#annual discourse

[ultralazycreatorfan]

Watching keepblr rediscover things on a loop such as the name meanings, theories, and the block button has really got me out here feeling old as hell

[tearfest]

ㅤㅤcheryl was absolutely terrified. affairs stemming from excessive online flirtations was one thing to write about, but actually engaging in the immoral acts she judged her characters for was a new level of low. but her marriage was on the rocks, barely held together by loose threads following their kids' departure for college; leaving her and her husband alone long enough for the first time in twenty-one years for her to realise that maybe marrying him had been a mistake. oh, how her dearly departed mother would turn in her grave if she knew that it'd only taken twenty years for her daughter to heed her advice.

ㅤㅤshe was the first one to check into their pre-booked room. she'd stayed in this hotel once before, on a road trip to a meeting with her publisher. only that time she'd been alone. not waiting inside for her date to join her. not that she'd class this as a date. it'd been discussed: no real names and no strings attached. and yet she felt like her heart was in her throat whilst she waited: dressed to the nines with a pretty black dress on, in a four-star hotel room, and with a seedy reputation no less. and yet, she'd never felt so pretty. she was fixing her hair in the mirror when the turning of the handle had her stomach churn, seeing their reflection in the glass before she spun around; eyes wide and her freshly glossed petals agape as she stares. " i— i think you have the wrong room. i'm waiting for my husband? " she couldn't even try to sound convincing with her lie, but she just figured it all to be one big sick joke of a coincidence.

open to m/f/nb. cheryl morgan (ap lit professor and smut author) and your muse have been talking online, and they've planned a night at a hotel together. but uh oh, what if they actually know each other... dream connections are a student, one of her kids' friends/partners, husbands coworker/brother, etc.

[ishomieokay]

I honest to God don't understand the way taxes work in the United States. I thought the percentage was like, an average of 30% or something. For like, everyone. But people are always saying the rich don't pay taxes?

So, how does that work? You stop paying taxes when you're a billionare? I"m like 100% sure that can't be it. Someone pls explain.

[merryloumas]

.

[livetogether--diealone]

https://twitter.com/FanaticsFerrari/status/1764041957842489580?s=19

"yes I had the same issues as Charles"

Proceeds to describe completely normal racing situation and nothing compared to what charles had to put up with.

Ugh, every year I try to start with a clean slate and give this man the benefit of the doubt, but every year he has to open his big mouth, why can't he just enjoy his podium. He started early with the bs this year, race one and I'm already finished. It's going to be a very long year by the looks of it if he's starting like this and his family is starting with their social media antics already.

The devil works hard but cs' entourage works harder, his performance was so laughable he had to come up with this bullshit lie about the brake imbalance as did Charles, but he did it better wow so clever indeed

That's what I can't stand about him he has to come up with something to be better than Charles doesn't matter the result overall it's just look i'm better than Charles and the media eats this up? I've already read something along the line that "CS has already a clear idea in mind for the race, podium over Leclerc, overtook him twice this already sets the mentality for the season. Vote 9" 🤨🤨🤨 are we praising overtaking a broken car as this great fit? look i'm all for capitalizing on others' misfortunes, but don't act like this was the race of his life

[scarefox]

Can we finally stop demonizing NC / sex scenes or pitting them against each other to find out which one is more valuable and worthy of existence due to better cinematography and conveyed deep emotions?

Most NC / sex scenes do have a purpose besides fitting in a genre and age rating where they can be shown (talking about the BL/GL/QL realm here... not like american hete action movies with random banging out of the blue). Majority of NC have some storytelling, some character information or development in it. Even if they are not romantic or not artistically shot. A lot of people just don't see it or refuse to see it because some still see it as "sex = a dirty emotionless procedure for the depraved"

But here are some examples of information you can gather from NC scenes that often get overlooked because usually people just look for love and desire:

trust level in the partner

fun / happiness with eo

desperation & longing & hornyness (<- also nothing bad btw everything depends on context and consent)

character looks for distractions with the sex

carelessness for themselves

are they egoistic in bed or do they care for the others pleasure too

do they like to spoil the other? do they like to get spoiled?

are all involved parties actually really into each other?

level of experience (side not: first timer of course will be reserved and more shy... SAME FOR FIRST KISSES)

self-image (shy? confident? self-hate / guilt??)

some like it wild and hard some soft and slow, none of that is superior to the other it's literally personal taste

are there some fetishes and kinks at play (possible hint for a characters psychology, doesn't have to, can be)

even hidden feelings can be shown, like FWB who turn into more or a couple who's falling out of love and just doing it out of rutine

btw masturbation also counts as NC, it doesn't matter if the character is solo sexually active or with others.

And you can just enjoy watching NC scenes without trying to find justification for it. It is literally legal and natural (heck even some social animals like watching other animals banging). You are also not intruding their privacy... it's literally just actors who just play pretend who all gave their consent to show these scenes of them to the public...

And no NCs are literally not the same as porn. ESPECIALLY when we talk about BL NC scenes because bruh, majority of it is so not explicit. All we see is foreplay and a bit of make out or aftermath, but there is rarely actual display of sex beyond that. Except for like Bed Friend and KinnPorsche, Love In The Air kind of spice level. And even they are 'just' on normal western level of sex scenes. The only kind-of-"""BL""" that is actually softcore is "The shortest Distance is Round" the main is even an actual porn actor and I bet some of the others too, the are just not listed on MDL. [all the trigger warnings for that movie series btw]

Does that mean there HAVE to be NC scenes in everything? No. It's basically an artistic choice and depending on what the creator wants to show and for what target audience they want to create. Same as when creators say they don't want to show much. 🤷‍♂️ But the less you show the more you have to tell via other ways. Which is sometimes frustrating for me when they cut the sex part (which again, is totally fine) but then the characters behave like nothing happened, nothing changed. OR THEY DO behave differently but nobody shows or says why! And if you are vague the audience has to fill the gap with their own imagination which can vary a lot from tame to horrible. It feels like I am missing out on their path.

But I do side eye everyone who calls a BL bromance just because it had one soft kiss in it. Or people who call a BL boring when they don't have sexual tension within the first 3 episodes.

Ending this with a nice quote I recently heard in a video about a similar topic:

"Just because something makes YOU uncomfortable, doesn't mean it is automatically something bad. It first of all just means it is not for you and that is ok." (unless it is indeed something bad and not legal then that's a different topic)

[melrosing]

wait are we sharing evil sibling stories? bc tbh i read the books and watched the show and just assumed that sansa and arya were normal cause they are. im pretty sure ive gotten a direct hit to my sisters head with a hairbrush. i have gotten into a physical fight with my brother who is four years younger. my sister regularly fake cried for a period of four years whenever someone annoyed her to make them feel guilty. she also takes my things but i am never giving some of hers back. my brother usually initiates the fights.

we usually get on great, but if horseface is all sansa's got? thats fuckin weak

honestly I think even the siblings I knew growing up who actually 'got along' didn't at least half the time. the fact that most of the Stark kids do get along..... freaky. weird.

[chortu]

Your daily reminder that this is misinformation.

The volunteer was not kicked, the volunteer left themselves. The volunteer was reprimanded for violating the Code of Conduct and provoking people outside the opt-in political channels. OTW did not say anything about Israel being or not being a colonial state, a random volunteer did -- they asked the board to ban saying that Israel is a colonial state. There is no evidence that the Board responded to this request. There is, however, in these same sources, the implication that HR warned the other people involved, but we don't get the details because they (rightfully) did not share with Bjorn what they told the others. The proof is, funnily enough, in these sources people keep linking.

on ao3's current fundraiser

apparently it’s time for ao3’s biannual donation drive, which means it’s time for me to remind you all, that regardless of how much you love ao3, you shouldn’t donate to them because they HAVE TOO MUCH MONEY AND NO IDEA WHAT TO DO WITH IT.

we’ve known for years that ao3 – or, more specifically, the organization for transformative works (@transformativeworks on tumblr), or otw, who runs ao3 and other fandom projects – has a lot of money in their “reserves” that they had no plans for. but in 2023, @manogirl and i did some research on this, and now, after looking at their more recent financial statements, i’ve determined that at the beginning of 2024, they had almost $2.8 MILLION US DOLLARS IN SURPLUS.

our full post last year goes over the principles of how we determined this, even though the numbers are for 2023, but the key points still stand (with the updated numbers):

when we say “surplus”, we are not including money that they estimate they need to spend in 2024 for their regular expenses. just the extra that they have no plan for

yes, nonprofits do need to keep some money in reserves for emergencies; typically, nonprofits registered in the u.s. tend to keep enough to cover between six months and two years of their regular operating expenses (meaning, the rough amount they need each month to keep their services going). $2.8 million USD is enough to keep otw running for almost FIVE YEARS WITHOUT NEW DONATIONS

they always overshoot their fundraisers: as i’m posting this, they’ve already raised $104,751.62 USD from their current donation drive, which is over double what they’ve asked for! on day two of the fundraiser!!

no, we are not trying to claim they are embezzling this money or that it is a scam. we believe they are just super incompetent with their money. case in point: that surplus that they have? only earned them $146 USD in interest in 2022, because only about $10,000 USD of their money invested in an interest-bearing account. that’s the interest they earn off of MILLIONS. at the very least they should be using this extra money to generate new revenue – which would also help with their long-term financial security – but they can’t even do that

no, they do not need this money to use if they are sued. you can read more about this in the full post, but essentially, they get most of their legal services donated, and they have not, themselves, said this money is for that purpose

i'm not going to go through my process for determining the updated 2024 numbers because i want to get this post out quickly, and otw actually had not updated the sources i needed to get these numbers until the last couple days (seriously, i've been checking), but you can easily recreate the process that @manogirl and i outlined last year with these documents:

otw’s 2022 audited financial statement, to determine how much money they had at the end of 2022

otw’s 2024 budget spreadsheet, to determine their net income in 2023 and how much they transferred to and from reserves at the beginning of 2024

otw’s 2022 form 990 (also available on propublica), which is a tax document, and shows how much interest they earned in 2022 (search “interest” and you’ll find it in several places)  

also, otw has not been accountable to answering questions about their surplus. typically, they hold a public meeting with their finance committee every year in september or october so people can ask questions directly to their treasurer and other committee members; as you can imagine, after doing this deep dive last summer, i was looking forward to getting some answers at that meeting!

but they cancelled that meeting in 2023, and instead asked people to write to the finance committee through their contact us form online. fun fact: i wrote a one-line message to the finance committee on may 11, 2023 through that form, when @manogirl and i were doing this research, asking them for clarification on how much they have in their reserves. i have still not received a response.

so yeah. please spend your money on people who actually need it, like on mutual aid requests! anyone who wants to share their mutual aid requests, please do so in the replies and i’ll share them out – i didn’t want to link directly to individual requests without permission in case this leads to anyone getting harassed, but i would love to share your requests. to start with, here's operation olive branch and their ongoing spreadsheet sharing palestinian folks who need money to escape genocide.

oh, and if you want to write to otw and tell them why you are not donating, i'm not sure it’ll get any results, but it can’t hurt lol. here's their contact us form – just don’t expect a response! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[communistkenobi]

I don’t really want to wade into discourse too much today because I know everyone is extremely miserable online rn but I think if you want to give people genuine advice on what to do politically, “join a union/get involved in your current union/organise your workplace” or “join ACORN/a tenant union/etc” is much more actionable advice than like “build community.”

the problem with “community” is that it doesn’t have the same formal infrastructure / resources / political connections / organising capacity that allows your hard work to have reach far beyond your immediate circle (which is what a union has), and also because like, “community” is an extremely vague and abstract concept that can mean anything from a local restaurant run by your neighbour to a church to your dnd friend group. Reaching out and helping your neighbours is a good thing, lots of people are having a really tough time and helping people around you pay rent or take care of their family or etc is a good thing and you should feel good doing that, but in response to the complete institutional and political failure of electoral liberalism I think the next best option is to turn towards already existing national infrastructure that can mobilise people without requiring you to individually maintain dedicated personal relationships with everyone around you. In my experience + the experience of many long-time activists that I know, relying on interpersonal connections to organise and get things done leads to highly sectarian, disorganised, toxic, and unpleasant organising conditions. The cold impersonal bureaucracy of union membership is legitimately a good solution to this problem.

there are many little positions of power available in these organisation that become open to you for as low a cost as showing up to zoom meetings. I have personally been elected to positions in various unions/orgs literally because I was someone who showed up to meetings! Nobody goes to committee meetings! You get annual budgets! You get to pass votes, organise events, spend money on organising materials! You get to buy food for people! Organising is so much easier in these spaces.

And of course, you are going to face the same ideological resistance, apathy, ignorance, incompetence, and bigotry that you would at your local queer meet-up or community neighbourhood council, and I have no illusions about the institutional limits of unions (which can also be reactionary, bigoted, highly disorganised, incompetent, toxic, and so on), but if you want to avoid completely exhausting yourself and resenting everyone around you, you don’t need to build “community” from the ground up, there are already structures out there where you can do good work. For all the resistance there is to unions and union activity, you will face that same level of resistance with local organising but have none of the power, resources, or institutional legitimacy already secured by unions

[fanfoolishness]

Me: no fear

Me: one fear (that Crosshair will take the place of Zuko as my favorite reformed little shit)

[gay-jewish-bucky]

I bring a "the commercialization of Hanukkah actually unintentionally ends up doing an ideological 180 and enables more jews to live up to one of the most important aspects of hanukkah: remaining loudly, visibly and unapologetically jewish in the face of assimilationist forces" vibe to the annual discourse that most other anti-capitalists don't really like

[tricksterlatte]

ngl this is just a silly post I made while goofing around, but finding out the two sides to this newfound issue are either "Akechi is a Norse mythology nerd and goes online to write essays on how badly Marvel messed everything up" or "Akechi actually kins MCU Loki due to his own relationship with Shido and his mother versus MCU Loki with Odin and Frigga" is actually hilarious.

If Persona 5 begins during 2016, this would mean Akechi previously awakened to Loki during the prime time of MCU Loki being a tumblr sexyman. Do whatever you’d like with that information

[emo-batboy]

A Wild Battinson (Social Media AU)

MASTERLIST

Part 1 — Temporary Baby Acquisition

Part 2 — HE POUT ????

Part 3 — The Babygirl Agenda: Origins

Part 4 — Stuck in a Bookstore

Part 5 — Dior Bruce Wayne Supremacy

Part 6 — Please Sleep

Part 7 — GALA UNDER ATTACK

Part 8 — Stuck in an Elevator

Part 9 — Bruce Wayne is scared of bats?!

Part 10 — Lex Comes to Town

Part 11 — HIT THE DECK

Part 12 — Career Day in Gotham

Part 13 — Bruce Wayne is GAY????

Part 14 — The 30th Annual Wayne Business Convention

Part 15 — Monday: Puppies!!

Part 16 — Tuesday: Protecc Him

Part 17 — Wednesday: Crafts

Part 18 — Thursday: KIDNAPPED

Part 19 — Friday: The Seminar

Part 20 — Gotham's True Cryptid

Part 21 — Temporary Baby Acquisition II

Part 22 — Valentine's Day <3

Part 23 — "I'm used to it"

Part 24 — Weird Bruce Wayne Pics

Part 25 — Permanent Baby Acquisition

Part 26 — Richard "Dick" Grayson

Part 27 — Who's Batman?

Part 28 — A Baby!!!!

Part 29 — Magical Girl Bruce

Part 30 — A Kid on the Roof

Part 31 — Grounded

Part 32 — Bruce Wayne doesn't blink?!

Part 33 — Gotham Bingo Cards

Part 34 — A Secret Third Thing

Part 35 — Q&A with Bruce Wayne

Part 36 — Bat-Themed Bandaids

Part 37 — Bruce Wayne is MOTHER

Part 38 — Be Gay Do Crime

Part 39 — PLOT TWIST

Part 40 — No Bruce?

Part 41 — Permanent Baby Acquisition II

Part 42 — Bruce Wayne Should Punch Someone

Part 43 — Vigilante Discourse

Part 44 — A Wild Superguy?

Part 45 — LexCorp Goes on Strike

Part 46 — Gift Shop Shenanigans

Part 47 — Be My Valentine

Part 48 — BRUCE WAYNE PUNCHED SOMEONE

Part 49 — #BlockBruce

Part 50 — Bruce v. The Horrors

Part 51 — Monday: Lost in NY

Part 52 — Tuesday: The Tonight Show

Part 53 — Wednesday: amFAR GALA

Part 54 — Thursday: Ice Cream Kidnapping

Part 55 — Friday: SUPERBAT

Part 56 — Saturday: Night Live

Part 57 — Caleb Gets Fired

Outtakes: Part 1 Part 2

Updates Whenever I Feel Like :)

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

It feels like the Spinosaurus discourse has been quiet lately. I'm assuming the relevant parties are gathering evidence for the next round?

Oh you have no idea

*insert redacted Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Annual Meeting Information I cannot divulge. wait for papers.*

[mariacallous]

In 2025, we will see a fundamental transformation in the language of climate politics. We’re going to hear a lot less about “reducing emissions” from scientists and policymakers and a lot more about “phasing out fossil fuels” or “ending coal, oil, and methane gas.” This is a good thing. Although it is scientifically accurate, the phrase “reducing emissions” is too easily used for greenwashing by the fossil-energy industry and its advocates. The expression “ending coal, oil, and methane gas,” on the other hand, keeps the focus on the action that will do most to resolve the climate crisis.

This discourse shift has been initiated by the latest report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The world’s climate scientists say that already existing fossil-energy infrastructure is projected to emit the total carbon budget for halting global heating at 2 degrees Celsius over preindustrial temperatures. This statement means two things. It means that the world cannot develop any more coal, oil, or gas, if we want our planet to remain relatively livable. And it means that even some already developed fossil-fuel deposits will need to be retired before the end of their lifetime, since we need to leave space in the carbon budget for essential activities like agriculture.

The international community has already integrated this new science into its global climate governance. The 28th Conference of the Parties—the annual conference of the world’s nations party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change—called for every country to contribute to “transitioning away from fossil fuels.” Never before in the history of international climate negotiations had the main cause of global heating been clearly named and specifically targeted. The United Nations itself now calls for the phaseout of coal, oil, and methane gas.

This new climate language will become mainstream in 2025. In her policy plans for her second term aspPresident of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen pledged not to work to lower EU emissions, but to “continue to bring down energy prices by moving further away from fossil fuels.” The new UK government promised in its manifesto that it will withhold licenses for new coal and for oil exploration—and states outright that it will “ban fracking for good.” And in France, Macron has explicitly vowed to end fossil-fuel use entirely.

Climate politics in the US will also evolve in the wake of Donald Trump’s reelection for president. Republicans will continue to embrace a “drill, baby, drill” climate agenda, denying the danger or sometimes even the reality of climate change while advocating for expanding domestic crude and methane-gas production. They may try to greenwash their policies by claiming they embrace an “all of the above” energy strategy, but this messaging will have limited effects. Due to political polarization the association of Trump with coal, oil, and gas will raise Democratic support for phasing out fossil fuels. Before the 2024 election, 59 percent of Democrats said climate change should be the Federal government’s top priority, but only 48 percent said they supported a phaseout. In 2025 majorities of Democrats will begin to support fossil-fuel phaseout, especially if climate advocates revive science-based climate messaging, continue to emphasize that clean-energy deployment is job creation, and frame choosing to phase out fossil fuels as a form of freedom that upholds our right to a livable future.

Given that Democrats won many down-ballot races, and cities and states are still pledging to pass climate policies, this shift in the Democratic majority will keep the US on the map in international climate negotiations, whether or not Trump withdraws the US from the Paris Agreement, creating new local alliances with the UK, the EU, and global south nations calling for international fossil-fuel phaseout targets. This bloc can counter the power of petrostates in international climate negotiations. At the very least, the mainstreaming of the language of fossil-fuel phaseout will help undermine the greenwashing strategy of current oil and gas company PR, which falsely advertises industry as pursuing technologies at scale to help “reduce emissions” even as they continue their upstream investments.

Of course the petrostates, along with India and China, will push back against the rhetoric of fossil fuel phaseout. But India can be helped to turn away from its domestic coal stores by clean-energy financing at close to cost along with the international aid and technology transfers already pledged at previous climate conferences. And although its rhetoric may not align with that of the West, China should not be imagined as opposed to climate action. China has enacted the most comprehensive climate policy on the planet, in service of its goal to peak emissions by 2030 and achieve net zero emissions by 2060. If their climate messaging remains focused on “emissions,” in light of their plan to keep using fossil fuels past 2030, they are preparing for next decade’s pivot away from fossil fuels by building out clean energy at a truly extraordinary rate.

In 2025 climate discourse will recenter on the message that halting global heating requires the phaseout of coal, oil, and gas. This new consensus will shift the politics of climate change and help motivate an urgent sprint to a clean-energy, ecologically integrated economy—the only economy that ensures a livable future.

[supreme-leader-stoat]

The latest genshin discourse is such a weird nontroversy to me but I keep seeing it crop up everywhere.

A big games studio releases their annual expansion update with a new game region based on a mix of cultures from Africa and the Ring of Fire (Mesoamerica, Polynesia, Oceania, etc.). Lots of people from these regions say how excited they are to see their home cultures show up like this. The region draws heavily on the mythologies and cuisines and even musical styles of the places it's based on. But while the NPCs have a wide range of skin tones, most of the playable characters are towards the light end of the scale. People see this and go, "This Chinese game developer making a game with a heavily Chinese playerbase didn't perfectly meet Western standards of diversity! Foul! Racism!"

And so rather than voicing their thoughts about the character designs through the regularly taken player feedback polls, a bunch of (predominately American and Canadian) players decided to just boycott the game altogether in hopes that... I don't even know. The big company will rework all their already released or teased character designs in response to the controversy? Instead, all I'm pretty sure they're doing is signaling to writers and game developers, "Hey, if you want to garner an American audience, don't take inspiration for your fantasy story from anywhere other than Western Europe and East Asia; they either aren't interested or they'll decide that not doing it well enough is actually worse than not doing it at all."

I'm not saying "you have to go play the game," people can play or not play whatever they want for whatever reason, but I just can't fathom what they're actually expecting to happen here.