Life and Stuff

[maureen2musings]

takemoreadventures

[autistobrat]

this too shall pass but the fuck was that for

[slanting-deactivated20161226]

[roycohn]

something i've noticed that has become really annoying in the past 10 years or so is this fad of what i've been calling, for lack of a better word, "structural whataboutism." it's that thing where, when faced with a concrete, resolvable problem in your community, your answer is to blame it on a vast, unsolvable issue of structural inequality and then throw up your hands. "there's trash all over the ground in this corner of the park" becomes "well, that's where MEN OF COLOR congregate after their 12-HOUR GRAVEYARD SHIFTS and i'm not going to support a CARCERAL SOLUTION to a CAPITALISTIC PROBLEM. WE NEED TO ELIMINATE POVERTY AND THE SUBJUGATION OF THE WORKING CLASS" and it's like okay but sis. someone still has to go pick up the trash. we don't need a carceral solution, we need more trash cans. you're not going to eliminate poverty and the subjugation of the working class and even if ya did, there would still be trash on the ground. how any of this passes for radicalism within their peer groups i simply don't understand. it's radical laziness more than anything else

[figtreeandvine]

I was on a canoe trip once with a river biologist who worked for the county. After we found and removed a car tire, she started talking about the annual river cleanup her department organized. From a water quality or ecological standpoint, removing shopping carts, car tires, and other macro trash from the river really wasn't that important, she said. The real threat to the river was industrial and agricultural runoff.

"But!" she said:

People who see a clean, trash-free river are more likely support laws to curb more harmful "systemic" forms of pollution. People who participate in river cleanups take pride in their work--their river!--and become evangelists for protecting it.

Immediate action leads to systemic awareness, which leads to systemic change.

[writing-with-olive]

Literally this.

Saying "there's no point in doing something small until the big thing is fixed" is literally just the Glorious Revolution Rapture story all over again, and it's not helpful.

[sweetoothgirl]

Chocolate Custard Slice

[milkeu]

桜(福島県立博物館 (by 0.02)

[ahududulugazoz]

[loubis-and-champagne]

X

[sweetoothgirl]

The BEST Cinnamon Knots with Honey Glaze

[smsomah]

Myanmar (Burma), 1995. Thierry Falise

[vintagecamping]

Hikers watch the clouds roll in.

Isle Of Skye

1984

[wiisagi-maiingan]

Do you ever think about how so much of the deadly anti-science rhetoric that fills America today and is killing countless vulnerable people can be directly traced back to one fucking guy who decided to just straight-up lie about vaccines causing autism because it would make him a profit? Do you ever think about that? Because I think about it a lot.

[gothredy]

[gothredy]

[communicants]

You Were Like A Wild Chrysanthemum (Keisuke Kinoshita, 1955)

[fairycosmos]

i hate when rich people condescend with the whole 'money can't buy happiness' argument like listen. just because buying your fourth car didn't fill the void in your deluded disconnected-from-reality life doesn't mean not having to worry about food/ bills/medicine wouldn't greatly improve the mental health of literally everyone else on the planet

[durnesque-esque]

Fun fact: they've done studies and money DOES buy happiness, but it tops out after a certain amount (nowadays around $500,000)

So yeah, having food / bills / medicine & a fair amount of leisure covered by income DOES buy happiness, but excess wealth depletes the effect exponentially.

[rosieandthemoon]

St Dunstan in the East Church Garden

[gothredy]