I am physically and mentally disabled. I can’t get out of my house, get any money, or do anything irl.
So what can I do as a new/baby punk? Online activism and learning (A LOT) only goes so far but I want to become an actual punk :(
you are an actual punk. if you can only listen to the music but can't make it to the shows, you're a punk. if you can only remotely organise but can't show up in person, you're a punk. if you've read up on the politics, but can't join a protest, you're a punk.
if you want to feel more like a punk you could always try some DIY? I don't know your personal level of physical ability, so take these suggestions within your own ability but try making patches, or cantab chains. if you can get your hands on a sharpie and blank sticky labels you can make stickers that a friend could put up around your town for you. collaboration is a part of community and having barriers on what you can do doesn't make you less of a punk
random but in seeing ur old designs for ur ocs all i could think was "to be loved is to be changed" bc that applies sooo much to you redesigning your ocs. i literally have done the same and i feel the same way about having redesigned several ocs💙
changes were definitely needed, and in my personal experience with drawing Ocs — i was never able to have characters to connect to, like…at all. most of my characters were white and i rarely ever drew any black characters/Ocs.
this is also another reason why I don’t care to draw a lot of white characters anymore because that was pretty much my whole norm forever. like dude, i’d even whitewash my own sona 💀
But once I really got into my main Ocs and I knew I wanted to do more with them than just use them to help me with my own personal trauma and just for comfort reasons, a lot of the things my Ocs had before isn’t what they have now.
they all be wearing me out sometimes but in a way? I love that. it shows how much time and effort i put into them. i’m just grateful other people like them too because i would have never expected anybody to like my my Ocs at all!
Hey guys, I'm trying to find documentaries to watch while I have some free time. Give me any recommendations you have and I'll check them out! I actually just finished Grass and I absolutely loved it.
What are your favorite pet names to use when writing? I call everyone some kind of nickname or pet name and need to widen my vocabulary
Since I'm writing mostly for myself, I like the ones that make me feel small. The ones that make me feel like I'm about to get pampered or treated really, really well.
Baby Girl, Little One, Darling/Dear
Or sometimes if I want a more possessive flavor, I just add the word 'my' to anything.
My Girl, My Love, My Pet
The 'my' can be changed to 'our' for twins x reader.
I can’t reblog from my Bestie @chxosxndhell, and for a second there you were saying I couldn’t message her either WTF Is your Issue? (squints at you) Are you High?
• I look up what current wars there are; have to do it multiple times because I refuse to look at the AI overview and it’s not giving me a straight answer, I do eventually find a list of ongoing conflicts.
• I start with Afghanistan because it’s an alphabetical list.
• I first look through a Lowly Institute article; then get lead to a Time article.
• THEN I REALISE I NEED TO CHECK THE RELIABILITY OF SAID SOURCES.
• I go to search reliability, get told it’s good! Go to Quora—get told I should look at all sources and keep critical thinking skills.
• SO WHICH OTHER SOURCES AM I SUPPOSED TO GO TO??
Please, oh wise trans punk, help me figure this out?
My first piece of advice is do not begin your journey into political research with current conflicts, because that is effectively Hard Mode (lives on the line, decades if not centuries of geopolitical history behind it, variety of conflicting opinions, misinformation, high emotions, personal, political, and religious stakes, and much information is unverified)
this is a skill to work on, and not one where you can jump in at the deep end. You've definitely got some good values as a basis (checking reliability of sources ect) so keep hold of that.
Cornerstones of political research are as follows
personal values [what do you believe in, care about, or fight against]
identify commonality [on a basic level, who is saying something you agree with]
Nuance [do you have to ability to be flexible on point 1 and entertaining other perspectives to achieve a holistic viewpoint on the issue]
see the whole picture [what are the primary opponent to your personal values saying and why? can you spot how they try and discredit your arguments? do you know the flaws in their perspective? does their perspective maybe hold value?]
theory [what are the ideologies underpinning these arguments? where on different spectrums of values do people group?]
praxis [how is theory applied in real life]
the human element [give grace to yourself and others if you aren't perfect on all of these, but don't be afraid to fight, and definitely don't be afraid to block and walk away]
here's how this might play out in one situation (I am going to use examples from the UK but I hope it makes sense anyway)
You want to know about all the trans stuff in the news and why transphobia is so prevalent
You know that The Guardian is supposed to be fairly left wing among the newspapers, and you see they've written an article calling for more empathy towards trans people, so that could be a good starting point
You look through other articles, but see that some articles don't seem as trans friendly, so you search "guardian transphobic?" and find that even though some columnists are decent, there are others who take the stance of "trans people need protecting BUT we have to consider that MANY people might be worried about protecting women". Okay, so this paper isn't perfect, even though you agreed with it at first. However this doesn't mean it can't be a good resource in other situations. nuance.
You now look into why these columnists are saying things about protecting women in the same sentence as trans people all the time. you watch many videos and read articles by trans people and VERY carefully can read what the transphobes are saying (take care) and from this will gain a picture where you can see that some people are diehard lifelong transphobes, but you can also see all the incremental arguments that push people in that direction. you know from your own experiences and personal values that all young trans people aren't confused attention seekers, but you also see how that would make for a compelling emotional narrative clearly appealing to people across the political spectrum
You look into the political theory that underpins both sides of the argument because you notice both very right wing people and supposedly liberal folks are both saying the same transphobic things. So now you go look up terms like bioessentialism and paternalism and white feminism so you know what values supposed left-centrists haven't unlearnt and terms like autonomy, youth liberation, and intersectionality to find out what values protect people from this rhetoric (aside from basic fact checking)
Who is doing ACTUAL material harm to trans people? who is putting REAL effort into protecting trans people. you read about the current and previous government banning medical transition for under 18s, about JKRowling donating huge sums of money to transphobic orgs. you also find the good law project, and transactual, and trans kids deserve better ( @transkidsdeservebetter hi), and QueerAF. with that you now have a very good idea of who you can trust to talk about trans issues, and who you can't
In all this, you keep an open mind. someone might accidentally say some terfy shit but they can learn. someone might use language that is outdated but their values align with yours. someone mightve learnt all the right buzzwords and they sound sympathetic but they don't actually support your fight.
this is just one very specific example, and you might go through this cycle several times. it's also important to note you might reach any one of the stages and then change your mind, and that's ok. just be sure you're thinking with your head and not your stress response. learning is good. diversify your resources. articles. books. websites. blogs. people in your life. video essays. go wild.
thinking about doing some anti elon musk graffiti but i’ve never done any larger scale graffiti before. anyrhing i should know?
General graff rules first
When possible don't paint over someone else's work
If unavoidable then the hierarchy is tags < throwies / throw ups [two or more colours, bold writing] < piece [large and elaborate with multiple colours]
Don't cover a memorial
Political graffiti gets its own place bc its generally large but single colour bc it's writing. Still don't cover a piece but it can run across tags and throwing
Plan what you want to write before you hit the streets so you're not hesitant
lot of people were asking about graffiti, and i was wondering if sharpies work well for graffitiing flat, even surfaces? i've used them before for small graffiti but idk how well it'll stand up to weather. i don't have access to paints (aside from watercolors... which i highly doubt would do the job) so this is my next best option
Yes sharpies would for this. Best on painted surfaces but anything smooth works
