〜 IN A DREAM 〜

It's Sam, 21 now!, Troye-inspired creative person. | Looking for you, Veikka... | I tend to ramble but this is a happy place for anyone, regardless of whether you are a Sifan or not;) I also tend to blogstalk often, just saying. (This bio is even worse than the last one, I am aware.)

[troyeblemaker-archives]

bye blog:)

BLOG RETIREMENT ANNOUNCEMENT! 15|08|2021

HI guys:”)

I’m not going to be active here anymore - not that i was recently lol, but just saying- and am officially archiving this blog for the good stuff, the memories and the moots, instead of deactivating it completely- which would be a waste because this has been SUCH a ride and there are some golden interactions here that i never want to erase:”) 

This announcement is to you. To all the lovely, amazing humans i got to know here, whom i now call friends: if you’d care to find me, just hmu @itsjustsammeh (idk what i’m going to be doing there atm, but it would be so great to see you on the other side- if i don’t follow you first)

All my side-blogs will remain the same @thebluesmeraldo @therealbluespirit @bangtanuniverse-bts

so yeah. two glorious years of blogging and shitposting have come to a close... to be continued under another url lol. 

still sad enough though. BYE url :C

[troyeblemaker-archives]

we’re really going to come out of this pandemic with social anxiety and physical touch as our love language aren’t we

[andromeda3116]

So let's talk about the Lost Generation.

This is the generation that came of age during WWI and the 1918 flu pandemic. They witnessed their world collapse in the first war that spread around the globe, and they -- in retrospect, optimistically -- called it the "war to end all wars". And that war was a quagmire. The trenches on the Western Front were notoriously awful, unsanitary and cold and wet and teeming with sickness, and bloody battles were fought to gain or lose a few feet of territory, and all because a series of alliances caused one assassination in one unstable area to spiral into a brutal large-scale war fought on the ground by people who mostly had no personal stake in the outcomes and gained nothing from winning.

On some of the worst-hit battlefields, the land is still too toxic for plant growth.

And on the heels of this horrific war, a pandemic struck. It's often referred to as "the Spanish flu" because Spain was neutral in the war, and so was the first country to admit that their people were dropping like flies. By the time the warring countries were willing to face the disease, it was far too late to contain it.

Anywhere from 50 to 100 million people worldwide would die from it. 675,000 were in the US.

But once it was finally contained -- anywhere from a year to a year and a half later -- the 20s had begun, and they began roaring.

Hedonism abounded. Alcohol flowed like water in spite of Prohibition. Music and dance and art fluorished. It was the age of Dadaism, an artistic movement of surrealism, absurdism, and abstraction. Women's skirts rose and haircuts shortened in a flamboyant rejection of the social norms of the previous decades. It was a time of glitter and glamour and jazz and flash, and (save for the art that was made) it was mostly skin deep.

Everyone stumbled out of the war and pandemic desperate to forget the horrific things they'd seen and done and all that they'd lost, and lost for nothing.

Reality seemed so pointless. It's not a coincidence that the two codifiers of the fantasy genre -- J.R.R. Tolkein and C.S. Lewis -- both fought in WWI. In fact, they were school friends before the war, and were the only two of their group to return home. Tolkein wanted to rewrite the history of Europe, while Lewis wanted to rebuild faith in the escape from the world.

(There's a reason Frodo goes into the West: physically, he returned to the Shire, but mentally, he never came back from Mordor, and he couldn't live his whole life there. There's a reason three of the Pevensies can never let go of Narnia: in Narnia, unlike reality, the things they did and fought for and believed in actually mattered, were actually worth the price they paid.)

It's also no coincidence that many of the famous artists of the time either killed themselves outright or let their vices do them in. The 20s roared both in spite of and because of the despair of the Lost Generation.

It was also the era of the Harlem Renaissance, which came to the feelings of alienation and disillusionment from a different direction: there was a large migration of Black people from the South, many of whom moved to the Harlem neighborhood of New York City. Obviously, the sense of alienation wasn't new to Black people in America, but the cultural shift allowed for them to publicly express it in the arts and literature in ways that hadn't been open to them before.

There was also horrific -- and state-sanctioned -- violence perpetrated against Black communities in this time, furthering the anger and despair and sense that society had not only failed them but had never even given them a chance. The term at the time was shell-shock, but now we know it as PTSD, and the vast majority of the people who came of age between 1910 and 1920 suffered from it, from one source or another.

It was an entire generation of trauma, and then the stock market crashed in 1929. Helpless, angry, impotent in the face of all that had seemingly destroyed the world for them, on the verge of utter despair, it was also a generation vulnerable to despotism. In the wake of all this chaos -- god, please, someone just take control of all this mess and set it right.

Sometimes the person who took over was decent and played by the rules and at least attempted to do the right thing. Other times, they were self-serving and hateful and committed to subjugating anyone who didn't fit their mold.

There are a lot of parallels to now, but we have something they didn't, and that's the fact that they did it first.

We know what their mistakes and sins were. We have the gift of history to see the whole picture and what worked and what failed. We as a species have walked this road before, and we weren't any happier or stronger or smarter about it the first time.

I think I want to reiterate that point: the Lost Generation were no stronger or weaker than Millennials and Gen Z are today. Plenty of both have risen up and fought back, and plenty have stumbled and been crushed under the weight. Plenty have been horribly abused by the people who were supposed to lead them, and plenty have done the abusing. Plenty of great art has been made by both, and plenty of it is escapist fantasy or scathing criticism or inspiring optimism or despairing pessimism.

We find humor in much the same things, because when reality is a mess, both the absurd and the self-deprecating become hilarious in comparison. There's a reason modern audiences don't find Seinfeld as funny as Gen X does, and many older audiences find modern comedy impenetrable and baffling -- they're different kinds of humor from different realities.

I think my point accumulates into this: in spite of how awful and hopeless and pointless everything feels, we do have a guide. We've been through this before, as a culture, and even though all of them are gone now, we have their words and art and memory to help us. We know now what they didn't then: there is a future.

The path forward is a hard one, and the only thing that makes it easier is human connection. Art -- in the most base sense, anything that is an expression of emotion and thought into a medium that allows it to be shared -- is the best and most enduring vehicle for that connection, to reach not just loved ones but people a thousand miles or a hundred years away.

So don't bottle it up. Don't pretend to be okay when you're not. Paint it, sculpt it, write it, play it, sing it, scream it, hell, you can even meme it out into the void. Whatever it takes to reach someone else -- not just for yourself but for others, both present and future.

Because, to quote the inimitable Terry Pratchett, "in a hundred years we'll all be dead, but here and now, we are alive."

[sirobvious]

Avoid video games that use extrinsic motivation. A video game should at least mostly rely on intrinsic motivation, meaning that the playing of the game itself is the fun part, not the reward you get for playing the game. If you don’t enjoy the gameplay, but you want to earn lootboxes, you’ve fallen into the intentionally exploitative system operating within so many games nowadays, and you need to find another game, because you’re not having fun.

It doesn’t sound serious, but this kind of thing can make depression way worse if you’ve already got depression.

[smitethestate]

This post got me to stop playing Overwatch and I’m eternally grateful.

[note-a-bear]

That’s also a core difference between a game trying to exploit the human brain’s tendency toward gambling addiction and a game that exists to entertain.

Like, it may sound like I’m reaching, but op described (pretty closely) the operation of gambling addictions. It’s also why the depression aspect is so real. You’re feeling a withdrawal, of a sort, when you can’t play the game.

[spoonie-living]

Seriously, keep an eye out for this stuff!

[guerrillatech]

[headspace-hotel]

I thought this was my hometown for a second

[enchantingcoffeenightmare]

[tacofriend]

So this has actually been cited by academics as part of the major draw to online spaces is the fact that just existing in public is reacted to with hostility and punishment. Gretchen McCulloch discussed this is in her book Because Internet, citing research that shows teens and young adults want to be outside! We want to spend time in social places, it’s just that there aren’t any places to exist in public without being charged for it.

[learn2anarchy]

[binch-worm]

When I was homeless as a kid my little brother and I loved to go to the library. We would keep warm in there reading good books all day long. Until residents of the town complained about us “loitering” at the library each day. The library staff then told us we were no longer allowed to stay more than an hour at a time. Imagine seeing two homeless children spending their entire days quietly reading just to keep out of the cold and having a damn problem with it.

[allthingslinguistic]

Here’s a relevant passage from Because Internet! 

Even the fact that teens use all kinds of social networks at higher rates than twenty-somethings doesn’t necessarily mean that they prefer to hang out online. Studies consistently show that most teens would rather hang out with their friends in person. The reasons are telling: teens prefer offline interaction because it’s “more fun” and you “can understand what people mean better.” But suburban isolation, the hostility of malls and other public places to groups of loitering teenagers, and schedules packed with extracurriculars make these in-person hangouts difficult, so instead teens turn to whatever social site or app contains their friends (and not their parents). As danah boyd puts it, “Most teens aren’t addicted to social media; if anything, they’re addicted to each other.”

Just like the teens who whiled away hours in mall food courts or on landline telephones became adults who spent entirely reasonable amounts of time in malls and on phone calls, the amount of time that current teens spend on social media or their phones is not necessarily a harbinger of what they or we are all going to be doing in a decade. After all, adults have much better social options. They can go out, sans curfew, to bars, pubs, concerts, restaurants, clubs, and parties, or choose to stay in with friends, roommates, or romantic partners. Why, adults can even invite people over without parental permission and keep the bedroom door closed! (page 102-103) 

The source I’d really recommend for lots more on this topic is It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens by danah boyd, a highly readable ethnography spanning a decade of observation of how teens use social media. Here are a couple relevant excerpts: 

I often heard parents complain that their children preferred computers to “real” people. Meanwhile, the teens I met repeatedly indicated that they would much rather get together with friends in person. A gap in perspective exists because teens and parents have different ideas of what sociality should look like. Whereas parents often highlighted the classroom, after-school activities, and prearranged in-home visits as opportunities for teens to gather with friends, teens were more interested in informal gatherings with broader groups of peers, free from adult surveillance. Many parents felt as though teens had plenty of social opportunities whereas the teens I met felt the opposite.

Today’s teenagers have less freedom to wander than any previous generation. Many middle-class teenagers once grew up with the option to “do whatever you please, but be home by dark.” While race, socioeconomic class, and urban and suburban localities shaped particular dynamics of childhood, walking or bicycling to school was ordinary, and gathering with friends in public or commercial places—parks, malls, diners, parking lots, and so on—was commonplace. Until fears about “latchkey kids” emerged in the 1980s, it was normal for children, tweens, and teenagers to be alone. It was also common for youth in their preteen and early teenage years to take care of younger siblings and to earn their own money through paper routes, babysitting, and odd jobs before they could find work in more formal settings. Sneaking out of the house at night was not sanctioned, but it wasn’t rare either. (page 85-86)

From wealthy suburbs to small towns, teenagers reported that parental fear, lack of transportation options, and heavily structured lives restricted their ability to meet and hang out with their friends face to face. Even in urban environments, where public transportation presumably affords more freedom, teens talked about how their parents often forbade them from riding subways and buses out of fear. At home, teens grappled with lurking parents. The formal activities teens described were often so highly structured that they allowed little room for casual sociality. And even when parents gave teens some freedom, they found that their friends’ mobility was stifled by their parents. While parental restrictions and pressures are often well intended, they obliterate unstructured time and unintentionally position teen sociality as abnormal. This prompts teens to desperately—and, in some cases, sneakily—seek it out. As a result, many teens turn to what they see as the least common denominator: asynchronous social media, texting, and other mediated interactions. (page 90)

Anyway, more people need to read It’s Complicated, danah boyd really takes young people and technology seriously and doesn’t patronize or sensationalize, and it was a huge influence on me in figuring out the tone for Because Internet so I want to make sure it gets credit! 

[troyeblemaker-archives]

Going to go change the worldview of my folks with this post now. 

[satyriconmp3]

actually being out in public is like i am normal i am off-putting everyone is in love with me i am invisible i am going to die alone wow we are a community peace and love on planet earth i am going to get mugged etc.

[troyeblemaker-archives]

Tbh pretty much, yeah

[troyeblemaker-archives]

my icon is such a mood. i have never vibed with a picture more than i am right now.

[the-meme-monarch]

‘hell’ and ‘fuck’ combining into the much less substantial ‘heck’ is literally exactly the same energy as sodium and chloride combing to make table salt

[the-meme-monarch]

you’re the only worthwhile commentary on this post and I’d like to thank you for that

[troyeblemaker-archives]

I was too lazy to reblog this the first time it crossed my dash and it came back to haunt my thoughts with a vengeance for a goddamned week

don’t make the same mistake

[capitalism-and-analytics]

[djkaeru]

this is especially sad while the only pro-democracy newspaper (print media) in the city is forced to shut down this week…

'They won't stop': Xi Jinping wins big as Hong Kong's pro-democracy paper Apple Daily folds up

The paper that backed the popular 2019 Hong Kong protests is on the verge of shutting down as the administration, backed by Beijing, targets

Closure looms for Hong Kong's pro-democracy Apple Daily after raids

The pro-democracy Hong Kong newspaper Apple Daily looked set to close for good by Saturday following police raids and the arrest of executiv

[dango-daikazoku]

[troyeblemaker-archives]

not going to say it’s tiananmen square all over again because that never really ended now did it?

[odinsblog]

Wow. Talk about attention to detail.

Video here: https://twitter.com/javi_draws/status/965260617790738432?s=21

[spookyold-saintjm]

I will probably reblog this every time I see it on my dash because it’s absolutely stunning

[onyxai]

This is literally insane. How did you have the patience. Tell me your secrets o’ art god.

[troyeblemaker-archives]

okay this blows my mind because look; each of them are coloured in with crazy attention to detail yes, but they ALL have individual shadings done on them.

If you’re not someone who knows much about art you’d ask, what’s so significant about that? 

Well, shading is not just about colouring in the depths of each item with a blanket ‘shadow’ colour aka gray. Each item will have it’s own specific shadow colour. If it’s a white box, the shading will be gray; if it’s the red kitkat box, the shadow is a deeper red; the biscuits next to them will have a muddy yellow shadow. Each of these tiny boxes have their own very specific shade of ‘shadow’ to them, which all COLLECTIVELY look like one big shade and this artist just found every one of them. (assuming that digital art works the same way that traditional does)

this isn’t just art, it’s a fucking insane display of patience- i just hope everyone appreciates that.

[anxietyproblem]

[troyeblemaker-archives]

THIS IS WHAT I DO

[formlessvoidbeast]

a blog: *follows me*

me, an aged monarch lounging on my fur-strewn throne, gesturing for my servant to bring me my monacle: Bring them here! Bring them here, I say. Let me look at them.

guards: *drag the unwitting blog before me*

me, peering intently at the new blog and poking them with my scepter: Is this a real person? Hmm? What have you to say for yourself? What are your fandoms? Your interests? Speak up, these old ears aren’t what they used to be.

guards, tentatively: they do seem to be a real person, sire. We found them in possession of several memes and a fandom rant.

me, subsiding back into my sumptuous furs and waving them away: most extraordinary. It has been an age since there was a real person, but just as well, the dungeons have been overflowing with those tacky pornbots. This newcomer may remain in my domain. Make them welcome. And fetch me a quill! I feel a ficlet coming on…

[a-girl-with-three-eyes-deactiva]

this is the funniest thing i have ever read

[miraitte]

AFAGSHGSGSGSGSGSG

[vkelleyart]

I’d saved this one to post for Simon Snow’s Birthday (June 21).

This piece was commissioned in monochrome by rossmalachi on Instagram for a tattoo. He requested a Snowbaz rendering of “The Lovers” tarot card with a composition based on comic art of Wiccan and Hulkling. The end result was this picture, which takes a few visual cues from the Rider-Waite tarot deck as well.

According to Llewellyn’s Complete Book of Tarot, this card signifies “an important choice that will significantly alter the course of one’s life… The association of the card with the [air] sign Gemini suggests love between individuals that can endure for an eternity.”

Here’s hoping, birthday boy. My fingers are crossed.

[makedonsgriva]

Okay since I have zero chill, I wrote a tiny little oneshot in honour of this art and Simon's birthday.

SIMON

Baz and I visit his family manor once every two months. We are often busy with our works so these weekend getaways are always welcome. They usually involve long walks around his family's estate (they own five such estates all over the bloody Europe, like this is not the craziest fucking thing ever), playing Monopoly with his siblings (I always lose and so does Baz), good food and cheerful conversations around the dinner table.

One of the things I love the most about spending the weekend with Baz's family is that their food is fucking delicious.

Baz says I can cook better than the family cook but that's just a lie because the sour cherry scones she makes? Heavenly. Unmatched. I am but a humble admirer of her work.

Another thing I love is that how nice everyone is even though we share a troubled history. Baz's dad is always very formal with me and I know it's because he still hasn't completely accepted the fact that the Pitch line ends with Baz but he's always trying to be better. He gets better with every visit. His stepmother is very kind, though. And she's always warm, caring and loving towards me.

His siblings are a nightmare but I love them anyways.

"They are not just my family, love." Baz once told me when we'd been returning home after one such weekend visit. His eyes were fixed on the road, mine were fixed on him, and he was smiling. "They are yours too. I'm not making it up, I'm just telling you the truth. They adore you."

I hadn't said anything then, words have never come easy to me, but I just sat there smiling and feeling impossibly warm and happy.

His family, my family.

"What are you thinking?" Baz asks as he slips his hand in mine.

We're taking a walk around the estate and with the sun setting and a soft breeze blowing, this feels like a perfect evening walk with the perfect companion.

"Stuff." I say and rest my head on his shoulders as we walk.

"Good stuff or bad stuff?"

"Good."

Baz hums and rests his head on top of mine. His thumb is rubbing circles on the back of my hand and I love the cool feeling of his skin against mine.

"I can't believe we have to leave tomorrow." Baz sighs.

"Mhm. But on the bright side, no more creepy gargoyles that watch us sleep."

He laughs. I love the sound of it. I love I am the one who makes him do that.

"Okay, good point."

"Yeah, sometimes I can't believe you used to sleep in that room all alone. What with the gargoyles and those ghosts."

"Not ghosts, Simon. They're wraiths. We've gone through this."

"Does it matter, though? They creep me out."

"They don't even bother you that much now."

"Maybe. But they're weird."

Baz looks down at me and sighs in defeat. Then he glances at his watch and says, "Don't you think we should go back? It's almost time for Sunday dinner."

Like he needs to remind me. Of course I know, I can't ever forget meal times. It's a talent I have carefully cultivated over the years.

I kind of hate Sunday dinners at the Manor, though. We have to dress up and wear all these posh clothes that are itchy and totally not my taste. Baz says I look gorgeous in suits and that's all good but I don't understand why I have to go through the trouble of wearing them to eat food I can consume perfectly well in normal people clothes.

But Baz loves Sunday dinners. He loves wearing all that fancy stuff. That's abundantly clear from what he's wearing right now- a brilliant flowery suit that looks spectacular on him. Once Baz got into floral suits, there was no turning back for him. I don't mind at all, though. He looks like Harry Styles in them.

"I didn't know you liked Harry Styles." He'd said the first time I told him that, looking absolutely delighted at being compared to him.

"I used to have a mad crush on him, even though I didn't know that." I'd admitted with a shrug. "He's nice and cute. And I like his songs."

I'm still in jeans and a t-shirt, though. I'll change when Baz threatens me to.

"What's the hurry?" I ask, looking up at Baz and leaning in. "We have all the time."

"You haven't changed." He tries to reason feebly but gives up when I kiss him.

Crowley, kissing Baz will never get old. I'll never tire of it. I'll never tire of the way his lips feel, the way he sighs, the way he touches me and the way he smiles when I pull back. To think we'd almost lost this once...

But that was years ago.

We've come a long way since then. We're happier, healthier and together in every way.

Penny says we are an annoyingly lovely couple. Baz says that's because we are through with our quota of serious relationship problems and now we can't go through all that heartbreak again without disrupting the natural order of the universe.

It's not like we don't ever fight, we do, but it's never anything too serious. Never anything that hurts us unspeakably. Never anything that can't be resolved well.

"You're thinking again." Baz says and pushes back a curl from my forehead.

I shrug and kiss him again. "I was thinking about you."

"Sentimental twat."

"You're the one to talk."

He smiles and shrugs in surrender before tugging at my arm. "Come on, we have to go."

"We're not late."

"If you keep kissing me like this then we would be."

"Oh fine. Come on."

Baz nods and starts walking towards the manor but I have other plans. I come up from behind him and even before he can register what's happening, we're up in the air with my wings flapping along with the wind.

"Simon!" He laughs, wriggling in my arms to face me. "You crazy, crazy man."

"What?" I'm laughing too. His laughter is infectious.

"You're completely insane." He wraps his arms tightly around me as I soar high above the manor. I'm holding him like my life depends on it.

The sun's setting behind me and Baz is bathed in golden red light. His hair's flowing behind him and this is one of those instances when Baz just knocks me breathless with his beauty.

And he's all mine. All mine. To love, to hold, to care for, to be with.

"I love you so much." I say, knocking our foreheads together and breathing him in.

"You could've told me that on the ground."

"Basilton Snow-Pitch, you have zero sense of romance."

"I'll show you romance, you numpty." He grins wickedly before he kisses me hard.

Fuck I don't want to complain but if Baz keeps on kissing me like this, I'll lose my focus and we'll go plummeting down and break every single bone in our bodies.

Luckily, he draws back just in time (I was about to lose my mind and damn all the consequences) and rubs his nose against mine.

"I love you too." He says, sighs almost. "Even though we're definitely going to be late now."

"Doesn't matter."

"Food, Simon. You'll be late to see the one true love of your life."

"I don't know what you're talking about because he's right in front of me."

Baz rolls his eyes but his pink ears are a dead giveaway.

"You're the biggest sap I've ever met."

"But you like it."

"Oh, I love it."

"Why?"

"Because we match."

Yeah um I hope you liked that. That was really fun to write, though.

[troyeblemaker-archives]

HOLY CRAP 

[distimiya-deactivated20210110]

don’t let tumblr make you believe that

-smoking is cool

-being a narcissistic bitch is acceptable

-trusting nobody is healthy

-starving yourself will make you beautiful

-hating everybody is okay

[coco-cuntella-deactivated201505]

- that working hard for grades isn’t worth the time

- that having mental health condition is a perk

- that self harm should be romanticized

- that abusive and codependent relationships are cute

- that not being in a minority makes you any less of a person

[eterni-ki-moved]

not just tumblr, really any social media site

[troyeblemaker-archives]

i swear i reblogged this before but it doesn’t matter, this is important and i’d do it again if i have to

[kushandwizdom]

Someone said "Are you really so stupid to think that Africa has the same technological advances as us? If they did they would probably have clean water and not live in houses made of sticks and mud. Get over yourself and stop being so ignorant."..... Below is a tiny collection of images of the Africa they refuse to show you..

ches

I’m sorry you’ve been made to believe that the whole of Africa is poor, I really am..

[shez-a-b0mbshell]

Reblogging for those of you who think Africa is only what the media and movies portrays it to be

[teddybearnova]

This fucks me up because it’s scary to think that we can be showed something all our lives and not even know it’s a lie

[2ollux-double-bulge]

And that my friend is the power of propaganda, indoctrination, and media

[the-collecting-turnip-deactivat]

Are these pictures of South Africa or of Africa as a whole? 

[fgsshinyhoard]

@the-collecting-turnip From top to bottom:

1. Port Elizabeth (South Africa)

2. Unknown

3. Nairobi (Kenya)

4. Pretoria (South Africa)

5. Aburi Botanical Gardens (Ghana)

6. Cape Town (South Africa)

7. Pretoria (South Africa)

8. Harare (Zimbabwe)

9. Windhoek (Namibia)

10. Windhoek (Namibia)

To @kushandwizdom this is a rather unfair portrayal of Africa as a whole since half of these are literally just South Africa.  So Instead to add to this post and better dispel the myth of Africa as the vast wasteland of poverty most people think, I found a much more mixed collection of pics from various countries.

Luanda, Angola

Agadir, Morocco

Lagos, Nigeria

Cairo, Egypt

Port Louis, Mauritius

Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire

Algiers, Algeria

Tripoli, Libya

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Tunis, Tunisia

So, there, a much better case demonstrating the various major cities around Africa showing it isn’t some technologically backwards continent, but actually pretty up-and-coming in the world of commerce.

[hockey-trash]

I once was talking to my Ethiopian manager about ignorant people asking her dumb shit about her life before she moved to the states…

the worst story she told me about was when she told a fellow student (at a fairly prestigious university) about a concert she went to back home. The other student responded with “omg you have music there!?” 🤦🏾‍♀️

[cricketcat9]

Rebloging, because we need to see these pictures. 

As for stupid questions: “do you have grocery stores in Ecuador?”

[justgot1]

These are great!

A redneck neighbor once asked my mom (in the 80s) if they had cars in Peru. Sigh.

This is the product of poor world history in school & little current affairs coverage outside Western Europe, except for catastrophes, so all we see are the war torn, poverty stricken, disaster-affected parts on the news. And racism, of course.

[lettingitoutabit-deactivated202]

I bet most Americans who think that African countries are just completely poverty stricken have no idea what the US looks like in its poorest areas, not everywhere in the US is nice suburbs or unrealistically large apartments on tv

[for-southendgirls]

Los Angeles, California

Hartford, Connecticut

New Orleans, Louisiana

Camden, New Jersey

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

McDowell County, West Virginia

Flint, Michigan

Washington, D.C.

[goingtiny]

Do you see the world as it is, or as someone told you it is?

[hogwartsconsultingtimelady]

This photoset proves you can make anywhere look great or terrible. It’s all framing and more people should know about that

[gamebird]

Worth a reblog. I don’t think the US version was on there when I first reblogged.

[tigerf-cker-deactivated20210711]

I’m going to add some countries in the Middle East, more specifically in the Arabian Peninsula, because no we do not go to school on camels, and no we are not surrounded by deserts, and no do we have pots of oil in every house.

————————————————————————

Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Manama, Bahrain

And so much more. Don’t let the media shape your view on our countries.

[ohevoyev]

how do you not know your blood type

that’s between emergency medical services and god

[troyeblemaker-archives]

way to be positive op

[millipedia-deactivated20230115]

babygirl i will subject you to my interests