[alteredpanel]

[fucking-relax]

comfort check

lounging in an ouch position?

haven't taken a deep breath lately?

hungry? thirsty?

need to use the toilet?

too much sensory input?

this is your reminder to get comfortable! go do what you need to do!

[cerastes]

I don’t think we ought to normalize or justify bullying as a means to keep people from being annoying — a sentiment that in and of itself could make for a whole article’s worth of conversation — but I do think we should make a habit of politely but directly telling people “hey I didn’t like that”, “that wasn’t funny”, “you are mistaken”, and the like if it’s called for, and more importantly, you should be able to take a “that wasn’t funny” for instance without taking it personally, because protecting a polite harmony where no one can criticize each other, not even politely, is also really, really bad.

[rarestsparkle]

i recommend telling yourself “this isn’t an experience i want to keep having” and stop entertaining things that are really detrimental to your health and don’t benefit you in anyway.

[jurassicpeanut]

Sometimes processing trauma looks like making mini comics about dogs.

[lyraeon]

not to be mistaken for toxic positivity again but my god you need to learn to love the oppressed more than you hate their oppressors or else you are just delighting in feeling righteous while leaving those in need out in the cold

[girlidiotdotcom-deactivated2023]

Regardless of how you present, whether or not you’re transitioning, or how you dress, if you are trans you deserve an incredibly happy and validating TDOV and I love you

[lotuspositivity]

You don't need to feel so much shame all the time. You're allowed to struggle, you're allowed to take breaks, you're allowed to be kind to yourself. Let yourself be <3.

[wetheurban]

Sending love to anyone who is just… tired.

Not just physically, but mentally, emotionally, socially, financially.

Life is asking a lot right now.

Pause when you can. Breathe when you remember.

Give yourself space. Give yourself grace.

[orchardsys]

A comic about something that happened a while ago,, I still feel guilty in a way that I was there that day.

[cheaphalloweencostume]

“everyone is mad at me and they just won’t tell me” —> “no one has said anything about being mad at me and i haven’t done anything to warrant being mad at so if someone is silently fuming about me and not saying anything that’s their problem and actually quite weird of them and i can effortlessly move on with my life”

[cheaphalloweencostume]

this took SUCH a huge deal of unlearning because, like so many of you, i came out of a home where being quietly in trouble WAS the default state, and i DID grow up not just with the assumption but borderline religious conviction that Everyone Is Mad At Me, I Am Bad, I Must Exist In A Constant State of Attempting to Pacify The Natural Rage I Inspire In Everyone. and no it actually turns out that my family are the freaks . and yours are too

[cheaphalloweencostume]

“this isn’t true because i DEFINITELY silently fume at people in the hopes they’ll figure out what they did and apologize” that’s not good. you shouldn’t do that

“this isn’t true because the ex-friendship that traumatized me ended explosively after they were mad at me and never told me why” that’s not good. they shouldn’t be doing that

“i don’t think this is true because my current friend group is constantly icing me out until i figure out what ive done to upset them and properly apologized without being told” hey thats not good. they should not be doing that

if the peacefulness of your relationship with someone (familial, romantic, friendly, anything) can be destroyed by effective communication/asking them for effective communication, you have got to get out of there. if you can’t get out of there, you’ve got to throw away any ideas about what that person thinks of you because they have their own shit to figure out before they can accurately read anyone else

[beefcliff]

a little comic(?) about holding back & being trans online

[confessionsdiaz]

*through gritted teeth* the world is GOOD. people are kind. Humans are NOT inherently selfish. you will make it through this year. recovery is possible. people you don't know yet will love you. You are going to do things you can't even imagine right now. You are going to read a rlly good book. You are going to eat some rlly good food. You are going to experience joy again. Things can get better. Situations can change. You can choose to be kinder. The world can change for the better.

[lotuspositivity]

You don't have to force yourself to bounce back so quickly. I read something recently that said "when you come in from a rainstorm, you don't expect yourself to be dry and warm right away", and it really resonated with me. It's okay to take time to dry off and warm up. Take the time you need to process what happened to you.

[goodthingcounter]

You don’t have to be constantly distressed about the state of the world to prove you care btw

[nekoning]

the use of AI lately has made me feel so hopeless, i translated pages of an unfinished fanzine of mine so i can remember why i love art...i hope it can resonate with anyone feeling the same way

[ratbastarddotfuck]

tumblr userbase is going to become unconscionably insufferable in response to this taste of power I suspect. don't let it go to your heads.

[ratbastarddotfuck]

Lots of talk about "bullying wins" and little talk about power and the flow of capital, which is what matters to the corporate bigheads who approve these things. imo a few things were at play here to make them rescind this.

- It was buggy. Tags not showing up for an OP past even an empty reblog did not appear to be intended (or at least, it was not mentioned in the announcement), and is a MAJOR problem. Specifically, it undoes the major update from around 5 years ago which was heavily praised by the userbase (one of few tumblr updates to actually be widely well recieved) which allowed a poster to see tags in their activity feed. If this was the only problem, they could have launched a bug fix. Same goes for not being able to turn off reblogs.

- Userbase unity? Well, maybe. Specifically - the userbase had a swift, harsh, and overbearing response to this update. Most of the complaints were the same: this will exacerbate harassment, this will disrupt the flow of communication, this will make it impossible for someone to maintain their posts. Big names in the tumblr ecosystem came down hard, fast, and with significant concern: if this stays in place, I will have to leave - this place will not do what I need it to do. Much of the userbase said the same, sharing alternate blog hosting sites and doing the thing we always do when this ship looks like sinking. Additionally, their replies and feedback forms were obviously being flooded. This put real pressure on their workers in the office, which puts financial pressure on the company. I think the most disrupting tactic though, was going offsite. I checked out their instagram and twitter comments; they were flooded. This is something we Don't Usually Do when we're just whining about the newest change. Usually we stay here to complain but we make do with the change. This, I think, is the thing that signified people weren't just whining but were actually for real pissed. And then of course...

- Five hours before the roll-back announcement, an article drops. That kind of bad press is the nail in the coffin for a dying company like tumblr. I imagine several concerned meetings somewhere in those five hours.

What do we learn? The answer is not "bullying works" and "swearing at customer service reps is fun". The answer is to remember that online, we are both the product and the thing that creates the value (similar to but obviously distinct from the actual workers of a corporation; if we vanished overnight they'd have nothing). Brush up on your collective bargaining & try to understand why this happened in this way. And don't try to replicate this for every random update that comes next by endlessly harassing them. Take stock of the little power you have and work out where to put it to use. This is still just tumblr.