#but a lot of people have genuine questions and if you know the answers the 1 thing you can do is give 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.

[jamiepaige]

Constant Companions Closeup #1: DYAD

(also on spotify!)

Hello everyone!! It's been a couple weeks and change since Constant Companions, my newest album, was released unto the world, and I've been genuinely blown away by the response. Genuinely, thank you to everyone who's been streaming, commenting, making mashups, changing their pfps and usernames - it means the world to me!

I wanted to give some of that love back with something people have been asking me a lot about - and, admittedly, something I love doing. Song explanations! Deep dives! Dropping the lore! Welcome... to the Constant Companions Closeups...

For the next eleven days, I'll be going into each track one by one and babbling about the process, inspiration, details, feelings, and thoughts behind each one! We're getting sappy. We're bearing our hearts. We're telling unfunny jokes. And we're starting with track one - DYAD (featuring unit.0)!

---

Naturally, since this is the first track, it also serves as a great point to talk about my intention with this album as a whole!

I'll elaborate more on this with future tracks, but to me, there are really two main things that define the sonic progression of this album versus my previous work - guitars and vocal synths. Obviously, these things have been present in my work since I first started calling myself Jamie Paige, but Constant Companions is intended to be my overwrought, sappy confession of love to these two things that time and time again have made me simply want to make music. I love rock and I love Hatsune Miku dammit!!!

I had originally written this song in February of 2023 for a game-jam-esque online festival hosted by my friend Loni called HAPPY PARTY TRI, and at that time, I had found myself at a major crossroads. I had put out People Posture Play Pretend and :women_wrestling: the previous year, and while the response was nice, I was feeling listless and lost.

I love singing. I like my voice well enough. I certainly love writing music with lyrics!! But... there was something uniquely electrifying about using vocal synths. Amidst a lot of insecurity and emotional turmoil surrounding the process of making art and putting myself out into the world, it was one of the few things that just made everything feel right. Suddenly, I was making the same kind of music that had touched my heart so many times over.

Would it alienate people, though? Would I lose longtime listeners? Yes, that weighed on my mind more than I'd like to admit, but even more than that... I was worried I'd lose some part of myself, as silly as it sounds. Maybe what I thought was a bridge would become a barrier, and the messages I wanted to send across the gap would never find their way.

Ultimately, I felt that Dyad was the only kind of opener I could've possibly given this album, and a perfect fit for the album's motif. A dialogue between myself, stricken with loneliness and a lack of inertia running in circles, and that synthesized voice (ANRI Arcane my darling), grabbing the outstretched hand and asking a question I already know the answer to -

"Baby, do you know what you wanna hear?"

Yes, it's a love song, but it's not just for a person - it's a love song for the creative impulse, and for the places I wanted it to take me.

im resisting the urge to be jokingly dismissive of myself to diffuse tension but i still need to signal that the emotionally bare part of this is over so pretend im doing a funny little dance Anyways let's talk more technical stuff

---

Like many of my songs, Dyad came together from a patchwork of different snippets and ideas I had laying around. The back half of the chorus - "dream together, we can dream together" - originally came from this idea I had jotted down something like 9 months prior, but ended up being a perfect fit for Dyad in basically every way. The verse snippet that I'd written to go with it got reused for a later song on Constant Companions as well! (I say without naming it, as if it isn't literally lifted wholesale from this demo and thus incredibly obvious)

I wasn't originally planning on brazenly quoting the bridge of a Tally Hall song when I set out to write this song, but while toying around with a bridge idea involving a shortened version of the pre-chorus melody, I realized I had inadvertently copied it anyways. I was going to scrap it... but at the request of my dear friend and certified Tally Hall lover Marcy Nabors, I made it an explicit reference. Which I'm fine with, personally! The first CD I ever owned was a copy of Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum my sister bought me all the way back in 2006 - You can pry that sentimental attachment from my cold, dead hands, TikTok kiddies.

Lastly - not really behind the scenes so much as just a shoutout - thank you to unit.0 for the lovely lead guitar work on this song!! He's been a beloved collaborator of mine for many, many years now, and one of the people who ultimately convinced me this direction was the right one to go in, so it means a lot to share this song with him. Go listen to his music!!! Now!!!!!!

That's about it for this song! Not to sound like a fucking YouTuber, but genuinely, if there are any details you'd like to hear more about, let me know and I might made a bonus post at the end of all this. Otherwise, thank you for listening! Tomorrow: Not Quite There, featuring telebasher!

❤️💚

[certifiedsexed]

hey there! i don’t mean this in bad faith at all, and i’m not trying to use a term that’s a fascist dogwhistle. i promise i’m just confused😭

so i’m not a guy, nor have i ever been perceived as one, but in one of your recent posts, you said that men can’t experience oppression solely based on the fact that they’re men. which was kind of confusing to me — i don’t think you’re wrong, i think it’s me but i don’t know how to get to how you see it like that.

because in my experience, men can experience oppression because they’re men, although i don’t know if i’m saying that right or conflating the meanings of certain terms. i’m probably wrong, and would just love some clarification?

for example, my brother and i were always held to different standards growing up — it was expected of me to always cry and be emotional, and i was a ‘stone cold bitch’ if that wasn’t the case, but if my brother wanted to show negative emotions like sadness he was treated like there was something wrong with him too. and i know it wasn’t my brother — i spend a lot of time working with my high school’s diversity team, and in a lot of the events we organise, guys talk about how they feel enormous pressure to be angry and never sad, and to have stereotypically masculine interests and never deviate from that norm.

i also know men who’ve struggled to get jobs such as teaching as those are viewed as ‘female’ jobs and it’s a common view that men who want those jobs are ‘only in it to be around kids’. i’ve heard many women around me perpetuate sentiments like that, so i know they’re not making it up, even if it isn’t equal to the systematic oppression women face in almost every aspect of their careers.

i’m not providing these examples to prove you wrong, since i do think you’re right. i’m hoping that a window into the way i’ve always thought might help you clarify this in a way that can help me to change my mind, since i just think i’m lacking some clarity or context here. i think i’m conflating abuse and stereotypes with oppression, but i’m really not sure. any advice would be really appreciated!

i’m so sorry if this comes off badly, i don’t mean it that way. i’m just trying to learn, i promise i’m not trying to promote the kind of hate and close mindedness you’ve been seeing in your inbox as of late.

Hi! As always, I do not mind answering genuine questions!

The things you're talking about growing up and seeing boys around you pressured to present only certain emotions, that's part of the patriarchy!

Certain emotions are supposed to be "feminine" and thus boys shouldn't show them, while girls are often always considered "emotional" in some fashion. That's not oppression based on those boys being men that you're talking about.

It's the backlash that the patriarchy, and by addition trans/misogyny has on men. It's boys being pressured not to show certain emotions because those emotions are "feminine" and they're supposed to associate feminimity with weakness and shit.

What you're talking about there is also trans/misogyny!

The idea that men who do things perceived as feminine are predators, the idea that specific jobs are "female" jobs [while even in those specific female jobs, men are generally paid better and find it easier to get into those jobs than women trying to get into traditionally "male" jobs"]

[Though obviously this varies based on race and whether they're trans, etc, etc.]

To be a little more clear, all of the things you're talking about don't primarily affect cis men/boys. They fuck up transfems, because it's trans/misogyny.

You're right! It's not systemic oppression.

You might wonder if it's social oppression, which is also a no. Social oppression would require a historical/systemic oppression behind it. But that doesn't exist in this case.

What it is is the common issue oppressors run into. While they benefit greatly from oppression, there is also backlash they face from their own systems of oppression.

Like white people who fall into suicide cults trying to work towards white supremacy, or TERFs who fall into groups where they slowly pick each other off as they discover they're not all exactly the same and wind up accusing each other of not being "real" women, systems of bigotry simply do not work out perfectly even for the oppressors.

They never do.

To create the patriarchy, you must establish trans/misogyny, you must establish intersexism and you must push people to conform to those ideals, even if they hurt your own.

It's similar to how white supremacy can harm white people, despite white people obviously not being oppressed racially. The backlash of oppression hits even the oppressors sometimes.

Suppression, as a term, would honestly work far better to describe what you're talking about.

So yes, it's stereotyping, yes it's abusive to tell your children not to show/feel their emotions but it's not oppression based on these guys in your life being men! It's part of how trans/misogyny, transphobia and intersexism are enforced.

I understand exactly where you're coming from! It doesn't sound bad and I genuinely don't mind answering questions! Especially since you've got some good ones!

I'm not sure if I rambled too much to explain this properly but I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions and/or need me to clarify anything here. <33

[angelbaby191]

More than Headlines

Kirishima x Bakugo x GN! Reader

The studio lights were a little harsh, and the set—polished and brightly colored—felt strangely out of place for what was supposed to be a serious interview. But you had Eijiro on one side, his warmth a steady anchor, and Katsuki on the other, his usual grumbling and intensity tempered by a quiet loyalty. You’d been married almost a year now, and while the public eye never quite left the three of you, you were used to it by now.

This interview, though, had a different weight to it. It was one of the first times you’d all appeared together in an exclusive, high-profile sit-down, and even Katsuki had reluctantly agreed to take part. They’d framed it as a chance to highlight your agency’s work and address the skepticism about your unique marriage, but deep down, you suspected the headline would have more to do with your relationship than your hero work.

As the reporter started, Eijiro leaned forward, his grip around your shoulders firm and reassuring. The first questions were harmless enough.

“So, mr Red Riot,” the reporter began with a gleam in his eye, focusing on Eijiro. “You've been with the Hero Association since graduation. Tell us—what made you want to start your own agency?”

Eijiro's smile was bright and genuine, the way it always was when he talked about his dreams. "Well, it wasn't just me. It was all of us," he said, gesturing to you and Katsuki. "The three of us have been working together since U.A., through training, through missions. We’re a team, and eventually, we wanted to have a place where we could work the way we wanted—focusing on the missions and the people who need us most, not just on what makes the best headlines."

The reporter nodded, his smile looking more like a smirk as he leaned forward with an intrigued glint in his eyes. “You make it sound so easy,” he pressed, feigning curiosity. “But starting an agency isn’t a small feat, especially for three high-profile heroes. How did you make it all work?”

“Yeah, well, we worked our asses off,” Katsuki interjected before you could answer. He crossed his arms, his glare practically daring the reporter to say something snarky. “We knew what we wanted, and we got it done. You think we’d be sitting here today if we didn’t know what we were doing?”

Eijiro shot Katsuki a soft, playful elbow to the ribs, chuckling. “Kat’s right. We’re stubborn when it comes to our goals, and we knew we could create something better together than what was out there.”

The reporter’s smile twitched, clearly hoping for a softer, more marketable story, but he quickly moved on. “Right,” he said, his tone still a bit dismissive. “But let's talk about that legendary War during your first year. A lot of people look back at U.A. and talk about that as a moment that changed you three and many others. How do you feel about it now?”

There was a collective pause as memories of that time resurfaced. Eijiro’s usually cheerful expression dimmed as he looked at the floor briefly, his brow furrowing. “It changed all of us,” he admitted, voice quieter. “We were kids, thrown into a war we weren’t prepared for, but we made it through because of each other. We lost people. Friends. But we didn’t let that stop us. If anything, it made us stronger.”

You placed a comforting hand on his arm, grounding him. “That time taught us what it means to fight for something bigger than ourselves. And it taught us how important it is to have people by your side.”

The reporter nodded, looking a bit thrown off by the honesty in your words. Shifting slightly, he tried another angle. “Your quirks work well together. I know that Kirishima's Unbreakable Quirk is legendary, paired with Bakugo's explosions and—well, your unique abilities. How do you make them work together so fluidly?”

Katsuki scoffed, a half-smirk forming on his lips. “We’ve been doing this for years. You think we don’t know how to back each other up by now?”

Eijiro grinned, his earlier sadness dissipating. “Yeah, we each know our roles in a fight and where our strengths lie. Kat’s explosions keep the offense up, I’m the shield, and you—” He turned to you, his smile softening, eyes warm. “You tie it all together, Angel. Your quirk makes us stronger, gives us the edge to push through anything.”

You returned his smile, feeling the familiar surge of pride that always came when you fought alongside them. “We’ve always had each other’s backs. We’re a team; it’s what makes us effective.”

The reporter tapped his notepad, as if searching for a new angle to throw at you. His voice lowered, taking on a more personal tone. “And what about when the teamwork ends for the day? Surely being together in the field, then going home together, must make things… complicated.”

Your smile didn’t waver, but you felt Eijiro tense slightly beside you, and Katsuki’s expression grew darker. He wasn’t one to entertain personal questions, but his eyes flicked to you, letting you handle it.

“Not at all,” you replied evenly. “It actually makes things easier. We know each other better than anyone. Being able to go home to people who understand you on that level… it’s a blessing, not a complication.”

“Interesting.” The reporter’s tone held a note of skepticism, and he angled his body toward you. “You must get a lot of questions about your marriage, though. After all, it’s not every day we see a poly arrangement in the hero world.”

Eijiro chuckled lightly, trying to ease the tension that had started to creep in. “Well, it’s not the ‘normal’ relationship, I guess, but it’s ours. We didn’t set out to make any kind of statement—we’re just happy together.”

The reporter’s eyebrows rose, his smirk widening as he leaned in a little closer. “Happy, yes, but a question many have is how exactly it works. I mean, three heroes… I imagine things must get interesting behind closed doors, if you know what I mean.”

The moment he said it, you felt the heat spike in the room. Katsuki sat up straighter, his jaw locked, hands balling into fists. His voice was low, simmering with suppressed rage. “The hell did you just ask us?”

The reporter flinched slightly, clearly taken aback by the intensity of Katsuki’s reaction, but his gaze turned to you as if daring you to answer. Eijiro’s hand tightened protectively on your shoulder, his usually warm expression hardening into one of disappointment and warning.

But instead of letting either of them take the lead, you raised a hand, gently nudging Eijiro to let you handle it. Katsuki’s eyes met yours, and though still fuming, he held his tongue, trusting you to speak.

With a calm, collected expression, you leaned forward, meeting the reporter’s gaze directly. “In a world where we're risking our lives every day to protect others, where we face danger daily to keep people safe, you’d think people would care more about our hero work than our personal lives.”

The reporter blinked, clearly not expecting such a controlled but cutting response. Your voice was steady, but there was a hard edge to it, an undeniable authority.

“Our marriage is built on mutual respect, trust, and love. It’s not ‘interesting’ or some novelty—it’s our life. And we don’t need to explain the details to anyone who can’t see beyond a headline,” you continued, your tone unwavering. “If that’s all you’re focused on, then that’s a reflection on you, not us.”

Eijiro’s hand slipped down to clasp yours, giving a firm, supportive squeeze. His pride in you was clear, and Katsuki gave a sharp, approving nod. “Yeah,” he said, voice laced with a mixture of admiration and impatience. “What Angel said. Got any actual questions, or are you just here to pry into stuff that’s none of your damn business?”

The silence was thick and heavy, and the reporter shifted, suddenly uncomfortable. He cleared his throat, mumbling some half-hearted apology as he hurriedly tried to wrap up, looking visibly thrown by your strength.

When the interview finally ended, and the lights dimmed, Eijiro pulled you into a warm hug, laughing softly. “Angel, that was amazing. You totally handled that jerk.”

Katsuki’s scowl softened as he ruffled your hair, a rare smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “You shut him up better than any explosion could. Proud of you.”

You leaned into their warmth, feeling the familiar sense of security that only they could bring. “Guess we’re stronger together, huh?”

Eijiro grinned, pressing a soft kiss to your temple. “Always.”

[ceaselesswatchersspecialboy]

Okay here we go

Does Stanfraud's eye still bleeds, like when Bill was possessing Ford or doesn't because of his bigger connection to Ford's body?

Is Stanfraud an uncle/big brother figure to Soos, like Stanley is his dad figure? Does Bill even care about him even a little😢

I know that the main focus of this au is on Bill, but since Stanley didn't try to pretend to be Ford, how did Stanley's and Filbrick's first meeting went after the whole "getting kicked out" thing"? Especially since both Stan and Ford were definitely broke at the time

You mentioned that Bill still has access to a little portion of his powers, what are they exactly?

Anyway your au is genuinely awesome and seeing it on my dash is always a huge treat 💛💛💛

Okay the first question I really want to answer because I’ve been thinking about this:

— His eye definitely bleeds on occasion. Even though he is far more connected to Ford’s body here, he’s still a demon possessing a host. He shouldn’t be there. There’s some outer force keeping him trapped. So I have thought about the fact there would probably be some lasting impacts on the body due to possession exposure for so long, such as the eye bleeding becoming a regular problem and gradual loss of vision in that eye. There may also be other physical impacts, but I’ll work on those when I manage to get down an official design for him.

— Great News! He is like Soos’ weird uncle! That may be where he learned to be somewhat decent around kids, honestly. He absolutely tried to mess with him at first, make jabs, tell him the date of his death, attempt to drive him to madness just a little (this is why Stan had to get rid of the last handyman), but Soos proved to be incorruptible and took all of Stanfraud’s weirdness in stride. Bill does end up caring about him. He goes as far as to liking their conversations. Soos keeps up with his chaos! Even Bill isn’t sure what’s going on in that head of his (when he gets his own body back he’s going to find out).

— Though Bill is the main focus of the plot-change, the other aspects are equally as important and so I’m glad they also have people’s interest! Their first meeting is… tense, to say the least. If Filbrick has any regrets, which I think I’ll leave up to interpretation, he’s far too stubborn a man to show them, and would rather dig himself further into a hole than admit he made a mistake. Stan desperately just wants to ignore all the scathing comments and get this little reunion over with, until Filbrick makes a comment about Ford, then Stan snaps. You can insult him, he probably deserves it, but not his brother. Sure, they may not be his brother right now, but the intent is there, and that’s what counts.

It cuts everything short, with Stan grabbing Fraud and telling him they’re leaving (He doesn’t complain).

With Filbrick, I do kind of want to explore their dynamic over the years while he’s still alive, especially with Stan, but also with how he’d treat ‘Ford’ and his odder behaviour. I don’t want to just make Filbrick a one-dimensional character though, as I think there’s a lot to be said about the cycle of abuse and parental projection so. While the AU may be based around the question ‘what if Bill got stuck possessing Ford?’ The answers it has lead me down a lot of different paths to explore — such as this!

— The powers he has access too lessen over time, but currently he is somewhat capable of seeing potential future outcomes (ciphervoyance), pyrokinesis, telekinesis, faster healing factor and teleportation. Note that all of these are in a much weaker state and drain Ford’s body and by extension Bill heavily — especially teleportation. Doing that once can cause him to pass out, so it’s more of an emergency thing, most his abilities are honestly. Too much focus is required.

And I’m so happy to be a little treat on your dash!! I hope you enjoy all this just as much!

[smallishzine]

hey guys thank you for the lovely responses to the interest form, I appreciate everyone calling me handsome and amazing and tall, and also to everyone calling me an idiot you’re in fact correct but guess what you’re the one filling out the form and I’m the one who made it so shut up shut up hahahaha. Sorry. I don’t mean that, please don’t shut up I’ll be very sad if everyone shuts up and I’ll have no one to talk to. This post is to address some of the things that you pointed out as us having forgotten, and we preemptively apologize for burying important info in this mess. It’s like a scavenger hunt! Or bureaucracy. Take your pick.

how humble we are (true, true. So humble. The humblest.)

smallishbeans (I’m fairly certain we remembered this one)

an ego check (yup, still there)

Eefo (you’re so right it’s a crime that we’ve forgotten him we will rectify this mistake immediately)

many variations of “timeline?” which we answered in this post

that you, the form fillers, are tall and handsome as well (indeed)

that one of you was watching shrek 2 as they filled out the form (good job. We approve. Not that you should care what random people on the internet think of your taste in movies, but 👍)

more smallishbeans (it’s like they knew)

how much one of you loves ldshadowlady, sparkle heart emoji (true and real. Only correct take. We also love ldshadowlady)

chicken murder (we decided to put the chicken murder before the form rather than in it, so as not to distract from your form filling experience. We apologize if this isn’t what you wanted, we will be sure to include more chicken murder in future forms.)

A spot for obvious professionals in form filling to rate the form, so they had to do it in the what did we forget box. we received the following ratings: 5/10, 10/10 (< a genuine thank you to whoever submitted this one), 0/10 (:(), 7.3/15, 6/20, and several more

multiple variations of “age limit?” Which we answered in this post

Jeremys blessing (which we actually didn’t forget you stupid idiot haha I’m sorry I don’t know what came over me I promise you are not a stupid idiot even if you don’t finish reading forms before submitting)

that one of you likes shrek but is cooler than us so really the form is egregiously incorrect (egregious is a bit harsh. More, stupendously incorrect! Or, fantastically incorrect! Also, if you’re so cool, why don’t you prove it by participating in the zine huh? Huh? Thought so. 😎)

That I am cool, and I haven’t forgotten but you wanted to remind me (I am mod Dinn and I approve this message)

our epic arson related plan of action for when the ship burns (I’m afraid I have some bad news for you…)

“Can I join??” (yes)

hey it’s you dailyboatboys let you in let you in let you in (absolutely)

other words of affirmation that we greatly appreciate. Everyone who called me cool, handsome, amazing, and other good things or who complimented the form or who expressed excitement and interest in the zine hold a special place in my heart. I read through every response so far and to every person who said that I was really cool, or that they were super excited for the zine, or that the interest form was really good, or that they were so down participate, thank you. Now enough with being sappy back to answering questions, lightly worded hate mail, and people who are also obsessed with Joel smallishbeans!

you’re all idiots (due to limited funds we cannot afford to purchase our own suggestion box, so we are currently borrowing the permit office’s. Did you hear that sound that sounds exactly like sizzling lava consuming a piece of paper with your eloquently worded submission on it? That’s the sound of our complaints department hard at work to remedy this issue. Thank you for filling out the form!)

can you write ships? (This is a really complicated question which we have a lot to say on so we’ll make a separate post explaining more in depth, but the gist is: yes, but that yes has an asterisk attached with a footnote a mile long)

a spot for ideas about what pieces you may contribute, which is actually a good point we’ll probably poll about what things people most want to see/art pieceify (writing is art too) at some point. As for your admission of obsession, gender-neutral-dude, what do you think we are?

these are just some of the responses we received, thank you to everyone who has filled the form out so far, and you haven’t, what are you doing here go fill out that form!!

-mod Dinn

[txttletale]

“it’s not my job to educate you” is something you can say if you’re, like, just some random person of colour being put on the spot to explain why racism is bad. if you’re a Communist it is, in fact, your job to educate people. it should be your number one priority! lads this is literally what we are meant to be doing! if someone asks you a question and they seem to actually want to hear the answer, it is, in fact, your job to explain it to them! otherwise you’re a pretty shitty communist!

[wasabikitcat]

community college is so funny because half of the teachers are like "For this class you need to use lockdown browser for all quizzes and tests. You need to buy this 70 dollar textbook, and all papers turned in must be in APA format with a title page even if they're only 500 words long. I will not accept late assignments. Also you have a minimum of 4 assignments a week." and the other half are like "you don't need proctoring for the final exam I trust you. here's a download link to a pirated copy of the textbook. as long as your writing is coherent and demonstrates an understanding of the material I literally could not care less what format you use. I can't figure out how canvas works so I'm not giving you due dates, just make sure it's turned in before the grading period ends. your only weekly assignment is a forum post with a minimum of 100 words."

[bugsbenefit]

ngl, it IS really funny to me to see people in posts about Finn's panel being happy about "having Mike's cluelessness confirmed", because... what exactly would Finn have needed to say for you to think he wasn't clueless? because saying Mike is clueless is literally the only way for Finn to dodge Mike's feelings/sexuality right now

"yes Mike knew what Will was talking about/that Will was hurt/ that Will was crying, he just didn't do anything about it because... uhm..." he doesn't really have a way to explain the van scene without prompting more questions from the audience

i'm personally not very hard set on any interpretation of the van scene. i think it's possible to write the story from here on out with Mike being confused and not sure what to do with it, thinking Will was a bit more involved with everything than he let on, hoping that Will was actually talking about himself etc. a lot is possible from a writing perspective since they didn't give us Mike's pov at all

but the idea that actors would "confirm" an interpretation in a panel is insane to me. they told everyone and their mother than Will was straight for 6 full years. if anyone asked Noah if Will was gay/into Mike post s3 he straight up lied, because it was in his contract. Will being gay and in love with Mike was only supposed to fully get addressed in s4 so up until then Noah had to reflect the popular/heteronormative audience opinion of Will just being behind in development

Finn talking about Mike's opinions/thoughts in scenes that explicitly go out of their way in canon to NOT show us them isn't going to give more information. they went as far as blurring Mike out of the bg in the van scene. Finn coming in to clear up what was actually going on in his head won't happen until the show officially decides to go there on screen

actors will never give away more than canon tells you since they're not allowed to give spoilers

rule of thumb: if a character does smth and it's ominously left unaddressed in the show, the actor will either lie about it or play it off as unimportant in an interview until it's revealed in canon. you'll only get a genuine answer for what was going on if the scene was inconsequential to the plot. like "what did x actually think about that annoying guy they met in the mall" etc.

and how Mike felt about/thought about Will, his best friend, confessing his feelings in code, which was left unclear and purposefully confusing to the audience, is the BIGGEST spoiler territory you could possibly move into right now

[brinnanza]

you guys know stuff can just be neutral right. like it doesn't have to be good or bad it can just Be ykwim like sometimes an experience is Weird but that doesn't necessarily imply that it was good or bad sometimes things are just so unfamiliar that the sheer novelty overrides having an opinion about it. sometimes you hear someone's died, but it's no one you knew or would ever know and it's so many degrees of separation from the source that they have no emotional investment in it either and that's not automatically a tragedy OR a relief it's just a statement of fact.

sometimes stuff just Is. and it's okay that it is.

[no-1-rosalind-lang-apologist]

Guess what I found on the internet today

[fragglerockopinions]

The worst thing about suffering is that it still hurts when the danger is over but no one cares about it anymore because it shouldn't hurt. No one will ever say "I'm sorry that happened to you" especially when they barely say "I'm sorry that's happening."

[mysimsyuri]

hi! could you inform me on what a bi lesbian is? don’t mean to come off as rude and you’re not obligated to explain if you want to, but if you could redirect me to some resourced pls do, i’m curious and have seen this term one or two times before! i tried looking but almost everything ive seen either has a confusing definition or is negative, and i’d like to educate myself if possible. ty! :D

hi, tysm for the ask! while im definitely not the guy to speak for all mspec lesbians, i can definitely try my best to help you :]

mspec lesbians are when a person identifies as a lesbian while simultaneously being attracted to other genders, hence the "multi spectrum" (mspec) part of the term. i myself am a bi lesbian, so im just going to use that as an example, but there are also pan lesbians, omni lesbians, it goes on. (there are also mspec gays, but people dont seem too pressed about them, and im not gay, so i wont speak on them.)

there are a lot of reasons someone could identify as a bi lesbian, like if theyre romantically a lesbian while being bi*sexual*, or a bi person with a preference towards women. personally, while i do think lesbianism inherently includes nonbinary people (speaking *as* a nonbinary lesbian), my attraction to nbs is separate enough to warrant the label for both mine and other nbs' comfort. (also i think some guys are attractive lol). but it does vary from person to person!

as for the history, bi people using lesbian as an umbrella term (much like, for example, a bi guy calling themself gay) since *at least* the 70s.

and as for resources, heres a really helpful carrd i found, as well as just going through the 'mspec lesbian' tag on tumblr has quite a few good posts about the historical usage of the label!

also um. sorry for giving you an entire essay (hyperbole) lol, queer identities and history are a pretty big interest of mine XP

[diluc33rpm]

2/2 Do you have trust issues?

yeah dude where the hell did my assets go. think i have to sue the mf who ran away with them

[schoolhater]

answering a couple questions i got on this post since i realized ppl genuinely wanna know:

tl;dr:

israel lets very, very little aid get into gaza. even the UN can't get in as much as they want to. funding individual families, gazan led initiatives, and mutual aid collectives operating out of gaza ensures gazans can provide for themselves and pay for the extremely expensive aid that is available.

with all the civil infrastructure destroyed by israel, the situation on the ground has devolved into unrestricted capitalism, driving up the price of aid (that should be free!). this makes it more urgent for people to have funding for daily survival.

the post linked above has examples of how donating to individual families can help a lot. if you want to help more than one family at a time, there are many gazan-led initiatives focusing on rebuilding their infrastructure and distributing aid fairly that are worth donating to instead of large charities that already get the majority of donations.

as i mentioned in the last post: @/careforgaza on twitter is a nonprofit started by gazans, it's been endorsed by multiple palestinian journalists.

the sameer project is a collective organized by diaspora palestinians offering emergency shelter to gazans.

ele elna elak is a project aiming to bring water, food, shelter, etc. to gazans and has been promoted by bisan owda.

and the municipality of gaza itself is fundraising to rebuild water infrastructure.

all of these organizations are active inside gaza right now and are being run by gazans. if anyone knows of other gazan-led mutual aid projects, nonprofits or charities feel free to link them in the notes! hope this helped!

long answers under the cut!

if you wanna donate to a charity that's absolutely fine, but the thing is most charities (and even the UN!) are unable to make it into gaza in the first place, leaving aid rotting at the egyptian side of the border or subject to israeli settler attacks

not to mention, charities and nonprofits also maintain a paternalistic colonial relationship with the indigenous people they are trying to help, determining what aid they need for them instead of returning power to them and letting them make their own choices

i'm not here to say that one option is better than the other, just that they achieve different things and are equally legitimate. there's an attitude among people who question the legitimacy of these gofundme campaigns that somehow the people promoting them are telling them not to donate to charities. nobody is stopping you from donating to charities. we are just asking that you do not dehumanize the very real gazans in your inbox just because their method of asking for aid is more direct and risky.

unfortunately that's exactly what has happened. because israel destroyed all of gaza's more formalized infrastructure, it seems that organized crime and rampant inflation has taken its place. aid is supposed to be free, but in order to save for evacuation or the cost of living, people have started selling them at an inflated price. and aid that is truly free attracts intense, large crowds that are dangerous to navigate.

this was posted on abc a few days ago

it's pure, unrestrained capitalism. i've had multiple palestinians describe this situation to me confidence. that's why everything's so expensive now. why people have to rent out tiny plots of land for their tents to sit on, why my friend @siraj2024 still has to buy tarps to cover the broken windows of the overpriced bombed out apartment he rented, and why a bag of flour can cost a thousand bucks in the north.

even before israel closed and then bombed the rafah crossing, the egyptian hala travel agency was only allowing people to cross the border if they paid a hefty $5000 USD per adult / $2500 USD per child bribe. it denies doing this, but the hundreds of stories from palestinians say otherwise.

with regard to the economy, here in america we saw something similar happen in the wake of hurricane helene and milton. the podcaster margaret killjoy describes how she saw dual economies rise after asheville was fully cut off from the rest of the country - some people offered each other supplies for free in a sort of mutual aid honor system, and some people required payment when they lent supplies because they themselves needed to buy stuff for their families. these dual economies exist in gaza too. and this means they all still need money to survive.

[snekdood]

the stereotype of rwingers becoming trans and then trying to become leftists shouldnt be a "ewww you're morally impure and havent been a perfect progressive since you were a fetus like I have" type of thing, if anything it should open up a broader conversation on how a lot of people amab are basically from day one being indoctrinated into the right thus making it harder for people to accept themselves and thats very concerning and we need to do something to stop this.