#I may well regret posting this

[4denthusiast]

I dislike the format of posts of "If you believe/assert X, you're telling on yourself", followed by an explanation of why X implies Y, with Y either stated or impled to be bad. It feels presumptuous and patronizing in a way that just saying X is wrong because of Y wouldn't. The phrasing implies a there's consensus against Y with some authority, but the implication from X to Y is generally either clear enough that the people asserting X will probably be aware of it already, or itself debatable. Since there are people with that opinion, there's not a consensus, or if there is then the X-believers are already going against the consensus anyway, and don't respect it enough that the "telling on yourself" thing makes sense. It feels like the people making these posts are trying to claim authority from nowhere.

(I do have a specific example in mind, if you were wondering, but it's not actually a social media post. It's an excerpt from Martin Luther's theology book On the Bondage of the Will.

Therefore come forward, you and all the Sophists together, and produce any one mystery which is still abstruse in the Scriptures. But, if many things still remain abstruse to many, this does not arise from obscurity in the Scriptures, but from their own blindness or want of understanding, who do not go the way to see the all-perfect clearness of the truth. As Paul saith concerning the Jews, 2 Cor. iii. "The veil still remains upon their heart." And again, "If our gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost, whose heart the god of this world hath blinded." (2 Cor. iv. 3-4.) With the same rashness any one may cover his own eyes, or go from the light into the dark and hide himself, and then blame the day and the sun for being obscure. Let, therefore, wretched men cease to impute, with blasphemous perverseness, the darkness and obscurity of their own heart to the all-clear Scriptures of God.

Of course, Luther doesn't phrase it in the same way as modern Tumblr-users. Also, in this case he does actually cite an external authority, so this is more an example of doing it right than the thing I'm complaining about. The connection only came to mind because when I first saw this passage, the Bible quotes were omitted.)

[doubledyke]

🎶 my girl eddy used to always smoke cigarettes when she couldn't sleep 🎶

[homo-hex-ual]

[rotzaprachim]

one of the lines between where antizionism becomes not just antisemitism but the socialism & decolonization of fools is when people extrapolate Zionism from being an regional-colonial ideology that justifies the colonization of Palestine (true) to being an international-imperialist ideology that seeks to control the world and oppressed them personally as non-Palestinian goyim in the west (not true, also leaning right into literal white nationalist slogans and ideas about the *zionist occupied government*) and places Zionism on the international stage as as central or even more powerful than the interests of American, russian, British, French (neo) colonialism in understanding How The World Works. This imho is behind a lot of the ideology that leads to violence and rage against Jews - even the local Jews must be in control of you, and or the economic systems keeping You down. Needless to say these ideologies are not only older than the state of Israel but older than Zionism itself and the violence carried out against Jews under the banner that they secretly were in Charge and needed to have their dirty ways cleansed for morally better people was a massive contributor to the context that has politically empowers Zionism to begin with. The positions of goyim from outside the levant against Zionism must be support for Palestinians and other Levantine peoples harmed by the regional-colonial apparatus of Zionism, not the idea that you feel that you, personally, and your countries in Europe, Asia, Latin America, and even the rest of the swana region are being actively controlled by Jews or by Zionists

[ryebecca]

I recognize that I'm PMSing and I'm very much in my head right now, which is usually what happens, but bear with me. These feelings, while real, are...augmented, I guess. Everything feels bigger once a month and I just needed to get this out.

Aside from dealing with quite a bit offline right, I'd say I'm also struggling online and have been for quite some time. Part of being very much in my head looks a lot like questioning whether I still belong here, wondering if people out in Internet-land are mad at me or have suddenly decided that they've had enough of me (and I'm still reeling from a particularly bad friendship breakup, so that doesn't make things any easier), and overthinking/overanalyzing ever. single. interaction. on this damn website and the Internet at large.

My therapist said today that it's even more important to take care of myself right now (I haven't exactly talked about my insecurities online, but this is still applicable) to maintain my sense of self because my relationship with myself and how I see myself is one of the things that's gonna help guide me through this. It feels like I give and give and give, both online and off, and it's almost like I'm giving away little pieces of myself, you know? I truly do wonder if I'm trying too hard to be liked, to stay "relevant," rather than let my real self shine through. And that's not gonna get me anywhere is it? What will be left of me in the end? Don't even get me started on the "are they mad at me?" nonsense because my solutions-oriented brain goes into overdrive wanting to fix what's at the root of that problem and the not knowing drives me crazy.

I often ask myself if I'll just up and leave one day. Or maybe I just need to take a break? I always talk about that and never do it. But then I'll wake up tomorrow, and it'll be Wednesday, and things will be okay. I'm sure it probably sounds like I've said a lot without actually saying anything, but so it is.

This is all to say, PMS sucks and I'd like my regular brain back, okay? 🙃

[sassyandclassy94]

The fact that my friend, who is a former English teacher, even struggled through reading The Boys in the Boat makes me feel so much less like an idiot🥹🫶🏻 You’re the best, Red!!

i mean don’t get me wrong, I LOVED the World War II sidetracks and the great depression rabbit trails but… man. Laura Hillenbrand would’ve done a way better job sorry not sorry🫣

[indigorithmic]

no, i don’t want no scrub

a scrub is a guy who can’t get no love from me

hanging out the passenger side

of his best friends ride

trying to holler at me

[tovaicas]

anyways my friends activated my conlang brain and I've made smth insane as usual

red is influences, blue is Elezen-family languages, green is like a mix bc I see the Alliance cities as having a trade language (that critically is limited to them).

I see Duskwight as a separate language from Black Shroud Elezen (but sharing a lot - easy enough to learn for those speakers). Coerthan and all its derivatives are a whole different language under the Elezen umbrella and isn't mutually intelligible with BSE. Because they split so early, they probably don't share much more than root words and etymologies; within the same family so not difficult to learn for other speakers of Elezen languages, but very distinctly different.

(also I'm not listing them but the branches extend to include other diaspora Elezen languages)

[ectonurites]

ZACH TAYLOR & DARYL HARPER | HOLY GHOST BY MODERN BASEBALL

[winepresswrath]

The author is dead but according to our beloved necromantic traditions Jod is neither telling a series of slickly manipulative half-lies nor painstakingly recounting the truth as best he is able. He is drunk and ranting at McDonalds. Perhaps most crucially, he is going to regret this when he sobers up.

[outlying-hyppocrate]

i'm not even sure how to say this.

last night, after finishing another shitty kids' show and considering whether to watch blue period, i looked at my reflection in the glass of the window and came to a realization. i had found myself again. i had finally figured out that i don't need to starve myself and pay attention to every calorie there is to be happy with myself. the same sort of cycle has repeated itself since 2022. around april-may-june, i become this happy person who seems to have rediscovered himself, all unearned self-confidence and no common sense. near september-october-november, i am not. i am pathetic and sad and deeply insecure. i am subhuman. i consider harming myself. i consider starving myself. every single time i set the same numbered goal in weight and try to get closer to it. but the switch has finally flipped. i don't need that anymore. all i am is purely a person. i need to keep these months close to me while i have them. i am going to laugh and create and spend time with all of you and enjoy every second. it's going to be okay. it will be okay.

(following writing this, i watched the first four episodes of blue period and then went upstairs at a quarter past midnight, shirtlessly whispering "i am an artist" twelve times in the mirror. i then fell asleep to mad fantasies of lying on a canvas twice my size and emptying the contents of my stomach onto it as an alternative to paint. this should be a thing that scares me and yet it is not.)

[flamestar126]

Day 1: Ice cream date

[helianskies]

ugly maths.

i hate maths, right. i don't usually like numbers, and if i do like numbers it's gotta be an 8 or a 48 and nothing else.

thing is, i've recently caught myself doing maths again. ugly maths. the kind of maths that, really, i've been trying to avoid as much as possible because, well, it's ugly!

you... wanna see?

okay, fine... but don't say i didn't warn you!

ugly, see? look at all those numbers! not a 48 in sight!

huh? what's that? you don't see what i'm on about? oh... oh! hang on, lemme just—

better? yes? no? no? okay, what if i—

mmh, yes. ugly numbers. see it now? can you see why they're ugly?

here, i can make it worse.

these numbers are ugly. the maths they make me do is ugly.

now i'll level with you: the worst ones by far are the yellow numbers. the maths they make me do it the ugliest.

why ugly?

because it makes me ugly.

those numbers turn me into not only a suddenly number-obsessed fool, but a fool who also cannot understand these numbers and what they mean and why i feel like they reflect on me and my ability.

87, 75.

the thoughts are as follows:

• the orange numbers are big, so why are you being ugly about the yellow ones? you should be happy with what you have. so many nice big numbers! not everyone receives that.

• is it that there are two different audiences for these two different fics? perhaps. they are quite different works, with different appeals, and different themes. maybe you are reading too much into it.

• why are you obsessing over numbers anyway? you don't like maths! you left maths behind when you were 16, put it down!

okay, okay, fine! i'll put the maths down. right here, in fact!:

that 87 was an 83 at the start of the year. the 6161 it is attached to was a 5453.

4, 708.

ugly maths.

the 75 is a nice number. in fact, compared to 87, it is beautiful, radiant, enchanting. at the start of the year, 75 was 48. wow. now that is one sexy number!

27.

mmmm.

6161, 1061.

5100.

87, 75.

12.

mmmm.

you know, my most favourite comment left recently on a fic of mine was 2 characters long: :(

it made me :)

well, actually, it made me >:) because it was left in response, presumably, to one of the key scenes in a new chapter which left the exact impression on someone that i hoped it would.

they must be the only one who reacted like that, though.

1.

have i mentioned that that 87 and 75 include author responses?

i won't try to do more maths, there. it might not end well for me. the maths is making me tired enough as it is, and i have an early start tomorrow.

oh! but, that being said, i have another set of ugly numbers to show you, so keep 87 and 75 in mind.

ready?

838, 245.

(want a hint? the green numbers!)

838, 87. 245, 75.

9.6, 3.3.

ugly maths. it's ugly again, see? i don't like it. i'm seeing numbers within numbers within numbers, and i can't seem to stop!

the numbers make me ask new questions:

• why is it not good enough?

• people seem to engage more with one fic over the other, so shouldn't you prioritise?

• is all this maths this really good for you?

no, it isn't.

i want to avoid ugly maths. ugly maths makes me want to tear my hair out. it makes me want to start from scratch. it makes me want to grab someone and scream. it makes me want to cry and press a button that has tempted me many times before when the numbers become too ugly to bear.

ugly maths turn me into an ugly person.

ugly maths make me obsessive, paranoid, anxious, regretful, vindictive, spiteful, alone.

i hate maths. i hate numbers, just like, it feels, the numbers hate me.

[purecommemasolitude]

Wouldn’t it be crazy if we all decided to look at context clues to try and decipher the meaning of statements. Instead of cherry-picking facts so blatantly that it’s genuinely embarrassing. Wouldn’t that be wild

[foolofatook001]

asdfsgshkd watching Last Life again for Research Purposes and there’s this moment where Ren walks into the Fairy Fort while everybody’s there

and then like. awkwardly starts to leave after Lizzie asks him why he’s traded one of his lives away. he is literally hanging his head like a sad puppy

and Cleo goes “you’re welcome to stay Ren” and I swear

the way this man manages to make a first-person camera perk up excitedly

how does he do it

and then he just goes bounding back up over the hill and gfdsrvkk

[whenthegoldrays]

Hmm