#but it's not because something else is necessarily good

[uncle-fruity]

Also, like... I get that there is a lot of anxiety about being seen as morally good & fighting for everyone at every turn, but! Crucially, the people who try to guilt trip you or judge you off your Tumblr presence don't fucking know you. They don't know what you do off Tumblr. They may not know any other social media that you DO use for your politics and heavy posting. And, tbh, at a certain level of offline activism & direct action, it is actively dangerous for you to be posting about what you do online, so a perceived lack of interest or dedication online does not necessarily translate to the efforts you put in to causes you care about.

Fact of the matter is, YOU are the only one who knows what you get up to. If it's not as much as you think you should be doing, that's for you to assess and change. If you feel like you're doing enough, or if you feel like taking on more responsibility in activism would overwhelm you or burn you out, that's okay! You know your limits better than anyone else. You get to set your priorities. And if you really want to help with social justice causes, you HAVE to take care of yourself. Anger, fear, and guilt are not sustainable motivations to drive a movement. You NEED places to relax and have fun and not think about how bleak things can get. You NEED to have places to retreat, enjoy yourself, and remind yourself that it's all worth fighting for.

I know this, because I'm in my 30s now. When I was in my early 20s, I was friends with a lot of folks who went hard during the Ferguson protests, and while many of them are still active in their activism, almost none of them are operating on the same level as they used to. All of them are burnt out & depressed. I spend a lot of my energy urging them to take care of their most basic needs. We also have a problem with a lot of older activists being too broken & traumatized to continue organizing. And part of the problem is people within the movement encouraging people to push past their limits until they have nothing left to give. Or just having no support systems in place to help people recover while actively judging people who need them & can't continue without them.

And, like, it's hard, because it's easy to start feeling like no one cares about the stuff you care about when you're out there trying to make change -- especially true if all your activism is online posting & raising awareness. It can feel like you're talking to a void or a brick wall. The idea that you are so stressed & strung out & never let yourself take a break from the harsh reality of the world while there are people who have the audacity to make time to enjoy their lives and put their efforts into other activities that aren't directly related to The Cause -- well, that's why a lot of people resort to guilt trips. I know I did, too, when I was younger and freshly angry. And I know that those guilt trips did nothing to convince anyone of anything. In fact, it was the constant guilt trips that made me retreat from those online groups. Where they might have had any and all skills I could offer, they instead made me feel like shit for doing what I could handle at the time. And even though I knew guilt tripping was a major manipulation & abuse tactic, I still resorted to it and, in doing so, I felt wrong. Like I betrayed some of my core values by trying to make people feel so bad that they would suddenly realize that they should be ashamed & join the movement headfirst. It just... doesn't work that way. A guilt trip will turn people off. If you want people to join a movement or be more active in a movement they are already part of, it is so much better to encourage them to come with you to organized events or give them something tangible to do that they can actually accomplish. And if you're just talking about posting online, well... that is not the most important thing to focus on, and is a really bad measure to judge someone's morality.

All that to say, a guilt trip is usually a manifestation of the desperation folks are feeling. It's not right to guilt trip folks, and if you're at that point that you feel like that's the only thing that will get people to change and care, then I'm sorry to say you are probably on the verge of your own burnout and you need to take a break. Please don't let people make you feel bad for not being angry or on your activism shit 24/7. And don't judge yourself harshly when you need to have boundaries online. The best tactic will always be community building and working with people & their various skills on their level. Compassion and encouragement go so much farther than guilt.

No matter what a post on tumblr tries to tell you, your moral and ethical stances will never be determined by what you reblog and what you scroll past. Don’t let manipulation tactics force you into doing anything you don’t want to do.

[rosemarytrash]

I know it's not really a thing you're obsessed with anymore but like, I just need to shout into the void: we deserved at least a season's worth of Amity acting like she did during Wing It Like Witches before they got together. Just completely tripping over herself with gay.

no because you're absolutely right. lumity had a funny way of reigniting my passion for silly lesbian shenanigans i think. i was like hyper into TOH for a minute there lol. i know it got cut short and lumity wasn't necessarily a focus of the show--dana described it as a sweet queer story in the midst of everything else, i'm paraphrasing but something like that--but best believe i would have been PLUGGED IN for an entire full length season of amity toning down on being mean and bending to her mother's wishes, learning to be rebellious and finding what really matters to her, with her crush on luz growing through all of that. PLUS luz's own crush blossoming and her ignorance of the possibility that this crazy cool witch girl could be into her?????? FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK god it was so good and yea if that had happened for like 12-20+ more episodes. i'd've watched. i'd've watched all of them. and eaten it up happily. merrily, even. it could've gone on so long that twitter could've called it queerbaiting and i'd've been like yeah and i'm a baited queer it's too good

anyway your treat for screaming into the void is

[latteenightss]

Hii! Just another rant about obx. I wanna share my predictions about season 5 and what I think they’re gonna do

Chase Stokes (John B) mentioned that season 5 will be their best one, which it could be but I think for a lot of viewers just the fact that JJ won’t be there at all might ruin the season if yk what I mean.

And now to my predictions

1. I think season 5 will be Kiara’s season, with the way season 4 ended it’s obvious she’s gonna lash out and go through a lot. She’s gonna need to deal with grief and her revenge era might be a bit brutal 😊

Also maybe she will be somehow related to the treasure? Or just connected slightly. Like season 1 we had John B, season 2 it was Pope. Season 3 now- idk I guess Sarah but Kie also had a bigger role, like when that dude kidnapped her and then she got sent off to that camp but that’s it, then her plot line was about Jiara, and season 4 was obv JJ.

And since we’re talking about JJ, y’all.. ik it’s hard but he’s not coming back 😭 obx is not supernatural, a wish won’t bring him back to life. Like I don’t think JJ will crawl out of sand.

I generally love the idea of Kie finally having her main character moments and just making her more important to the story.

2. We will get Riara. And I definitely don’t mean that in a romantic way because that’s not happening! Madison (the actress of Kie) hates Riara 😭 but I think we will see them as duo and just get more of those tension scenes that we got so far. I feel like that might be a way the writers will try to “replace” Jiara. Jiara was a huge ad for the show and lately so has been Riara.

I feel like almost eveyone loves the tension between those two and the writers know that. Also Rafe breaking up with Sofia- yea they’re definitely building up to some sort of storyline with Kiara and Rafe. The amount of people obsessed with Riara is insane and obv they have to give us something so..

Riara s5 is pretty much guaranteed.

3. I wanna talk about Sarah and John B- obviously a huge plot line will be their child. I don’t know if the child will be born at the end or during season 5. How I see it, I’m leaning more toward the end but we’ll see.

There’s not much else that can really happen with them. John b will also be in a revenge era since his best friend was killed and Sarah will definitely get closer with Rafe, that hug they shared was so cute and needed but otherwise I really don’t know! I doubt they’ll kill them off. I was thinking that the way John B narrates obx maybe that’s him in the future telling his child about their story? That would make sense honestly.

4. Pope and Cleo umm so. I honestly am not as interested in their story line and it’s interesting because I have no idea what they will do with them.

I think Pope might be kind of more cold in season 5- as we know he shot a person right in the head, and he was so scared about that. Also he lost JJ- his best friend and they want to send him to the military. Dude is not doing the best! 💀

Cleo.. I don’t know she’s such a complicated character, she went through a lot in her life but I doubt they’ll really expand her character in season 5.

5. Rafe!!!! His character development this season was insane. In my opinion he should stick with the pogues but I wouldn’t be surprised if he somehow betrayed them. That’s Rafe- he’s not a good person but I wouldn’t say he’s necessarily bad..

Like I already said in obx 5 there will be Rafe and Kie duo, and more of Sarah and Rafe for sure. But maybe he will connect with the other pogues too.

I just don’t want the development to be thrown away, I hope they make him stick with the pogues.

6. And now finally the ending/possible deaths.

The characters who in my opinions are most in danger are: Kiara and Rafe

Especially Kiara.. here’s the thing, since JJ is dead and she already went through the whole group 😭 what can her ending actually be? Like ok she could just end up alone with her friends, her family but in my opinion her death would make sense. She would be with JJ and I think in general it is a good end for her.

Rafe like i mentioned is a complicated character, it would be so easy for the writers to just kill him off at the end. But I would be honestly so mad!!! Like no JJ and no Rafe 😭. Yeah I don’t want them to do that but at the same time, I think there’s definitely a possibility.

Sarah and John B definitely safe in my opinion.

Cleo and Pope- now I don’t know, I think they’re safe. Maybe Cleo.. but still I don’t think so.

Groff- definitely done for! ❤️ I hope Kiara tortures him to death 🥰

[echo84]

At its most fundamental level, "prejudice" is literally just pre-judging someone based on an initial, superficial impression of them.

Prejudice is something that happens naturally to humans. It evolved as a survival trait - it's pattern recognition. If you observe a big fluffy kitty eating your bestie, then it's a good survival strategy to avoid any and all big fluffy kitties, rather than give each one the benefit of the doubt. (Maybe _this kitty_ just wants pats?).

That is where prejudice comes from. It evolved as a survival mechanism, but like many evolved survival mechanisms, it is often maladaptive.

If your default position towards any person is that they are fundamentally bad because of something that you can identify at a glance, then you have a prejudice. Whether that is race, or skin colour, or sex, or gender, or any of a million things.

And to be clear, having a prejudice doesn't fundamentally make you bad or evil or wrong. Like I just said, it's a natural human trait. However, if you act on that prejudice without taking a moment to evaluate it, to challenge it, then that is an issue. Are you against this person for a real reason, or just because they slightly remind you of someone else who you were against?

I often hear people wondering how conservative women can vote for Trump. "The Right hates women, don't they? Why would they do that? Why would anyone vote for someone who hates them?"

But if the default perception of the Left is that they hate white men, then why would any white man want to vote left? It's the same equation, just a different sex.

If you dislike or condemn a person, or the members of a group of people, based on their observed behaviour, then that is a reasonable opinion, not a prejudice.

But if you dislike or condemn someone or a group of people based on an _immutable_ or _superficial_ trait, then you are engaging in a prejudice, and that's something you might want to stop and contemplate more carefully.

People are people. They are messy and complicated, and while those immutable traits definitely shape them, they do not necessarily define them. When we learn to care about people first, then leftist values come naturally.

I couldn't have said it better myself.

[heartfullofscience]

Okay okay I'm really normal about all that new Sampo dialogue so uh here's some thoughts

So with regard to curse theory here's what I'm thinkin: whatever is going on there, be it a curse or whatever, is prevented by his mask.

My evidence for this is the dramatic change in tone of the dialogue options the Trailblazer has. At one point an option is even "You're such a good friend" or something like that, which is completely contrary to anything we've been able to say to him before. Clearly something has changed, and the only thing that we know about thus far is that he (presumably) now has his mask back.

He's also being much more overt in making references to the Fools. As far as I recall he made almost no allusions to them at all during the Belobog quest, but he talks about the tavern constantly during the pop up shop event. I don't know that that necessarily means anything, but I think it would be interesting to look at this as more evidence of him being aware of the plot -- we now have confirmation that he's a Fool, so he doesn't really have to hide it anymore. It's possible that now he's only using veiled language because he doesn't want anyone else in Belobog to know. That or he's just doing it for fun.

Anyway uh. Yeag

I might look through the dialogue again and see if I have any more thoughts on it but idk if I'll have anything to say that hasn't been said already so ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

[imai-zumi]

i think one of the best things you can do in terms of how you see the world is trying your best to unlearn classifications that place humans into a binary

X is Y therefore Z can not be Y is something that can only limit thinking and, frankly, cause harm

that's not to say that you can't think certain things apply to one group and not another, but the idea that it necessarily needs to be so should be examined if only to see why that might be

[ironunderstands]

The way some of yall mischaracterize Ratio as being stoic in chill when in reality he is 24/7 resisting the urge to rip everyone around him a new one is crazy to me like. He cares so much, so much. It’s unhealthy, he loses the idgaf war every time because Ratio is the least nonchalant person ever like

He was this close to breaking character and throttling Sunday like you cannot tell me he wasn’t planning a murder in this scene. Ratio straight up calls Sunday a crazy bitch but everyone brushed it aside 😭

Honestly his entire conversation with Screwllum is just him tweaking, watch it on YouTube the VAs performance is amazing, you can here just how much He Cares

Genuinely, Aventurine is way better at concealing his true feelings that Ratio. Ratio may be acting for the sake of the plan but the way he truly feels about anything he’s doing always seeps through, it’s why he apologizes to Aventurine in 2.0 in their staged argument scene. It’s why he is as mean to Sunday as he can be. It’s why him pretending that he “hates” Aventurine makes him act so silly. Ratio can’t fully commit to the bit, he can’t force himself to not care or to be someone he isn’t, because fundamentally Ratio CARES and that is something he is incapable of hiding, alabaster bust or not.

The problem is that him expressing his care is often done in a rude and/or blunt manner which people tend to interpret as stoicism or apathy when it’s anything but. Ratio’s vial that he gives to Aventurine is short, sweet and gets straight to the point, because that’s the easiest way for Ratio to express his emotions, even if it’s often detrimental for him and anyone else around him. However Aventurine understands him quite well, and knows that although brief, Ratio telling him to “stay alive, survive this and keep on living” is how he truly feels towards Aventurine, and that’s enough to keep him going.

Underneath Ratios carefully crafted marble facade is a man who cares so much and is so bad at expressing it and I wish the community in general, especially Aventio shippers would acknowledge that more. Ratios true moments of sincerity are brief, but they are anything but stoic. Let the man be soft, it’s in character.

[marketableplushieenthusiast]

So I started typing a comment and realized I had WAY too much to say about Shadow and Omega, so-

(Shadow Generations spoilers below)

I love them all, but their relationship in particular is fascinating to me. They somehow achieved this mutual respect for each other's power, that turned into trust, that turned into care.

Omega is a robot whose main goal is destruction, with an almost childish attitude about it. He regularly dismisses anything unrelated to that goal, be it other objectives, concerns, or even people. You'd think he'd have no capacity for care, and if you asked him, he'd probably claim as much. And yet, Shadow was strong enough that Omega couldn't dismiss him, and now they've worked together so long, he's one of the only organic beings Omega cares about at all, even though he wouldn't put it in those terms.

When Shadow tells him to protect Gerald and Maria, he responds with a blunt fact: he doesn't protect, he destroys. But for Shadow? Well, he'll realign his main directive to fit that request by destroying anything that threatens them. (I guarantee anyone else besides Rouge or Shadow asking for something like that would just get told a robotic version of "Lmao no")

And on SHADOW'S end? I am obsessed with how he treats Omega. Maybe it's because he knows they were both created beings that were then sealed away by people afraid of their power? Then again, Shadow seems to treat robots that aren't making obstacles of themselves pretty decently, period. (Thinking about his team up with Metal in Rivals... Or how he doesn't seem annoyed by Orbot and Cubot and has the option to help them in SxSG...) Maybe Shadow spent enough time thinking he might be a robot that he can't bring himself to treat the sentient ones he runs across as any lesser?

The why fascinates me, but the result? Shadow treats Omega like a friend, not a machine. He worries for him when he's unrepaired in Chronicles. Any smug, power-comparing banter between the two comes off as friendly, not scathing. And Shadow trusts OMEGA with his FAMILY. With MARIA. Not that he wouldn't necessarily trust Rouge, but Omega is the one he asked. Because he knows that if he asks, Omega will try, and he's got the firepower to back it up.

And don't get me started on Omega asking Shadow to go bomb one of Eggman's bases together after Generations. The robot equivalent of "Do you wanna go hang out after this?" Perfection.

(and I say none of this to exclude Rouge - I love her, and her relationship with them is also good great awesome outstanding amazing, I just love robots and go a little insane over these two.)

Thanks anon for the poll!

Polls for the Sonic fandom on just about anything. Share polls you like to get more data. Asks and submissions always open.

[dustykneed]

(tsfs feels anyone? fanart below.)

You've been in his head.

But he says, never faltering, the words,

"I choose the danger."

It is in that moment that you understand:

He could never, would never,

Has never hated you.

Now you realize:

this is what humans refer to as love.

[oidheadh-con-culainn]

had a really interesting convo yesterday about ethics and whether intent or results matters (eg if you tried to make an ethical purchasing choice but the business was actually exploitative as hell, does that "count") and very much came to the conclusion that sure, if you're concerned with your personal immortal soul, as a christian might be, then intention counts. but if what you're focused on is your impact on the world, then intention means nothing if the actions have negative results, right? (that doesn't mean you're to blame for them! you didn't know! but you also don't get "ethics points" for trying, you know?)

and this also got me thinking about the whole christian idea that sinful thoughts are as bad as sinful actions because. they're just not imo. maybe for the sake of your Immortal Soul they are points against you, if that's your jam. but in terms of putting good into the world, in terms of your impact on other people, the ONLY thing that matters is what you choose to do with those thoughts. there is no way that "was kind to someone who was pissing me off, for the sake of community harmony" or "helped an acquaintance with a task even though I felt resentful about the time spent doing that" is a Bad Thing for the world

and it made me wonder how much purity culture and thought policing is rooted in (mostly evangelical) cultural christianity and this idea that ethical choices are an individual thing because what matters is the impact of them on YOUR soul and not, you know, things we do because of what we owe the world around us / because of love for others / because a world where people are trying to put good into it is a hell of a lot nicer to live in than one where people are only worried about themselves

i grew up evangelical but like. fairly mild evangelical and even though there wasn't a big focus on hell and stuff, i definitely fixated on imperfect thoughts and behaviours that were putting absolutely no harm into the world, rather than focusing on what i could do to put good into it, and that individualistic vs outward-focused approach to morality has been something i've grappled with a lot as an adult. but i never really thought about it as simply as this and really that's what it boils down to. are you making the ethical choice because you're trying to put good in the world, or because it would make you a "good person" to do so? because the answer to that 100% defines whether it's the thought or the result that counts

[kindaorangey]

well i'm comforted by the knowledge that book!armand has some faith in the christian god (and, like, that this faith is vital to his character) because it means theres absolutely no fucking way they'd just do that one-to-one in the show and so we're one step closer to an exploration of show!armand's relationship with islam

[theres-whump-in-that-nebula]

I keep remembering that back in the congregation I most recently attended, there is an elder’s wife who is a rockhound for the scientific and aesthetic intrigue, but also believes in crystal healing… which, all things considered, is absolutely fucking bonkers.

[blujayonthewing]

the problem with AI is that it sucks shit but its benefits are actually tangible; every idiot on the block wanted a piece of NFTs and crypto but they still died quickly because they just didn't have legs to get anywhere beyond the immediate unspecific hype, but companies very much can lay off a bunch of artists and writers who take days or weeks or months to work and replace them with a guy who can shit out AI trash in five minutes

[madegeeky]

Hannibal (the TV series) seasons in one sentence:

Season 1: The least amount of police procedural you will ever see in a police procedural.

Season 2: Reins are off now, fuckers, let's do some goddamn character work!

Season 3: Wherein the first half is Hannibal writing fanfiction and the second half has completely new main characters.

[biosh0ck]

i think i should kill myself not necessarily as a desire to be dead but because i think life is incredibly boring and even moments of genuine joy dont particularly make living 70+ years of basically Nothing and Chores worthwhile. i want to see if theres another universe ill go to. and if theres not then at least i dont have to do laundry and to work anymore