#and i cannot remember a single thing about them

[osakanone]

Speaking as someone with a traumatic brain injury, I'm not sure that PSAs alone will never be enough. I do have an idea, and I am curious about your thoughts.

If you want effective change you have to reach out to the people either do not remember PSAs or more likely, don't read PSAs, who think they are good people but are actually terrible in ways they cannot accept and thus cannot grow from -- who chase respectability as social clout instead of making babysteps needed to get things done.

So here it is:

Your alternatives don't work for sociolinguistic reasons

Your chosen word of interest is an adjective form of a verb.

R-word can be used easily, interchangably and with little effort when someone is stressed because every form of it is grammatically correct and socially incorrect, which is what is usually craved in an insult.

Language is an ecology: A space of predator words and prey words based on which words replace each in their fashionableness.

As with any ecology, there are niches: pockets of success where a need exists and a word slips into the gap to fill it.

In Europe we didn't get your word of interest until the mid 2000's, and it was occupied by a form of the word spastic (the medical condition) shortened to the slur "spaz" (which I've been on the recieving end of many times).

Consequences create martyrs and those seeking to differentiate themselves will adopt waning or discouraged language to differentiate themselves (PSA culture got us edgelord culture).

When a word goes out of popularity is when another word which is significantly cleverer takes its place, which is more biting and more cutting.

A great example is how "the slur beginning in F ending in T" in many progressive circles is front-loaded with the expectation of one word, and then instead people say "fascist" and everybody smiles.

It is one of the ways of controlling language:

You take the second-association added to an instrinsic thing eg, the "other" meaning of gay used on xbox live) and you attach it to something else

You outsource sentiment to a different target.

You retire one word, and inject another which better aligns with your sentiment and intentionality.

You MUST do this in a way which punches up instead of down, or you risk watering down the perception of a word -- and you must likewise be able to answer the question "how is that <other word>?" on the spot with a single sentence and shut down a conversation.

Back to this context, I genuinely use

"mentally redacted",

This replaced my previous go-to

"mentally retired",

which I felt licked of ageism and made me uncomfortable.

Meaning, that something was censored or removed or deleted intentionally. I make this about thoughtless intentionality of action, not intrinsic nature of a person or their situation or whatever has happened to them.

It shifts from medicalism to mentality.

The imperfectionism of it is the scar-tissue of culture as words fall out of favour.

Maybe that's not good enough for Americans? I don't know!

Does it just read of hiding the word and playing slight of hand instead? Does it have some third other reason? There's no good answer here, I feel.

But it makes me personally feel one hell of a lot better about my slowness instead of slipping up when talking about myself and throwing a slur at the person I'm talking to.

I'd genuinely like to know your thoughts!

e:

There's a great bit in the notes by op about how swearing disrupts civility; disruption is the only way to make any protest get noticed. I will say, a slur is often just a culturally acceptable swearword, which again is miserable. I hate to say it but we do need to get meaner if we're gonna survive. We do need to invent our own words about the people who oppress us that are robust descriptors with ride recognition.

e2:

I came very close to using dysthymic as an insult to describe "I need more" greedy "more lanes bro" VC/corpo-brain types before realizing good people would be caught in the cross-fire despite the fact dysthymia is one of the major medical roots of their behavior and damn that is a hard one for me to figure out. The great thing about medicine is it gives us lots of great complex descriptors that are easy to look up. The downside is when we use medicalization as a callout or attack there is always friendly fire. An oppressor will never care about friendly fire, which means we are always stuck playing defense and its fucking bullshit and makes me so mad.

e3:

I really wish there was a way to make words which disrupted civility without... disrupting... civility... okay that's a paradox. Fine, then are there words which can disrupt anti-civility? I want those.

e4:

Found one. The crushing response. "human pet guy"

Since the r-slur is making a comeback (you know, the word that starts with R, has six letters, and ends in D), I'm gonna make a little PSA:

Yes, it's an ableist slur.

Terms like "asshat," "head-up-ass," "up their own ass," and "high on their own farts" exist. There's also words like crap, dogshit, half-assed, assclown, and chucklefuck. And on the less vulgar side, there are terms like ridiculous, nonsense, train wreck, pointless, insipid, self-absorbed, pretentious, annoying, boring, contemptible, vile, and disgusting.

Substituting words like restarted, poptarted, brain damaged, smoothbrain, etc. is still ableist, because either 1. you obviously still mean the r-word, or 2. you're still using disability as an insult.

[yip-yapper]

Isn’t it ringing any bells for women that the moment a misogynistic candidate wins the election & men go ECSTATIC & women start talking about 4B…

It is suddenly transphobic. It is a radical feminist movement, didn’t you know radfeminism is stupid, pointless, useless? Radfems don’t understand anything. They’re evil. Actually we don’t love men enough, we treat them badly, that’s why they’re like this. Actually capitalism is the primary issue, not misogyny. 4B? Sounds transphobic. Sounds misandrist. That’s too radical. We should focus on men’s mental health. We should focus on showing empathy to gen z boys. I am a man and the left hates me, while the right calls me a brother if only I answer their call. Lucky for you I am nice and decent, I choose to view women as fellow human beings.

If any of you are old enough to remember being called feminazi for the slightest fucking thing, then you should be able to recognize that ‘terfism’ is just modern day feminazi. They use the word to scare you away. It worked on me for half a fucking decade too. “Transphobic? I could NEVER. Trans rights!” But you’re automatically a terf if your feminist views aren’t pandering to men. Someone called you a terf therefore you’re automatically dismissed. Didn’t you know you’re actually conservative. A traditionalist. Actually you’re not a feminist because you’re right wing. Your views are puritan. You hate women. You wish sex workers would die. You think women are weak. You think women are stupid. Only privileged white women agree with you.

Wake the fuck up. They’re blatantly lying to you. The misinformation about radical feminism spread so far you have the smartest women folding and cowering in fear the moment someone calls them terfy. I cannot think of a single other movement that has been demonized to hell and back like radical feminism.

[ganondoodle]

i have seen people talk about how hard it is to draw anything if you have aphantasia (which is good to talk about and true and valid and also intersting to read and this post isnt to devalue that, two things can coexist etc etc)

i personally struggle with the opposite; i have incredible imagination, i'd say it's my best and only "inate talent", (this is not a brag ..) all stories i think about are movies, i can stop them, change camera angle and poses, rotate ever object however i want, place lighting sound and voices, even styles, i switch from ghibli to botw to fortiches style, even into the style of a comic i recently read which wasnt even animated, the only thing that only works half the time is music-

and that all might sound fantastic, but its a mess, it goes too fast and too quickly, things never play out one way, theres interruption, involuntarily sudden changes to other subjects, i feel like struggling to keep an angry horse on one path, it makes me waste HOURS each day just reversing and redoing a scene like im a movie director wizard in my head, theres no ONE finished version, it changes everytime yet i go back over and over again to make it better, i forget most of it within a few hours anyway; even IRL when someone tells me about a memory and they are not sure if i was with them during it once they start to explain trying to make me remember it instead i will imagine it, in the end i wont be sure if i actually remembered or if i just imagined it too real, it scares me how much i forget and cant remember only for my mind to make shit up, makign me doubt my own memory (its weird how it works, i have horrible geographical memory, when i drive somwhere i have known my entire life i need to remember the path to it by imagining driving it, i remember significant things but not the path to them or how they connect or in what order, i have to go through it in my head every single time)

by far the worst part though is that extreme disconnect between whats in my mind and what i can do, just because i can imagine things like that doesnt mean i can draw it (god i WISH), nothing i have ever drawn is how it was in my head, the few things you get to see are the ones i won the fight against myself with to keep going and say 'good enough' at some point the speed is a problem too, the things playing in my head, sometimes even multiple at the same time, play like, again, a movie, whatever im trying to draw is rarely ONE thing, its a whole scene that plays over and over, i want to draw it all but it wont work bc my mind is too fast and i am too slow, it makes me try to skip ahead and get things done as fast as possible, it NEVER works (also too much, theres so many things in my head, i have almost the entirety of the totk rewrite in my head already, novels worth of lore and story for my other projects, its overwhelming how much is in there that i cannot get out and on paper)

its why comics take me so long to make, why detailed paintings are so rare, its the rare times i can force myself to try and tune out my mind and just work on what is in front of me, usually works for a few hours .. if i can manage to reach that sort of focus at all, its why basic sketches of characters are so much easier to do bc i dont have to fight as hard to just draw a character doing nothing- as soon as i want to make it a sketch page of things and scenes the movies are back and are there to haunt me until i cry and give up after hours of trying to keep up with my mind that i will never be able to catch up to (and this is only about drawing .. )

i know skill and speed increase over time, but i wont ever get to where my mind is, its always ahead and trying to skip and jump towards it only makes me stumble and fall flat on my face- maybe its ADHD, maybe its the autism, maybe its the depression, maybe its just me, maybe its just all of that

what im trying to say is, head full, too much thought, too fast, never able to translate it into viewable things in the way and speed as my head works, i explode

[artistformerlyknownasbutttrumpet]

You’re a genocide apologist, and we will remember until the day your favorite genocidal politicians wipe us off the planet - which you’ll pretend to care about until your own comfort is affected.

I hope nobody buys your book.

if there had been a choice available to me that would ensure not a single further act of genocide would ever take place--a choice that would make it so families weren't viscously slaughtered, children's bodies wouldn't be lining the streets, innocent people wouldn't be stuck with lifelong traumas i cannot even begin to comprehend the magnitude of--of COURSE i would have picked it. of COURSE. the problem, tho, is that there wasn't. my options were "pick the person who would kill everyone if he got the opportunity" and "someone who will make it so fewer people suffer," and i went with the one that would make fewer people suffer. bc at least that would save some children. some innocent people who did nothing but be born. bc to me, some was better than none

think of it this way: i work at a domestic violence shelter. sometimes we get calls from people who are in dangerous situations but for whatever reason (needs are too high, we don't have the resources available, they're out of scope, our grants will only pay for intimate partner violence, not family violence, etc etc), we can't offer them the resources needed to help them

now, what i could do, when that happens, is quit my job and refuse to work for an organization that would ever turn someone in need away. i could say "i don't care what your reasons are, letting even one person suffer is wrong, and i can't be complicit"

but the thing is, if i decided to take that stand, it wouldn't change anything, bc it wouldn't change any of the circumstances. it wouldn't provide more funding to the shelter. it wouldn't give us staff who can deal with higher needs. etc etc

what it WOULD do, however, is put me in a position where i am suddenly not helping ANYONE. my stance that nobody should be without services, no matter what, leading to a boycott, means that everyone suffers

what i CAN do, tho, is continue to work at the shelter, while actively advocating for improvements on the side. i can help with fundraisers, and offer suggestions to my higher ups, and help with grants. i can spread the word. i can make my voice heard. i can fight for these people we have to turn away, but i can do it while still helping the people we can serve

the moral stance of "these people should be helped" is an admirable one. it's the one you should have. it's one of compassion and human connection. but we also have to recognize that we can't always save everyone all at once. i would argue that most of the time we can't. sometimes we have to pick the choice that causes the least harm, and then continue to advocate for bigger changes on the side. abstaining from helping entirely just means everyone gets hurt, and that's completely counter to that core belief of compassion

i care SO much about the victims of this genocide. there is nothing i can ever do that will make me understand the horrors of what they're facing. and did it feel fucking gross to advocate for someone who aided the perpetrators? of course it did. but i did it, despite the discomfort, bc i knew that, in the end, it would at least save some people, and that was better than none

but too many people didn't agree with that. too many people abstained, or decided to try leaning to the right, and now i'm terrified bc i don't know how this ends, but i don't think it's good. i think a lot of people are going to be hurt, and i think we could have prevented it, but instead of coming together, we split apart and caused something terrible to happen. we didn't just quit working at the shelter--we shut the whole thing down. and now where do the people who need help go? where are they going to go? don't you see there is nowhere for them to go?

the doors to safety have been shut, and i don't know how to open them, and now we're all stuck outside

we have nowhere to go

and that's terrifying

[mitchfynde]

Again, I'm not interested in the whataboutism. Have that debate with someone else.

You conceded that the fake electors plot was a real thing that happened. That was him attempting to steal the election. Not sure if you changed your phrasing to him successfully stealing the election on purpose or not, but my claim wasn't that he succeeded but that he attempted. You conceded to that and now you seemingly don't remember or didn't actually think about what that meant.

Trump did immense damage to the America and the world.

Are the Democrats to blame for their most psychotic extremists online being anti-male? It's not as if the party endorses these beliefs or in any way puts them forward. You're quite literally advocating for reactionary politics or at least excusing them. That's feelings over facts, by the way, something I doubt you'd be comfortable with.

And you're just totally wrong about Trump VS Kamala. I cannot remember Trump answering a single question about anything. His answers were never real answers. The concept of a plan? He usually just said "we're gonna fix everything magically" in one way or another. There were 0 details. No real answers. Kamala had actual policy, you just ignored it apparently.

And then you put it on her that her followers are anti-male, even if that's the vast minority. You don't seem to use that same standard for Trump, whose extremists are far more mainstream and include Elon Musk, a fucking billionaire who runs the website where most Americans get their news.

I tolerate the memes from both men and women, because I have actual principles. It's fun and you should try it.

I am deranged. Next.

You don't even know the bigger issues exist. You don't even think the abortion restriction is an issue. You've memory-holed Trump attempting to steal the election. I just... don't have much faith in your ability to prioritize these things.

Your current priorities make no fucking sense to me and seem based on your own personal experiences with far-left lunatics. Reactionary politics are not real politics. You're just in your feelings. Radfems are bad, I'm with you on that. Let's not pretend Democrats are some radfem haven. In reality, Democrats are the party of trans rights and they do not give a fuck that you are male. In fact, they see it as an absolute win of their own social policy. You most likely owe the fact that you are able to openly exist to Democrats with or without the capital d, politicians and voters alike.

That's not to say you owe them allegiance btw. I don't mean to imply that. It's just worth thinking about. And obviously, if you're from a different country, it doesn't apply so much.

This is actually wild. And I'm pretty sure nearing illegal. These people want you dead. And they keep yelling out so everyone hears. This is legit advocacy for murder. And for what? Because you can't kill the unborn? Except what changes? Trump said he won't ban abortion. And even SUPPOSING he did it's very likely against the 14th amendment anyways.

And abortion is never life saving. So again. What's your issue? What's so bad you'd advocate for murder? You all belong in a looney bin.

[antiphrastic]

I've been trying for half a year, but i cant make myself care about any of the svsss extras after Bamboo Branch Poem. I hereby grant myaelf permission to shelve the book, and move on to something new.

[rabbithaver]

every so often i will see a post from a leftist on this website that is so egregiously ableist that i remember that like. oh yeah the userbase of leftists on this website is violently anti-disabled people and will jump at any chance to demonize any of us for any reason. i just forget that fact because i'm extremely dedicated to curating my space

i'm paraphrasing here but i saw a post that said, "every time i see an American [disabled person] mention being scared about the election because they're afraid of losing their benefits i have to laugh. anybody who wants blood-soaked money from the US government deserves to starve" which. like. goodness that's a lot to unpack. i think we should burn the whole suitcase instead !

[florida3exclamationpoints]

[thirsty-4-ghouls]

I have three thoughts that pop up every time I see a dusthide. Not all of them each time, but at least one

Most common thought: he have no ears 😭

Second most common: armadillo (armadillos have ears though, so I guess more pangolin? But the way they are segmented… the pangolin thing reminds me of their claws more though. Hmm, overthinks what species of real animals one can compare them to)

And the final one: so, remember those toys from the 2000s that you put on a magnet and they went from a ball to a little guy?

Update, I have gotten sleep and am now confused about why I was so sad every time I saw that they had no ears

[ballsballsbowls]

.

[heartshapedtrap]

just hung out w friends for five hours and feltso full of whimsy I could pass out <333 I miss them so bad already but I get to see them tomorrow tooooo

[superconductivebean]

#560: Hogwarts Inquires - III

That's hit me.

MC was worried Solomon might turn her and Sebastian in to the Headmaster and they'd be expelled.

But what would Solomon's evidence be and why would Black ever care without any caught-on-scene for anything really, especially, when Solomon is easily annoyed by simply everything about his nephew.

Besides, even if he would have somehow convinced Black to look into the matter, who could guarantee him that his supposed wish to come true -- if we assume MC was right about him turning them in and that he wouldn't back down on his word (which I believe to be the actual truth, as Solomon was trying to put down / kill the both of them, MC and Sebastian, rather than to have them expelled or worse, sent to Azkaban; that's… the supposed sense of mercy this man has is absolutely vile).

But. Behind MC were Fig, as her mentor (and he would never let the opportunity of finishing his and Miriam's work slip away), also a person of trust to Black, and Sharp, as someone really worried about MC and who I think to be allied with Fig, therefore in the know to some great extent, and subsequently interested in keeping MC out of trouble, at least, of this particular sort, for Fig's sake.

Howevor, even if the toughest defense imaginable would be breached by sheer stubbornness of this man, even after a tactical retreat to Dinah&Matilda duo, what would be the evidence and why would Solomon be sure, that knowing his temper, whatever it was Sebastian took possession of was worth a legillimens from any investigator or, if Black wouldn't let anyone in, Sharp or Dinah.

You know. People who are entangled with Eleazar's inquiries about goblin activities and are likely in support of whatever party that fights goblins back. They wouldn't ever not to condemn the usage of Unforgivables, howevor, but would they cater to Solomon's vile wishes? Doubtful. They'd rather fight him off than let him do justice himself because killing someone for the sake of THEIR OWN good -- what really the fuck is wrong with you Solomon.

Back to evidence.

The Book could've easily be hidden by a third party.

The Relic, too.

But. If we're to jump forward to the dungeon, where it was already too late to change Sebastian's mind and Solomon came across The Evidence…

He destroyed the only evidence he had on them right away… The destruction of the Book would be the only a matter of Anne getting inside the dungeon and, enraged by the extent of it all and by how far Sebastian was ready to dwell, would have still casted Incendio.

The only solid ground would be the usage of Unforgivables. Which Black secretly or not so secretly do not condemn; he doesn't judge MC when she uses any of them in front of him. Meaning, Solomon's only option would be going straight to the Ministry, as Black would likely approve of that Imperio, but.

Given how reluctant was the Ministry. Given the fact Sebastian hadn't harmed anyone. Solomon doesn't have A N Y grounds to imprison him or convince anyone of Sebastian's danger to anyone. He doesn't have a chance on MC either, or he'd face Fig, who can contact the Minister directly at seemingly any time, and Sharp, likely being a man who might have a few things to say to anyone who're live in a disbelief of any cure existence and although it's not a crime, who're also induce that disbelief on unwilling or dependent others.

[shaykai]

Oooooh I forgot how much I hate the end of Warcraft (ignoring the MMOs I don’t fuck with those djdjjd)

[oc-cinematic-universe]

HRRRNGNGNRHG I THINK ABOUT VIOREL

[killsaki]

every time u leave tags on my writing my heart grows three hundred sizes <3333

STEVIE !!!! every time i read one of your fics my view on the world, my mind, my soul all expand so beautifully. everything you’ve ever written is a masterpiece. thank you for sharing so much of it on tumblr dot com, i am so thankful to be able to read them 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻.

[wonder-falcon]

i take it back i absolutely love blaine from foreign affairs