#be a part of the solution

[unforth]

Y'all have got to stop virulently hating men. Like, I'm sorry, I fucking hate the patriarchy too, but the patriarchy isn't just men and saying it is just exculpates complicit women. I am the mother of a young boy, and I look at this precious, empathetic 8 year old boy I'm raising and I don't know where online is safe for him. Places like this will say he's evil just for his gender, and other places will say "we'll be your friend if you hate with us," and still others will radicalize him in other ways. Where is he supposed to go? Why are we saying the radicalization is the fault of the kids just trying to find a place to hang?

Like this is seriously getting urgent. You have got to fucking stop conflating the patriarchy and men. 53% percent of white women voted for Trump. Men aren't the problem. White supremacy and Christian patriarchal structures are two examples of patriarchy-reinforcing structures that aren't solely couched in maleness. Men aren't the problem, and pretending they are drives more men into more welcoming extremist spaces and also ignores all the parts of this that are forwarded by people who aren't men.

What I see happening all over is scared, depressed, lonely people looking for someone they're allowed to hate automatically, unquestioningly - someone they're allowed to place all the blame on. Fascism says people of color, non-Christian people, queer people, etc., are the ones they're allowed to hate.

And way too many of yall answer that no, it's leftist to hate men instead. You are doing *the exact same thing they are.*

Fucking knock it off.

The answer is we're not supposed to hate anyone automatically based on their immutable personal characteristics. Hate the specific people who've hurt you. Hate the self-reinforcing systems that let them get away with hurting you. Hate the strangers who prop up those systems. Hate the fascists. Hell knows I hate Donald Trump, but it's not because he's a man, it's because he's a piece of shit.

Hate the pieces of shit, not the gender.

But don't hate men just because they're men. That's unhelpful, stupid, insane, and entirely counterproductive. Fucking. Stop.

[honestlyghostlyfestival]

It Takes A Village

They say it takes a village to raise a child. Where is this village when this child needs them the most? Where is this village when the child is calling for help? Where is this village when only a small part of it is willing to make a difference and change? People are quick to point their fingers at the child's parents or school. But what about them? Where is this village when it needs to come together. Be strong and form some kind of support for this child? Quick to judge others and point out all the faults that they see. One thing is for sure. They fail to see their fault. They fail to see that they too can make a difference. They fail to see that they can come together as a community with a positive solution. They are quick to tear each other down. For what? You can't be a strong community if you don't know how to be there for each other. If kids are stirring up trouble in either local schools or the area. Maybe instead of saying expel this child, but come together as a community. Find out how you can make a difference. What struggle is this child really facing? What are they really trying to tell you? If your area lacks community resources for kids, maybe it's time to unite and start that change. Build a center, build a support system these kids, families and schools can rely on. One that is truly showing that you care. You want to see these kids have a brighter future versus just being a part of a statistic. C'mon people. Do better. It is for the future. It is for your kids. For your community.

It takes a village to raise a child. It's time for the village to work together to help this child to excel in life. Be a positive change. Be part of the solution. Time to unite and make a difference.

[knightofleo]

Angela Orosco Silent Hill 2

[a-scary-lack-of-common-sense]

O, Icarus.

O, my Icarus...

Stanford is desperate. He has tried every method possible to try and rid himself of Bill, and he's got nothing to show for all his efforts but more scars and less sleep.

His head is killing him. Another consequence of his many attempts to just live. Yes. He yearned to live, because he was dying. Dying in the hands of his own muse. Was it so wrong of him to want to live? To fear death? Perhaps Stanford was selfish; a hypocrite, to avoid the same death that had so soon and so unfairly claimed his friend and his brother, but he was only a man.

Stanford knew he didn't stitch his wound right, he could feel it. He could feel the cold nails and bolts dig into his head; his scalp pulled taught over his newly metal plated skull to cover the holes. He felt something rattle when he moved. Perhaps he should have welded the metal plate into his head instead.

Project Mentem did not react well to his open skull and neither did the poorly screwed metal plate in his head.

[royaltea000]

I love Bai Long Ma he truly don’t gaf

[tarantula-hawk-wasp]

Annoying that the response to deeply legitimate complaints about the quality of clothing being mass produced for all price points (even expensive brands have gotten worse) is to ALWAYS harp on buying second hand and shopping at thrift stores. When that requires much more luck, patience, free time, travel, etc than having quality clothes available anywhere the way they were in living memory, AND those quality second hand clothing become a nonrenewable resource if nothing of quality is being made. Buying thrifted clothes is NOT a long term solution to the fact that even the fabric available at fabric stores is worse than it used to be.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Remember: The burning sensation is part of the process.

[linkcharacter]

why does everyone decide to keep jimmy alive in the jimblasted au?

Think about it please

[neongummywormevangelion]

waynerWin

[chappellrroan]

repeat after me: ai p*rn/nudes of anyone is disgusting, gross and vile and illegal thing to do. this shouldn't happen in the first place. it does not matter if you hate the person or how privileged or popular they are, this shouldn't happen to anyone.

[kathaynesart]

Cowboy Omega.

Because he felt left out.

[a2zillustration]

It looked like it wanted a kiss what do you want from me

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[[ All Croissant Adventures (chronological, desktop) ]]

[[ All Croissant Adventures (app) ]]

[audliminal]

It's Just a Game, Right? Pt 8

Masterpost

"So I think they're using other languages," Tim says, the moment Bernard opens the door.

"Well hello to you too my beloved boyfriend," Bernard responds, kissing Tim on the cheek and pulling him into the apartment.

"Shut up," Tim says, following Bernard to the table. This is hardly the first time Tim has skipped past pleasantries like that, and Bernard seems to find it more amusing every time.

"Aw, I dunno if I can do that. I really like to talk to you," Bernard grins conspiratorially. "Plus, then I wouldn't get to tell you that you're half right."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, obviously other people noticed the comment, right?" Bernard, gestures towards the computer, where Tim can see the cryptic comment. It already has dozens of responses. "Mostly people are just freaking out about it, because this is like, our first instance of direct communication from them, but one of the people who saw it actually recognized what language it is."

"Just one?" Tim frowns.

"Yeah. It's called esperanto. I googled it and apparently it's a conlang from the late 1800s which is pretty cool. It was, like, invented to be kind of a universal language, I guess? It pulls from a lot of different languages, so that's why it looks like multiple languages."

"Huh."

"But! There's still the encoded portions to figure out, because the translation as-is doesn't really make any sense." Bernard scrolls and points to the translation that a commenter had offered. It reads To be fqzuhsx-ayccas is to be qtdkv-avnwkwkb; the veil afph-gqkduik but it is meant to igpmtwi-ocdq. Determination in the face of doubt.

"Huh," Tim studies the text, then notices something. "They've specifically encoded the verbs."

"Yep," Bernard shrugs. "I haven't tried anything for the encrypted stuff yet; figured i might as well wait for you."

"Okay, well I guess we start with the simplest? We know they've used caesar ciphers before, plus this is in response to what we did with the first caesar ciphers before, so we might as well try one of your decoder websites for that first."

"Seems reasonable," Bernard says, pulling up the website from before. He quickly copies the first word over and hits the button. "Well shit, that was quick."

"Only the first half, though." Tim mutters. "Do it to the rest of them." Bernard copies and decodes the rest. In short order, they have a the first half of each encryption decoded.

"To be gravity is to be orbit, the veil disk but it is meant to eclipse?" Bernard frowns. "That... doesn't make much more sense."

"What's up with the focus on astronomy, too."

"Oh, right, we haven't gotten that far yet. They keep referencing space stuff. There's like, a running theory about these messages being supposed to have come through a black hole?"

"Is that even possible? i thought black holes ate stuff forever."

"I dunno, I'm not really into space stuff. Besides it's like, sure there's evidence for it, and space seems to be narratively important? But the premise seems kind of contrived to me."

"You think they're doing something bigger than what everybody is seeing." Tim stares at the forum thread. If anything was going to give Bernard's theory some credence, it would be what literally just happened.

"Exactly." Bernard posted on a forum arguing that he thought the game ran deeper than people realized. And the creators, who so far hadn't interacted directly, had responded to that post, with a triple-encrypted message.

"Each shift was one further away than the last," Tim thinks rapidly. "It started with language, which could be either a part of the effort to encrypt it, or a part of the intended meaning. Possibly both. Then, they used caesar ciphers for the first layer of encryption, the same thing they used in their first post. How did they encrypt things in the second post?"

"I think I kind of mentioned it before, but the second post used a vigenere cipher. The names of the people in the first video were the keys, if I remember right."

"The first is the key to the second."

"What-"

"Take the second part and decode it with the first."

"Dude your mind is scary sometimes," Bernard laughs, but moves to do as Tim says, revealing the first encrypted word. "To be seen. That works..."

Tim starts writing down the full message, as Bernard decodes the rest. Finally, they have the full text of the message the creators intended to send.

"To be seen is to be remembered; the veil distracts but it is meant to hide. Determination in the face of doubt." Tim reads.

"Huh," Bernard says, leaning over to read it for himself. "Well, now we know what it says. Now we just need to figure out what that means."

[canisalbus]

Would Machete still be Catholic in modern!AU?

He was raised in a very traditional household, went through a fraught crisis of faith in his teens, became a disillusioned atheist and then eventually more or less made his peace with the whole thing and slid back a little bit to the secular/lapsed catholic territory.

[odinsblog]

Never settle for being less than 100% of the problem

[iamfuckingsorry]

So I've recently realized that murderbot's been translated into my native language and it's apparently a he in the translation (which admittedly makes sense, because it's a heavily gendered language and 1. gender-neutral language doesn't really exist in general and 2. "bot" and all the related words - I believe they use "droid" for mb in the translation - are grammatically masculine).

It made me curious how it's been handled in other translations though!

*e.g. being referred to by multiple gendered nouns/pronouns depending on the context, like both "bot" (masculine) and "machine" (feminine).