The Incredible Lurk

A perpetual lurker

[theincrediblelurk]

I’ve put together an astrology reading for today.

I go under the name of Aspen if you’d like to chat sometime:

Leo: Watch out for sycophants. Silly you, you’ve surrounded yourself with them almost completely. What a pickle. And thus, you think you are king of the jungle, but you’re no more than a cat in a cage. Learn to trust those who challenge you, not just those who flatter you. True power isn’t about ruling—it’s about freeing yourself from the need to be adored.

Sagittarius: I hope you’ve learned to embrace the wisdom of youth, even when it feels like it’s taking something away from you. You thrive on freedom and adventure, but sometimes the truest adventure is letting someone else take the reins for a while. Trust the new voices—they bring perspective you’ve never considered.

Capricorn: You’ve spent a lifetime dancing to the beat of someone else’s drum, punishing yourself when you’ve fallen out of step. But maybe the music isn’t yours to follow. Be kinder to yourself. Understand that growth sometimes means walking away from the rhythm that no longer moves you.

Aquarius: You’re on an entirely new adventure, and it’s as electrifying as it is terrifying. Remember, everyone in your house is family—but sometimes even family can go mad. Your challenge is to lead with innovation and compassion, turning chaos into harmony.

Scorpio: Your cunning wit and flexibility are your greatest strengths, but your short memory can leave you blind to lessons you’ve already been taught. Slow down. A thing done fast is often a thing done wrong. True mastery comes from patience, even when the world demands urgency.

Aries: You, stubborn and full of love, often mistake shouting for strength. Learn that whispers carry further than screams when spoken at the right moment. Let the fire inside you warm others, not burn them. There’s fun in the learning—when the learning is done well.

Cancer: This is not your time to shine, and that’s okay. Focus on lifting others up. The tide will rise for you in due time. Your empathy is your superpower, but don’t forget to protect your own shores from flooding.

Gemini: You are naturally two-faced, but try not to be a bitch about it, if at all possible. Your duality is your gift—an eternal child with endless curiosity. Learn to see kindly, and the world will truly become your oyster. Use your wit to connect, not divide.

Taurus: Keep fighting the good fight, even when the world seems blind to your vision. Your steady determination will shape the future. Patience is your secret weapon; use it wisely, and others will come to see things as you do.

Virgo: Your obsession with perfection has served you well, but it’s also held you hostage. Embrace the beauty in imperfection. The most unforgettable moments are those that defy your expectations. Step back and trust the process—you don’t need to control everything to make it right.

Libra: Your gift for balance is unparalleled, but sometimes balance isn’t what’s needed. Lean into discord, and let the scales tip. The harmony you seek will emerge from the unexpected. Don’t fear the mess—it’s where the magic lives.

Pisces: You’ve been swimming in nostalgia, clinging to the echoes of a golden past. But the tide is changing, and your dreams are needed in the present. Trust your intuition to guide you to uncharted waters. The dreamers will always have a place, even in the age of algorithms.

[memingursa-deactivated20250625]

Human pet guy has thoughts on this with…. examples.

[theincrediblelurk]

I feel like growing up is finding yourself relating more to human pet guy’s sense of humour and realising it’s time to start thinking about assisted living housing.

This has been a real wake up call, thanks!

[mikedawwwson]

"Read Banned Books" a new full page cartoon essay published in The New York Times Arts & Leisure section today.

[niki-smith]

A good day to reblog this, I just found out The Deep & Dark Blue is on another new ban list, this time in Colorado. Hooray.

[theincrediblelurk]

The bread and butter of creative thought is under attack and we attend like cattle.

What an interestingly twisted time to be alive and full of thought

[theincrediblelurk]

Dear XXX Hi I thought I would give you the benefit of the doubt and write you this letter.

I hope that your only sin is ignorance. But I must ask. How can you be so blind? I really hope you’re a good guy. I really hope that you’ve simply let yourself become utterly ignorant about the feelings of the people around you. So here it is. I was angry the other week. I’ve been angry a lot of times since I got back to work last year. I was left out in the cold so terribly last year, that I almost died. I’m not joking On the day I went into hospital I had to be put into a coma. Do you know how bad your stats have to be for someone to put you into a coma? It is absolutely awful. And when you wake up in hospital the next day away from everyone who had tried to be by your side. That does something to the soul that is indelible. I hope you never experience what’s that like. I hope to god your children never do. That breaks you in a way that is almost undoable. It leaves a mark that no amount of digging can ever remove. Sometimes, it’s a feeling I would wish upon the people that I feel have wronged me. How wicked is that? It’s so primitive, isn’t it? That desire? To hurt the thing that would hurt me. Sometimes, when your heart gets broken, that’s the only instinct that remains I’m so exhausted by that broken heart that it takes a great deal of effort to maintain the life I had before. But I’ve decided to try to be someone who’s been hurt by life and is not yet bitter. So I just wanted to let you know how low this experience dragged me. How cold it was for me out there on my own. In truth, it was so utterly cold that I almost ruined my entire life by forgetting how to experience love. I almost did that to myself when I found myself going crazy in this role. I trusted the wrong manager to help a colleague, and I doomed her to a demise. And then I let them do the same to me In truth the management of this business has torn me down to the bones. I have became so little by my heart’s estimation that I allowed myself to be believe that I was less important than everyone around me. My happiness was secondary to the cogs of the machine. But that’s wrong. You know why. I am mightier than that. I am worthy of the respect I demand. I have earnt a voice at the table. But you would deny me of that all. And yes. I hold you responsible for a great deal of these happenings. Because you have not been thoughtful enough . As simple as that. My love is bought cheaply. Ask anyone I’ve met. I love all things authentic. All things true. All things loving. I give those things my love in equal measure. And you know how that’s earnt? A joke to the crowd. Every once in a while. That’s all that it would have cost you. And you couldn’t even give me that. So I became less and less until there was almost nothing of me. And when I fell apart, even then you did nothing. If I had any power I would almost have liked to see you destroyed for that. So close did I come to losing everything that made me everything that I am. So I’m angry. A lot. I’m angry that I haven’t been allowed to show you that you need to be better. I’m angry that doing so would probably cost me my job. So. For your part in everything that has happened to me. I think you’re a cunt. I hope you know that.

And you know what. I didn’t want to believe that. Not for a long time. You do so much to help others, that I couldn’t let myself believe that your intelligence could possibly afford you luxury of less than thoughtful morals. But now, I’m afraid it must be said. Something’s rotting in Denmark Truly. Have a nice life.

[theincrediblelurk]

Help me, I can't write in a straight line

I want to write, but I'm having trouble writing more than little snippets and vignettes that are in no way narratively cohesive.

I have several stories in my head. But putting them on the page feels almost impossible. I've got big fantasy epics, and gritty street smart characters, dying to be birthed, but there's a huge block in the way.

Anyone else had this problem? What do you do about it?

[philosophybits]

“Let no man be ashamed to speak what he is not ashamed to think.”

— Michel de Montaigne, Essais

[theincrediblelurk]

Modern advice: Let no one be ashamed to speak, but you should be very embarrassed about everything you thought before the age of 25-30

[lesbianshepard]

stupid leftists and their belief in *checks notes* the intrinsic value of human life

[pastel-selkie]

Reblog if you would burn down the statue of liberty to save a life

[randomslasher]

Here’s the thing, though. If you asked a conservative “Would you let the statue of liberty burn to save one life?” they’d probably scoff and say no, it’s a national landmark, a treasure, a piece of too much historical importance to let it be destroyed for the sake of one measly life. 

But if you asked, “Would you let the statue of liberty burn in order to save your child? your spouse? someone you loved a great deal?” the tune abruptly changes. At the very least, there’s a hesitation. Even if they deny it, I’m willing to bet that gun to their head, the answer would be “yes.”  

The basic problem here is that people have a hard time seeing outside their own sphere of influence, and empathizing beyond the few people who are right in front of them. You’ve got your immediate family, whom you love; your friends, your acquaintances, maybe to a certain degree the people who share a status with you (your religion, your race, etc.)–but beyond that? People aren’t real. They’re theoretical. 

But a national monument? That’s real. It stands for something. The value of a non-realized anonymous life that exists completely outside your sphere of influence is clearly worth less than something that represents freedom and prosperity to a whole nation, right?

People who think like this lack the compassion to realize that everyone is in someone’s immediate sphere of influence–that everyone is someone’s lover, or brother, or parent. Everyone means the world to someone. And it’s the absolute height of selfishness to assume that their lives don’t have value just because they don’t mean the world to you. 

P.S. I would let the statue of liberty burn to save a pigeon. 

[boyist]

[robotmango]

also, there is an extreme difference between what things or principles *i* personally am willing to die for, and what i would hazard others to die for. and this is a distinction i don’t think the conservative hard-right likes to face.

an example: so, as the nazis began war against france, the staff of the louvre began crating up and shipping out the artworks. it was vital to them (for many reasons) that the nazis not get their hands on the collections, and hitler’s desire for them was known, so they dispersed the objects to the four winds; one of the curators personally traveled with la gioconda, mona lisa herself, in an unmarked crate, moving at least five times from location to location to avoid detection.

they even removed and hid the nike of samothrace, “winged victory,” which is both delicate, having been pieced back together from fragments, and incredibly heavy, weighing over three metric tons.

the curators who hid these artworks risked death to ensure that they wouldn’t fall into nazi hands. and yes, they are just paintings, just statues. but when i think about the idea of hitler capturing and standing smugly beside the nike of samothrace, a statue widely beloved as a symbol of liberty, i completely understand why someone would risk their life to prevent that. if my life was all that stood between a fascist dictator and a masterpiece that inspired millions, i would be willing to risk it. my belief in the power and necessity of art would demand i do so.

if, however, a nazi held a gun to some kid’s head (any kid!) and asked me which crate the mona lisa was in, they could have it in a heartbeat. no problem! i wouldn’t even have to think about it. being willing to risk my own life on principle doesn’t mean i’m willing to see others endangered for those same principles.

and that is exactly where the conservative hard-right falls right the fuck down. they are, typically, entirely willing to watch others suffer for their own principles. they are perfectly okay with seeing children in cages because of their supposed belief in law and order. they are perfectly willing to let women die from pregnancy complications because of their anti-abortion beliefs. they are alright with poverty and disease on general principle because they hold the free-market sacrosanct. and i guess from their own example they would save the statue of liberty and let human beings burn instead.

but speaking as a leftist (i’m more comfortable with socialist tbh), my principles are not abstract things that i hold aside from life, apart or above my place as a human being in a society. my beliefs arise from being a person amidst people. i don’t love art for art’s sake alone, actually! i don’t love objects because they are objects: i love them because they are artifacts of our humanity, because they communicate and connect us, because they embody love and curiosity and fear and feeling. i love art because i love people. i want universal health care because i want to see people universally cared for. i want universal basic income because people’s safety and dignity should not be determined by their economic productivity to an employer. i am anti-war and pro-choice for the same reason: i value people’s lives but also their autonomy and right to self-determination. my beliefs are not abstractions. i could never value a type of economic system that i saw hurting people, no matter how much “growth” it produced. i could never love “law and order” more than i love a child, any child, i saw trapped in a cage.

would i be willing to risk death, trying to save the statue of liberty? probably, yes. but there is no culture without people, and therefore i also believe there are no cultural treasures worth more than other people’s lives. and as far as i’m concerned the same goes for laws, or markets, or borders.

[aquatixwitch]

Well said!

[lauraantoniou]

This is an excellent ethical discussion.

[oganizediguana]

The first time I came across this post, randomslasher’s addition was life changing for me. I suddenly understood where the right was coming from, and I had never been angrier.

[hazeldomain]

This is also why so many people on the right fail to see the hypocrisy of trying to make abortion illegal when they themselves have had abortions. They can tally up their own life circumstances and conclude that it would be difficult or impossible to continue a pregnancy, but they’re completely mystified by the idea that women they don’t know are also human beings with complicated lives and limited spoon allocation.

This is also why they think “get a job” is useful advice. In their heads they honestly do not understand why the NPCs who make up the majority of the human race can’t just flip a switch from “no job” to “job.” When they say “get a job” they’re filing a glitch report with God and they honestly think that’s all it takes.

This is also why they tend to view demographics as individuals. They think that every single Muslim is just a different avatar for the same bit of programming.

[bemusedlybespectacled]

Borrowed observation from @innuendostudios​ here, but: there’s also a fundamental difference in how progressives view social problems versus how conservatives view them. That is, progressives view them as problems to be solved, whereas conservatives do not believe you can solve anything.

Conservatives view social issues as universal constants that fundamentally are unable to be changed, like the weather. You can try to alter your own behavior to protect yourself (you can carry an umbrella), and you can commiserate about how bad the weather is, but you can’t stop it from raining. This is why conservatives blame victims of rape for dressing immodestly or for drinking or for going out at night: to them, those things are like going out without an umbrella when you know it’s going to rain. 

“But then why do conservatives try to stop things they dislike by making them illegal, like drug use or immigration or abortion?” And the answer is: they’re not. They know perfectly well that those things will continue. No amount of studies showing that their methods are ineffective will matter to them because effectiveness is not the point. The point is to punish people for doing bad things, because punishing people is how you show your disapproval of their actions; if you don’t punish them, then you’re condoning their behavior. 

This is why they will never support rehabilitative prisons, even though they reduce crime. This is why they will never support free birth control for everyone, even though that would reduce abortions. This is why they will never support just giving homeless people houses, even though it’s proven to be cheaper and more effective at stopping homelessness than halfway houses and shelters. It’s not about stopping evil, because you can’t; it’s about saying definitively what is Bad and what is Good, and we as a society do that by punishing the people we’ve decided are bad. 

This is why the conservative response to “holy fuck, they’re putting children in cages!” is typically something along the lines of “it’s their parents’ fault for trying to come here illegally; if they didn’t want to have their kids taken away, they shouldn’t have committed a crime.” It doesn’t matter that entering the US unlawfully is a misdemeanor and child kidnapping isn’t typically a criminal sentence. It does not matter that this has absolutely zero effect on people unlawfully entering the US. The point is that conservatives have decided that entering unlawfully is Bad, anything that is not punishing undocumented immigrants – due process of asylum and removal defense claims, for example – is supporting Badness, and kidnapping children is an appropriate punishment for being Bad.

[jocelynmakenna]

This is really… Something wow

[sorekbekarmi-deactivated2022051]

This last part 100% explains the sentiment of ALL the Conservative Evangelicals and Messianics I grew up around - literally everyone I knew. This really hits on WHY Evangelicals are conservative.

They literally believe that human nature is inherently sinful. They think that NO system of government can achieve justice, except for the millennial reign of Jesus as the returning Messiah. They think that ALL human made governments are doomed to fail, and are inherently flawed and corrupt. Like @bemusedlybespectacled said, effectiveness is NOT the point because they EXPLICITLY don’t believe that it’s possible to achieve justice when human nature is cursed. Instead they seek to impose their religion as government, and punish people who deviate from it - women getting abortions, women having sex outside marriage, women having sex INSIDE marriage but not for reproduction, LGBTQ people, people of other religions, even people of other races, etc. It’s why so many Evangelicals are conservative - their religion dictates it.

(On the other hand, many Jews are progressives or liberals because our tradition DOES believe in fixing things, in seeking justice, in repairing the world, and in man-made government and law as a means to seek a more correct and perfect world. Even the Jewish view of the Messiah reflects this: a human, mortal, mundane political figure who will bring political peace and restore a secure Jewish homeland.)

[theincrediblelurk]

Hannah Gadsby describing this aspect of the Autistic experience hit very close to home.

[endangered-justice-seeker]

 the only criticism of millennials l accept

[thefingerfuckingfemalefury]

Constructive Criticism

[sweaterweathercub]

He’s not wrong, that’s for sure.

[theincrediblelurk]

We are not our mistakes

We are our lessons learnt

[theincrediblelurk]

Truth

We’re either going to be around wonderful people who appreciate us for our gifts. Or people blind to just how wonderful we are.

[theincrediblelurk]

Feminism and anarchism

A feminist is anyone who lets a woman be angry without that making them crazy... and an anarchist is anyone who extends that freedom to anyone.

There is a happy medium. But fuck me if we know what it is

[theincrediblelurk]

Grown ass life

Turns out the epic quest of adulthood is learning to deal with arseholes... you can be Spartacus about it, and eventually fall but wow hero, and at least your family will be free and happy from the same oppressive fate...

Or you can be Daenerys and win but at the same time be driven into madness because I guess genetics? Who basically needs to get stabbed by your mopey boyfriend I guess? Oh and no kids because, reason? Even if the your descent into madness isn’t true to character and happens too quickly to make sense and the only sympathetic characters are the ones that die before they do some bullshit.

So you’re a martyr that people revere or you’re a crazy bitch who might make it to the top but you’re probably going to get stabbed in the back by anyone you trust... but trust us you deserved it... even though a dude would probably get away with legit the same behaviour without being labelled as crazy... and they’ll probably make a weirdly manipulative creep the boss after you go...

Metaphorically...

[incorrectshakespeare]

“I’m really sorry about last night, it’s just that I’m mean and loud. It probably will happen again.”

— Hamlet to Ophelia, Act III, Scene II

[theincrediblelurk]

Incorrect... but #100%accurate

[doncosciotte]

So, our “Lung” is on fire.

It is already threatened by huge deforestation, to the point it lost 20% of its width in less than 30 years.

It’s been burning for around two weeks and almost no word has been uttered about it. I, sincerely, have come to find out about it just now. I’m shooketh ™️ because we’re really burning away this planet.

The Amazon Rainforest holds 20% of global waters, it’s an area of incredible value in terms of biodiversity and, nevermind, it’s a crucial climate regulator. Spread awareness, demand help.