#How the world works

[pratchettquotes]

"What made you decide to become a wizard?" [...]

"It's indoor work with no heavy lifting," said Cutwell. "And I suppose I wanted to learn how the world worked."

"Have you succeeded, then?"

"No."

Terry Pratchett, Mort

[animetit]

don't forget this america day that:

• the simple narrative taught in every history class is demonstrably false and pedagogically classist

• the world is built with blood and genocide and exploitation

• the global network of capital essentially functions to separate the worker from the means of production

• the fbi killed martin luther king

• private property's inherently theft

• neoliberal fascists are destroying the left

• and every politician, every cop on the street, protects the interests of the pedophilic corporate elite

[standupcomedyhistorian]

Bo Burnham is a modern-day Nostradamus

Exhibit A from 2/21/2016:

Bostradamus strikes again...eerie, right?!

Is it too late to nominate this guy instead? ✌🏼🐔

[qqueenofhades]

https://www.tumblr.com/qqueenofhades/741612605875027968/as-someone-whose-country-went-through-a-brutal

I frankly think the problem is that people who post about the "worthlessness" of the vote are a combination of people who've lived with the privilege their entire lives and thus don't recognize its value, and of people who think that doing ANYTHING that is part of the establishment is inherently dirty and needs to be avoided to maintain their ideological purity. And mixed together with an unhealthy dose of capitalistic undertones of instant gratification that they've never truly reckoned with.

Because that's what this is really all about; keeping their own hands unsullied of what they see as a poisonous system, where the establishment is inherently bad no matter what good elements are still left trying to be fixed and improved, and they want the results immediately regardless of the consequences.

As it's been said before, as horrid and evil as the fascist right are, they did their due diligence for over 50 years, putting their zealots into various positions of power year after year, decade after decade. because they were willing to go through their own hell in order to ensure that the poison trees they were planting would bear fruit, even as they have their clowns and assholes to distract the rest of us. I have never seen that kind of single-minded long term thinking in a very large majority of online types.

I mean, last night I received an anon scolding me about how I was "driving away young leftists and liberals" by whatever I was saying on Tunglr dot hell (which has consisted almost in its entirety of forcefully telling them to vote, to not be antisemites, and that yelling at a cancer hospital wasn't going to magically awaken more people to the Rightness of your Cause and actually backfires on the cause you're claiming to help). And while the urge to do a forensic and deeply salty response was Strong, I reminded myself to do the smart thing and block it. Which I did, but also I'm still wondering how, if these precious snowflakes are indeed "driven away" by someone telling them to vote and not be antisemites, then yeah, we're doomed. It was also entirely likely that this was the usual version of "not a threat-threat" wherein if I don't stop telling people to vote on Tunglr dot hell, apparently this might cause the entire moral continuum of the universe to collapse and it will be my fault. Sorry if I haven't been always totally nice about it, but after eight years of dealing with this bullshit nonstop, my patience is now deeply limited.

Anyway, my point here is that if this is actually what we're dealing with, wherein they will blow right past the most basic of advice about how to actually do something and not just get short-term Moral Good Person Cookies out of it, coming from someone who actually agrees with what they want to do and the changes they want to see in the world, in order to focus on This Personally Made Me Feel Bad :(, then yeah. We're doomed. On the other hand, as scolding anons on Tunglr dot hell are again, hardly representative of the actual state of things, it likewise should be taken with a healthy grain of salt.

[puzzled-pegasus]

If I never get around to it I want everyone to know that if I had the time and energy I would 100% make an art piece with Bandit Heeler and Unicorse singing How The World Works by Bo Burnham

I just think it would be funny

[januscorner]

Stop making activism about you. Activism is about helping people not about boosting your image. If you get upset that no one knows that you did something good you’re probably not doing it for the right reasons. If you are a person in privilege it’s your fucking duty to help people without it.

[artistmarchalius]

*frightening, liminal space*

[rachel-sylvan-author]

"Animal Farm" by George Orwell book recommendation by Rachel Sylvan

Thank you @themaryjaneedition for the reread! ❤️

[thethirdman8]

Roger Waters & Abby Martin: Voices of Reason in a Time of Genocide

Two beautiful intelligent people have an enlightened conversation about the world.

[askcharaandfriends]

If I can predict the future of this world because of the other one can I change it

It has already happened.

I've long since decided there are certain things that are destined

and certain things that are... flexible.

You cannot avoid everything, but there are some new paths you may take.

[thesillygoosecompany]

whenever someone annoys me, I’m gonna hit them with the “why do you rich fucking idiots insist on seeing every sociopolitical conflict through the myopic lenze of your own self actualisation?”

[enchantedephiphany]

Actually I'm never having sex bc I'm not giving a man that kind of power over me.

I'd get attached while the idiot would just swoop on to the next person, as men do. It happens over and over.

If I ever gave myself to someone it would mean something. It would be with someone who I knew 100% for a fact treated me like an equal and respected me and really loved me, not just lusted. Those sorts of feelings can be fleeting. And are. I dont want any intimacy with someone I don't totally trust. With my heart 1st. Heart isn't going to go groveling after some random guy who really would do it with anyone.

I want it to be personal. With me me. Uniquely me, and me only.

And I would expect no less of him. To wait for me.

And that in itself is a tall order. Plus a man that 100% is not abusive and isn't addicted to violent rape porn plus loves things i love and who I get along with

So yeah probably never having sex. Unless a miracle comes along

And it's perfectly fine with me. I don't need sex (no one needs it). There's a lot more to life, which I'm gonna enjoy without men and only with them if they're not only decent but upstanding, outstanding, matches w me perfectly.

[screenpalettes]

Inside (2021)

[eggwhiteswithspinach]

I’m passionate about self-improvement and individual change (topic 2 & 4 are about how I can improve my own mental health and finances/productivity) but also am so curious about how the world works (topics 1, 3, 5 about world facts, and how psychology and finances shape the world around me).

#podcast

[dravenistired]

Okay, so, random thought as an autistic burnt out gifted kid; does anyone else feel like the song ‘How the World Works’ by Bo Burnham is like, sorta how school is for gifted kids?

I don’t know, like Socko represents us, and at first he explains where he’s been, where he describes how he’s kinda just been floating in a seemingly inter-dimensional space in his perception, and he compares it to a constant state of sleep paralysis (which I’ve connected to executive dysfunction with us), and when asked to help Bo explain how the world works, he’s begins just telling the truth about how the world actually is instead of the narrative that school feeds us all the time, then when they stick people onto you that you’re supposed to explain how it works, you’re expected to be patient and understanding and explain it to a bunch of people you don’t even wanna be around at the tender age of 7.

Maybe it’s just me, or I’m just projecting, but I feel like it’s constantly our responsibility as young people to explain people out of their ignorance, which isn’t inherently bad, it’s just super tiring for a group of kids and/or teenagers to constantly be explaining why they deserve to exist ( i.e black young people, POC young people in general, queer young people, neurodiverse young people, and all of the intersectional bits of those things)

Then, after Bo says that he’s just “trying to be a better person”, Socko snaps and goes on a rant about how upper-crust first class white people constantly feel the need to insert themselves into every single socio-political or economically underdeveloped issue that exists in the current world in attempts to convince themselves they’re “part of the solution” when really, all they’re doing is throwing money (that, mind you, would amount to pocket change to them seeing as a lot of those rich people don’t pay taxes) at random charities without doing any research or actually wanting to make a difference, then call themselves activists when they make a few videos and talk about it for seven minutes out of the 525,600 minutes of the year. He says this isn’t about Bo, so he can either get with it, or don’t get in the way of people actually trying to make a difference.

Then, as what usually happens when we as (mostly if not all) neurodiverse gifted kids tend to go off on those kinds of rambles, as well as when we hit too close to home with information they don’t want us to “poison” the other peoples minds with, Bo proceeds to tell Socko to watch his language and the thing he said that really stuck out to me is he said “Remember who’s on who’s hand here!” And the way he says it is so chipper and he’s smiling and laughing as he says it, but the undertones are the same; “Watch yourself, don’t forget who controls you.” Which really hits home, because a lot of the time, if we step out of line, we’re told that we could ruin our lives with our behavior, and they threaten us with an array of things, like failing us, holding us back, all that stuff.

Socko, of course, literally stammers in shock and asks if Bo has been listening to anything he’s been saying, and when he tries to speak again, (and this is actually in the video, but even without it, it’s interesting to think about) Bo starts to put Socko away, to which Socko starts to scream and beg not to go back (again, I kinda associate this with us begging for resources and begging to not go back to toxic places we’ve been pulled out of, which applies to quite a few different circumstances)

He literally begs and pleads and apologizes for saying what he did, and then this happens:

“Are you gonna behave yourself?”

“…Yes.”

“Yes, what?

“Yes, si-”

“Look at me.”

“Yes, sir.”

And then Bo just starts singing again, and he says he hopes that’s Socko learned his lesson, to which Socko says he did and it was painful.

And right at the end of the song, they do the chorus and Socko’s voice is strained and just so worn out, and Bo rolls his eyes and rips him off his hand, to which Socko immediately screams “No- NO-!” Which I think is kind of a callback to if you don’t act like everything is fine and act like you’re supposed to (aka MASKING) they’ll stick you back where it hurts, and they won’t let you out til you promise to behave “like you’re supposed to”.

Anyway, that’s all.

[dekaydk]

”Your enemy is never a villain in his own eyes.”

When I was in kindergarten I saw a painting of the American Revolutionary War. I asked my mom, “Who were the good guys and who were the bad guys?” And she said, “That’s not really how war works. It’s not like a TV show. Both sides thought they were right, otherwise they wouldn’t have been fighting.” And my seven year old ass went “Oh ok”

Anyway having internalized that fun fact in literally kindergarten? It surprises me how many college-educated adults still don’t seem to know about it.