#least real problem of history

[unopenablebox]

i have not had sex in SO LONG since unfortunately it turns out living in an unheated home makes sex unappealing. well more centrally one or both of you working 14-hour days makes sex simply unachievable but in this case there was also the heat thing

i do occasionally kind of wish i was attracted to, in addition to my girlfriend, a second person, a person who could not be most centrally characterized as “guy who has emotional breakdowns during vacations because they are not making enough progress on their recreational writing projects”

[morningmask27]

I'm going to be bitching about Star for a while now. I'll tag them all with #asc spoilers, but really what the fuck was this book?

[hypodermicfroggy]

I swear to god, dealing with writing servers should not be this hard. Surely there are anti-censorship ones not run by right-wing wackjobs. Surely there are ones where someone isn't going to hit you with the "glorify/fetishize/romanticize" trifecta of buzzwords and blanket ban any kind of dark or mature content, even with trigger warnings. Surely they won't do this after the fact and after you had established yourself as a part of the community. Surely there is at least ONE place out there, where they don't act like you're some kind of slavering shithead, just because you depict certain kinds of explicit content.

Surely.

[britneyshakespeare]

You know what. Despite it being against my doctor's orders I think I should rewatch Jane Howell's Wars of the Roses tetralogy

[frmulcahy]

Actually, The Terror only has 6 episodes. Hope this helps :)

[therevengeoffrankenstein]

also it might just be because i'm all traumatized and a delusional recovering-ed brat but i don't really think it's productive to theorize about a man directly contributing to his wife's eating disorder maybe (or maybe not! because that's already an assumption) relapsing. especially when you're only 'bringing this to light' to put him down and not to raise her up. it just makes you seem misogynistic tbh to narrow down a woman's struggle like that to being entirely caused by a man (it definitely wasn't entirely his fault, if at all, even if we are to assume that her ed did relapse during their marriage, because she had already talked about struggling with an ed before they had even met) and the only reason that you care about this is how it affected her in relation to a man that you're obsessed with.

there was (and still is) a bigger problem at play here with how misogynistic beauty standards tie into fatphobia, but you seem more interested in theorizing about how truly awful a singular man actually MIGHT HAVE BEEN vs. how to dismantle that misogynistic, fatphobic system that spurns eating disorders on and how to uplift women (and all ed havers and survivors of all genders, for that matter).

[never-forget-viva-la-pluto]

Girl say that shit out loud 🙌

it is crazy how “if this childrens show doesn’t kill their villain at the end it’s irredeemable media” became such a popular opinion here. like people were calling steven universe fascist apologia. and to be clear I don’t even think that would be the case for non childrens media, either. perhaps holding every single story up to the same standard of “does it follow the acceptable narrative path or is it evil propaganda” isn’t the most anti-fascist thing, either. maybe.

[starlooove]

The reason y’all are so confused and baffled by fannita is that you still refuse to acknowledge how bad fatphobia is

[hoothootmotherf-ckers]

can people please stop filming the entire fucking world around them for public consumption? and especially random fucking strangers who you did not ask???

I work at a park and man the front desk. and I'm photographed and filmed a lot. I'm talking easily 20+ times per day. most of the times, it's parents filming me swearing in their kids as junior rangers. which. they're intending to film their kids. what they get is me and the back of their kids' heads.

there's this recurring problem that like. people forget we're real people? like yeah you're filming your kid, but you're filming me interacting with your kid. I could count the amount of times someone has asked me permission to do this in the past year on one hand. and sometimes that's after they already start filming.

Like, I'm not an actor. I did not agree to this. You could be a dick and make the argument that I'm a public figure, but I'm not. This is not a persona and my uniform is not a costume. I'm a person trying to do my job and help people and teach them about science and history. And you know what makes it harder to do that? The knowledge that anything I say or do could end up shared with thousands of people. The fact that if I fuck up the wording of this kid's junior ranger pledge, or I sneeze, or make some basic mistake, it's not just a funny or embarrassing moment for me and this one family. It could end up on tiktok.

And okay, those are the people intending to film their own kids and not thinking or caring about the collateral. What's worse is the people who film everything. A few times a week some guy walks into the visitor center, phone already horizontal in front of their face, narrating what they're doing and seeing. They come up to the desk and ask me questions, phone in my face. They take wide establishing shots of the visitor center and every visitor in it. None of us agreed to this! None of these people consented to be in your youtube video! We are not the fucking set dressing of whatever travel instagram story you're making!

I don't know where I'm going with this. This is really only the tip of the iceberg. Sometimes people ask us to repeat what we just did - swear in their kid, or explain a detail, or hand them a fucking map - so they can get a second take, and they're already filming so if we say no we look like the asshole. Sometimes we're asked innocuous things like to point out a landmark, and next week there's a photo of us in the 15,000 member Rangers Pointing at Things facebook group (yep, real thing). One time my entire 45 minute evening program was filmed without my permission and I was informed after the fact. This happens all the time, and I'm giving park ranger examples, but this happens to so many people in service work or public positions every single fucking day.

I guess just, next time you go to film in a public space, take a second. Think about who you're about to film, if they agreed to that, what might happen if a video of them went viral. there's a reason I'm not out as trans at work. And then, maybe. don't. or at least fucking ask.

[spaceacerat]

I see you disabled people who don't know your family medical history because your family members couldn't/wouldn't/weren't allowed to go to the doctor and never got diagnosed, or don't know your family.

I see you disabled people who didn't know you were disabled growing up, physically or mentally, maybe because your parents didn't have insurance and couldn't afford it/wouldn't take you seriously/didn't think it was a problem because they had it/doctors couldn't figure it out.

I see you disabled people who have bouts of an issue that you grew up with, that are/were infrequent enough that you never really thought about it and dealt with it on your own, and when you have one in front of people who weren't medically neglected, you wonder why they look so horrified as you describe it.

I see you disabled people who didn't/haven't had any amount of care or accommodation for their disability since it started, because you couldn't get diagnosed.

I see you disabled people who grew up thinking everyone had the same problem as you and that it was normal and so you accepted it, because you didn't understand how the human body worked and had no real frame of reference nor the language to ask for help, or the people around you saw it and just ignored it.

I see you disabled people only now understanding that what you experience is abnormal, and that there are things that can be done to help it, make it easier, or at least help you understand yourself better.

I see you disabled people that will never be able to get diagnosed or get the help you need, whether from being poor, lacking insurance, or any number of reasons.

This shit is hard, and there are people who will never quite understand your struggles. It doesn't seem to get talked about as much, but I wish it was. Please know I love you, and you aren't alone.

[knightofdeer]

Pretty funny considering how Great Depression and New Deal were one of the first things that made me question the "perfection" of free market back in middle school

"lol you're anticapitalist? I bet you don't even know how the great depression happened" I literally take medication for one 🙄

[gallusrostromegalus]

If you please; what is your Tolberone theory of knowledge?

My theory, which I thought up a few weeks ago while sick with covid, is that all knowledge is a form of art, and that there are very broadly three basic types of knowledge arts: physical arts, philosophical arts, and scientific arts, and that pretty much all academic, artistic and practical disciplines exist somewhere in that triangle spectrum.

Physical arts are knowledges of how to actually, physically do things. The purest front of physical arts are things like dance and navigation.

Scientific arts are knowledges of things that can be tested and proven. Computer programming and Quilting are both scientific arts: they work, or they don't.

Philosophical Arts are knowledges of things which while not objectively provable, are still very real. History and Being A Good Listener are philosophical arts.

Nearly every discipline of knowledge is some combination of all three. Cooking is largely applied chemistry, a scientific art, but it's also a philosophical art because flavor is extremely cultural and contextual, and a physical art because you have to know how to hold the damn knife and heat when it's done.

The first part of toblerone theory is that, like how each piece has three sides, any given project needs at least one person who has a good grasp of each of the underlying arts involved or it's going to go sideways at best. For example:

Physical and Scientific arts, no philosophy: Jurassic Park. They need someone to point out that, while very possible, it's not necessarily a good idea.

Philosophy and Science, no physical: that dril tweet about the forum debate locked by a mod after 12,000 pages of heated debate. They need someone to drag them away from the keyboard and actually do something.

Philosophy and Physical, no science: that cult in midsommar that put a guy in a bearsuit. Without the ability to engage measurably with the world, they give into fear and behave like reactive animals. Also the "rare chicken steak" phenomenon.

You can have differing ratios of each type- Jurassic Park really only needed two philosophers: one animal behaviorist and an OSHA inspector, and 98% of the issues would have been avoided- but you do need at least ONE of each underlying art to check each other's work.

The second part of toblerone theory is that, like how the toblerone is made of many triangle pieces, there are poles to the triangle spectrum. Practical vs Esoteric arts. Short term and long term arts. High stakes vs for funsies arts.

While you have have different ratios and levels of expertise in each of the arts, you do all need them to be on the same piece of the bar, or they won't take each other seriously. A UN Diplomat and a climate scientist aren't going to take the advice of physical artist my uncle Bobby the plumber re: global warming, but they will take the advice of physical artist my Aunt Cheryl the civil engineer, a world expert in getting shit done.

The same applies for the other end of the spectrum. Aunt Cheryl the civil engineer isn't going to get much milage with the local high school student council and principal Waley when the problem at hand is "what are we going to do for this year's prom theme?"

I gotta go to therapy now, pictures later.

[felinefractious]

Do you consider brachycephalism in cats as serious as in dogs? I'm in veterinary medicine but I don't encounter many brachy kitties and would love to hear your thoughts on it.

Brachycephaly is a problem.

Schlueter et al (2009) categorized brachycephalic head shapes into four categories randing from mild to severe.

Moderate brachycephaly is where we begin to really see problems and profound or severe brachycephalic cats are going to have a real issue.

The British Shorthair (left) is a breed where mild brachycephaly is part of the standard compared to an Exotic Shorthair (right) where profound - severe brachycephaly is desireable.

On the left with have a British Shorthair, in the center an Exotic Shorthair and on the right a Persian.

One of the problems we see with brachycephalic breeds is stenotic nares, which are narrow nostrils. You can’t even make out the nares on the Persian shown above and, as one may expect, this affects how much air they move through them.

We can see similar obstructive effects in cats with nasopharyngeal polyps, masses or reconstruction due to scarring from chronic rhinosinusitis problems.

Due to their inability to breath normally through their nose these cats tend to be heat and exercise intolerant and can run into trouble more quickly during high stress events.

Stenotic nares can be surgically corrected but I don’t think this is as common in cats as it is in dogs, at least I haven’t encountered many cats who’ve undergone the procedure. I don’t know if it’s not as necessary, if cats don’t respond as well or if cat owners are less likely to seek treatment.

Or maybe it is as common and my lack of experience is the outlier.

Brachycephaly is also associated with malocclusion and dental disease, chronic epiphora, facial dermatitis related to the chronic tearing and ocular issues such as conreal sequestrum or entropion related to the protruding eye structure.

I know globe proptopsis is a problem in some brachycephalic dog breeds like pugs but I haven’t heard of this specifically happening in brachycephalic cat breeds.

Exotics and Persians are obviously the worst when it comes to brachycephaly in cats but the Bombay and (American) Burmese are also offenders.

There are other breeds which don’t call for a brachycephalic head shape (or even default it) or call for only a mild version but certain breeders are selecting for extreme typeing anyways because even though their cats might not win any shows they can sell them as designer variants for more.

On the left we have a Sphynx and in the right we have a Devon Rex both with an extreme head type contradictory to the breed standard.

So yes, unfortunately the brachycephalic head type is a problem in cats. Some try to argue that brachycephalic animals often live long lives which means the abnormal structure isn’t a problem… but longevity is only one measure of a breeds ethical soundness, quality of life and history are also important in my opinon.

[aylaaescar]

yet another 30 Rock joke: Zae and Bobby have broken up (yet again), Tina and/or Verda say good riddance, and Zae says “oh don’t say that, you know, he had some good moments”

and then it’s a montage of all the times Bobby got food

[stjohnstarling]

I've been astonished by how much people seem to love my weird and experimental project held together by duct tape and string, especially since so much of it flies in the face of the way I've been taught publishing is supposed to work. The conventional way authors survive online is to release books for sale as frequently as possible - whereas I've been focusing on giving each project as much time as I can, and releasing them slowly (so far I've done a Dracula-inspired novel.) I’ve been making the sort of transgressive queer writing that mainstream publishing is too nervous to touch right now, and I've been giving it away in my newsletter for free.

I want to keep telling stories for free, forever. Only there's one problem: I'm going to need A Lot more subscribers to my newsletter. I have just under 5000 readers right now - I’m going to need at least double that.

Conventional wisdom also says that Tumblr is a dead end, but I'm convinced that this is one of the last places on the internet that capable of fostering real, counter-cultural queer expression - precisely because we are so often left out and forgotten by the mainstream. Half the reason I'm on this website is because of the culture of absolute resistance to advertising. Unfortunately, that also makes my job here rather hard. If things continue to go well, between Patreon, sales of special editions, and a couple small ads, I think I can just about get away with doing this. But I need your help.

If you're someone who's hungry for good stories and:

❧ You're sick of being sold superficial, safe, and sanitized queer stories that shy away from genuine expressions of socially unacceptable desire

❧ You see sexual freedom as inseparable from queer liberation, and you want to see that explored in metaphor via a vampire seducing a priest

❧ You want to read modern queer fiction that's aware of the deep and rich history of queer culture

❧ You want to help foster a project that would create new avenues for underground and transgressive forms of queer expression

Then you should subscribe to What Manner of Man! It's sexy and boundary-pushing and kinky, with fire in its veins.

If this works, I'll be able to take on bigger and more ambitious projects than I ever have before (it's mad scientists next, and I have some pretty mad ideas!)

Thank you for your time! Reblogs deeply appreciated.

[lapseinart]

No I think it’s like you’re dividing a circle in two parts. The circle is all atheists. On one part you have “Women, POC, immigrant, trauma survivors, etc.” and on the other you have “White men”.

Then you have another circle. It is also all atheists. You divide that into parts. One is “Religious trauma survivors = people that can’t believe in what teaches them to be cruel, cant trust the books that teach about peace and love when faith has hurt them” and the other part is labeled “intellectuals that eschew silly superstitions that say they might have to face one (1) single consequence.”

The original post links these two ways of separating atheists together in such a way that leads it’s readers to conclude that overlapping these circles ensures that everyone in the “White men” category is also in the “intellectuals” category.

The post in no way implies that it means that “most” men are atheists because it makes them feel intellectually superior; there are no qualifiers in the original post. This is a rhetorical choice by the person to make the original screenshotted post to imply that the two factors (being POC/Queer/traumatized vs being a white man and religious trauma vs intellectualism) are inherently linked. This obviously does not reflect reality as not all POC that are atheists have religious trauma and we know it does not reflect reality; that’s why people are upset by the implications of this post. Obviously the post is meant to be hyperbolic in an effort at comedy to make fun of white men, but there are spaces in which these categories can overlap and technically there are atheists that don’t belong in either category as is the case in the division between atheists with religious trauma and “intellectual” atheists — namely people who just grew up atheists. This post does not contain the realities of the situation of some people and it makes people sad or mad.

Also I’m making this in good faith please don’t be so reactionary I may be chronically online but I’m agnostic not atheist.

it's so cool to see you being openly atheist because i remember for a while back in the 2010s other "social justice" posters could get Weird about that. did you ever come across that one post with tons of notes claiming the only valid reason for atheism was religious trauma

you mean this little chestnut?

not only have i "come across" it, i have critiqued that post specifically multiple times, and every time i do, someone who wasn't on here at the time accuses me of paraphrasing it or even lying about its existence entirely. that post and "Culture is about identity, community and family. It’s about tradition. It is not and has never been about “sharing”" are really the poster children for tumblr discourse: flagrant right-wing/reactionary ideology wrapped up in socially conscious language getting 6-digit notes with 0 pushback