#i really fucking hate capitalism

[platonic-cats]

I hate hospitality I hate work I hate my boss I hate capitalism I hate exams I have school.

I want to roll into a ball and hibernate

[inkskinned]

the thing about art is that it was always supposed to be about us, about the human-ness of us, the impossible and beautiful reality that we (for centuries) have stood still, transfixed by music. that we can close our eyes and cry about the same book passage; the events of which aren't real and never happened. theatre in shakespeare's time was as real as it is now; we all laugh at the same cue (pursued by bear), separated hundreds of years apart.

three years ago my housemates were jamming outdoors, just messing around with their instruments, mostly just making noise. our neighbors - shy, cautious, a little sheepish - sat down and started playing. i don't really know how it happened; i was somehow in charge of dancing, barefoot and laughing - but i looked up, and our yard was full of people. kids stacked on the shoulders of parents. old couples holding hands. someone had brought sidewalk chalk; our front walk became a riot of color. someone ran in with a flute and played the most astounding solo i've ever heard in my life, upright and wiggling, skipping as she did so. she only paused because the violin player was kicking his heels up and she was laughing too hard to continue.

two weeks ago my friend and i met in the basement of her apartment complex so she could work out a piece of choreography. we have a language barrier - i'm not as good at ASL as i'd like to be (i'm still learning!) so we communicate mostly through the notes app and this strange secret language of dancers - we have the same movement vocabulary. the two of us cracking jokes at each other, giggling. there were kids in the basement too, who had been playing soccer until we took up the far corner of the room. one by one they made their slow way over like feral cats - they laid down, belly-flat against the floor, just watching. my friend and i were not in tutus - we were in slouchy shirts and leggings and socks. nothing fancy. but when i asked the kids would you like to dance too? they were immediately on their feet and spinning. i love when people dance with abandon, the wild and leggy fervor of childhood. i think it is gorgeous.

their adults showed up eventually, and a few of them said hey, let's not bother the nice ladies. but they weren't bothering us, they were just having fun - so. a few of the adults started dancing awkwardly along, and then most of the adults. someone brought down a better sound system. someone opened a watermelon and started handing out slices. it was 8 PM on a tuesday and nothing about that day was particularly special; we might as well party.

one time i hosted a free "paint along party" and about 20 adults worked quietly while i taught them how to paint nessie. one time i taught community dance classes and so many people showed up we had to move the whole thing outside. we used chairs and coatracks to balance. one time i showed up to a random band playing in a random location, and the whole thing got packed so quickly we had to open every door and window in the place.

i don't think i can tell you how much people want to be making art and engaging with art. they want to, desperately. so many people would be stunning artists, but they are lied to and told from a very young age that art only matters if it is planned, purposeful, beautiful. that if you have an idea, you need to be able to express it perfectly. this is not true. you don't get only 1 chance to communicate. you can spend a lifetime trying to display exactly 1 thing you can never quite language. you can just express the "!!??!!!"-ing-ness of being alive; that is something none of us really have a full grasp on creating. and even when we can't make what we want - god, it feels fucking good to try. and even just enjoying other artists - art inherently rewards the act of participating.

i wasn't raised wealthy. whenever i make a post about art, someone inevitably says something along the lines of well some of us aren't that lucky. i am not lucky; i am dedicated. i have a chronic condition, my hands are constantly in pain. i am not neurotypical, nor was i raised safe. i worked 5-7 jobs while some of these memories happened. i chose art because it mattered to me more than anything on this fucking planet - i would work 80 hours a week just so i could afford to write in 3 of them.

and i am still telling you - if you are called to make art, you are called to the part of you that is human. you do not have to be good at it. you do not have to have enormous amounts of privilege. you can just... give yourself permission. you can just say i'm going to make something now and then - go out and make it. raquel it won't be good though that is okay, i don't make good things every time either. besides. who decides what good even is?

you weren't called to make something because you wanted it to be good, you were called to make something because it is a basic instinct. you were taught to judge its worth and over-value perfection. you are doing something impossible. a god's ability: from nothing springs creation.

a few months ago i found a piece of sidewalk chalk and started drawing. within an hour i had somehow collected a small classroom of young children. their adults often brought their own chalk. i looked up and about fifteen families had joined me from around the block. we drew scrangly unicorns and messed up flowers and one girl asked me to draw charizard. i am not good at drawing. i basically drew an orb with wings. you would have thought i drew her the mona lisa. she dragged her mother over and pointed and said look! look what she drew for me and, in the moment, i admit i flinched (sorry, i don't -). but the mother just grinned at me. he's beautiful. and then she sat down and started drawing.

someone took a picture of it. it was in the local newspaper. the summary underneath said joyful and spontaneous artwork from local artists springs up in public gallery. in the picture, a little girl covered in chalk dust has her head thrown back, delighted. laughing.

[cheesecakeyuri]

May Allah Bless and care for those caught in the Gaza conflict. May YHWH Curse those who carry out and support the genocide May God Guide the protesters to achieve justice for those hurt and already lost.

From the river to the sea, Gaza will be free.

[thegirlwholivesin-delusion]

I'm gonna fucking cry right now.

Please help spread this post so other people don't make the same mistake I made.

I downloaded an app called LooksMax AI because pinterest recommended it to me (without reading the comments which IK was my fault but it was like 2 am and I was not in the best state of mind). And I stupidly uploaded a picture of myself on there (IK it's bad idek what I was thinking) and I tried to delete it because well they wanted me to pay and shit. I did not find the delete option so I contacted support (4 FUCKING TIMES) AND EACH TIME THEY JUST SENT AN AUTOMATED RESPONSE AND when I replied to the response, they did not reply back. Now my pics are not getting deleted and I feel so violated (it was only face pics but I absolutely hate my face being anywhere to the lengths that I do not allow my bsfs to post me on their insta account).

Now I don't know what to do. So please do not be stupid like me and do not download that app and most importantly DO NOT UPLOAD YOUR PICS.

[gremzon]

I genuinely can't stand it anymore, the whole "get a job" as a comeback, the whole shaming people who are unemployed, shaming people who live in their parents basements. Can we stop that already? "Get a hobby" is a lot better anyway.

[the-derpy-duck]

Orko not needing to be “useful” to be loved and valued is a thing that I think about often.

My knowledge of He Man is very limited and I only really watched any of the shows for Orko. But like he used to be really great at magic but because of circumstances that were mostly out of his control he can’t really do magic anymore. His abilities are severely stunted for basically his entire time on Eternia. He saves Adam and that wins him favor with the king and queen and he gets to be a court jester. He tries to use magic to do his job and he fails a lot. When he messes up he always works to fix his mistakes and he wants to help. He’s doing his best and the people around him love him for who he is.

He-Man was made and aired during the 1980s. The Cold War had begun to sort of wind down (as in the hostility between the USA and USSR) before this point because Carter (who was president from 1976 to 1980) was actively worked to be less involved in conflicts. Dumbasses who say trump was the first president to not have the USA participate in war during his presidency either ignore or are unaware of Carter until they need to bring up the Iran Hostage Crisis. Reagan, who proceeded Carter, immediately started working on undoing everything Carter worked to do. He removed solar panels from the White House that Jimmy Carter installed and also made the AIDs Crisis a lot worse than it needed to be (Jimmy lead the eradication effort of guinea worm because he saw a woman suffering and decided to do something about it). Regan also deregulated some aspects of the TV industry which allowed for the 30 minute toy commercials that started many beloved franchise. The Regan administration sort of revived the Cold War. Although the red scare had already happened and communists weren’t well liked during Carter’s presidency tensions were still dying down. But when He-Man was airing tensions had begun to rise again.

I don’t know how long production for He-Man was but if it was less than three years than it is safe to say that the writers were at least aware of the political climate. He-Man is not political commentary. Although cartoons at the time definitely did reflect current issues and some of those issue would be political (such as The Transformers clearly commenting on the energy crisis and also just in general being pretty anti war), He-Man and all of these other shows existed to sell toys to children. That is why a good portion of children’s entertainment exists. The capitalist society we live in requires everything to make money, I promise you this will be important in just a second. But the historical context for He-Man was that the Cold War was getting warmer. So the Capitalist v Communist narrative had started up again. I need you to keep this idea in mind or at least entertain it: Orko is, in one way or another, disabled or able to represent disability. He needs to use magic in his everyday life and he now has a significantly harder time using magic. His entire life and world was magic and his role, both on Trolla and on Eternia, requires him to use magic. And because he looses his magic wand he also looses the ability to preform magic at the capacity that he used to. And I know it would be easier for him to preform magic on Trolla but he’s not on Trolla for most of the show so that’s kind of irrelevant. What’s relevant is that he is a magician, he performs magic on Trolla and on Enternia and he is now less able to do his job on Enternia, and he sort of can’t go back to Trolla. Please keep this idea in mind.

We live in a capitalistic society that demands everyone to contribute and if you can’t contribute then you die. Systems exist to help people who are unable to work. I don’t know a lot about those systems and from what little I understand they aren’t that good. Because the foundations of our society relies on people believing that they need to be “useful” to be “valuable” or just worthy of living and not starving on the streets I’ve found that it leads to attitudes that people who can’t work are leaching off of others. However time stops for no one and eventually your body will start to deteriorate and you won’t be as capable of working or preforming tasks as before. And that’s fine. We are valuable because we exist and we are people. No one needs to prove that they are a person and no one has to earn the right to exist and be happy. That is a person’s birth right. I think our society’s obsession with working is partly why aging is seen as negative. Another reason is definitely that death is scary and not being able to do everything you used to isn’t great but part of that being seen as not great isn’t just not being able to do certain things you liked to do (like running or playing a sport) but rather because you can’t contribute as much/work as much as before.

And there’s other factors to this besides capitalism but ultimately it’s the foundation of our modern world and getting rid of it wouldn’t solve everything as the other issues would still exist but it would make things better. Capitalism leads us to be more individualistic and cruel. If you ask most people “hey should our neighbor Bob die because he can’t afford healthcare or his medication” they will say no, but they will also say no to universal healthcare because taxes will increase. Money is absolutely useless. It has no value. Gold is pretty, but ultimately a weak (and also heavy) metal. Money is only valuable because we think it is and gold is/was so valuable because we said it was and because we think it’s pretty (it is). If the world was to collapse tomorrow and everything shut down (like nuclear fallout or a zombie apocalypse), money would be worthless. You can’t eat it, it won’t build you a shelter, it cannot heal you, it cannot protect you. At some point we decided that a piece of paper was more valuable and important than actual human lives.

I’m under no delusion that I am the first person to realize this or that this is a new thing. By ‘we’ I mean humans in general but also at some point every person decides when they are willing to sacrifice the lives and wellbeing of others for their financial gain. And that’s not an entirely bad thing. I believe that being “selfish” is, to an extent, good. This guy named Maslow came up with a hierarchy of needs. It’s not perfect and some levels can be fulfilled before others can but the basic idea is that certain needs must be fulfilled and satisfied before others can be. You can’t be in a relationship or employed if you can’t breath. You MUST look out for yourself and keep yourself alive before you can help others. You need to put on your air mask before attempting to assist others. And if or not that should be considered “selfish” is arguable. Humans are social creatures, so it is generally frowned upon to not look out for others. We would not be where we are today as a species if we followed an “Everyman for themselves” type of philosophy. But capitalism demands that we do. But even without capitalism you still need to be a little selfish to survive. And at some point being unselfish becomes selfish when you are in charge of the care of others. If a person has kids then they must provide and care for those kids and so they would have the interest of their family unit in the forefront of their mind. And it would be fucking insane if they didn’t and if someone looked down on them for that. Drowning yourself won’t help others who are drowning.

We are expected to contribute and to view people who don’t contribute as less than. Orko as a character stands in direct opposition to this idea. He isn’t seen as inherently less than because he isn’t as good at performing magic as he was before. He does his best at his job and he is still treated as a person despite him not being a great magician. He doesn’t need to be great, or good, or even ok at magic because he is good enough. He is a person and that is enough. He tries everyday and that is enough. He is kind and trusting and a little guy and that is enough. Orko is enough and he will always be enough. He isn’t a failure and he is not treated as such. He might be insecure at times but that’s just a part of being alive. He makes mistakes and messes up and can be annoying (to some people) sometimes but that doesn’t make him less worthy of anything. It doesn’t make him less of person. People, disabled or not, do not “loose value” because they are “annoying” or because they make a mistake. Placing superhuman expectations on humans is inherently unfair. You cannot expect (yourself, your neighbors, your family, random people on the street) to be perfect. Humans are flawed and we will all make mistakes. We are all going to age and we will die at some point and that’s ok. If everyone will eventually end up dead then we should spend the time we have being compassionate towards each other. There’s limits of course, and people don’t need to be happy or nice all of the time but I think avoiding being overtly cruel is a good thing.

Orko doesn’t need to be “fixed”. He is loved as he is and the people around him don’t force him to be a thing that he is not. He is loved, and I know I keep saying that but it’s really important to me. He’s silly. He’s an inherently goofy character and he’s a character that means a lot to me personally. I really like him. I like that the people around him love him and care about him. He’s not perfect. He’s a very flawed character but he ultimately wants to do good and be good. He’s not perfect and he never needed to be perfect. He is treated as equal by the people around him and he is treated like a person. Yeah the bar is in hell but a lot of people think that the bar is just a little bit too high for them. Even if Orko isn’t disabled, him not needing to prove that he deserves love is very important to me. He can just be a person who is flawed and just kind of normal.

I know he’s just a silly little guy. I know whoever was writing the he-man episodes wasn’t thinking about this. Or maybe they were, I was actually lying about knowing. But they probably weren’t. He’s a goofy guy. His goofiness and the thoughts I have about him are why I love him so much. And it’s mostly the silliness, but my thoughts are all that I have and they are what makes me myself.

Anyway live laugh love Orko

[luckyshouse]

i really like the way this shot is framed

[theartisticcrow]

I don't condone cannibalism, but whenever I hear the phrase 'eat the rich', I can't help but agree. Anyways, we should totally just abolish capitalism

[philosophicallie]

not to sound like a bimbo but I literally feel my ugliest when I have to work a job

[anoriginalderivative]

so i guess npr’s angle right now is that Actually! gun violence is why the life expectancy in the US is relatively short NOT health insurance. it’s “complicated”. and then some mumbling about car accidents. mostly incoherent and mostly completely missing the point. so thank you for that npr!

[mymarifae]

have you ever considered that jade's hot

all of the hsr women are hot, man. this is a hoyoverse game. of course they are. what does this have to do with a discussion about her character

[perilegs]

truly nothing worse when there's a good product but its packaging is so incredibly annoying and cringe you loathe to see it in your house

[archersgoon]

pov youre froister au arjuro about to realise exactly whose kid young dafar is

[thedawningofthehour]

Please, please, please tell me you already read tmnt 40th anniversary. Who knew that 8 pages would give so much to analyze. I had to pirate it due to not being able to access it where I live. I do hope it sells well in the US though, I really want them to bring out another one.

I have not yet, sorry.

I try to be optimistic sometimes, but let's be fucking honest with ourselves-Nickelodeon wrote Rise off the second the pilot dropped and a bunch of butthurt neckbeards review-bombed the show for being diiiiiiiiifferent from what they were used to. (they said the exact same thing in 2012, but corporations have short memories and have gotten way more scared of anything that deviates from the mold) They purposely torpedoed Rise and have done their damnedest to avoid acknowledging the movie's success, because they cannot admit they were wrong about making that call. They're not going to greenlight more Rise. They have just decided that they hate it and don't want to be associated with it anymore.

The only thing I can really hold out hope for is when Nick inevitably sells the franchise the new owners might decide to reboot it. I know that's typically not how TMNT iterations have worked-but the other series' all had real endings. They did what they wanted to do and went home. Rise was murdered before its time.

[alurite-l]

I hate when bitches try and feel guilty about resting ESPECIALLY WHEN THEY NEED IT

[gingerswagfreckles]