#i have a lot of feelings about harrow and i'm frankly terrified to keep reading the series

[taytei]

finally finished the first book after reading it off and on again for like 2 years

[problemnyatic]

With all this said and still on my mind, I feel like I would be remiss to gloss over the epidemic of learned helplessness that comes with this. I stand by what I've said. Counteracting the larger scale issue of how much we don't know because we were never taught is fucking difficult, and I think we largely need to be afforded a lot of grace given the circumstances.

But at the same time, I see a frankly harrowing amount of folks out there who seem too terrified to even begin looking right in front of them, completely overwhelmed by the mere prospect that the information they lack will need to be searched for.

An example our girlfriend used comes to mind: When you see a post explaining some kind of thing, and you open the notes to read the replies. You find someone asking a question, sometimes one that was answered in the post, and, graciously, op or someone else replies to them with an answer.

and then you scroll down 5 replies and see the same question verbatim from someone else.

This one goes out to the folks who read the previous reblog and felt seen; You cannot let yourself be intimidated into inaction by the feeling of not knowing. Please, please take the time to at least check your immediate vicinity to see if you can't find the answers to your questions before asking others to bring the information directly to your feet.

There's two major aspects to actually doing something about the ignorance epidemic here- Those who actually have the information have to be fucking nice about it. I said it before, but i reiterate: it is not a moral failing to never have been told something. And contributing to the shame of ignorance only further ensures that those that need to learn will never try to.

The other part is that those of us who've been failed by our education need to slow down, take a breath, and just.. look. If we do find ourselves with a question, try to see if we can't find the answer ourselves. Ask ourselves if someone else might have the same question, and see if they've asked it already. Check to see if it actually can be answered with a quick google, or by wikipedia or something. Other people's energy is a resource that can be depleted, and while it's not a moral failing to need help, it will only hurt this overarching issue to be a part of the crowd asking the same questions of someone over and over.

Knowing where to start is kind of a nightmare, but "right here" is never a bad answer. If you make some kind of mistake or fuck up along the way, that's okay. Literally the point here is that you're still learning. If someone's being a dick to you about it, it's gonna hurt, and I'm sorry- try to keep in mind that this is them being a dick about it, and that that is not the same as you deserving it just because someone saw fit to treat you that way. You don't need to internalize everything others say or do to you just because it happened, okay? Think about it, definitely don't just dismiss everything that makes you feel bad or ashamed, but don't let it stop you from trying to learn and improve yourself either.

Everything is an opportunity. To learn, to improve yourself, to grow. Try to make the most of every chance you get, see these opportunities as positive things! And don't forget that "growth" means resting too. The hand the world has dealt us is apocalyptically unfair, but we still have to play it like we mean it, yeah? If we're kind to ourselves, kind to each other, and compassionate to the fact that these are the cards everyone's been given, maybe there will be fewer reasons to be frustrated with each other as time goes on.

stupid fucking american, just do your research, it's not like it's hard. You were supposed to check your shit before just spouting whatever bullshit you thought you knew, idiot. Nevermind that research itself has become an agonizing slog of fighting the dense, rancid spectre of the internet's rotting, bloated, still-living corpse along the uphill battle against a cavalcade of mental illnesses that make the act of sifting through visually identical information and picking through it for vague, far from self-evident signs of low information integrity agonizing as hell, just fucking pick up the slack of two decades of life that were wasted being failed by a national institution more interested in turning you into a factory floor soldier than setting you up for success, idiot lol