Angel Lydia

20 / i'm so tired / i like cats and a lot of things!

[starlitsecrets]

Remember when joining fandom as a younger person meant lurking for a bit and figuring out the vibe and etiquette instead of coming in on day one and calling people weirdos for liking weirdo shit in the weirdo factory.

[gardengnosticator]

using my one wish willow to make all cigarettes healthy and yummy for people

[cheerfullycatholic]

When medicine is holding the migraine back but you can still kinda feel it in the distance waiting to return

[renstrapp]

my one anime that I'm watching for the year

[northflowerowo]

i spent 2 weeks on this

(The song is "virtuous cycle" from Jack Stauber's short film "Opal")

[rubyvroom]

Can I watch a great film knowing the actresses in it were terrorized and mistreated the entire time? Can I watch a football game knowing that the players are getting brain injuries right before my eyes? Can I listen to my favorite albums anymore knowing that the singers were all beating their wives in between studio sessions? Can I eat at the new fancy taco place knowing when the building that used to be there got bulldozed eight families got kicked out of their homes so they could be replaced with condos and a chain restaurant? Can I wear the affordable clothes I bought downtown that were probably assembled in a sweatshop with child labor? Can I eat quinoa? Can I eat this burger? Can I drink this bottled water? Can I buy a car and drive to work because I’m sick of taking an hour each way on the subway? Whose bones do I stand on? Whose bones am I standing on right now? 

[moniquill]

[dearydeerling-deactivated201904]

On one hand, it’s a privilege to be able to choose to acknowledge these horrors or not–we’re going to acknowledge that privilege. On the other hand, I once attended a lecture by the explorerer-conservationist Jacques-Yves Cousteau’s daughter and son and they had a lot of opinions about what we could do to help the environment and the ocean and I talked about how in my country, we have to drink bottled water, because it’s a desert and there’s only salt water all around, but we’re contributing to pollution and all of these things…

And she looked at me and told me not to fall into the trap of “activist guilt.” I couldn’t remember the exact words, but, it was the first time I’d heard the term and it took a weight off my shoulders.

We do what we can. It’s so much better than giving up entirely or not doing anything at all because we can’t do it perfectly. It doesn’t benefit anyone in the end if we just sit around feeling guilty about every little thing in life. I’d just joined tumblr back then (haha, so like, eight or nine years ago at this point?), I was being exposed to way more than I’d ever been before (I was previously just into feminism and animal rights/wildlife conservation/environmentalism since I was a kid), and it was weighing on me.

As long as humans are humans and living flawed lives, many consumed by greed, there will not be anything in this world untouched by evil.

I usually avoid stuff that says it was made in China or other cheap looking knockoffs, out of fear of them being made in sweatshops (now, I know even a lot of big brands use those…), it’s exhausting. Then, I read something about how people who actually lived and worked in those would still buy this cheap stuff and how this shocked the foreigner reporting on it, but they just looked confused like, it’s what they can afford and them avoiding consuming it isn’t going to change the whole system from the ground-up.

… it went on about how “money talks” and choosing where to put your money still feeds the whole capitalist system and is nearly a way of comforting yourself, but you not buying doesn’t mean everyone else isn’t. What needs to be tackled is at a much higher level than any of us can reach.

Of course, I’d still, given the choice, give my money to companies I agree with and I’ll boycott what I know to support awful stuff, but I also feel no superiority over this and know now it’s not as black and white or easy as I thought it was.

This is the same reason that moral purity “you can’t enjoy [x] because it’s Problematic ™” is such nonsense, because nothing is pure. There’s something bad about everything if you dig deep enough. As long as we lived in flawed human societies we’ve got to make the best of what they offer us. If you have the choice and means, please, do support those who do good, but also, don’t beat yourself up over not living up to an unattainable ideal.

No one can. You’ll just make yourself so miserable, you either burn up and stop fighting entirely or you’ll make yourself a non-productive, depressed heap just out of a bleeding heart left unchecked. You can’t make a change to this world if you refuse to engage in it.

Have a related article with self-care tips for activists.

[catvincent]

Purity is one of the worst, most harmful myths humans ever invented.

[vickytokio]

Rebloging for this amazing reply telling us how to actually handle this, because yeah, sometimes I’ll simply shut down trying to find something that doesn’t cause harm to anyone

[cicadianrhythm]

Forgive me, distant wars, for bringing flowers home.

[starlightxraven]

Nobody needs AI to search the Internet, court says in ruling against Google

Google AI Overview court loss in Germany could spell doom for AI search industry.

[appalachian-werewolf]

"Google AI Overview court loss in Germany could spell doom for AI search industry."

It fucking better.

[mrsjdavis]

Like to charge, reblog to cast?

[newbarktownalumni]

[felesrubrum]

"The court also seemed to take a dig at Google for expecting users not to “blindly trust” AI overviews, noting that the AI tool’s utility “would be significantly diminished if the ‘AI overview’ were generally regarded as unreliable and if every single displayed link required independent verification.”" hilarious, massive win for germany

[annabelle--cane]

right so reportedly we got the karaoke scene in the movie because ryan gosling overheard sandra hüller singing to herself in some downtime on set and approached the directors to say "if we have her here and don't ask her to sing in the movie then we're insane," so the scene was hastily planned and recorded during the last day they had with that set; stratt grew up singing in an east german youth choir because hüller did, too. a fun meta textual wrinkle this adds is that gosling is also a singer but grace doesn't take a turn with the mic, so you can read the scene not just as stratt saying "I am a full human being, I just can't be for this project, you get to see it for two minutes before I turn it off again" but additionally "you could be doing this exact same thing but you aren't even willing to give us two minutes." his doomed work friend the trained choral singer, his fated bestie the being who communicates only through song, his world-saving probes named for the most famous musicians ever, his choir-based soundtrack underpinning all his actions, and his unwillingness to sing himself.

[pespillo]

everyday i think about how while fandom perceives sans as The Mascot for undertale, its very clearly that Toriel is the Actual mascot for Undertale, she kind of represents the concept of giving Mercy as a whole, shes the first boss, she is one of the first acknowledgements of your powers as a Player to bring characters back out of Regret, shes so important to the story as a whole, to this day i still think its just a missed oportunity to not see just how much Ralsei parallels Toriel storywise but also in terms of being The Face for Deltarune and marketability to an almost satirical degree

[ring2002]

we accept the cock we think we deserve

[notlikingbestgirl]

Out of Touch

[hustlerose]

Out of Touch Thursday

[arbyscurlyfries666-deactivated2]

OUT OF TOUCH THURSDAY

[snuv]

but im out of my head when you’re not around…

[thecyndimistuff]

my English prof teaching abt cover letters today and me trying not to bring up the luke skywalker cover letter post:

[thecyndimistuff]

@serialreblogger​ here you go:

[lolotehe]

[piracypiranha]

Ok, fuck it. I'm gonna talk seriously about Chainsmoker Cat, because I'm tired of seeing some of the most shitty takes imaginable every time this show comes up. At this point, I might as well throw my own bad opinion into the pile.

I think the biggest problem is that people insist on reading the show in one of two completely opposite directions. Either it's "gross gooner-bait fanservice," or it's Trainspotting or Requiem for a Dream some harrowing, realistic depiction of addiction.

I don't think it's either. Yani Neko is based on a gag manga and, more importantly, it's a dark comedy. The cycle the show uses for its comedy is the same cycle as poverty and addiction. It's at it's core about a bunch of unemployed, addicted catgirls constantly dicking around, getting fucked up, or trying to scrape together enough money for rent and their next fix.

The comedy and the tragedy aren't separate things. They're the same thing.

The setting reinforces why, the catgirls are very obviously written as a marginalized underclass, but they're never a one-to-one allegory for any specific real-world group. They're just catgirls. That gives the series room to talk about poverty, addiction, social stigma, and fetishization without pretending it's speaking for any communitie's real experience.

They're offered worse jobs. They're poorer. The police target them more. Their neighborhoods have a stigma attached to them. None of that is especially subtle.

One thing I really dislike about the discourse around this show is the assumption that if a story has something meaningful to say, it has to become tasteful and self-serious. A story doesn't have to be refined to be insightful.

Chainsmoker Cat is sleazy. It's horny. It's gross. It's juvenile. I also think it's really fucking funny.

Episode 3 goes from the landlord using a catgirl blow-up doll, to Kansai rolling an unconscious Aruko onto her side so she doesn't choke on her own vomit, to the girls laughing at farts. On paper that sounds like tonal whiplash. In practice, I think it's one of the best examples of what the show is actually trying to do.

Because people's lives are like that.

Even addicts aren't living through an endless montage of tragedy. Real life isn't an indie movie. People with objectively awful lives still sit around trying to make each other laugh because that's just what human beings do. Even a group of crackheads under a bridge are probably spending half the day laughing at dumb shit.

Humor isn't the opposite of suffering. A lot of the time, it's one of the ways people survive it.

That's why the jokes don't undermine the show's depiction of addiction. If anything, they make it feel more honest. The show never pretends addiction is glamorous or that poverty is quirky. But it also refuses to flatten its characters into walking tragedies whose only narrative purpose is to make the audience feel sad.

They're selfish. They're pathetic. They're disgusting. They're friends. That's what makes it worth watching. Also it's a comedy.

[fuckthisshit-ugh]

please read this even if you're not indian. especially if you're not indian.

you've seen the jokes. india is "dirty", indians are "everywhere", why don't they fix their own country. ok. let me tell you why, and what's happening right now while nobody's watching.

first, the history you skipped: britain ruled india for two centuries and drained it. economist utsa patnaik's research estimates around $45 trillion in today's money was taken. the india that got independence in 1947 was one of the poorest countries on earth. every "why is india like this" question starts there. you don't get to profit off a robbery and then mock the crime scene.

now, what's happening RIGHT NOW:

in may the question paper for NEET leaked. that's the national medical entrance exam. over 2.2 million students took it. cancelled. years of studying, families' savings poured into coaching, gone overnight because someone sold the paper. students died by suicide after. these were kids who wanted to be doctors.

and out of that came a protest movement. a gen z group called the cockroach janta party, started by a 30 year old named abhijeet dipke, got 22 million instagram followers within DAYS. they've been doing a sit-in at jantar mantar in delhi demanding education minister dharmendra pradhan resign.

and then there's sonam wangchuk. if you've watched 3 idiots, he's the real engineer the character was based on. built solar schools in ladakh. invented ice stupas so himalayan villages have water. spent his whole life on education. he's 59 and he's been on hunger strike for 17+ days now. reporters went to see him this week and he was too weak to talk. and the troll armies are calling him "anti national" and "foreign funded". a man starving himself for other people's children. that's the thing here, anyone who asks a question is suddenly a traitor.

it's not one incident, it's everywhere you look:

• infrastructure worth thousands of crores failing within months of the ribbon cutting. tunnels collapsing in regions where heavy rain is a guarantee, not a surprise.

• youth unemployment near 10% for ages 15 to 29, 13.6% in cities. in a country of 1.42 billion where more than half the population is young.

• only about the top 3% of indians earn above 10 lakh a year. meanwhile billionaire wealth keeps ballooning and the headlines celebrate it.

• manipur burned for over two years. an ethnic conflict, tens of thousands displaced, and the prime minister barely said the word manipur while it happened.

• journalists raided. critics' houses bulldozed. activists sitting in jail for years without trial under laws like UAPA. our press freedom ranking has cratered.

• even the petrol is a fight now, ethanol blending pushed through while drivers complain about their engines and get no straight answers.

and through all of it, the PM, who came to power on religious polarisation (americans, sound familiar?), travels abroad for photo ops and has not held one single open press conference in over a decade. not one.

what i'm asking:

if you're not indian: share this. our media mostly won't cover any of it because the big outlets are owned by the same billionaires the government serves. the only reason wangchuk's fast is getting any coverage is people refusing to look away.

if you ARE indian: speak up even if you're comfortable. especially if you're comfortable. join the protests. add to this, correct me, translate it. staying quiet is a choice when nothing in this post touches your life.

india is not "dirty". india was robbed, and it's being robbed again, from the inside this time. but it's also the country where a 59 year old will starve for strangers' kids and 22 million young people will rally behind a party literally named after cockroaches, because cockroaches survive everything.

we can still save her. but only loudly.

reblog. share. don't scroll past.

[slyandthefamilybook]

I love Eva Stratt... that scene on the ship where Grace tells her she's mysterious and aloof and you can tell that kind of hurts her. she really does care about humanity, she's just not very good at showing it! she sings her one beautiful song to try to connect with everyone else, not to prove anything to them but so she can feel a moment of connection and camaraderie. and then she gets overwhelmed and goes "okay I'm done bye". I love my autistic friend Eva Stratt

[gooberdingus]

women deserve to be ugly. and by that i mean they should be allowed to have conventionally "unattractive" features and not be treated as lesser for it. women should be allowed to be fat and lanky and tall and short and have scars and physical differences and stretch marks and cellulite and acne and wrinkles and hair on their faces and arms and legs and armpits and maybe even be a little stinky and gross sometimes. and this should be normal

[saturnisfilledwithbees]

“Put him on his knees give him something to believe in” has the exact same energy and depth of meaning as anything Hozier puts out on the regular but since it’s sung by Megan Thee Stallion no one takes it seriously. In this essay I will-

[saturnisfilledwithbees]

To flesh this out a little bit more: both Megan Thee Stallion and Hozier write and sing really sexual songs, but they’re different in that Hozier’s music is typically “let me worship you” while Megan’s is usually “I’m worshipping myself,” which makes all the difference because it’s an acceptance of power rather than the giving of it. He’s the sinner, she’s the saint. However, taking their difference in genres out of it, people don’t usually seem to take Megan Thee Stallion’s music seriously in comparison to Hozier because a) her lyrics are more overtly and blatantly sexual and b)she’s claiming her sexuality for herself, and that scares a lot of people. The secret, no-one-wants-to-talk-about reason is that she’s a confident black woman, which terrifies people way than sex does. In conclusion, Hozier and Megan Thee Stallion are two sides of the same poetic, sexual coin, but people just don’t want to admit it. Which is WHY a collaboration between Hozier and Megan would be so powerful that it would change the timeline as we know it yes I will elaborate