#I'd rather be reading anyway

[bitegore]

Zionists want you to conflate Judaism and Zionism. Zionists want you to believe that Judaism cannot exist without Zionism and that all Jews are Zionists. Zionism would have Jews believe that a Jewish state is the only way that they can be safe from antisemitism and will point to any instance of antisemitism as proof that Zionism is the solution- so Zionism wants gentiles to be antisemitic in their support of Palestine. They want you to conflate all Jews with Zionism and the state of Israel, and they want you to treat all Jews regardless of political affiliation as the face of Israel. Antizionist Jews exist, and incidences of antisemitism ostensibly acting against Zionism will not help dismantle the forces propping Zionism up.

Don't do their work for them.

[welcometogrouchland]

It's mostly the fault of poor editorial practices that B&R is so heavily misaligned continuity-wise w/ the main batman book. But walk with me for a minute:

You are Damian Wayne. You are 14 years old and have had one of the worst years of your life last year. Which is saying a lot.

Your brother, one of the people you were closest to, got shot in the head and forgot who you were. Your best friend went to space for a week and came back 3/4 years older than you, taking away your previously established dynamic and leaving you to have to bond all over again w/ a new one. You may or may not have gone wayyy too far with your new superhero team, who now all hate you, because you fucked up big time*

And worst of all, when you do try to do the right thing, you end up forced to watch Alfred, a father figure to you, the only one at your birthday that year, the person who has been so patient, loving and trusting with you, even when you probably didnt deserve it...die. you watch him die, and feel it's all your fault.

And your dad never corrects you on that last point. So you run away.

First to your mom who can tell something's up with you, she knows you don't give up that easy, you decide not to stay with her because you remembered how actually, neither of your parents are good at communicating with you despite their best efforts, so now you're 14 and flying solo.

And you do fly solo. For a while. Make new friends, new enemies. You think you're better off for it. You've got your best friend and your brother back. They're not around as much. It's fine.

And eventually your dad tells you that it's not your fault that Alfred died. Bit late but it's appreciated. Really. There's a bit of a hiccup where you get possessed by a demon and wage war against your father but after that, all in all, you two are...together again.

You start to think maybe you want to give him another chance, for the two of you to be father and son.

And in a change of pace, it works out! It's going good, mostly. He insists you go to highschool, you resist, feel like he wants you to be something that you're not (wants you to be normal), but eventually you acquiesce for your own reasons. He cheers you on at soccer and nosies around at your fundraising events with the other parents and gives you a stern talking to about your choice of girlfriend. Because he cares.

Except all the while this is going on, your dad is currently having his brain slowly taken over by an evil version of himself that he created and every time you look away he's slowly tearing your family apart (your brothers are just barely keeping it together. The ones who didn't get lobotmized that is Jesus Christ). You keep taking his side in these conflicts, for whatever reason. Maybe because he promised it would be different this time, and it isn't** and you're going to stick with him until he keeps his word for once.

But at the end of the day?

It's like your brother says. You're not the one who saves him. Broadly speaking, you've made things worse and needed others to come save you. And what else is Robin really for? You thought it was about redemption and teamwork but guess you're wrong. It's about saving your self destructive, apparently two-faced and erratic father. And you can't even do that right.

* TT (2016) by Adam Glass is a racist ooc mess, but unfortunately it's still canon so I'm referencing here, though like a lot of works authors clearly wish weren't canon but are, it's been subsequently glossed over. Win? Maybe? Or not?

** again Zdarky's characterization of Damian is so outdated as to be ooc, and considering the way he constantly and explicitly uses it to illustrate Tim's strengths as robin, I'd argue there's. Also implications there. But the batshit insanity of the main batbook compared to B&R rn is crucial for this post, so I'm attempting to justify it. This time..

[ladytabletop]

sometimes I read a ttrpg and get caught in a loop of "wow there is a lot that's not working for me in this" + "it's so much effort to write a ttrpg, let alone publish one, who am I to criticize?" but i think criticism is fair as long as you're discerning about it! Like "this isn't a choice I would make as a designer" vs "this isn't something I would enjoy running/playing" vs "you definitely should not have written this for ethical reasons" vs "you definitely should not have written this because it mechanically does not do what you want it to do"

and all those criticisms can coexist!

[steakout-05]

i might get some hate for this depending on where this post goes but i think lesboys are so valid and the discourse about them is so ridiculous. like you guys shouldn't have to deal with all that and it frustrates me that people throw hissy fits over an identity that literally does not affect them at all.

"but men cant be lesbians-" wrong. butch lesbians and trans men have a really closely connected history with each other that practically intersects and you should really do some research on that before you make blanket statements, not to mention that gender and sexuality is weird and wobbly and fluid and a very personal experience. it means a different thing to each person. being a man can be something completely different and saying stuff like this ignores people like demiboys, demigirls, genderfluid and genderflux people etc. these people will really preach "demolish the gender binary!! love is love!!" until someone's relationship with gender and sexuality is a little too freaky for them to handle and be challenged by lmaoo

"ohhh but what about the cishet men who say they're lesbians to prey on women-" YEAH WHAT ABOUT THEM????? THIS AIN'T ABOUT THEM BRO!!!!! this argument also REEKS of terfy "trans women are just predatory men!!!111!!1" rhetoric and it grosses me out. yeah some men are gross and do try to pull this but that does not negate someone's entire identity completely just because of a few bad actors, you know that right? actual black and white behaviour.

queer discourse is silly and i don't know why it's a thing. just let people exist. it isn't that hard. we have worse things to worry about than whether someone calls themselves a lesboy or not. i think we need to unplug our ears and yank our heads out of the sand and remember that the queer community is what it is because of our unique and amazing diversity. arguing over labels like school children isn't gonna help that. damn.

[pseudophan]

ficrec this fucked me up

[quaranmine]

On Wednesday before I gave my presentation I confessed to a new employee that I was worried it would be too long and she brightly told me her life hack was to just let AI rewrite things for her. She said I should put in all my talking points and ask ChatGPT to give me a five minute exactly presentation. I was like....how is the most polite possible way (since this is a new colleague I shouldn't get off on the wrong foot with) that I can express that I will Not be taking this advice. Ever. I told her that I didn't think we were allowed to use ChatGPT at this job (we most certainly are not, it is a nightmare for any type of protected information) and also that I prefer to write all of my own work. Despite my best efforts the last part of that was still passive aggressive, lol.

Something about being a writer makes it so that it's almost offensive to me for someone to suggest I use AI to do my work instead? Like, the day I reach the point where I let AI write something for me is the day y'all need to be checking me for brain damage because clearly I'm losing it

[meanscarletdeceiver]

Tumblr users, for the punchline of their pithy joke, will need an example of a character or piece of media that is just absurd to seriously engage with, and often they'll choose Thomas the Tank Engine (of course). Blue Choo-Choo is instant comedy, just add water text BAM! publish. done. hahahahaaaa.

And I think it's very cool and sexy how all of us will just climb out of the woodwork to earnestly and unironically reblog the shit out of it. (Or at least it's very funny of us. That's right gang, destroy OP's notifications with train face pfps)

[the-sunbee]

a little update about how far i got into malevolent and the thoughts ive had so far

spoilers for parts 1-5

here is a man, who wakes up not being able to see and he starts hearing a voice in his head. he wakes up in an office he discovers is his with his partner's dead body in the middle.

and he questions it so little. the thought of not having his own eyes and having a voice in his head and having just killed his partner normalizes so easily for him

istg the first ep i was just :o the whole time

second part so far has been the loudest. there was thunder and yelling and gunshots and it scared me. the podcast started out relatively quietly for my phone (and my headphones suck) so i had to listen to it on speaker. the room i work in is loud so it had to be pretty loud... i had my dog w me. we were both scared of the gunshots and thunder lmao

but yet again it was cool. the world design seems so cool and im eager to keep listening.

he finds a baby in the forest.

thats it. a baby. in the woods. no questions.

he finds a car by the side of the road, sees blood and track marks and FOLLOWS THEM. he finds a campsite with 2 women (one is dead) and a baby and he and john doe think "oh yeah. we have to save the baby." thats it. only baby.

and then she starts laughing. and chasing.

and just... only thoughts are baby.

the wraith things were so cool. i love ghosts and spirits and folklore about such things so the mansion ep was just super cool.

the gasmask man (im bad w names dont mind me) intrigued me. the way john would speak and the man would just scream shut up so the question "does the gas mask man hear john" rise up only for him to shut that idea down. and the comment about the mother. that callback minutes later was comedy gold istg.

im about half way into ep 5 too and the whole starting bit was creepy and cool and set up so well. the voice change from a calm helpful tone to a "TELL ME WHAT YOU KNOW ARTHUR" was 10/10

[papaiyatree]

rouge and topaz but it's the 4kids version

[icewindandboringhorror]

recent lounging babey images

[trashcanwithsprinkles]

I have come up with a question.

Who I'd your favorite Genshin character and why?

By reading your fics I can't tell if it's zhongli or childe.

zhongli by leaps and bounds actually

i do love childe don't get me wrong; i just love zhongli far more

as for why, i wouldn't know how to word it in a way that wouldn't take me any less than writing CN took me LMAO the reason why you might think childe is up there among my favorites (he is, he's just not as close to the top as you might think) i'd assume is probably because of the fics, yes? but the thing about the fics is while i've already mentioned i'm not exactly projecting onto childe nor, god forbid, using him as a self-insert for the author – i am more or less of the opinion that the way childe would love zhongli in a story would more often than not align quite well with the way i myself love zhongli as a character. (which is why i find bgtea's eoos and jouicifer's npc so interesting) so like- the reason why childe is usually the main pov character for my zhongchi fics is because i get to write how much i love zhongli as a concept via the lens of a character who would also love him in a similar fashion; only i also get to spice it up with childe's own character quirks, bc i think he's fascinating as well, just in a different direction. that might be why i've yet to write a zhongli pov zhongchi: not as easy to write about how much i love the character's concept if he himself is the pov, and i feel like zhongli's way of loving childe as a concept wouldn't be able to fill a fic the same way it does the other way around. not that he doesn't love him! i just haven't figured out how to write that pov for that long yet. if you're curious, i'd have to say my current favorites list goes kind of like this: zhongli way ahead of all the others, then wriothesley and neuvillette around the same realm, then navia, then kuki, then baizhu, then childe, and then like- in no particular order, furina, clorinde, diluc, jean, qiqi, xiao, xingqiu, chongyun, beidou, fischl, thoma, ayato, layla, yanfei, yaoyao, dehya, shenhe and most of the others. also to the side there'd be alhaitham, separate from the list, bc i love him but i also detest him in a particular way. i guess pity him is a better word, watching how the fandom treats him feels like taking physical dmg. if you're thinking of a particular artist like an outlier you're probably wrong, but i'm not going to point fingers bc why would i do that. (i do have a handful of characters i dislike but in the spirit of not being an asshole i'm just not going to list them)

anyway- yeah that's pretty much it;; maybe one day i'll make a zhongli pov zhongchi and it'd be a bit clearer what i mean by that, but you know me, i don't control the inspiration ToT

[lokavisi]

My busy schedule nearly got me, but I didn't forget this week's rune pull!

Mannaz is a reminder to think about what makes us uniquely human. Not the esoteric stuff, but the physical and psychological. Our bodies, our personalities, our abilities. All the things that distinguish us as our own being. This week looks like a good time to reflect on these things. What are the things that make you, you? What part of your tangible reality can you influence right now? What practical matters do you need to tend to, and how can you do so in a way that only you can? Maybe it's time to recognize that the way you do things is truly unique to begin with? Focus on yourself and who you really are. I suspect it will help you figure out some next steps on your own journey. 😊

[homoqueerjewhobbit]

Oooh can I rant/spill some family drama into the echochamber of people who don't know my family and will agree with me because they've been carefully selected to?

Like you're gonna stop me.

So my grandmother died about a year ago. The night before the funeral, my aunt (let's call her Karen, all names gonna be fake duh) pulls my mom aside and says, "you should make sure my son, Kyle, isn't in the same limo to the cemetery as your nonbinary kid, Ash, because he might say something transphobic to them." (to be clear, Kyle, ash and I are all in our 30s.) obviously, my mom has a breakdown about this because it's a horrible thing to dump on her the night before her mother's funeral and there's nothing more classic Karen than thinking it's my mom's responsibility to police her children's behavior.

Now, to be clear, Kyle is a libertarian gun nut and nobody likes him, but neither I nor Ash nor my parents have ever witnessed him saying or doing anything homophobic or transphobic. Mostly because we never see or talk to him, but still. Besides wearing his crypto-MAGA hat while he was pall-bearing, he was on his best behavior at Nana's funeral and a Poppy's two months later.

Fasr forward to now and @slugdge-boy, who is trans, and I are planning our wedding. So i tell my parents, "I'm not inviting Kyle, because he is transphobic and my partner, sibling, and best friend are all trans as are a number of other people being invited."

But my parents think it would "create unnecessary drama" if I don't invite him but "don't worry, he won't come anyway." which is probably true, he never comes to family things. No one was even sure he would come to the funeral.

But I don't want him to think he's welcome. I don't want even a 5% chance he might come. I don't want to even worry about the possibility of it. Even if he comes and is on his very best behavior, I don't want to wonder if he's making fun of his to his friends later.

So right now, I think I'm just going to "accidentally" leave his name off the list. I doubt anyone will even notice. I mean, it's an email invite ffs.

[sysig]

VUX versions! (Patreon)

[lit-in-thy-heart]

i respect one (1) knight in le morte darthur and that knight is sir dinadan

[bmpmp3]

as someone who cannot deal with mobile gacha games post-2016 I AM cautiously intrigued by infinity nikki. visuals look fantastic and so cute, the platforming in the ign gameplay i saw seemed a little rough but as long as its not too hard i'll be fine (<- said as a person who is shockingly bad at 3d platformers) but i am hopeful. if its a fun game to play i'll be really excited, as someone who's only played nikki up2u ive always been curious about how that normal girl dressup game turned into like. nikkis hellscape or whatever ive heard about it. nikkis torture dimension. nikkis purgatorial plain of endless suffering. thats my understanding of the franchise at least.