#i'm fine with my mutuals

[googlekromer]

i think what i'm most grateful for is this community on tumblr. we stick together, we're close knit, but we welcome new people with open arms, we disregard those who are here to ruin our fun and upset us. and most importantly, we are realistic, and we talk about our faves as if they are humans and not gods. it's very comforting.

and even if i do come across posts arguing about shit last year i can brush them off eventually because i have my community. and i can get their two cents on it and feel better.

i don't mind staying in the circle for now. maybe when things blow over for good i'll be able to branch out a bit more. it's just comforting to know people are still here after all this time. and people will be here.

idk. it just gives me hope. this is my first rodeo in a fandom after drama happened so i'm a little sensitive, but again, being here with cool people who have smart things to say is very comforting

[ephemeralgalaxies]

no no don't talk to me. you're telling me that Blitz and Stolas both have pictures with the other of themselves smiling while the other doesn't? and those are the ones they each keep? you're telling me there is a tangible representation of their different perspectives of their relationship???

Stolas' pictures including a conscious Blitz looking away from the camera and Stolas. Blitz's picture including an unconscious Stolas cuddled up next to him. Because Stolas believes them on equal footing/the same page about what their dynamic is with Blitz just hating every minute of it and Stolas. Because Blitz believes they're on different levels entirely and that the only way he can be content is when the rest of the world (and Stolas specifically) live on without him.

Because Stolas and Blitz are both terrified of being/dying alone, but while Stolas would sacrifice his love for Blitz, Blitz doesn't believe his own love is worth anything to begin with.

[skulandcrossbones]

Oh dear, what are we gonna do about all this blood? — my liberation notes 1x02

[skinnypaleangryperson]

Why is it that it's so common amongst fandom or consumption-based culture is to cry over how bored you are, but when there's countless amount of unofficial content being made by neurodivergent or create a fans, it's looked over or "doesn't count?"

So much of American culture is so many people disregarding the entirety of thecreativity spirit, and existence of other people and only focusing on the rich and the already successful just because that's "just the way that it is".

Because those are the only people that should be worth paying attention to just because they have that big flashing a logo on their television screen, right? Same thing for writing original stories.

This is one of the countless reasons why I no longer have any respect or interest in anyone in fandom culture because it's always the same thing.

"I'm bored, and I want my favorite media to come out with new content. All this fan content that's coming out constantly is worthless and not worth the same amount of excitement or enjoyment just because it's not official, or just because it's projected differently, not to mention the countless amount of original content that's also coming out on top of that that also isn't published by a TV screen. What a shame that that specific talent or creativity is the only thing that's worth consuming to make me feel alive. Everyone else creating around me every minute of every day can't possibly ever make me feel the same way. Now I'm just dead and bored all the time."

People like that, which is most consumers, deserve to feel dead. If you're disregarding the human life and the creativity happening around you just because you're too brainwashed to offer anybody else's attention or the same amount of respect or excitement, then yeah, you're going to live a boring life. Ignore resources and you're going to suffer the consequences.p

It screams cattle sheep. It screams that people deserve to be bored and to be spiritualess dead and lifeless and unspecial. Because when all you ever do is just consume and pay attention to only the already privileged people that you were told to are the only ones that matter, of course that's what you're going to end up feeling; bored complacent and spiritually dead, instead of taking the literal constant amount of life and creativity that happens around you.

[trans-axolotl]

Hi - I am planning to move to a large city soon and I desperately want to get involved with community organizing, mutual aid, protests, etc but I have 0 experience beyond attending a few small protests over the years. I've only ever lived in a small suburb and none of the people currently in my life are involved in anything. Do you have any advice for how to get materially involved for someone who doesn't know what that looks like? Is it a matter of networking via attending events, that kind of thing? Apologies if this is a silly question, I'm going to try my best to figure it out on my own but I feel extremely inexperienced and uninformed.

Not a silly question at all! So many times I see people telling other people "go out and get involved" like that's something that's really simple but there can be a lot more steps to making that happen! I'll share some general tips that have worked for me in the cities I've worked with, and other followers feel free to add on with relevant advice in your city.

One thing that was really hard for me when I first moved to a new city is that I didn't know anyone, so it was hard to find out what groups even existed. Because I didn't know anyone, I also didn't have anyone to vouch for me, and there are a lot of groups that (understandably) need people to vouch for you because of police infiltrators and other bad actors.

I think my biggest advice is to try to find a group with open membership, even if it isn't the thing you're the most passionate about, and start showing up regularly in order to get connected with other people. In my area, the groups that are most easy to get involved with are mutual aid groups and outreach groups. Particularly, if Food Not Bombs has a chapter in your area, in my experience they've been a lot easier to get involved with than some other groups. A lot of harm reduction groups in my area have things like supply kit packing nights, which are SUCH a great way for new people to get involved and meet people without having to make a huge commitment. Keeping an eye out for one time events like that, or other events like teach-ins about specific topics, can be a great way to get your foot in the door and start meeting more people who can connect you with organizing in the city. You can also go and access the services from a mutual aid group or Food Not Bombs group if those are relevant for you! A lot of groups will have days they do outreach that they'll post on social media, or other ways to get in contact. A lot of the ways I've gotten involved in harm reduction organizing is because I'll go to syringe exchange drop-in hours to get needles for myself, and then ask the people working how I can volunteer with them. From there, you might be able to get connected with groups that might have more intensive onboarding processes.

I also think it's really helpful to start showing up to protests and trying to get familiar with what groups are active in your city, but I think that's a hard way to meet new people, since a lot of people understandably have a lot of additional security concerns at protests and might not want to give out their name or contact info in that environment. But it can be a great way to get more familiar with the patterns of action in your new city and figure out what orgs to trust and what orgs to avoid. And once you're more involved in other orgs, it can be easier to find a crew of people to go to protests with.

In order to find out what all these groups are and when protests are happening, I usually go to instagram and start trying to follow as many organizations as I can. I usually start by searching for groups that I think I know are going to exist, like food not bombs, the local chapter of Black Lives Matter, local chapter of Palestinian Youth Movement, and then start looking for city specific mutual aid orgs, harm reduction orgs, sex work advocacy orgs, books to prisons or letters to prisons project, mask blocs, street medic collectives, anarchist and prison abolitionist collectives, tenants unions, sexual violence advocacy orgs, disability orgs, LGBTQ orgs, etc.And then, I go into the followers tab for each of these orgs and find out what organizations they're following--that has really, really helped me start to be able to map who's active, who knows who, and usually at least some of those orgs will be active on Instagram and publicizing events, protests, outreach, donation drives, etc. Also, if there's a leftist bookstore or infoshop in your city, they might have a pretty good calendar of events and be a good way to get looped in. (most of the cities I've lived in haven't had that though lmfao).

I think my biggest advice is to not get discouraged if it takes some research to find groups with open memberships or if there are groups that you're interested in but can't join right away. I'd also say it's definitely helpful to think through what your interests are and what your skills are. Are you particularly passionate about a certain cause? Do you enjoy cooking and want to help prepare food for mutual aid? Do you like doing social media graphics? What resources do you have that you can bring to groups--access to craft supplies, free printing, a space to host events, medic skills, good at building things, etc? There's so many different types of groups to get involved in that are doing direct organizing work for so many different specific causes, and I'm sure you could bring a lot to whatever group you're passionate about.

One random thing that I do want to mention is that a lot of times when I see people answering this question, the advice they give is to get involved in orgs like DSA, PSL (Party for socialism and liberation/ANSWER coalition), or other branches of national orgs like that. I disagree with that advice and I don't actually think it's the most helpful way to meet people or get involved. Although I think DSA is better than PSL, I have my own political issues with DSA and REALLY really do not trust PSL at all because I think that PSL is a really bad actor who actively endangers people in every city I've organized where they're in. (Here's links to articles that describe some of the issues--trigger warning for sexual violence. Article 1. Article 2. I can go more in depth into my personal experiences in another post if needed) But beyond that, I don't always think that's the most helpful way to get looped into other things happening in your city or direct mutual aid or direct action work--I think groups like DSA and PSL often have a lot of other priorities like intra party dynamics, electoral politics, etc, and that other things like protesting or mutual aid work is often a secondary priority for those groups. The only reason I wanted to mention this is because I think that these groups do a lot of recruiting, and that oftentimes these groups are the most visible organizations with open membership for new people in a city to find. PSL in particular does a lot of predatory recruiting, in my experience. And I've had a lot of friends who originally joined groups like these to try to get connected and involved and ended up just sort of sucked into a lot of unrelated drama, so I just wanted to briefly mention that!

Overall, I think the biggest things that have helped me get really involved is just consistently showing up places and also doing research when I first move to a city. Once I was able to meet more people, I was able to get looped into more types of organizing, including more secure or involved organizing that I wasn't able to join when I first got to a new city.

I hope that helped, and please feel free to reach out with any other questions! If any other followers have tips, please add on!

[jichanxo]

probably going to be less active for about a week or so cause i'm going to sydney (and attending smashcon).

[navree]

girl penelope straight up called her a "beast" in her gossip rag before they'd ever even exchanged a word in person why would kate give her anything other than a punch in the teeth? like if my brother-in-law brings home a lady who insulted me and my mom and my sister for no fucking reason trust that i'm not paying that lady compliments or saying it's nice to have her in my house

[smileyobrien]

oh hello there

[inconclusionray]

If I see one more "poor Izzy was in an abusive relationship for twenty years :'(" take I'm going to set this pirate ship on fire.

[yoinkschief]

I'm in a real autistic mood lately,,,

ARTISTIC ****

[maulfucker]

they weren't lying that likes to reblogs ratio in fanarts is insane (awful)

[havegaysex]

Why are you telling people to vote for the guy committing genocide :/

because voting is not an endorsement it's harm reduction.

Trump is going to be at best doing the same as Biden and likely much worse for Palestinians and all the countries suffering from American Imperialism than Biden is.

Republicans want to bring back child labor and get rid of social security, medicare, Medicaid. As someone who is surviving on Medicaid and social security I don't want those taken away. The Republican majority house already put a lot of limits on food stamps in this past term and I don't think we'll still have food stamps if we get a republican Congress and a Republican president.

They've made it pretty clear that if they get a republican Congress and a Republican president they're going to enact project 2025 and call a conference of states and try and take our rights back to the days when only wealthy white men had any rights when women and racial minorities had no rights, they want to make it illegal for LGBT+ folks to safely exist in public and get lifesaving healthcare.

In short

Do I support every single thing Biden has done as president?

No.

Do I like him?

Not particularly. But I'm still voting for him because apathy is not a choice.

Do I think that Joe Biden having another term means that we can actually make more progress for labor rights, trans healthcare, abortion access, advancement of the rights and protections for disabled people and so much more?

Yes absolutely.

Do I think that the genocide in Gaza needs to end and the United States needs to stop sending weapons to israel?

Yes, I think that un restricted flow of humanitarian aid into Palestine needs to happen, the siege needs to stop, and the country of Israel and the United States need to be held accountable at an international level. I think that the soldiers of the IDF/IOF need to be held accountable for their war crimes and pillaging that they continuously post evidence of on social medias. I'm trying to put a read more here so ce I've put a few linked articles and quotes from them.

A quote from the article below:

"While our map focuses solely on high school aged youth (age 13-17), some states, such as Oklahoma, Texas, and South Carolina, have considered banning care for transgender people up to 26 years of age. "

I've seen lawmakers in some states try to make it felony punishable by life in prison to get your trans child healthcare to keep them alive because they want to make it illegal for us to exist and a legal for anyone who helps us exist.

some quotes from the article above:

"Led by the long-established Heritage Foundation think tank and fueled by former Trump administration officials, the far-reaching effort is essentially a government-in-waiting for the former president’s second term — or any candidate who aligns with their ideals and can defeat President Joe Biden in 2024. With a nearly 1,000-page “Project 2025” handbook and an “army” of Americans, the idea is to have the civic infrastructure in place on Day One to commandeer, reshape and do away with what Republicans deride as the “deep state” bureaucracy, in part by firing as many as 50,000 federal workers. “We need to flood the zone with conservatives,” said Paul Dans, director of the 2025 Presidential Transition Project and a former Trump administration official who speaks with historical flourish about the undertaking. “This is a clarion call to come to Washington,” he said. “People need to lay down their tools, and step aside from their professional life and say, ‘This is my lifetime moment to serve.’” The unprecedented effort is being orchestrated with dozens of right-flank organizations, many new to Washington, and represents a changed approach from conservatives, who traditionally have sought to limit the federal government by cutting federal taxes and slashing federal spending. Instead, Trump-era conservatives want to gut the “administrative state” from within, by ousting federal employees they believe are standing in the way of the president’s agenda and replacing them with like-minded officials more eager to fulfill a new executive’s approach to governing. The goal is to avoid the pitfalls of Trump’s first years in office, when the Republican president’s team was ill-prepared, his Cabinet nominees had trouble winning Senate confirmation and policies were met with resistance — by lawmakers, government workers and even Trump’s own appointees who refused to bend or break protocol, or in some cases violate laws, to achieve his goals. While many of the Project 2025 proposals are inspired by Trump, they are being echoed by GOP rivals Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy and are gaining prominence among other Republicans. And if Trump wins a second term, the work from the Heritage coalition ensures the president will have the personnel to carry forward his unfinished White House business. “The president Day One will be a wrecking ball for the administrative state,” said Russ Vought, a former Trump administration official involved in the effort who is now president at the conservative Center for Renewing America. Much of the new president’s agenda would be accomplished by reinstating what’s called Schedule F — a Trump-era executive order that would reclassify tens of thousands of the 2 million federal employees as essentially at-will workers who could more easily be fired. Biden had rescinded the executive order upon taking office in 2021, but Trump — and other presidential hopefuls — now vow to reinstate it."

"There’s a “top to bottom overhaul” of the Department of Justice, particularly curbing its independence and ending FBI efforts to combat the spread of misinformation. It calls for stepped-up prosecution of anyone providing or distributing abortion pills by mail."

Personally I think that voting for Joe Biden is better than someone who wants to enact this stuff on day one. It's like they read handmaid's tale and want to make that the reality of this country.

"Chapter by chapter, the pages offer a how-to manual for the next president, similar to one Heritage produced 50 years ago, ahead of the Ronald Reagan administration. Authored by some of today’s most prominent thinkers in the conservative movement, it’s often sprinkled with apocalyptic language." Ronald Reagan is a big reason we have a lot of problems we have today with our economy and with a lot more things. The people that supported Ronald Reagan do not need another term in office.

A quote from the article linked below:

"Trump has given no indication that he would be more sympathetic to Palestinian claims, nor that he would place more pressure on Israel to agree to a ceasefire. “The approach of the United States would be that Israel needs to win this war, it was attacked brutally,” Trump’s ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, describing how Trump would act. Friedman is now a campaign surrogate for Trump."

Personally I think Trump telling Israel to finish the job is indicators that another Trump presidency doesn't mean that weapons would stop being sent to Israel from United States

I fail to see how another term of Donald trump will be any better for the victims of the ongoing genocide in Palestine than President Joe Biden.

i think our system is absolutely messed up and broken but I don't think abstaining from voting is going to actually help.

[hesgomorrah]

i hadn't been including enough victoria in these posts so i had to fix that

[coquelicoq]

gurathin, thiago, indah...starting to get the sense that if murderbot didn't have any specific person playing the role of "someone i deep down respect who i'm convinced hates me" at any given time, presaux would have to assign someone, for enrichment purposes

[pygian-weapon]

the real question is, where will all the asian artists migrate to