consistency is a thing of the past

'sup?

[rimonoroni]

all things considered, you deserve to live.

not because your dog would be sad if you didn’t, not because you owe it to your parents, not because you owe it to anybody. but because you are a person, here on earth, with a will and a consciousness. by virtue of this, you have the right to be here, and you have the right to take up space as a human being. you deserve to live, down to your very core.

you deserve to want things, you deserve to have things, you deserve to love yourself, you deserve to be. you don’t have to prove that to anyone, it is inherent to your existence as a human being. nobody should take that away from you. and if they do, fight like hell.

[what-even-is-thiss]

I just had an argument with someone who was like “why would we settle for food stamps when we could have universal basic income?”

And it’s just like. People need food right now you know.

[what-even-is-thiss]

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Hippie church moms donating quinoa chips to my local food bank have done more for me materially than any internet idealist ever has.

[what-even-is-thiss]

People get pissed at me for being a pragmatist in my political ideals but I’ve been in the position where I was out of food right now.

And who helped me with that? Not people calling for some nebulous revolution. Not people telling me that the system was useless. Not people preaching at me to grow my own food. It was a church food bank partially funded by the state of Texas that some southern hippies donated a bunch of Whole Foods nonsense to.

And you know what? I’m sick and tired of defeatism. What can we get done right now, huh? Are you gonna accept something a bit better to help people right now or are you waiting for your perfect utopia to come to you?

Yeah, UBI is better than the quinoa chips. Sure. But right now the quinoa chips are stopping people from going hungry and if all we can do is get the food bank quinoa chips to more people, then I say so be it. That’s something. I’ll almost always take baby steps over nothing.

[punksalmons]

every time any highly-regarded artist turns out to be a complete piece of shit a hundred people come out of the woodworks just to say they never liked them/found their work very overrated. omg bestie your sense of aesthetics has suchhhhh a good morality and prediction skills 😍 do you want a little kissy on you forehead.

[exeggcute]

I need a polite and effective way to say "hey your heart is truly in the right place and your anger is often righteous but I think sometimes you’re getting recreationally mad about things that are frankly not worth the amount of energy you’re spending on them, and every time you do this you're driving yourself slightly more insane with nothing to show for it," and then I need a way to broadcast that message through a loudspeaker to roughly 30,000 people at once, and THEN I need a time machine to send that message to my past self lol. and maybe a second time machine in case past me tries to be clever and sabotage the version of me who comes through the first time machine

[tpwrtrmnky]

Transition actually meaningfully impacts your life and is more than just a band-aid fix. Look. Listen to me. It Actually Fucking Works. In real life. There are people in the world right now whose lives are getting better because they are transitioning. Do you understand?

[tpwrtrmnky]

Transition actually meaningfully impacts your life and is more than just a band-aid fix. Look. Listen to me. It Actually Fucking Works. In real life. There are people in the world right now whose lives are getting better because they are transitioning. Do you understand?

[tpwrtrmnky]

Transition actually meaningfully impacts your life and is more than just a band-aid fix. Look. Listen to me. It Actually Fucking Works. In real life. There are people in the world right now whose lives are getting better because they are transitioning. Do you understand?

[tpwrtrmnky]

Transition actually meaningfully impacts your life and is more than just a band-aid fix. Look. Listen to me. It Actually Fucking Works. In real life. There are people in the world right now whose lives are getting better because they are transitioning. Do you understand?

[natalieironside]

You should read The Last Girl Scout

Did you know that I, award-winning speculative fiction author Natalie H. Ironside, have written like a real book that you can buy and hold physically in your hands?  Exciting!

The Last Girl Scout is a dystopian adventure story about queer hillbillies going on a big adventure in the irradiated ruins of Old America.  If you liked Fallout or S.T.A.L.K.E.R. or all things American Gothic then I got five bucks says you’ll like this.  Plus it’s got lesbians in it &and they are in love & they even hold hands.

The past lies like a nightmare over the world. Two hundred years after the War when atomic fire rained from the skies and burned the world to cinders, human civilization has had time to rebuild within the burned-out husk of Old America.  But the old terrors of the past still persist, and while some work to build a better world, others still dream of reclaiming the glory of the Old World. In southern Appalachia, political commissar Magnolia Blackadder is sent on a mission into the irradiated Exclusion Zone of Old DC, where an evil that humanity thought it had vanquished centuries ago is waking up and rebuilding its strength.  Along the way, she meets a strange woman with terrible secrets and an unspeakable past, and as they forge a bond and brave the terrors of the wasteland together, she learns that some demons are not so easily exorcised, and that some stones are better left unturned. In this her debut novel, award-winning author Natalie Ironside delivers a new vision of the post-apocalypse, a tale of adventure, terror, love, and that most basic and most powerful of all human desires:  Freedom. 

“But Natalie,” you say, “of course I want to support queer fiction and read this post-apocalyptic wasteland adventure transbian romance story, but how can I become a part of this true and amazing way?”  Well, I’ll tell you!

Buy on Amazon

Buy on Gumroad

Cashapp five bucks to $NatalieIronside and include an email address and preferred ebook file type

Subscribe to my Patreon for a download link (and that’s only $2; call that a bargain.  You’ll also get access to all sorts of other shit including my worldbuilding notes and the Christmas special)

Or message me an email address and your X number and I’ll send you an ebook for free; I call that Big Bill’s five-finger discount

***

If you wanna know what other people have said about this amazing and very good hit new novel, fantasy author Dan Shepherd penned this lovely review:

And here’s an interview where I sat down with Fellow Worker Bundnik from the IWW’s Upstate New York GMB to talk about my very cool book in particular and leftist speculative fiction in general:

https://upstatenyiww.wordpress.com/2021/02/21/interview-of-fw-natalie-ironside-regarding-her-recent-novel/

Come check it out!  & I hate to be that asshole who begs for reblogs but my blog got deleted recently and I lost all my followers the which is how I primarily promote my work the which is like 1/3 of our household income I need for such extravagances as “food” and “rent so if u could reblog this post that would be very cool and sexy of you

(Amazing and good cover art by fw @soul-hammer​, sneak preview of the lesbians by @neladoesart​)

[the-vagabond-tabby]

I just finished reading this & y'all it is SO GOOD

[natalieironside]

Shucks ❤

[shadowfellefox]

I’m about eight chapters in and I’m not entirely sure what I actually expected this book to be, but whatever that was, it’s better.

[natalieironside]

:3

[funnyihope]

Fun fact: I scored significantly lower on my trial exams than I could have because I couldn’t put down this book. No regrets.

[wafflelovingbatgirl]

I’m halfway done and really enjoying it! Zombies, vampires, transgender leads, Nazis getting shot. What more could you want from a book?

[natalieironside]

=D

[natalieironside]

You heard it here first, folks

[boffin-in-training-deactivated2]

FW Ironside is excellent at grappling with multiple complex ideas in a pretty didactic fashion and writing compelling pulpy action. The Book Fucks

[natalieironside]

:3

[killwizard]

Hey, anyone who follows me and likes good books, y’all should read this one I still haven’t finished it yet but in my humble opinion it’s fuckin excellent

[canatrix]

Y’all should read this book! It’s so good my unable-to-focus ass read it in one sitting!

[sparrowpharoh]

If there’s anyone following me who hasn’t read The Last Girl Scout and has any interest at all in post-apoc, political intrigue or queer fiction, I’d strongly recommend giving Natalie’s book a try. It’s a compelling character-driven adventure brought to life by it’s diverse and believable cast. Characters come from a wide range of backgrounds- ethnicities, religions, sexualities and genders, all written as natural and integrated parts of multi-faceted beings, neither token asides to check off diversity boxes nor flat caricatures defined by singular traits, but complete and realistic, reflecting the same type of diversity of experiences the real world has to offer. The transbian romance that makes the beating heart of the story is complex and layered, and the queer issues it discusses go beyond the simple “queer pain” narrative that dominates mainstream queer lit, showcasing a broad and diverse range of experiences. The political elements, while a tad heavy-handed at times, weave a brilliant and fleshed-out example of a functioning society where a broad range of leftist views and factions work together towards common goals. Leftists of all stripes might want to give this a read if solely to draw inspiration from the depiction of pan-left cooperation.

In both the personal and political, Natalie repeatedly echoes the theme that while the ghosts of the past may shape the present, they do not define the future- only our choices to move forward do. But those choices are not made in a vacuum, and ultimately moving forward to a future worth having can only come from acknowledging the past, owning up to your sins and making a conscious effort to make amends for the harm you’ve caused.

Also it has spooky draculas and if I haven’t at least mildly intrigued you by this point idk why you’re even following me lol

[natalieironside]

shucks ❤

[lady-feral]

I brought a copy with me to fight camp and read it on the flight. I’ll probably read it again before fight day. I fucking loved it.

[bloodygranuaile]

I finally read this and it’s a heartwarming tale of communists and anarchists working together to merc Nazis; I recommend it highly

[natalieironside]

Golly <3

[theroguedragon]

you Should read The Last Girl Scout 👍👍

[mtsodie]

there probably arent many people following me that're living in aotearoa let alone people taking / took hrt . but for those of you .

how easy for you was it to obtain hrt in aotearoa

easy

middle of the road

difficult

impossible

i dont want hrt / i dont live in aotearoa

Voting ended onFeb 13

( forgot to add this to the last option but " i haven't attempted hrt yet " also counts )

[redstonedust]

normalize being dogshit amateur at your special interests and hyperfocuses. no more autistic savants. yes i am very into that topic no i am not good at it. we exist <3

[mincetheungratefulbrat]

i’ve realised i like posting my sfth art on tumblr so here’s a doodle i did instead of work <3

[crabussy]

made a post about how I'm relieved and excited to be alive in 2026 and how I'm glad I exist in a time where music and education and communication are so expansive and accessible and said post wasn't even up for a single hour before someone started declaring that actually there are evil revolting breaches of human rights happening right now. not even an hour

[crabussy]

I am asking with all the kindness I can muster to please let people tentatively express their hope for the future without needing to remind them that actually, sometimes life is terrible and horrific. I am aware. please trust me I am so aware. I am alive on planet earth. it is hard to not be aware. I just also want to enjoy being alive. I don't have to be constantly miserable in order to care about other people. jesus fucking christ

[frogitivity]

Welcome to Build-a-Frog!

Click here to enter

[we-willbe-thin]

gUyS please click the link you won’t regret it

[frogitivity2]

Please take good care of them!

[rexanidalaweek]

As a heads up, only one person has submitted prompts so far. I'm more than ready to fill in the gaps, but enough people voted for submissions that I think the deadline wasn't noticed.

Please submit prompts!

[rexanidalaweek]

Thank you to the two(?) people who have submitted prompts! I hope to see more in the morning!

[phoenixyfriend]

We got some more prompts! Yay~!

[whitager]

i used to buy into that online leftist black-and-white Glorious Revolution stuff and what i remember about my mindset at that time. stresses me out tbh. i couldn't see the viability of anything short of full-scale revolution so i constantly felt helpless. i viewed the revolution as necessary to address any and all societal problems, but i was also, privately, terrified of it. i didn't want to die for the cause, but i told myself that if that was what happened when the revolution came it would be worth it, that my blood could move us that much faster toward perfect socialist utopia.

in this mindset, the only useful thing i could do was die. i didn't want to. i wasn't generally suicidal (although i do consider this mindset a form of... abstract suicidal thought). but i believed my life was the only meaningful thing i had to offer.

now i'm a member of a community who values me and values my contributions even if i can't contribute as much as i'd like -- a community that emphasizes that every single good deed matters, every compassionate act changes the world. a community where just showing up is enough.

now i know that i can change so much more while i'm alive than i'd ever be able to as a corpse on a battlefield. i know that if i keep showing up, i will find or someone will show me a way to make a difference. i know that i am valued as more than a hypothetical martyr in some grand final battle. i know that i am missed when i'm gone. i know that the actual work is done by regular people with a goal in mind, and i know that that work is unglamorous. i know the unglamorous work is often the most meaningful and the most fulfilling.

the "revolution or nothing" mindset is rendering my generation hopeless. a very loud portion of gen z now believes the only contribution they have to offer is their life. this belief effectively nullifies a person's capacity to create meaningful change; any action they could take while alive is not worthwhile because it won't fix the world's myriad problems in one fell swoop -- better to burn it all down and yourself with it.

if they weren't actively fucking over the rest of us to feed their own suicidal hopelessness, i'd feel sorry for them.

[whitager]

there's a phenomenon i've observed wherein a person stews in their own misery, hopelessness, anger, fear, to the point that they can no longer fathom that something might exist outside of that, and so they reject any effort to improve their situation because they no longer believe it can be improved.

i am not blaming the people who are in this place. it's a terrifying, dark place to be in, and when you're there it really does feel like it's the only thing that exists. this is the place where people kill themselves.

i think, though, that this phenomenon, scaled up to apply to politics and activism, undergirds so much of what we see from the left now -- the world is dark and terrifying, and in the 24-hour news cycle, social media doomscrolling era we live in it's so so easy to only see the bad, and when you surround yourself with other scared, overwhelmed people, it can form a sort of 2014-tumblr-depression-tag echo chamber where that hopelessness is glorified and lauded and propped up as Correct And Enlightened.

and then they commit hate crimes about it and my sympathy shuts all the way off.

[megpie71]

Boosting signal

[aetherograph]

I will always remember something my state-appointed psychiatrist said to me when we first met and I was giving him the run-down of my life so far, and I said "and I'm homeless right now--" and he stopped me.

'I LOVE that you just said that. That you said "right now"!' he said. 'So many of my homeless patients say they're homeless like it's their job, and that means they never see a way out of it.'

'Well,' I said, knowing the statistics. 'Most people are on the street for a year on average. It's not forever, it can't be. nothing is.'

And because I had the audacity, the boldness, to assume I was only homeless right now, I actively kept living like it was a temporary state, like I deserved housing and deserved care and deserved better than i had right now. Because it was only for right now. It wasn't forever. It couldn't be. Nothing is.

I was homeless for about a year and a half. And then I got housed. And right now I live IN a house, with good friends.

But it's only for right now. It isn't forever. It can't be. Nothing is. And whatever's coming next is going to be better! Because I have the audacity, the boldness, to assume it will be and that I deserve it.

And you do too.

But you HAVE to start thinking of misfortune as only being temporary. It's just bad right now. Practise that. "It sucks--right now" "I'm miserable--right now". Just a small thing. But it makes a big difference. It makes all the difference.

Because if you always put "right now" at the end, no matter how miserable you get, you have left a little crack.

And that's how the light gets in.