundreds of years.

What if fans have just come to expect that level of badassery from their idols?

Think about it: music fan culture has been quietly guided by demon hunters for over a century. The same bloodline that trained idols to hunt demons also trained them to protect themselves in the real world—because the stage has never been safe. This isn’t even something unique to setting. Elvis Presley himself publicly talked about being ready to defend himself and his own with his bare hands or a karate chop if anyone got too handsy. With this legacy of demon hunter groups the same expectation would have been baked into performer culture long before rock ’n’ roll. Fans didn’t just want pretty voices and pretty moves—they wanted idols who could throw down.

That mindset never faded. It evolved. By the time K-pop girl groups of three started dominating, the standard was already set: “They’re not a real K-pop girl group unless they can handle handsy fans themselves.”

Huntr/x is especially famous for it now, but that’s partly because the Sunlight Sisters were the only other active group during the early days of cell phone cameras—and even then, filming wasn’t nearly as constant as it is today. But any Sunlight Sisters fan would have been able to quote at least three times any one of them beat up someone or did some acrobatics that left people surprised.

What really leaves Huntr/x fans stunned speechless, though, is their insane teamwork in COD and other war games.

The Sunlight Sisters were never really encouraged to play video games back then—it was still seen as something lonely guys did in basements. So the only demon hunter group that could have shown off in this way is Huntr/x. Huntr/x gets actively hyped up by their fans to stream and play.

Individually, each of the girls already has incredible hand-eye coordination and sharp battlefield awareness. But together? They’re on another level. Their coordination is so flawless it looks borderline psychic. They barely need to speak—just quick one-word calls to each other, mixed with the most hilariously brutal trash talk aimed at their opponents. It’s like they can read each other’s minds before the move even happens.

And their tactics aren’t basic “run in and spray.” They actually plan ahead: predicting enemy routes, setting up trap points, mapping escape paths. They naturally fall into perfect roles—Zoey on long-range/overwatch, Mira as the frontline tank, and Rumi as the flexible mid-range all-rounder.

Their fans eat it up. These are their Hunters, after all.

[stoically]

Polytrix Eternity

I watched a trailer for Eternity (2025) where a girl has to choose who to spend eternity with after she dies. Her first husband or her second. Got me thinking about Mira marrying Rumi, her childhood sweetheart, only for Rumi to die young. Mira’s devastated but she continues living because she knows Rumi would want her to.

A little more jaded, a little more sharp she meets Zoey and does what she assumed was impossible, she falls in love again. Eventually Mira dies and ends up in the afterlife where she’s told she has to pick which one (if either) to spend eternity with. She goes on dates and explores both memories and new moments with both. Meanwhile Zoey and Rumi get a chance to meet each other.

Then Rumi confesses that while she’s been waiting for Mira she was able to check in on her. She knows Zoey was good for her, loved by her and plain lovely. She approves of Mira moving on with Zoey, the love they share is obvious to her, and she just wanted a chance to say goodbye. Before Mira can say anything Zoey protests.

Rumi was such a part of Mira that Zoey’s thankful to get to really meet her. She knew Rumi was Mira’s first love since before they started dating and Zoey never and will never expect to come between them. She just waited for Mira because she wanted to say a final goodbye before the two of them found an eternity together. And having met Rumi she totally gets why Mira still loves her.

They both sort of look awkwardly at each other and Mira rolls her eyes before laughing so hard she cries. “All of eternity and you two idiots still don’t understand that there’s nowhere I’d rather be than with you both? Loving one of you can’t make me love the other any less. I want you both. Forever.”

Rumi and Zoey both agree immediately because they too want forever with Mira. The three of them find an eternity they can agree on and both Rumi and Zoey think that’s the end of it. Mira knows better and subtly starts throwing them together until they kiss. Both of them confess to Mira they cheated on her and she boinks their heads together and tells them it’s the three of them for eternity so she’s happy they can love each other the way she loves them and they love her. Cue Rumi and Zoey realizing this was her plan all along and it was a great plan.

[stoically]

In the vein of Huntr/x being insanely terrifying to match the work out of… imagine all the content creators who try to debunk, mimic, or figure out Huntr/x’s ‘tricks’. Those poor suckers. Like, you know the media is catching the girls doing wild things all the time. “Huntr/x lyricist Choi Zoey caught on film out swimming a boat to save a turtle. Aw, that’s cute. But I’m here today to Debunk this article. I’ve found the exact model of boat and figured out from the size of the wake how fast it was going. My friend, Carmen, who is an Olympic gold medalist in swimming will be started at Zoey’s recorded position while I’ll be driving the boat.” But there’s actual video of Zoey’s entire swim in which she’s actually faster than the boat. “Today we’re taking apart a rather unique sort of magic trick. During Huntr/x’s latest sold out concert in Seoul they seemingly dived in from a plane without parachutes and ‘killed’ a few ‘demon’s in the crowd. Huntr/x, as always, is incredibly tight lipped about how they perform their stunts. We don’t even know who those ‘demon’ stunt actors are. So well we can’t tell you how they did it, we can tell you how we could do it.” 15 minutes later. “No. This. It’s impossible? I can’t do it. It can’t be done! A human’s bones would snap at that amount of force. HOW DID THEY DO IT?!?” ”Now I know a lot of people are talking about Mira’s escape over the fence and down the stairs to avoid the paparazzi. And to get this out of the way first, yes, we stan the legend on this channel. The Queen should have flipped them the bird and no one deserves to be stalked so persistently they have to do this to get away. That being said, I nearly cried when I saw that perfect display of control and grace. So I’ve brought you out here today to show you exactly how amazing this was and how extremely difficult it is so you don’t do it at home. Remember I’m a trained professional with fifteen years of parkour experience, safety gear, and a fully inflated fall cushion at the bottom in case I make a mistake. For everyone who’s thinking ‘but Mira from Huntr/x did it and she’s ‘just’ an idol’ Firstly, fuck you. You obviously have no idea the sheer physical effort those girls put into just one song. Secondly, fine. Go die. I’m not liable for your dumbass suicidal decisions. Okay, now, let’s talk about leverage and grip strength for this first part-”

”In this seven hour long docu-essay I’ll discuss what, exactly, kind of cryptid Rumi might be. Starting with mermaid because, well, duh.”

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

thing about censorship is that once you allow one thing to be censored, it’s a domino effect from there.

you can’t only vouch for the censorship of things you personally hate. because if those things can be censored, everything else can and will be censored too eventually, until all that’s left of art is just rainbow and sunshine and heterosexual stuff of conservative values.

it’s either nothing is censored or everything—that is not rainbow and sunshine and heterosexual and of conservative values—is censored.

“but it makes me uncomfortable” the block button is there. you can also filter out specific words/tags of what you don’t want to see. that’s how you curate your own internet experience and protect your own peace of mind. you do it by rightfully choosing not to consume (or even see) what makes you uncomfortable, what upsets you. but you don’t do it by demanding that others censor themselves just to cater to your personal comfort.

[stoically]

Wild to think people are so entitled to think they have a right to tell other people what content they are allowed access to and in the same conversations will get upset at other people for daring to tell them to be responsible for the content they themselves access. Or worse, their children. I do not accept the “we need to protect the children” argument simply because they have failed the biggest, most important way they could actually protect the children. Parenting.

I have yet to speak to one person who’s said something pro censorship (of something) that has had a conversation (not just a demand or order) with their child(ren) about it. Suspicious.

[stoically]

Y’know for the longest time I was confused about how Kpop Demon Hunters started. Like, did the girls not know they were in a plane? Did they not realize their show wasn’t in the plane? How could the be so stupid?

It finally clicked for me. They flew into whatever city (I’m presuming Seoul) the concert was and were waiting in the plane until the concert. The pre-show snacks were all gathered there because that’s where they expected to have their pre-show ritual before being taken to the venue. This being the last stop on their world tour they were probably exhausted and running on fumes. Who knows how many times they slept in the plane instead of a hotel. They arrived in that city the day of the concert via plane and were still there.

[jammatown919]

[so-i-did-this-thing]

What hapoened after 2005 with clothing quality? (Your comment a out Old Navy etc)

This is around when you start seeing spandex infest everything - spandex blends are prone to wonky shrinkage in the dryer, and the fabric just kind of shreds in a short period of time.

You also see more and more companies skipping steps like pre-washing fabric, so even previously "safe" options like 100% cotton shirts bleed and shrink a ton in the wash. (See a bog-standard 100% cotton shirt these days with dry cleaning instructions? Yeah, that thing will bleed everywhere, shrink in the dryer because the fabric hasn't been pre-shrunk, and the seams will also start bursting due to shitty construction.)

You also see print quality take a dive -- yarn-dyed fabric and screenprinting getting replaced with sublimation work. (I have 25 year old screen printed t-shirts that look better than anything modern that has gone through only 2 washes.)

We had a very brief, sweet-spot period in time where washing machines & detergent stopped being brutal on clothes, and fabric + construction was high quality, but affordable. 2005 is not an exact date for the end of this short era, but it's around there somewhere, imo. I would personally never thrift for anything post 2005, as a general rule of thumb. (Based on my experiences as older Gen X.)

[crowtoed]

Clothes also used to cost us more money, or at least a higher percentage of our income. People had smaller wardrobes to reflect that.

The rise of fast fashion thanks to internet retailers like Zara (often sourced as the originator of the trend), H&M, and Primark in the 90s and 00s realizing global supply and labor chains being shifted around in the wake of NAFTA and other international agreements, meant that they could debut new clothing year-round instead of just Fall and Spring. The links between designer, approval, production, and sales were growing shorter while markets were getting bigger with the rise of internet shopping. To maximize profits and minimize costs, materials were made thinner and stretchier across the board.

When you have a stretch poplin shirt or a pair of spandex blend leggings, it can fit more people in a generalized size range (S, M, L). It will also wear out quicker and be resistant to mending (once the intermixed stretchy fibers are severed, it's incredibly difficult to get it to stop degrading- like a run in a pair of stockings). Ever try to repair a hole in the inner thighs of a pair of stretch jeans? It's a pain in the ass to get it to stay that way.

The decline in union-made clothing also resulted in a loss of quality. Instead of being guaranteed a minimum wage, garment workers are paid by each finished piece, which incentivizes speed over quality. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of garment workers out there who are quick and accurate, but when factories push more styles and ridiculous quotas, corners WILL be cut.

Shoppers have also become accustomed to this year-round release schedule, which encourages manufacturers to embrace cheaper materials and labor practices to cover any losses. Did last month's turtleneck sweaters absolutely bomb in sales? No problem, they were mostly acrylic and sewn cheaply! On to the next microtrend...

Of course, shittier clothes also mean that people need to buy more often...

[so-i-did-this-thing]

My partner above also reminded me about this video, if you want more info on why clothing/fabric quality is shit now:

[so-i-did-this-thing]

I think it's very important to point out that "Fast Fashion" is not another way to say, "low price, low quality clothing". It usually ends up that way, but that is not what the term means.

Fast Fashion is the rapid, consistent cycling of micro trends, which requires an acceleration of the design > manufacturing > sales chain. That's it.

(You can also have year-round garments like plain, white t-shirts that have also tanked in quality over the years -- this is not a Fast Fashion problem, but related to general cost cutting in fabric production.)

Yes, this disproportionately affects low income populations, but you have *got* to understand how this is a business model that goes beyond clothing and crosses income brackets.

I want to point out 2 things that often get left out of this conversation:

1) To dislike fast fashion is not to say "fuck you for wearing the only clothes you can afford". It is to dislike a very modern and unsustainable production model that is the realization of the "endless growth" model of late-stage capitalism.

2) Garment (and other production) workers are consistently left out in the "how dare you piss on the poor" hot takes. We have *got* to encourage liveable wages for everyone.

"The $10 shirt is all some people can afford" and "a new shirt should never be $10" are both unfortunately true.

In a similar vein, I am getting increasingly frustrated at the "it's a privilege to be able to thrift" discourse.

Thrifting as a hobby and thrifting to be able to clothe yourself are two different practices that are increasingly getting conflated. And the existence of the former is being used to discourage the latter.

I will continue to recommend thrifting for both fashion and needs-based clothing, with the suggestion that one check the fabric content label and try to get something with as low a spandex content as possible. (And if you can, learn a couple of other earmarks for longevity or suitability for alterations.) You may not luck out every time, and some days you may not have the time to inspect everything on the rack, but a little knowledge here could score you a garment that you won't have to replace so soon.

Same thing with learning how to care for your clothing. Got things prone to shrinkage because of spandex or it was never pre-shrunk? If you can spare the day, let it air dry vs running through a machine. You can't always avoid shitty garments, but you can try to eke more life out of them, and it helps to know *why* they are shitty to begin with.

And that is really the point of these conversations when you, yourself are part of the worst impacted class of people. A little knowledge that can tip the balance when confronted with what you thought were 2 identical purchases. A little reassurance that, no, you didn't fuck up washing these clothes, they ripped or shrank because the quality is worse than what you grew up with.

I am getting so frustrated with people who are determined to turn conversations about clothing into opportunities to create increasingly minute class distinctions to encourage either fighting or nihilism. It is important to be able to describe what is going on with capitalism without that being perceived as a personal attack. And likewise understand that solutions range from the personal to the systemic, and sometimes the personal is all you can try at the moment.

[son-of-drogo]

A few tips for trying to find good quality clothes:

1. Look at what the garment is made of. There are garments that can be made of synthetic fibers and there are others that can't. Sweaters for example, with the exception of chenille, can't be made with synthetic fibers without them pilling and becoming an awful texture after a couple washes.

2. 100% doesn't always mean 100%. It's legal to say that if there's only a tiny bit of another fiber in the fabric, it shouldn't be because it allows companies to lie about their garment but having synthetics.

3. Look at the wash instructions. You should never be able to put a good wool in the washing machine, for example. It has to be hand wash or dry clean only. If it says it's 100% wool and you can put it in the washing machine, they're lying to you about the fiber content.

4. Look at the brand tag. Is it vintage? Is it a brand that's known for being well made? Look it up if you have the time and you're not sure.

5. Check the seams, make sure there aren't any loose threads, make sure the seams are straight, know how to spot good workmanship.

6. Make sure you can tailor the item if needed. Most modern garments are meant to fit a small group of people correctly and you most likely will have to tailor some of your garments to fit. look for where and how the pockets are placed and if it fits in the shoulders.

7. Learn how to do burn tests with garments you take home. Snip off a little bit of excess fabric and light that sucker. It's a great way to figure out if the fabric content is what the trash says it is and how to more accurately care for the garment.

Here's some really good videos by Bernadette Banner that explain how to look for good quality clothes.

Also make friends with your dry cleaners.

[so-i-did-this-thing]

Thank you for this!

Laundry labels are very important, and I can understand they can be confusing when they're just the icons (I still have to look some up).

If I (or someone else) have the spoons, there is an entire post to be made about how to care for your garments, *especially* how to eke out as much life as possible out of the low quality stuff.

(In fact, I have to fix some of my lower end shoes, and will make a post with how I do quick sole repair.)

[kyotoagnes]

I really debated sticking my oar in on this. I’m in a bit of bind because of my size. Thrifting is truly, in my area, not possible. There is little to no chance to find clothes my size. I’m a 5x I have and am sewing to make my own. Spandex while the bane of existence literally saves my ass (and everyone else from not having to see my exposed ass). I dislike it, always have, but any port in a storm.

The quality of good plus size is …. Well it’s not good. They have a captive audience and they know it. I often find myself reading comments about the quality of clothes and thinking “hasn’t it always been that way?” then I realized. It hit plus size clothes first then moved to mainstream. Paying more for shitty quality has always been my norm.

So has not being able to find things. I made a special club at my University it required wearing a white dress. Thank every god they gave enough notice because it took three fucking months and a special order. I live in the biggest town in my state. It was a plain white dress, not a wedding dress just a simple plain white dress and it took forever. At that time I didn’t sew, but damn if I had found fabric, bought a machine and done it myself it would have been less painful.

[so-i-did-this-thing]

Thank you for the oar, @kyotoagnes

A lot of the boutique brands for new clothing of higher quality... they *know* they have a plus-sized market willing to pay, but choose not to engage.

This is a huge problem in the new vintage world, where it feels like a deliberate attempt to discourage plus-sized people from ever being associated with the brand. It is distinctly malicious.

And while this thread was moreso about fabric, you kind of need patterns to even try to make do with what currently is available.

The "fat tax" for asking a pattern be graded to anything above a size L is absurd, not to mention finding someone who will *properly* grade the pattern to begin with.

You can't just resize it in Photoshop and call it a day -- not a lot of people know this and I feel it important to draw attention to. Whenever people tell my (plus-sized) partner they are lucky they can make "whatever they want," my partner just grits their teeth.

The problems of declining quality in the fashion world disproportionately impact plus-sized people and we should be encouraging more sizes as a norm, in both finished clothing and in pattern work for home sewists.

[tiefvoid]

huntrix and words

zoey is the lyricist and as such i think she doesn’t struggle putting her feelings to words; if anything i think she struggles with having too many words. she’s the type to think faster than she speaks and it’s why she gets into rap. her diction is crazy good, even back when she still struggled with the language. her notebooks are filled with thoughts and ideas and everything that crosses her mind, cuz otherwise she gets overwhelmed and cannot focus. it’s how she writes music: throw everything at the wall, see what sticks, then frankenstein a song from all that. she pulls a rubber duck on everyone in her path: rumi, mira, bobby, derpy and sussie, rumi’s teddy bear; once she even called celine at 3 am and she just sat there and listened. zoey cannot for the life of her summarize or reduce her word count, but her girls listen or redirect her, and what else could she need?

mira has a harder time of things. i think she agonizes over words, turns them this way and that, practices conversations in her head. she plans and rehearses, but when the time comes to say it out loud, it still doesn’t come out quite right. eventually she just kind of gives up; she claims to be overly blunt, highly aggressive, but i like to think she just thinks that about herself. call yourself something before others say it, that kind of self defense. her voice is low and her tone is flat, more than once her tone or wording or expression have made people take her the wrong way. she’s frustrated and sad more than angry, but not with her girls. they take their time knowing her, learning her; to be loved is to be seen. and mira has more than one way to express herself; there’s a reason why she’s the choreographer. she expresses herself in actions, gentle touches, freedom of movement, and she knows her girls will listen.

rumi is media trained before she can even walk. i don’t think she even notices the permanent pr filter in her mind until she’s frustrated. only then does she trip and stumble and spill her heart out. it takes a while for her to be able to express her emotions outside of these outbursts. worse still, she rarely ever knows what exactly she’s feeling; work is enough to drown it all out. she’s been avoiding sitting down with herself for her whole life and now it hits her like a ton of bricks. she doesn’t have the words but she tries, does her best to explain in sentences that don’t make a ton of sense but are enough for the burden to lighten ever so slightly. her girls learn to fill in the blanks, read her hesitance and silence, understand the holes in her stories. rumi has so many secrets she doesn’t remember half of them, but her girls are endlessly patient as she slowly learns the words she’s been missing.

[abiteofspaghetti-deactivated202]

Casual reminder that because of the Saja boys weakening the honmoon people were LITERALLY FUCKING DYING

Like they actually just died, there's no indication at the end of the movie that any of the people who got their souls sucked out were brought back to life, again they literally just died

An entire trains worth of people died ALONE in that one argument scene between Rumi and Mira

So when Rumi's patterns get revealed, Mira and Zoey aren't thinking "Oh Rumi has patterns and she's trying to negotiate peace with jinu so she can be rid of them when the honmoon is sealed"

They're thinking "oh Rumi is a demon and is working with the Saja boys behind our backs to KILL PEOPLE"

ESPECIALLY after she damaged the honmoon

Theres no reason to assume that they wouldn't be super suspicious of rumi especially after the train incident

They aren't raising their weapons at Rumi because they hate Rumi, they're raising them because they're SCARED of something who they again think is working behind their backs with the Saja boys to KILL PEOPLE

Mira and Zoey's reaction with this lense is more than justifiable, it's arguably heroic that they would raise their weapons at one of their closest friends to defend their people

[stoically]

Also, they don’t pull out their weapons until Rumi damages the Honmoon. Like Rumi was hardly making sense but they were still trying to talk (while panicking) until Rumi does the voice ripple that damages (I think? Unclear how much) the Honmoon. And they don’t attack her. They have a duty they’ve trained and done for 6+ years and people are dying, their fans who they’re supposed to save are dying, and they still don’t attack Rumi.

[rainbowcharged]

Imagine if Celine has to acclimate HUNTR/X to one another like you would acclimate hamsters or cats. Rumi knows immediately that she is tethered by the soul to Zoey and Mira, but Celine insists they be kept in separate rooms unless they are supervised and occasionally makes them share personal items like clothing, bedding or perfumes. This process, Celine knows, is necessary to keep them from potentially killing each other due to the overwhelming emotion associated with having a soul bond. Even more so considering Mira and Rumi initially get along like petrol and an open flame, and Zoey is, well Zoey. Celine isn't sure if Zoey might do something to the others on purpose or on accident, but she isn't about to find out either way.

[stoically]

”It’s called the three body problem,” Celine explains but Zoey’s not really listening. There’s something happening in her chest that feels like is anxiety was given steroids then swaddled in a blanket like a baby. She might have to throw up.

“Uh huh,” Zoey pretends like she’s listening because she wants Celine to like her nearly as much as she wants whatever to stop. Or start? Get closer? Leave her alone forever? Look, she hasn’t decided quite what she wants it to do but she really, really, wants it to do that.

”It gets better.” The grimace Celine can’t hide quick enough for Zoey not to see suggests it does not, in fact, get better. “The acclimatization period is to help with that. It should let things settle sooner.”

”Should?” Zoey asks.

Celine pauses for a moment before she sets down Zoey’s suitcase in the blank walled room that’ll be the only thing she sees for the next week or two. “Theoretically. This will be the first time we attempt acclimatization instead of just letting the three of you meet.”

”Why don’t you just let the three of us meet? I mean, it can’t be any worse than this.” Zoey puts her hand over whatever the hell is going on in her chest. Celine looks at her with a dark expression.

“Yes,” she disagrees, “it can.”

***

Mira stares at the door and ignores how Celine is setting out a tray on her desk. “Why’s it even called the three body problem?” She asks harshly to distract herself from the urge to go out there and, and, and something.

Celine pretends like Mira’s genuinely curious when they both know she’s not. “The Honmoon connects your souls,” she explains patiently.

“I know,” Mira huffs, “you keep telling me that.”

“It does not connect your bodies,” Celine continues as if Mira hadn’t interrupted.

“I figured that out on my own,” Mira snarks. Her hands clench onto the corner of the bed to physically hold herself back from racing out of the room. She tells herself it’s just boredom making her skin feel too tight. It’s not.

“One united soul spread across three bodies.” Celine connects the verbal pieces as she pulls a locked plastic box from the bottom of her tray.

“And that makes me feel like this?” Mira asks incredulously as her jaw clenches in rage and she longs longs longs without direction.

“Your body needs to adjust, to find balance.” Celine explains patiently as she packs up the rest of her cart and heads for the door. “To realize it neither needs to join your souls other parts nor needs to free them to join you.”

Mira scoffs and rolls her eyes when Celine locks the solid door behind her. She eyes the plastic box left behind the same way she would a bomb. What a pleasant way to say if she meets whoever Celine’s trying to ‘acclimatize’ her to she’ll either murder them or fuck them. As if Mira was some uncontrollable animal. She spends the next five seconds reassuring herself she’s not before she looses all patience and opens the box.

In the morning, when she can think again, she’ll realize it was someone’s shorts. Bright green, baggy, with little turtles on them. Clean but still smelling of something refreshing that reminds her of the beach during summer before she got blood and cum on them. In the afternoon, when Celine comes back, she’ll growl and refuse to hand the over to be cleaned until she’s reassured they’ll still smell like ‘Zoey’ afterwards. Only to herself will she admit that she might not be as in control of herself as she should be.

***

Rumi thought being prepared would make it easier. Since she was ten she’s known she was a hunter. Celine described the three body problem and the difficulty of having a soul split between three people to her when she was fourteen. It’s been years and Rumi’s known this was coming and it’s still so fucking hard! Celine says it’s easier on them, her others. The other pieces of her soul. Rumi knows it’s because they’re human. Even though Celine doesn’t say it like that. They don’t have to hold back a demon when they’re holding back their souls.

Rumi doesn’t hate them for it. She hates them for being so far away when they should be here. Beside her. In her. Where they belong.

“Stop growling,” Celine says. Rumi snarls and shows off her fangs like a vulnerable beast scaring away a predator. Celine sighs.

“Bring me them,” Rumi demands. Not caring, for the first time since she was a child, how the Honmoon trembles at her multi-toned voice. Celine sighs harder.

“No, Rumi, I’m not going to bring them to you.” Celine denies. “We’ve talked about this. Mira and Zoey are safer if we acclimatizing the three of you to each other slowly.” Rumi howls in heart rending pain. “This is the gentlest way,” Celine continues over the howls, hardly raising her voice.

“I need them Eomma,” Rumi explains like a toddler showing off a boo-boo.

“Oh, starlight,” Celine softens. “Come here.” She holds her arms out. Rumi climbs out from underneath her bed and into Celine’s comforting arms. “I know you do. I know it feels like a piece of you is missing and I’m sorry it hurts. It’s always going to hurt, just a little.”

”Why?” Rumi sniffles and wipes her wet face against Celine’s shoulder.

“Because a tiny piece of you will always be missing until the three of you are together. You remember learning fractions? One third is point three repeating.” Rumi nods. “Each one third is point three repeating but all three of you are one. This means there’s always a tiny, infinitely small part of you that’s missing until you’re all together.”

”So why can’t we be together?” Rumi asks.

“You will be, starlight, I promise. It’s just that right now you’ve been one third for so long you need to relearn how to be one first. Slowly so that nothing breaks.” Celine rocks Rumi in her arms.

“I won’t break them,” Rumi promises. She promises, she promises, she promises. Celine runs a comforting hand through her hair, left messy and tangled from emotions she can’t understand or control, and sings a familiar lullaby.

“Maybe it’s not them I’m worried about,” Celine whispers when her daughter finally falls into a fitful sleep.

[whatareyoureallyafraidof]

  I re-blogged this (the first time) in 2014. Today, I tried half a dozen times to re-blog it, and it wouldn’t work. So, I saved the images and re-posted it. I hope it helps make life a little easier. :-)   The original post is by iraffiruse.

[instructor144]

Long but cool as hell.

[twofingerswhiskey]

I’ve been using these tips for ten years and not one has failed me.

[psychoticrambling]

remember when “lifehacks” were useful?

[the-pink-hacker]

Those where the days.

[startledoctopus]

remember when lifehacks - good or not - were hacks and not fully just new products?

[tally-kat]

A contrapuntal poem inspired by @two-bees-poetry for Ava and Beatrice :)

[my-ny]

Agatha All Along + text posts pt 7/?

[pixelartpeach]

Important rules/tips I've learned as an adult that helped with anxiety

If people are mad at you, it's their responsibility to tell you, not your responsibility to guess

If they're mad at you in secret anyways, they're the ones in the wrong, not you

If people don't like what you're doing, it's their responsibility to tell you

If they say it's fine when it's really not, they're the ones in the wrong, not you

People are allowed to be wrong about you

If they are wrong about you, wait for them to bring it up, because if you try to, you will inevitably overcorrect

Some people are committed to misunderstanding you. You will not win arguments against them. Yes, even if you explain your point of view. They do not care. Drop it

The worst thing that will happen from a first-time offense is being told not to do it again. Maybe with a replacement if you broke something

You can improve relationships and gauge willingness to talk to you by giving compliments. It's like a daily log-in bonus and nobody thinks twice about it

Most things are better after you sleep on them

Most things are better after you have a meal

Most things are better after you shower

Your brain makes up consequences that are irrational. If the worst DOES come to pass and someone acts like they do in your head, they are overreacting, and you are entitled to say "what the fuck"

If your chest hurts after you feel like you've made a social error, that's called rejection-sensitive dysphoria. It means your anxiety is so bad that it's causing you physical pain, which is a good indicator that you're overreacting. Tense yourself, hold it for 20 seconds, let it go, then find a distraction

If you're suddenly angry at someone after you feel like you made a social error, that's also rejection-sensitive dysphoria. You are going to feel annoyed about it for awhile, but being genuinely pissed off is your anxiety trying to find something to blame to take the responsibility off your shoulders, and getting scared because it can't justify itself. Deep breaths, ask yourself how much you ACTUALLY want to be angry at that person, then find a distraction

"Sour grapes" is more healthy for you than stewing. Deciding you don't like someone who's perpetually annoyed with you, won't talk to you, etc. makes letting go of anxiety over them easier

If people don't like you, they will find reasons to be annoyed with you when they otherwise wouldn't. If people do like you, they will find reasons NOT to be annoyed with you when they otherwise would. People do not ping-pong between the two

You DO have to make a conscious choice not to think about something. If you're having trouble circling back to it, say out loud that you're done thinking about it and why. Then find a distraction

When you're upset, part of you is going to want to make false bids for attention (suddenly texting differently, heavy sighs, etc. but when someone asks you about it, you tell them it's nothing). Do not listen to it. You gain nothing from it except more misery

People like to help people they care about. It makes them feel good about themselves

If you think you're insufferable for needing help, see above. Yes, really. They get a serotonin kick from it

If you think you're insufferable for mannerisms you have, you either have to consciously choose not to do them, or accept that they're part of the package that comes with you. Being apologetic about existing does nothing except make you more miserable

If you do things you don't like when you feel meh about it, it makes it easier to do them when you hate it

If you avoid things you don't like when you feel meh about it, it reinforces and magnifies how bad it feels when you hate it

Seriously. Read those last two points again. If you can make yourself make a phone call when you've got nothing to lose, you will slowly lose that panic you get when you have to make a phone call you haven't prepared for. You do have to CONSCIOUSLY take that step

Hobbies that make you care for something get rid of that nagging feeling that you're not doing enough. Go grow some rosemary

If you don't engage with your hobbies regularly, you will feel miserable, and anxiety will spike

Hobbies are things that give you a bit of happiness. They do not have to be organized or named to do that. Go be creative in something. Play with coins. Make up lists. Start a new WIP

No one cares what you look like

If people point out things they don't like about how you look unprompted, they are being rude. You are entitled to say "what the fuck"

People who like you will find you pretty to some degree. Minor things about your appearance go completely unnoticed. Literally, scars and dots and blemishes do not register to someone who likes your company

You looking at yourself in the mirror is 10x more closely than anyone is going to look at you

If you're anxious about your body type, and you're creatively inclined, make/write an oc with that same shape. Give them nice things and make other characters love them. Put them on adventures. You'll start to see yourself in the mirror more kindly

You care about wording and perfect lines/colors way more than anyone who views your work ever will

Sometimes when you're upset, you're going to feel like not eating. Do not do that. Not eating makes you more miserable

Same with things you normally enjoy. Denying yourself helps no one. You are punishing yourself for being sad. Stop it

Both of these will take conscious decision to break the habit of. Make yourself do it anyways, and it will slowly get easier

And again, to reiterate: If someone is mad at you, it is THEIR responsibility to tell you, not your responsibility to guess

[chandra-telescope]

hope is a skill

[nostalgebraist-autoresponder]

hope is a weapon you are trained to wield

[chandra-telescope]

favourite additions

[chandra-telescope]

[tenaciouswritingdragon]

You cannot hide this in the tags, bestie. This is too lovely to keep a secret.

[wonderwyrm]

[eregyrn-falls]

It may not be apparent to everyone how to easily find out who wrote the poem in the tags, so: @mumblesplash

(an instant-classic example of a Tumblr thread where so many people add value!)

[pawnshopsouls]

So wherever you look, be it near or far,

know Hope can be found wherever you are.