I Should Really Edit My Desktop Theme @totallynotagentphilcoulson - Tumblr Blog

We really went from "free the nipple" to "um the public didn't consent to you wearing a choker"

Human Is is a 1955 Philip K. Dick sci-fi short story where a guy goes to another planet for work and when he comes back to Earth his personality has flipped from an asshole to a sweet, kind, considerate man. Everyone's immediately convinced that an alien has taken over his body, this goes all the way to court, and in court his wife testifies that she's noticed no changes at all and so the charges are dropped.

And then there's a bit right at the end of the story as the wife and the husband are walking out of court:

Jill turned abruptly. "What is your name? Your real name."

The man's gray eyes flickered. He smiled a little, kind, gentle smile. "I'm afraid you would not be able to pronounce it. The sounds cannot be formed..."

Jill was silent as they walked along, deep in thought. The city lights were coming on all around them. Bright yellow spots in the gloom. "What are you thinking?" the man asked.

"I was thinking perhaps I will still call you Lester," Jill said. "If you don't mind."

"I don't mind," the man said. He put his arm around her, drawing her close to him. He gazed down tenderly as they walked through the thickening darkness, between the yellow candles of light that marked the way. "Anything you wish. Whatever will make you happy."

And I. God. There's something there. A soupcon of monsterfuckery. To tell your partner in a moment of intimacy that yes, you're something so inhuman that the lips you're stealing can't speak your actual name. You're a parasite that not only had the ability to burrow under this man's skin and take over his life, but you were so desperate to escape a dead, dry, blasted planet that you did.

And for your partner to then turn around and go "I know, I've always known, and I love you" is just. God I know it's not a great Dick story but something about it is making me lose my mind

inthefallofasparrow

It was adapted into a TV episode with Bryan Cranston.

#text #speculative fiction

assiraphales

one of the biggest tragedies of early 2010s tumblr is that the devil (bbc sherlock) took root as the face of johnlock when the guy ritchie films were RIGHT there

assiraphales

like come ON

#photo #Sherlock Holmes #they had their flaws but my god would it have at least been a less annoying time on tumblr #and maybe they wouldn’t have dragged their feet so much on the third if the first two had the bbc Sherlock online presence level

nyantara

things that would exist if intellectual property wasn't a thing

so much cheap generic medication. reverse engineering compounds would be even more financially profitable.

fewer people dead of vaccine preventable illnesses in the global south bc the greatest barrier to distributing some vaccines like hpv is their ip

plant seeds and grafts that come from the plants instead of licensing them. don't invest so much in preventing cross contamination. more localised experimental breeding.

library of the world: every book and journal article in the world could be digitised and be searchable for every person in the world to read regardless of where they live. cheap reprint runs and local translations everywhere.

an online interface where every citation could actually lead to the text in question

freedom from the hell that is DRM software

everytime someone reverse engineered your shitty proprietary software we would all be freed from it instead of them getting DMCA'd

so much hardware would be opened up & therefore made so much cooler.

so many more songs that riff off and sample and interpolate shit from this decade instead of like 70 years ago and more analysis of music that didn't keep getting nuked off the internet

preserving movies and tv shows and games as long as someone, somewhere has the desire to host them

just go publish your fanfic/art/vid as is instead of all us pretending it isn't fanwork or begging the corporation for mercy / licensing

a world without ip lawyers. im getting chills just imagining it.

#text

stillnaomi

under the dictatorship of alberto fujimori, USAID funded peru's "family planning" program, which was used to sterilize 300,000 indigenous women, often through deception or in exchange for basic necessities such as food or medical care

A system of incentives and sanctions reinforced the policy: healthcare providers received cash or in-kind payments for each sterilized woman, while promotions, demotions, and the allocation of medical equipment were tied to the fulfillment of sterilization targets and quotas. The program was also implemented through mass campaigns. DEMUS reported large-scale operations aimed at recruiting women for tubal ligation, including so-called “ligation festivals,” which promoted sterilization as a path to happiness and often offered food or money as incentives.

Deceptive practices were widespread. Many women were misinformed about the nature of the procedure or told it was minor. In other cases, they were offered debt forgiveness related to childbirth or abortion in exchange for agreeing to be sterilized. Within a broader context of poverty and exclusion, sterilization often became a transactional means of accessing healthcare or food, services the state was already obligated to provide.

source

not coincidentally, US president george h.w. bush's administration was very pleased with the mass privatization fujimori's regime was implementing

#text

natalieironside

I dunno, stranger, we ain't got a whole lot to offer ye on accounta t'other day them Yankee cavalry done rode down and requisitioned plumb near all we had, and then the day after that them rebel cavalry done come up from t'other direction and done did the same damn thing, so no, stranger, I's just a humble Miss'ssippi rat farmer and I ain't know a damn thing about no "time machine" or no "2037 eSports World Championships disaster" anymore than I know about no damn Charleston guv'ment. But when you see that Jeff Davis you tell him I want my damn horses back or I'll head on down to Gulfport and take 'em outter his yeller hide.

natalieironside

And this mornin some boys in teal uniforms done come through and said they was from "a secret third thing." I ain't even know what the world's comin to no more. Say, you ain't no reb, are ye? You better not be no reb.

#text #history #speculative fiction

moldavite

hopefully i'll get to do something other than endure soon. that would be really nice

#text

judgejudyofficial

stop letting miserable people on the internet convince you that you must have a concrete, well-constructed opinion on everything that has ever existed.

supreme-leader-stoat

judgejudyofficial

everybody say thank you Marcus Aurelius

#text

mogielnik

✤ medieval inspired tattoo flash i made for pride ✤

#photo

swagophile

important reminder that most people you follow online are significantly lamer than you think they are including me. and if you feel insecure comparing yourself to someone online: DON'T. theyre probably also lame and weird. most people on the internet are

most-sane-classicist

reblog if you're also lame and weird.

#text

athena-gundampla

#photo #speculative fiction

tboy-trash

[seeing a cis woman upset after a cis man called her a hysterical bitch] omg why are cis people always infighting?? gender norms oppress all of them, they should be fighting together :3 cis women need to stop making such a fuss and be kind to their brothers

#text

olderbootbutch

nobody is out of your league by the way. not everybody will be into you obviously but thats not because they're better or more valuable than you in any way its just the way things go. you never know who's gonna be into whom. there is literally no such thing as leagues.

#text