#learn from our mistakes people

[verycrackedphonescreen]

ok yeah currently in the midst of an outbreak within my friend group. right before the holidays which is unfortunate timing (we're all recent college grads so still go home to our families for holidays)

everyone's symptoms hit at the same time so we figured out pretty quickly who gave it to us and that it was at the friendsmas secret Santa exchange (9 days ago at time of posting, Im getting over the worst of my symptoms but still have a moderate cough)

found out *today* that, despite everyone testing positive and having covid symptoms, almost everyone (except for myself and one other guy) from said gathering STILL WENT HOME FOR CHRISTMAS

one guy's mother was *actively encouraging* him to come home *despite* his positive covid test from literally that afternoon

oh and the guy who we identified almost immediately as the source? is insisting it wasn't covid he had based on one (1) negative at home test that he took after the fact (at my request!) despite well over a week of symptoms leading up to the party

these are people who went thru Covid College. they should know better. and yet here we fucking are. not even saying that I've been perfect myself (accidentally exposed my mother a couple days into being sick- thankfully her symptoms were mild and it has the happy side effect of meaning she doesn't have to spend Christmas Day alone now because I'm kind of her only family anymore) but at least I'm not infecting my entire family tree for some ham and presents

I'm fucking baffled.

It is fuckin insane the sheer disregard everyone has for covid and how utterly bizarre it feels to be actively losing credibility in people's eyes just because I take it seriously. Everyone thinks I'm being "silly" but I literally was in the middle of getting a degree in microbiology when this shit started, I was literally taking immunology and virology courses when the pandemic hit, it's not like I have a poor understanding of the topic. I've been watching the death rate and keeping up with the new variants and vaccines and symptoms and I can bring up all the sources I want but it feels useless, nobody wants to hear it, nobody gives a shit.

[sinistersuns]

i think we gotta be more careful about falling into the trap of placing heaps of blame on the most vulnerable groups around us because it’s easier, emotionally or otherwise, than going after those in power. like i mostly talk about transandrophobia right now and how transmascs get so much shit thrown at us because were easier to attack than cis people, and i’ve seen people do the same thing to transfems and NBs too. to me it’s extra disappointing when it’s someone who is vocally supportive of transmascs doing it (like generalizing all transfems as being hostile to transmascs/being transandrophobic). it’s of course important to talk about inter community issues and point out harmful behaviors and ideologies when we see them, and talk about how someone’s life experience might lead them to be that way, but singling out one type of trans person as The Culprit is not helpful and just feels like it further drives a wedge into our community. we may be able to perpetuate aspects of the transphobic systems cis people put in place, but none of us are responsible for them and we don’t benefit from them, past surface level “acceptance” from people who’d be more comfortable if one type of trans person or all of us didn’t exist at all

[fictionadventurer]

I don't care if The Last Jedi "ruined your childhood" or "destroyed a beloved character". I'll always defend it because this is the Star Wars movie for scrupulous people.

[youwillfindilluminating]

I get why critical role wanted to delete all the content that had brian w foster in it but at the same time the digital archivist in me is like... you can’t...just DO that...?

[stheresya]

[...] history is a wheel, for the nature of man is fundamentally unchanging. What has happened before will perforce happen again...

A Feast for Crows, George R. R. Martin

[casuallyimagining]

How about, instead of making a call-out post, we just message the people we have problems with and talk things out like the adults we’re supposed to be?

Because what your call out post claims to do—show the hypocrisy in people tearing down one writer who did a problematic thing but uplifting and/or not seeing it with another—is not it.

Instead of educating someone on why what they’ve written is wrong, you’ve chosen to direct more hate their way. The same thing that happened to the person you’re white knighting for. How is your call-out post any different? How does it accomplish what the goal should be—how does it teach and educate people on things they have internalized? How does it show people how to be better? Why are we enabling more bullying?

We cannot expect people to be or do better when we choose the nuclear option every time. We cannot expect people to be or do better when all we do is yell at them and send hate their way. Because what happens then is that they just stop trying. People are less accepting of a message if they’re being screamed at and belittled and bullied.

Call-out posts can be effective tools that should be the last possible option when all other methods of trying to get through to someone are exhausted. Call-out posts are effective when someone is so famous that there’s zero chance that they will see or have access to your messages (and I’m not talking tumblr famous where you have a few thousand followers who may or may not only be interested in your fics—I’m talking like *actual* famous, like hundreds of thousands of fans famous).

Because you want to know how the situation actually gets resolved? People have an actual conversation and learn from their mistakes. That’s how things change.

We should all want to do better.

[pennyserenade]

listening to the oppenheimer biography on audiobook is probably bringing me more joy than is rightfully appropriate for any 23 year old girl but here we are. its almost noon and the most exciting part of my day is going to be taking a shower and listening to it

[pageofheartdj]

"It's Not Hard To Be Kind" is such a bullshit! Actually it DOES take a lot of energy and personal self work and patience and being mindful and being considerate.

Do NOT diminish people who do their best not to cause more harm. People who try their hardest to have an open heart and mind in any situation.

This shit is hard and kind people deserve all the respect!!

[ur-friendly-nbhd-cardassian]

Seriously, it's not so hard to find a Slavic person to consult when you're coming up with a Slavic character for any media. The number of inacuracies in that is astounding. As if we were an extinct nation and the only information about us was in inelligible scripture experts struggled to translate.

You don't have to pull stuff out of your ass. We are real people and we're not savages, either, we do have internet. Don't you wanna be the cool sort of Westerner, who knows how to present their Slavic character without making them wrong and cringe? Wouldn't it feel nice to know your audience appreciates your efforts instead of thinking you're an idiot?

Don't be an idiot.

[bmpmp3]

for the past couple years ive been slowly. slowly learning beginners japanese and its very fun and im enjoying it a lot but also it has made me painfully aware in ways i wasnt before of how much my specific vaguely ontario accent makes me make out sloppy style with my vowels. i am going at those vowel's tonsils. i am doing things to diphthongs you wouldnt even believe.

[eohachu]

Y Tu Mamá También FUCKS. no pun intended. I didn't expect to be blown (hah) away this hard by this film but alas. wow.

[peapod20001]

How the fuck these people hit the waterline on 10 DIFFERENT STREETS!!!!

[discoreptile]

Beasties of Greenhollow soundtrack! Some tracks on this are from older projects like elphame but all of them have been reworked in some way. Most of them are entirely new. Enjoy!

[unproduciblesmackdown]

also it's something (better) like, the exercise of deliberately [art imitates life imitates art] holding up Billions to My IRL Things Perspective and going like whaaat would i want for winston. first answer is you want any character to not have been within the scope of the show in the first place, and to exit it since they are. and you kind of get that in the accidental reward in banishing winston, since like in the end it's just that the show doesn't care about him existing at that point But like it's winston sitting there quietly as everyone leaves & turns out the lights & Then he can leave too; others have peaced out & nobody remembers he exists so Now he can go off & do whatever.

but like in true form i think they definitely accidentally baked in another divine reward for winston in that, like, the way he's kept around as fodder for these fun little [pov: enjoy abusing this guy] asides with him, where it Just So Happens that he's autistic as something they're unaware of but is completely relevant to the expectation we understand him to be inferior(tm), it Just So Happens that he's also ""bad"" at not ""causing"" abuse to be turned on him. he's ""bad"" at staying in line. like well yes Yes that's what i want for him. just like In Real Life it's like yeah Ideally i'd want people to be able to extricate themselves from where they're trapped in power structures & i'd want them to have the perspective about it of understanding they're not Inferior / i.e. they are as much a person as anyone else and they're not corrupting everything good / i.e. it wasn't them Bringing It Upon Themselves and it's not them being Destructive by toppling a jenga tower of a hierarchy that happened to be pressing down on them. and winston is the kind of [the ruinerrrrrr] who is Turned On exactly because he keeps acting like someone who's on the verge of breaking out of the [being in line] someone demands of him as autist, employee, whatever other supposed manifestations of [inferior]

like in the 5 second stretches in which winston's allowed to speak before retaliation, it's because he's like "matter of factly" delivering whatever Information that's useful for another plotline. then he Brings It Upon Himself by making people aware that he's Also existing in his own right as a person rather than what they think serves their own deal / what they want from him at all times, perhaps by expressing his personality (didn't appeal to them! so it was Wrong) or not b/c of anything in particular said or done at present, just b/c people have a constant / accumulating contempt for him so their being in the same room as him & able to see & hear him is already dangerous. the [we're just seeing Any Abusive Dynamic in action] continuing apace.

and it's like, well, right there. he's written as acting like someone who doesn't blame himself for how he's treated, which billions frames as being Rude & Mean, and so too does everyone's abusers lmfao like and that these are his moments that are written to be Bringing It Upon Himself. and it's like hell yeah he doesn't blame himself. hell yeah that his self-esteem can manifest as anger at all. hell yeah that he keeps expressing himself with personality & confidence & doesn't even disguise his having been hurt, & it's this [his ass is Not grey rocking] that billions frames as both him "causing" his abuse & making that abuse "successful" lol, wrow just like real life!! and when like speaking of real life yeah it's not "bad" that people Do engage in strategies to mitigate & survive, including things like blaming themselves or being too "boring" to be anything but a non dialogued background character b/c that's all that goes unpunished, it's bad b/c it's done to them at all, not [ohh they're doing it to themselvesss] and like i'm asking myself like Ideally. what do i want Ideally. and i'd want winston to know that it's being Done To Him & i'd want him to find as much room for his personhood & autonomy as possible. and that's basically how he's written anyways, and billions hates that like You See this is why he deserves it this is why he's doing it to himself. and i'm like my god if that's not Inspiration for like "so what if people don't find you Personally Likable" and not preemptively holding back all personality or anything that'd draw attention as if you exist as a person in your own right & not something that only either gets in the way of or serves their wants of a Real person (someone with more power) like hell yeah you have him out here doing it =']

another fun addendum is like, billions isn't getting into it much b/c it doesn't seem to care much about "what if some people were peers & seem to have a genuine, recipcrocal relationship?" but that it just so happened to be like "oh tuk as the next closest loser who deserves it might be nice to winston" while it's framing winston as the "worse" Loser as being....unconditionally supportive of tuk. while the one downside of billions Also giving bentuk as much as it is is that it also inevitably has that shadow of "but ben is Superior to tuk" and like that it's correct that everyone encourages tuk to Stop Bringing It Upon Himself and start being less of a loser; it's wrong for winston to be like hey let's go have a foursome. like yeah probably don't make a list of the women you work with you'd be dtf but it's not like i'm convinced "ah billions and it's strong anti misogyny stance like" roflmao and billions is Not reflecting on "the downsides of unconditional support?" there when winston was beaten up for criticising taylor earlier like we WILL take his ideas while looting his [beaten unconscious] body there but he WAS wrong to express them as though he's BETTER than taylor!!! mafee's beautiful show of loyalty in kicking his ass even when he might agree with the argument and then benefit when it's adopted by taylor anyways! so it's as usual actually purely based on hierarchy & who gets to be in charge of people. it's correct for ben to be in charge of tuk, unless he has to step aside for that bizarre dead-end subplot about how it's tuk's fault if he's treated badly, b/c it's really his own Failure to have Confidence to know he has good ideas [raising our voice to deliver this message over the sound of breaking desks and chairs and computer monitors over winston because he had the confidence to act like he deserved to talk to someone and because he knows his ideas efforts & results are good & valuable around there] like. and isn't it sooo fucked up to talk about who you're dtf in the episode that has it be neutral if your boss is dtf & lets you know but is nice about it (and you're already Correctly tending to their ego, which you're responsible for!) like hey no possible problem! it's not even so much of a problem for a boss man to have the sex they're entitled to & be rude about their leveraging their power in that acquisition that it Stays a problem into the next season. ew, winston is Known (Inferred) Dtf??? we'll use it to exploit His vulnerability, exacerbate it, & punish him further for good measure in another episode that just revels in abuse & violation with a sexual aspect once again, but like, hey tuk don't do that, winston's such a Bad Influence for being like, shrug, kneejerk intervening with the Good Friendship where the One In Charge leaps in & Tells tuk the Correct thing to do. obviously there's also the tragedy that billions will Never let winston push back against Real Winners like rian or taylor in A Way That Matters (actually gets in their way at all) lol like. one thing that would have really been fun, winston should've literal kneejerk started physically fighting wags in either pertinent scene in 7x03 for real 110%. i wouldn't be like Gasp Violence Is Never The Answer if he just hit someone to hit them b/c fuck you. or broke anything on his way out etc etc. billions would Never let him. which is the other side of the same coin of [why he should get to]

tl;dr how great that winston's being "out of line" means he's basically always noticeably flouting & rebelling against the [He Deserves Abuse] agenda lol. that IS what i want. his being "beyond hope" like ohhh he's sooo stupid he doesn't realize how much he has the bad tastes & wrong interests & annoying personality He Will Always Be This Way like hell yeah!!! billions like oh no winston's personhood will never stay tamped down & locked away such that some godawful person tolerates keeping him in their inventory :( ohhh the ABA will never work :( that's right!!!!!!!!!! although they're not sad about it because it's about relishing the promise there will always be True Inferiors you can enjoy abusing with your righteous power over, but like well you wrote him escaping anyways even while dragging other "better" characters into standing around to serve axe's need for more than 1.8 employees and [crickets, reverberating cough, sneaker scuff] like. another ""wrong"" thing for winston to do, another thing for him to not "deserve," which is itself godawful actually lol like lord what it "rewards" its Good, Deserving characters with, no thanks. meanwhile winston's punishment is that he's autistic and """bad""" at being abused like lmfao good for him, fantastic for him, just what i want

[bosooka]

THANK YOU for the post about sabine and her ships. this fandom has gotten so annoying in such a short amount of time…nobody cares for the characters themselves, only the ships. it’s literally 2014 all over again.

scrolling the sabine tag at this point basically just ducking teenagers and young adults being completely detached from reality as they argue across the aisle over whether or not their ship with 0% chance of becoming canon is going to trump the other, ✨ problematic ✨ ship. i cannot stress this enough:

1) get off my lawn

2) you being delusional is not what a queerbaiting is

3) you being delusional is also not what coding is

it's hard out here nonny. be strong 🫡

[im-just-an-angel]

i think that we're good. i spent too many sundays thinking we were small, doomed little creatures. that all of humanity, even doctors, and philanthropists, and saints and parents and friends were bad. that it is our lifes mission to overcome it. but i think we're good. we help strangers and we are kind when we'd rather not be just to spare people's feelings. and sure, of course people do bad things. people do awful things. but i think our hearts are good. and maybe thats niave. maybe that's stupid. but id like to believe thats true. id like to think we're good.