Even The Dogs Know Not To Drink Saltwater

Rae, she/her- the world is on fire and I cope by losing my shit over works of fiction. I post whatever catches my fancy. Previously ambidextrous-space-samurai.

[lucy-harker]

GINGER SNAPS (2000) dir. John Fawcett

[pangur-and-grim]

I've read a few recently published books, and there's this recurring pattern where if anyone does anything bad and interesting, they have to later talk about it in a way that makes it clear that it was a misunderstanding/ justified/ not their fault, so they're still a good person. and if they have a disagreement with another character, they have to therapy talk it out, regardless of their background. it doesn't matter if this is a street urchin with three teeth who just stabbed and kidnapped someone, you will get eloquent sterile therapy speak that will smooth out any possible emotional tension. and everyone asks for permission before they kiss, and waits for a clear enthusiastic yes. again, doesn't matter the character's background or situation, they will ask "can I please kiss you," because if they didn't, that could get all yucky and uncertain, couldn't it? and if a character is from a rich family, they will hate being in a rich family, and hate wealth signifiers, and actually be all for class equality. and everyone is casually queer, without thought being put into how that would mesh with the society that is being described. like yes, this is violent class-based system obsessed with inheritance, but no, it's not actually a problem that the child they've coldly groomed to take on the family mantle is unwilling to beget an heir because of gay. the parents might be terrible, cruel and fascistic, but they're not homophobic! I don't know, it just seems like EVERYTHING that could actually be messy gets sanded and sanded until it's smooth as a shark, but the Fun Violence is allowed to stay, because bloodshed doesn't actually bother anyone or have any consequence apart from your rogue character shrugging and going oops, was that me? the rogue is still a good person though. if you think they're not, just wait for the two solid pages of introspection. and yes they started the book by slitting two throats, but that was fine. they will ask permission before hugging you.

[topazadine]

There are many reasons for this that are braided together, but I'm going to be bold and say it: I think a lot of this has to do with rising illiteracy.

I just read a Fortune article the other day about the fact that some college students can't read a single sentence. One. They cannot parse the meaning of a single sentence. That's terrifying. (Here it is on Yahoo without the paywall, btw.)

The thing is that you do not have to be wholly illiterate to struggle with reading. About half of Americans have low literacy, meaning they read around a sixth grade level or less.

This puts publishers in a terrible position. They need to sell books to an audience that cannot read books made for adults but that doesn't want the simplicity of grade-school books. The books need real adult problems without the nuance, hence the therapy speak and the black-and-white thinking.

Another thing is that cognitive flexibility influences literacy, meaning the reverse is also true; cognitive inflexibility determines lower literacy. Cognitive flexibility is the ability to update your schemas or combine multiple pieces of information without being expressly told to do so. It also impacts whether you can identify the mismatch between what someone says and what they do, which is the gold standard way to avoid therapy speak.

Poor cognitive flexibility means you can't have messy situations, because then the reader doesn't know what to think. Everyone has to be sorted into Good Person and Bad Person, and if the Good Person does something that may seem Bad, then they become a Bad Person unless the text assures us that they are still Good.

You will see many positive Goodreads reviews for these books. I'm not saying every single person with a positive review for a book like that has low literacy, but it's more likely than not. The same thing that drives you insane is what compels other readers who can't handle more complex texts.

Basically what I am saying is that if you want something with nuance, as a reader or a writer, you probably need to seek out selfpub stuff. I know that a lot of selfpub is garbage specifically because of the lower barrier to entry, and a lot of good selfpub stuff is not highly rated because getting reviews takes time and energy.

(I'd like to say my own stuff is good but doesn't have a lot of reviews because that requires active solicitation and I'm busy. I'm competing with millions of authors, both selfpub and tradpub, who have larger budgets. Anyway.)

Still, if you go sifting, ask for recommendations, and follow selfpub authors, you're likely to find more complex work that was not brutalized to fit the lowest common denominator.

[voidcenturyscholar-deactivated2]

Post canon Toph who doesn’t want to go back to her shitty parents so she just decides to stay in the Fire Nation and bum off Zuko’s hospitality.

Zuko’s like no, yeah, I totally get it, and just makes her one of his advisors. At first it’s just so she has a good excuse to stay but after the first meeting Toph storms out shouting about how EVERYONE was lying why would you even need to lie about what kind of tea you want??

Zuko: I mean they’re politicians…..but also who, and when, and in what way

They make a subtle Morse code system so Toph can warn him when someone is lying to him without tipping anyone off that she can sense lies.

Zuko gets a reputation for somehow being both extremely socially inept and yet somehow disgustingly perceptive?? You can’t get ANYTHING by him???

[romancedawning-deactivated20210]

#my lord what EXACTLY is ms Beifongs role in these meetings #a nervous nobleman asks after the third time she interrupts them with stupid commentary #zuko with perfect deadpan: she’s my scribe

You CAN’T leave that in the tags

[atlaheritageposts]

atla heritage post

[cryoverkiltmilk]

“Wait, you know the Fire Lord?”

“I’ve never seen that man in my life.”

[cryptidsydario]

You understand

[blizz4rd1203]

Who the fuck is that thing tolling for

[panicatthecriscodisco]

[bovid-beauty]

"Fascism"—New Federal Rule Would Require Federal Funding Recipients To Deny Trans People Exist

The rule could have heavy impacts towards trans people across society.

Last week, the Trump administration quietly released a sweeping new federal rule that would use funding threats to force institutions across the country to reject transgender people. The 400-page proposed regulation would codify the administration's anti-trans executive orders into binding federal policy, imposing a blanket prohibition on federal funds going toward "gender ideology"

The proposed rule, formally titled "Regulation for Federal Financial Assistance," rewrites the government-wide framework governing all federal grants across every agency. Among its most consequential provisions, it requires that before a federal grant recipient can receive money, the award must pass a "pre-issuance review" conducted by a political appointee—not a career expert or peer reviewer—to ensure it is "consistent with applicable law, Federal agency priorities, and the national interest." The regulation explicitly instructs these appointees to screen for "denial by the recipient of the sex binary in humans or the notion that sex is a chosen or mutable characteristic." [...] An institution that acknowledges transgender people exist—through its policies, its training, its healthcare, its bathroom access, its HR procedures, its name-change processes—could be deemed to "deny the sex binary" or to “support the notion that sex is mutable” and have its federal funding blocked.

Importantly, the gender ideology prohibition has no age limitation—hospitals could be targeted not just for providing care to minors but for providing gender-affirming care to adults, because prescribing hormone therapy to a transgender patient of any age could be deemed promoting the belief that "sex is a chosen or mutable characteristic."

[junequeer]

THIS IS OPEN TO COMMENT UNTIL JULY 13, 2026

[nasa]

Moon Joy June: Lunar Inspo

Moon Joy June artists!  This is the second week of Moon Joy June, and the prompt is “Moon.” If you’re an artist looking for some inspiration, we have a treat for you: four new and previously unseen images from our Artemis II mission!

All four of these images were captured on April 6, 2026, during flight day 6 of the mission, when the four astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft conducted the lunar flyby of their ten-day journey. During the lunar flyby, NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen captured photographs and collected scientific observations of the Moon in meticulous detail.

You can find more images from the lunar flyby here. If you’re feeling inspired to make some art dedicated to our celestial neighbor, you can share your creations on Tumblr with the #ArtemisArtShow hashtag!

[theocseason4]

my bad for assuming everyone has critical thinking skills btw

[stuckinapril]

I think part of getting better is complete ego death. Like you’re not above setting a timer for 5 minutes and focusing on a task. You’re not above doing a very simple 3 minute workout to start. You’re not above reading for 10 minutes a day when you first get out of your reading slump, even if you used to read for hours. You’re not above starting slow and then building up to where you want to be/where you once were. What you are above is total inertia. Doing something really is better than doing nothing. Radically accept where you are, radically accept your limits, and go from there. Don’t let your ego get in the way.

[devilleworship]

Hell yeah it's the trans butch store

[piecesofbrokenrecollections]

my sister decorated a cat yesterday

[piecesofbrokenrecollections]

This was now a decade ago but I got news about this kitty from someone who works at the clinic he lived in: he lived up to 20 years old 💙

[dandeliondelivery]

First base is violence second base is convoluted codependence third base is applying pressure to the vulnerable parts of their body to keep their entrails from spilling out

[petitprincess1]

"I'M FROM FUCKING FLORIDA!"

Can't believe I'm saying this, but poor Val pffffff

[giulscomix]

I still laugh so hard on this scene!! 🤣🤣

[spankerella]

@ goodgoodgoodco

[h00pqueen]

https://wigreenfire.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Big-Tech-Unchecked-Toolkit_final_rev19Dec25-resized.pdf

Link to the pdf of the tool kit

Love you guys, stay safe!

[rocktheholygrail]

Hannibal (2013-2015)

2x11 - “Ko No Mono”

happy pride to the bj scene where hannibal and will eat ortolans that food stylist janice poon named buddy and pedro after gay penguins from the toronto zoo

[rocktheholygrail]

[lucydacusgirl]

Crowley was meant to be Sam’s Cas he was meant to be Sam’s queerbait moment like he was originally meant to raise Sam from hell and it was Sam’s blood that was turning Crowley human (like Ruby’s blood was turning Sam into a demon!!) but J*red simply does not have chemistry with men so jackles was like sigh. Is anyone gonna make this friendship homoerotic? I have to do EVERYTHING around here.

[bogleech]

How people can mistakenly think or just subconsciously feel food works: there are “unhealthy” foods like pizza or fried chicken and “healthy” foods like fruit salad or steamed vegetables. Every time you eat an “unhealthy” food you’ve harmed yourself in some way.

How food actually works: foods contain carbs, proteins, fats, sugars, vitamins, minerals, fiber and/or other nutrients. Your body needs and uses all of them but it would like to have a little of everything every day. If you ate pizza or fried chicken for lunch then that’s probably your fat and protein for the day with extra that your body will make use of in time, so it’s a good idea to make your next meal something different like that fruit salad or steamed veggies. You can have that fatty lunch every single day if you just maintain balance and stay active enough to actually use what you’re stocking up on because foods aren’t “good or bad;” they just either fit into the rest of your diet and lifestyle or they don’t.

[augustdementhe]

Thanks, OP. 

[zombolouge]

also your body doesn’t necessarily work on a daily cycle, it’s not so neat as to understand linear time and how we choose to divide it. You don’t have to try and find perfect balance every single day, sometimes you will go three or four days eating less or eating more. Sometimes you will crave fats or salts or sugars or greens for a few days at a time before your body will decide it’s gathered enough resources in one particular department. The balance is achieved over time and in uneven tides, and that’s good and fine.

[bogleech]

Original post has been going around for years now but this fairly recent addition is a really good one I needed to be reminded of too. We don’t just reset to 0 every night.