#changing conclusions

[autumn-may]

Mostly spoiler free summary of my viewing experience

[frogsandfries]

So honestly

This has just kind of been on my mind, between some of the stuff I used to think about, triggered by some recent activities here on Tumblr, and kind of culminated by a video that I'm watching on YouTube from a handful of months ago.

I don't really have a thesis, just some random thoughts. More below the cut because this is a full-on essay.

About ten or so years ago, I think over-population was a much greater concern than I think/understand it has mellowed into. So let's kind of start at the beginning of my thought process on this:

To begin, over-population is kind of a scary thought. There's only so much water, only so much space that can be reasonably occupied by humans--we can't realistically expect to have massive, both sprawling and towering metropolises in the middle of the ocean. The more human bodies there are locking up this precious resource of water, and also needing to consume regular quantities of water, the less free water there is for other bodies to drink. Kind of scary, right?

But I'm not sure if it's just gaining some distance, or putting the pieces together or whatnot, but I've realized for a long time that all species have natural built in defenses against just straight-up blasting all of our resources. Obviously, we, living, carbon-based genetic organisms existing on the limited resource that is the planet earth, we don't want to consume ourselves into oblivion. That's not very genetically fit.

So.

One of the solutions that I remember kind of locking onto as an older teen, barely an adult, as gay people became part of my reality and I realized that people were upset about gay people, yada, yada, early 2010's drama. I heard about that, what, first gay penguin couple in the zoo that hatched that egg, and I was like

Ohhhh! Gay people, in a smaller community, they wouldn't be reproducing, but they could act "as a village", you know 'it takes a village to raise a child'. They could theoretically still have participated in the community, as we see in history that they often did. My very very cold analysis of the 'purpose' of gay people in communities, was that they would choose to not compete for resources and instead be a resource. About a decade, very objectively, I think I still generally agree, from an evolutionary standpoint removed from 'human things' like humanities and science and culture and that kind of stuff, gay members of a species still deserve to socialize and have love and culture and community and be parts of society--otherwise they wouldn't exist, as they would have no purpose.

Actually, it was also about this time that I become intent on what people did before capitalism, before you could just buy your bed in a nursing home and/or lock your aging and possibly decrepit parents away to be forgotten. Like, why would our species have old people if.....like, they're just meant to be locked away in old people homes?? That doesn't make any sense evolutionarily.

I didn't really have my parents' parents as part of my life, so I really didn't understand what old people might contribute to a family or community. Anyway. I recently had a paper suggested to me in my news feed that seemed to posit exactly that, so.....great job science? Or am I just a fucking weirdo obsessed with the idea of science and too floofy to pursue the theses to all my stupid science/evolution hypotheses. Good science does take time and is willing to change its opinions. I just don't think I have the temperament to be a proper scientist.

So even though babies can't necessarily agree or consent to being born and having to exist, there does appear to be some kind of checks-and-balances system, this silent....agreement? That this portion of humans are infertile and this portion of humans will just have no interest in the opposite sex and for the most part, not reproduce, in theory. And then of course, there are just the regular hets who are absolutely not interested in babies at all.

I guess my thing is, I'm mildly obsessed with 'finding my place' (I mean, aren't we all, all of us who don't feel like we have, and maybe even some of us who are confident we have??). Humans are social creatures, so I don't think there's actually one of us (yes, even sociopathic maniacs who commit genocide or adults who have come under the, ummm, mistaken understanding that children are sexual beings) who doesn't belong on the chart somewhere.

Additionally, intrinsically as a species, we aren't suicidal. We want to continue as organisms, to reproduce and evolve. So on the balance, each of us, elderly, gay, disabled, uninterested in children, infertile, etc, we all have a place, a purpose in our communities. And somehow--and this is what I'd be really fascinated to learn more about--somehow we all combine perfectly and seem to understand when the population is good where it is, and when we're secure enough that we can reproduce less and we don't need to be having fifteen kids in hopes that one or two make it two adulthood.

So, yeah, mass efforts of de-population, at this point, they only target countries that are still stabilizing to the twenty-first century. The US and much of the 'developed' world/economies, our populations are stabilizing, for the most part. And it is weird and, at the very least, uncomfortable, to stand here, with my fantastic vista of the world, and say, hey, we need to cut the population of the earth.

When we as a species, we've already agreed to do that. We're working on it.

I don't think I, myself, personally, have ever been very...genocidal.

I mean, I think genocide is dumb. As a teen, there is no humanly possible way I could have remarked on all the values one populace contributes to all other populaces. I'm not sure I could do that now, but genetically--we all evolved the way we did because it was beneficial. What if, in wiping out an entire population, we lose something genetically very important, something that would, at best, take dozens of generations to get back--time that our species probably wouldn't have.

That's just the utilitarian view.

Then there's the humanitarian view--the arts, culture, language, all the trickle-down impacts of language on thought and culture and perception. Stories, which yes, I know fall under arts and culture. The perceptions of each of these cultures, if those cultures could get some kind of megaphone handed to them, they might contribute something, if not today, then tomorrow, which might change.....something. It could be small and have a knock-on effect. It could be tremendous right out of the gate.

But it wouldn't be right to eliminate that either.

So.

How do you...solve over-population?

See above: We as a species want to continue to propagate and develop and evolve and keep passing on our genes.

We are, I think pretty obviously, a rather fit species. We're no alligators and crocodiles; we're no sharks or sponges. But we did rather conquer the planet, and I hope that says something about our ability to keep specie'ing.

I don't disagree that over-population is a bit of an issue, but for the past ten years or so, whenever it's been brought to my attention, I've struggled--and I know I'm just one person--to think of a way to preserve extent life with dignity, without some kind of lottery or some shit, to say, oh yeah, we're going to just fucking execute this entire like, fucking east Asian tribe, and then this central African tribe, and uh, yeah, these poor freaks living in the Arctic circle *dusts palms*. Tadaaa! Problem solved!!

No. Problem not solved holy shit what the fuck no!!!

Because the humans that are presently here on this planet--if it weren't for capitalism, we could fucking feed and clothe and shelter and doctor every single last one of them. I mean, okay, I've heard about the problem with eliminating, what is it, polio? In...what, central or like, south-ish Africa? But leaving off those kinds of hurdles, we have the prosperity as a species to take care of our own, ourselves.

In fact, that's the real fucking problem here.

Not over-population. Which, like, is that a dog-whistle? Because it's starting to feel like one.

The real fucking problem is (uber)rich, generally men, in fucking board rooms, insulated from fucking reality. Honestly, we should drag these fuckers, suits, heels, expensive watches and all, out of their fucking towers and down with the poor fuckers picking garbage off the sides of busy roads and down to ocean beaches to pick plastic out of the sand. Once each of them have collected at least their body-weight (huehuehue; get it, because of the obesity crisis? They'd have to collect more garbage? Okay, I'll stop, sorry) in garbage, then they can fucking.....idk whatever, cry about how some thug stole their expensive watch?

These fucking....CEOs and shit, they literally don't live in fucking consensus reality!! And they're spearheading the destruction of the planet, for fucking what, a hundredth watch and a seven property and a fifth super-yacht???? What....just....what the fuck do these things do for anyone?? What does it do for a person to never have to wear the same outfit twice, to have a closet bigger than most people's bedrooms, to have no idea what a fucking loaf of bread costs??? What does it do to have more vacation homes than......than fucking what???

And to bring this point home, what the fuck are these fucking anonymous boardrooms of assholes doing buying up apartment buildings in cities that they've never fucking been to, never even mind fucking lived in? You have no idea what this city is like, you have no fucking idea what this community, this culture is like. Who the fucking fuck are you??? You don't fucking know me, I can't bang on your door in the middle of the night because your shitty contractor didn't actually fix my toilet. You don't even know your own fucking contractors!?!?!

Anyway, at this point, if you've read this far, I'm getting off topic. I've come a long way from being at the back of the over-population boat. I think there is good evidence that we continue to be a fit species.....well, in some aspects...and then we have sociopaths who have been allowed to acquire massive resources. Soooooo, maybe if I had to choose anyone to put on the de-population block.... I actually do have a group in mind who does not appear to actually be benefitting the species.

[reasonsforhope]

People ask me sometimes how I'm so confident that we can beat climate change.

There are a lot of reasons, but here's a major one: it would take a really, really long time for Earth to genuinely become uninhabitable for humans.

Humans have, throughout history, carved out a living for themselves in some of the most harsh, uninhabitable corners of the world. The Arctic Circle. The Sahara. The peaks of the Himalayas. The densest, most tropical regions of the Amazon Rainforest. The Australian Outback. etc. etc.

Frankly, if there had been a land bridge to Antarctica, I'm pretty sure we would have been living there for thousands of years, too. And in fact, there are humans living in Antarctica now, albeit not permanently.

And now, we're not even facing down apocalypse, anymore. Here's a 2022 quote from the author of The Uninhabitable Earth, David Wallace-Wells, a leader on climate change and the furthest thing from a climate optimist:

"The most terrifying predictions [have been] made improbable by decarbonization and the most hopeful ones practically foreclosed by tragic delay. The window of possible climate futures is narrowing, and as a result, we are getting a clearer sense of what’s to come: a new world, full of disruption but also billions of people, well past climate normal and yet mercifully short of true climate apocalypse. Over the last several months, I’ve had dozens of conversations — with climate scientists and economists and policymakers, advocates and activists and novelists and philosophers — about that new world and the ways we might conceptualize it. Perhaps the most capacious and galvanizing account is one I heard from Kate Marvel of NASA, a lead chapter author on the fifth National Climate Assessment: “The world will be what we make it.”" -David Wallace-Wells for the New York Times, October 26, 2022

If we can adapt to some of the harshest climates on the planet - if we could adapt to them thousands of years ago, without any hint of modern technology - then I have every faith that we can adjust to the world that is coming.

What matters now is how fast we can change, because there is a wide, wide gap between "climate apocalypse" and "no harm done." We've already passed no harm done; the climate disasters are here, and they've been here. People have died from climate disasters already, especially in the Global South, and that will keep happening.

But as long as we stay alive - as long as we keep each other alive - we will have centuries to fix the effects of climate change, as much as we possibly can.

And looking at how far we've come in the past two decades alone - in the past five years alone - I genuinely think it is inevitable that we will overcome climate change.

So, we're going to survive climate change, as a species.

What matters now is making sure that every possible individual human survives climate change as well.

What matters now is cutting emissions and reinventing the world as quickly as we possibly can.

What matters now is saving every life and livelihood and way of life that we possibly can.

[starry-bi-sky]

Stillborn danyal al ghul au incorrect quotes - dpxdc au

Vlad and Danny, fighting for the nth time this month: Danyal, exhausted: hey if i call you dad will you like. Stop. I have a test tomorrow. Vlad, has a parental bone in EVERY part of his body: *immediately stopping* Vlad: What do you mEAN YOU HAVE A TEST. WHY DIDN'T YOU LEAD WITH THAT-- Danny: BECAUSE YOU'RE TRYING TO KILL DR. FENTON AGAIN, VLADIMIR.

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Danny, flopping into bed facefirst: i need sleep or rehab. again Tucker (maybe?? I haven't decided yet who he's friends with): i thought you were clean Danny, into a pillow: not if this keeps up.

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Tucker: favorite superhero go Sam: Wonder Woman Danny: the Flash Tucker: Okay Sam's is obvious but, Danny I would've thought you'd say like, Martian Manhunter or Superman or Starfire. But Flash?? Danny: i had a foster in Central City for a few years and met him, he's a really nice guy. He made me promise to invite him to my high school graduation and is part of the reason I made it to rehab and ended up getting rehomed and picked up by the Fentons. Danny: I have a hoodie with his logo on it in my closet, i saved up to buy it and its the first thing I got with the allowance the Fentons got me

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Danny wearing three layers and a scarf in the middle of summer: *shivering* Sam: how are you cold you're literally made of lava Danny, hissing: lava cools at contact with the air and I'm trying to keep my body temperature at a reasonable level, SAM. Tucker, touching Danny: you feel warm to me Danny: to YOU

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Danny:...i could eat lava Tucker: Sam: Danny: Tucker: do it. no balls Danny, getting up: bET--

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Danny: Dash: The Both Of Them: *under the bleachers to smoke/vape* Danny, smokes: I wont tell if you won't tell Dash, vapes: ....deal

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Danny, breaking into Vlad's lab: YOU FUCKER QUIT-- what the hell is that Vlad, working on his newest invention: Language. ....And it's something I'm working on, go away Danny: what? no, fuck you. You're trying to kill Jack again and this looks interesting. I was gonna come beat you but now I'm curious what the hell this is (Vlad spends a good hour explaining what he's doing before they start arguing and Danny starts a fight)

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Danny laying on the ground staring the ceiling, feeling like shit: Jazz, popping by his room: ,,,what'cha doing, Danny? Danny: Danny, internally: 'Jazz says i should be more open' Danny: considering the benefits of relapsing Jazz, immediately stepping into the room: oh okay so lets talk.

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Danny, meeting Robin as Phantom for the first time unaware of his identity and his own birthright: Robin: Phantom: Phantom: fuck you Robin, a 12 year old: fUCK YOU

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Vlad: Jack Fenton iced me out of my early adulthood and got you, his foster son, killed by his own invention. He is a danger to society and I personally want him dead. Danny: okay, cool motive still murder. Danny, louder: I DONT NEED YOU TO TAKE REVENGE ON MY BEHALF

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Vlad, grabbing Danny's shoulders: aren't you tired of being nice Danny: Vlad: don't you want to go apeshit Danny, in the american foster system since infancy, was in rehab at 11 years old, has been fucked over metaphorically, emotionally, physically, ten times over: Danny: i feel like we need to have a talk

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DP/Regular DPDC Vlad: *gripping by the shoulders* DPDC Vlad: how Stillborn Vlad: what DP/DC Vlad: how are you getting him to like you. Stillborn Vlad:,,, well first off i don't torture him so jot that down Stillborn Vlad: second of all, like is a strong word. Stillborn Vlad: Daniel only likes me on tuesdays and when i show him how to make fireballs

[jimbodyson]

nothing is worse than watching something and genuinely enjoying it and how they changed things and then seeing how other people like hate it like okay fuck me i guess i guess i won't be sharing any opinions just cus im gonna get dismembered for it

[chemicalarospec]

one of the posts on this website that haunts me is the one that claims neurotypicals instinctively know to read faster by reading the first and last paragraphs of an article and then skimming it if confused. I can't even begin to understand how someone would form such a bizarre belief.

[cecoeur]

[iguessthisisanewobsession]

Tim was four days into a sleep deficit so he felt that to say that this predicament was his fault was a bit of a reach.

For it to be his fault he would have had to cognizant of the last 16 hours.

All he wanted to do was take a power nap in the nearest closest durring the Waynetech gala but nooo Bruce had to be taken hostage by the Joker.

So he did what he thought would work best and shoved uncle Clark into the nearest emergency bat storage and told him to suit up.

Maybe he looked a bit more confused than normal but they didn’t need a reporter they needed Batman!

That being said wasn’t uncle Clark supposed to be off-world?

Oh no.

———————

Jack honestly had no clue what was happening for the last six months so when he was told to be Batman he merely just shrugged as the frankly exhausted teen left him to his own.

With his son turning out to be part ghost to the government hunting down his said son and having to move shop halfway across the continent.

This might as well happen.

Grinning like a kid on Christmas, Jack plopped on the finishing touch.

“Oh Danno is not going to believe this!”

Raising a cloaked arm with a flourish Jack struck a pose.

“Alrighty Jack enough messing around! Time to save the party, Fenton style!

Shifting his feet, Jack took a deep breath before smoothing his face the best he could. After all, couldn’t have a smiling Batman! Before walking out the room and taking running leap through the wall to the streets of Gotham before grappling to the nearest building.

[claitea]

i've had these scenarios written down since volo's debut in pokemon masters and i just really wanted to scribble them down and finally release them

[aroaceleovaldez]

because in TKC most Eyes match the gender of the god they host (and just in general in-universe it seems most immortals and hosts in possession/possession-like scenarios are the same gender) this implies that the two outliers we know of - Zia (rejected hosting a goddess but was able to host a god instead) and Percy (Eye of Nekhbet) - may be trans. so uh happy pride to Zia and Percy specifically

[randomgirlyoudontknow]

thinking about how nezha laments “oh. but history moves in such cruel circles” right before stabbing rin in the back at the end of the dragon republic and she later answers with “oh, but history moved in such vicious circles” before forcing nezha to stab her in the heart at the end of the burning god

[astrabear]

It was Armand who said that the boy from San Francisco was still in there, and that he and Louis could work together to get Daniel to say what happened next.

The same Armand who brought Lestat to his coven because he knew Lestat would blow it all up.

And so (I am guessing, for now, with the knowledge that this show may go somewhere completely different) it's not "hey I'm back from chasing down my lunch, oh no they have found me out!" so much as "this is taking too long, why don't I give them some alone time so they can speed things up." I don't know why Armand wants to blow things up with Louis, although I can certainly think of possible reasons. But I'll be very surprised if this wasn't entirely intentional.

[caeslxys]

I’ve mentioned this elsewhere but it feels relevant again in light of the most recent episode. Something that’s really fascinating to me about Orym’s grief in comparison to the rest of the hells’ grief is that his is the youngest/most fresh and because of that tends to be the most volatile when it is triggered (aside from FCG, who was two and obviously The Most volatile when triggered.)

As in: prior to the attack on Zephrah, Orym was leading a normal, happy, casual life! with family who loved him and still do! Grief was something that was inflicted upon him via Ludinus’ machinations, whereas with characters like Imogen or Ashton, grief has been the background tapestry of their entire lives. And I think that shows in how the rest of them are largely able to, if not see past completely (Imogen/Laudna/Chetney) then at least temper/direct their vitriol or grief (Ashton/Fearne/Chetney again) to where it is most effective. (There is a glaring reason, for example, that Imogen scolded Orym for the way he reacted to Liliana and not Ashton. Because Ashton’s anger was directed in a way that was ultimately protective of Imogen—most effective—and Orym’s was founded solely in his personal grief.)

He wants Imogen to have her mom and he wants Lilliana to be salvageable for Imogen because he loves Imogen. But his love for the people in his present actively and consistently tend to conflict with the love he has for the people in his past. They are in a constant battle and Orym—he cannot fathom losing either of them.

(Or, to that point, recognize that allowing empathy to take root in him for the enemy isn't losing one of them.)

It is deeply poignant, then, that Orym’s grief is symbolized by both a sword and shield. It is something he wields as a blade when he feels his philosophy being threatened by certain conversational threads (as he believes it is one of the only things he has left of Will and Derrig, and is therefore desperately clinging onto with both bloody hands even if it makes him, occasionally, a hypocrite), but also something he can use in defense of the people he presently loves—if that provocative, blade-grief side of him does not push them—or himself—away first.

(it won’t—he is as loved by the hells as he loves them. he just needs to—as laudna so beautifully said—say and hear it more often.)

[gunsatthaphan]

THK Countdown:

[kazz-brekker]

finished reading the golden enclaves and idk if this is a hot take but i feel like it had better exploration of the importance of communal unity and the necessity of societal change than like 99% of books that people like to classify as hopepunk these days simply for not just being like "working together is so good, i love community, together we can accomplish so much and change the world for the better <3" and was instead like "yeah, this work is going to be really fucking hard. it's going to suck, and it's going to be unpleasant, and people are going to hate you for doing it. and maybe you'll feel like giving up because it feels like too much, and being complacent and just going along with the status quo would be easiest. but you still need to do it, because it's what needs to be done, and eventually the world will be better for it."

[maroisedot]

do you ever read a fanfiction that just completely consumes your whole being? That´s how I felt reading Land of the Living by @captainbrookeworm . Honestly this fic has rewired my brain, cleansed my soul and gave me a new purpose for living, I´m not even joking. The characteritzation and the banter and plot twists and the reoccuring themes and the emotion and the humour and the awesome plot and the character dynamics and the writing style itself and just EVERYTHING about it is so so great, it might be one of my favourite fanfictions ever, I can´t recommend it enough!!!!!!!

There were so many amazing scenes that stood out to me, I couldn´t possibly draw every single one because then I would just be drawing the whole thing.

and umm... yes, needless to say I´m absolutely obsessed with this wonderful fic and will be reading it for a third time now, byeeeeee