#liber ; intro

[deadfish-dol]

your art teacher requires sustenance 🐱

(@porcelainebambi's Lilith!! I love whenever she crosses my dash, she always makes me laugh 🥰)

[geten-iceman]

Lieutenant of the Paranormal Liberation Front’s Violet Regiment.

No NSFW, please! Follow the rules by @marbled-magician

Feel free to ask me stuff!

I’ll tag #geten himura for in character posts and #ooc for out of character ones. If reblogging from another character blog I’ll also tag their character’s name. #geten talks for conversations with others, and #ask iceman for asks. #ice diaries is for random things about Geten’s day/life/etc! Basically that tag is for original in character posts.

((My version of Geten is 19 and uses he/they pronouns. He doesn’t have a confirmed birthday, so I’ll say it’s November 20th, because that’s mine.))

MEET THE ADMIN UNDER THE CUT

((When speaking OOC, I use double brackets! You can call me Navy. My main MHA sideblog is @ace-touya, but I my main blog which I follow from is @navy-nyoom. I’m 17. I use they/them pronouns.

I have a lot of headcanons to flesh out Geten’s character since he’s pretty minor in MHA! I’m excited to share them on this blog.

I’m an anime only, so please try to refrain from spoiling anything! I do know some manga stuff, but I will try to keep this blog spoiler-free.))

[opalwatch]

Intro

Hello! I'm Opal and this is all about me! Pronouns: she/her and they/them 20 Yrs, Aquarius CisBi + in a closed relationship with my lovely girlfriend Eva 2nd Year Psychology Major Agnostic Satanist Diagnosed ADHD, Undiagnosed Autism (diagnosis in the works!) Socialist Liberal Living with my fat transgender cat Binky!

My other blogs: Reading/Literature/Book Reviews: Opal's Books TV/Movies/Anime/Manga Reviews: Opal's Entertainment

Interests: Anime: Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Magia Record, Hunter x Hunter, Banana Fish, Devilman Crybaby, Deathnote, Kakegurui, Evangelion TV: Family Guy, The Office, Gravity Falls, Monster High, The Walten Files, Helluva Boss, Hazbin Hotel, The Hunger Games, Bojack Horseman Video Games: Minecraft, My Singing Monsters, FNAF, Terraria, The Sims 4, Cuphead, Roblox Other: Psychology, Cats, Reptiles, Dogs, Fashion, Sanrio, Coloring, Writing, Shopping, Wendigoon, Nexpo, Spiders

Special Interests: The Phantom Troupe (HxH), Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Pompompurin, Psychology, Fruit Bats

Music: NateWantsToBattle, 8Graves, Twenty One Pilots, Glass Animals, Olivia Rodrigo, CG5, Poppy, Deco*27, Maretu, PinocchioP, Au/Ra, Sub Urban, AJR, Lady Gaga, Penelope Scott *While I do listen to Melanie Martinez' music, I do not endorse her actions or the way she treats her fans. I make every effort to listen to her music without putting any money in her pockets. *I have been a massive fan of AViVA's music since GRRRLS. However, given her recent use of AI, her decision to employ and date a Trump supporter, the fact that she deletes comments criticizing her poor behavior, and my suspicion that she uses AI to write song lyrics (combined with her deleting my comment stating so rather than rebuking my claim), I no longer support her.

OTPs: HisoIllu MadoHomu KyoSaya AshEiji KilluGon UvoShal RikaRen

Kins: Homura Akemi Hinano Miyako Lucy Gray Baird Verosika Mayday Feitan Portor Pompompurin Nagisa Momoe Yellow Guy Crybaby Mr. Plant

DNI if: -you don't support queer rights -you don't support BLM -you don't support Palestine/aren't participating in boycotts -you're my ex bf or still associate with him (and while you're at it, maybe trip and explode?) -you're a Trump supporter (ew) -you support Melanie Martinez -you're a darkshipper -you're a bigot -your page is dedicated to Regular Show

[etherealglitterprincess]

Intro post ~

Hi!! My name is Audrey! Thanks for looking at my page! Always open to be moots xx

𝚖𝚢 𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚗𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚜 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚜𝚑𝚎/𝚑𝚎𝚛, 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚒 𝚍𝚘 𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚎𝚎𝚍 𝚕𝚞𝚑 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚠𝚞𝚑𝚜

𝚒 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚕𝚘𝚝𝚜 𝚘𝚏 𝚒𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚜, 𝚋𝚞𝚝 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎 𝚖𝚢 𝚋𝚒𝚘 𝚜𝚊𝚢𝚜, 𝚐𝚕𝚒𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚖𝚞𝚜𝚒𝚌 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚋𝚊𝚋𝚕𝚢 𝚖𝚢 𝟸 𝚏𝚊𝚟𝚘𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚕𝚍, 𝚋𝚎𝚜𝚒𝚍𝚎𝚜 𝚖𝚢 𝚍𝚘𝚐 𝚌𝚘𝚘𝚙𝚎𝚛.

𝚒 𝚕𝚘𝚟𝚎 𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚜 𝚘𝚏 𝚊𝚛𝚝. 𝙿𝚑𝚘𝚝𝚘𝚐𝚛𝚊𝚙𝚑𝚢, 𝚌𝚒𝚗𝚎𝚖𝚊𝚝𝚘𝚐𝚛𝚊𝚙𝚑𝚢, 𝚜𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚒𝚗𝚐, 𝚍𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚒𝚗𝚐, 𝚊𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐, 𝚙𝚊𝚒𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐, 𝚍𝚛𝚊𝚠𝚒𝚗𝚐, 𝚎𝚝𝚌. 𝙸𝚏 𝚒𝚝𝚜 𝚐𝚘𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚍 𝚊𝚛𝚝 𝚒𝚗 𝚒𝚝, 𝚒 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎 𝚒𝚝.

𝚒 𝚊𝚕𝚜𝚘 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚢 𝚎𝚗𝚓𝚘𝚢 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚠𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐, 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚠𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚎 𝚒𝚗 𝚖𝚢 𝚜𝚙𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎. 𝚒 𝚙𝚕𝚊𝚗 𝚝𝚘 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚊 𝚋𝚘𝚘𝚔 𝚜𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚍𝚊𝚢!

𝚒𝚍 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚜𝚒𝚍𝚎𝚛 𝚖𝚢𝚜𝚎𝚕𝚏 𝚊 𝚋𝚒𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝚗𝚎𝚛𝚍, 𝚠𝚑𝚒𝚌𝚑 𝚒𝚜 𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚍 𝚘𝚏 𝚊𝚗 𝚞𝚗𝚍𝚎𝚛𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝. 𝚂𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝚏𝚊𝚗𝚍𝚘𝚖𝚜 𝚒𝚖 𝚒𝚗 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚊𝚛𝚌𝚊𝚗𝚎, 𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚛𝚢 𝚙𝚘𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚛, 𝚝𝚠𝚍, 𝚝𝚕𝚘𝚞, 𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚙𝚙𝚎𝚛, 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚐 𝚛𝚘𝚢𝚊𝚕𝚜, 𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚌𝚢 𝚓𝚊𝚌𝚔𝚜𝚘𝚗, 𝚎𝚙𝚒𝚌 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚖𝚑𝚜𝚒𝚌𝚊𝚕, 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚓𝚊𝚐𝚘.

𝚒 𝚕𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚗 𝚝𝚘 𝚊 𝙻𝙾𝚃 𝚘𝚏 𝚖𝚞𝚜𝚒𝚌, 𝚋𝚞𝚝 𝚜𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝚘𝚏 𝚖𝚢 𝚝𝚘𝚙 𝚏𝚊𝚟 𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚜 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚎𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚕 𝚌𝚊𝚒𝚗, 𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚙𝚎𝚕 𝚛𝚘𝚊𝚗, 𝚎𝚖𝚒𝚕𝚢 𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚗𝚎𝚢, 𝚜𝚘𝚖𝚋𝚛, 𝚕𝚒𝚜𝚊 𝚌𝚞𝚛𝚝𝚒𝚜, 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚊𝚢𝚕𝚘𝚛 𝚜𝚠𝚒𝚏𝚝.

𝚜𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝚏𝚞𝚗 𝚏𝚊𝚌𝚝𝚜 𝚊𝚋𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚖𝚎 𝚊𝚛𝚎: 𝚒 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚊 𝚗𝚎𝚠 𝚜𝚌𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚌𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚐𝚘𝚛𝚢 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚖𝚢 𝚋𝚘𝚍𝚢 𝚌𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚍𝚞𝚌𝚝𝚜 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢 𝚜𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚘𝚗, 𝚒𝚖 𝚊𝚗 𝚒𝚗𝚏𝚙 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚊 𝚛𝚊𝚟𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚕𝚊𝚠, 𝚒 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚙.𝚊.𝚗.𝚍.𝚊.𝚜, 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚒 𝚌𝚊𝚗 𝚌𝚛𝚘𝚜𝚜 𝚖𝚢 𝚎𝚢𝚎𝚜 𝚒𝚗 𝚍𝚒𝚏𝚏𝚎𝚛𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚍𝚒𝚛𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜 𝚋𝚞𝚝 𝚑𝚊𝚍 𝚝𝚘 𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚙 𝚋𝚎𝚌𝚊𝚞𝚜𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚢 𝚊𝚌𝚝𝚞𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚢 𝚐𝚘𝚝 𝚜𝚝𝚞𝚌𝚔. 𝚒 𝚊𝚕𝚜𝚘 𝚕𝚘𝚟𝚎 𝚕𝚎𝚐𝚘𝚜!

𝚒𝚖 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝟷𝟶𝟶% 𝚠𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚒 𝚎𝚡𝚊𝚌𝚝𝚕𝚢 𝚠𝚊𝚗𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚙𝚊𝚐𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚋𝚎 𝚊𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚖𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝, 𝚒 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚔 𝚒𝚖 𝚓𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝚐𝚘𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚘 𝚜𝚎𝚎 𝚠𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚒𝚝 𝚝𝚊𝚔𝚎𝚜 𝚖𝚎. 𝙱𝚞𝚝, 𝚒 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎𝚕𝚢 𝚙𝚘𝚜𝚝 𝚊𝚋𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚖𝚞𝚜𝚒𝚌, 𝚖𝚎 𝚏𝚊𝚗 𝚐𝚒𝚛𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚐, 𝚙𝚘𝚕𝚒𝚝𝚒𝚌𝚜, 𝚎𝚝𝚌 𝚎𝚝𝚌

DNI WITH MY PAGE IF YOU ARE:

maga/trump supporter/incel

racist/sexist/homophobic/transphobic/anti semeti

Pro shippers

If you promote/romantisize ed/sa/sh/dv/ince$t/age gaps/unhealthy relationships

just a bully in general

This is a SAFE PLACE for all, you are not welcome here if you make others feel unwelcome on my page.

[ace-with--a-mace]

LIN MANUEL MIRANDA IS A RECURRING CHARACTER ON HOUSE MD???

[cage-dweller]

Read Me~

This is my secret little sideblog where i post about things my depraved little whore brain wants or needs or whatever. Sub leaning switch. kinks include: PETPLAY, monsterfucking, bondage/rope play , petplay, PRAISE, and so on.

asks relating to my kinks and stuff are fine. just be aware that i’ll get to it when i feel like it, and not a moment before. don’t ask for pictures or video/audio.

in a relationship!!! so pls be normal!!!

Some Boundaries

have your age in bio or pinned. I will block you on sight if you don’t.

Minors stay the FUCK away from here. This is not a space for you.

People above 40, DNI. No hate to you, just not comfy for me.

Don’t sext me. period. That shit makes me uncomfortable.

Terfs, homophobes, bigots, nazis, and other forms of actually disgusting degenerates, get the fuck out. fix yourself. you have no place here

Breaking any of these boundaries will result in an immediate block

[cats-in-the-clouds]

i keep getting stuck being forced to take classes i despise and that have no relevance to me so i’m going to go all malicious compliance on every single assignment and subtly insult the class material and/or professor

[redeyedryu]

As a casual FNAF fan, I gotta say I really enjoyed the movie. Going in without any expectations, no spoilers, and avoiding any reviews was definitely a good choice.

No it wasn't the greatest horror movie but for an adaptation of a video game, I think it did so many things right that a lot of adaptations fail at (I'm looking at and throwing shade at you, live action RE film franchise—even you, "Welcome to Raccoon City").

It felt like it knew who its audience was (I definitely got "baby's first horror movie" vibes and that's okay) and what they wanted, while still remaining quite true to source material; there were a lot of nice little hints, references, and cameos that fans will undoubtedly pick up on. The movie likely won't be as enjoyable an experience for someone unfamiliar with the FNAF franchise, but it was clear to me this movie was made for the fans with care, consideration, and respect.

Also the music was absolutely *chef's kiss*. Not me screaming at The Living Tombstone remix showing up in the credits.

Idk, I just really enjoyed it for what it was. Definitely recommend it if you're a fan of the franchise.

[irlgorlockwetnasty]

===WELCOME TO THE SPLASH ZONE==

Hey im Gorlock Wetnasty. Resident bisexual lizard & pround wetnasty. Im 34, i love webkins, and you best believe my brisket is undefeatable.

DO NOT INTERACT (Will permafreeze your energy for this)

o Lesbian gorlock truthers. girl what?

0

o defenders of gorlock x jeffery

o people who think the dragon episode was real.

i keep my crystals charged bitches. dont raise your defense chakras and reach nirvana with me, ugly. ill eat you.

[seabnunny]

❛⠀⠀🪽﹔casey’s pinned post !!﹒

🪼﹒　﹫seabnunny (casey!)　 𓇼 (＞。☆) 　wanderer main ﾉ aroflux + aceflux ꕀ ᶻz　🦈 🪸﹒ ⁺ ﹒enfp-t . asd . silly .ᐟ　（꩜) . . . i do edits sometimes! wooo!! 𝅄 𐚁̸ ࣪ㅤ𓈒

[queerpunktomatoes]

Hi! I'm Belly. I'm 21, based in the US, Appalachian. Sociology Scholar. No pronouns please. Mine are tagged #mytomatoes.

QueerPunkTomatoes is a reference to guerilla gardening. All people should have food. (If you need food, please DM and I'll try my best to help.)

This blog is pro-marginalized liberation and anti-capitalism.

Take care of yourself 💚 (if for nothing else, because we need you for the revolution!���🏼)

Personal stuff under the cut, if you're interested.

Omg hi you clicked the cut. More about me!

I started studying sociology because I needed an extra humanities course in community college, and the second I learned what it means to study society, everything clicked and I realized why I struggled with psychology so much. I hate the pathologizing nature we tend to take on when we look at the world's problems. Sociology was like finally getting to open my eyes.

I became anti-capitalist pretty much immediately. It didn't take much to radicalize me, because I'd always known things were screwed in the US, I just didn't realize how badly. Thankfully I realized before I was old enough to vote, because I absolutely would have voted for Trump. (Horrid.) I absolutely love writing and learning and theory and community conversation, and this blog is my space to make sure I prioritize that :)

I was raised to be all the phobics---homophobic, transphobic, Islamaphobic, xenophobic. Realizing your own sexuality can do a lot to that worldview. I'm still unpacking my old beliefs, and I am proud of how much progress I've made. I believe there is always more room for growth. I also found out I'm intersex, so that's been a challenge to sort through, but I'm trying to love this new knowledge about myself.

I use the block button liberally, and I encourage you to do the same! I don't argue with people on the internet as much as I can help it. I don't pick fights or owe anyone an argument. I present my thoughts as concisely as I can, and if someone is not willing to listen to me and starts a screaming match, I'm not willing to listen to them. I prioritize my own peace, and will gladly have hard conversations! but only if we're on the same page about respect. I strongly encourage you to do the same 💚

Being fat is a part of my identity (I'm an old fat [as in, not a new fat]) and something I take very seriously. I have chronic an0rex!@ and that dichotomy does inform the way I think about body neutrality and fat liberation.

Anyway, that's a lot of words. I hope you're having a good day :)

[creature-wizard]

"How can I be a witch/pagan without falling for conspiracy theories/New Age cult stuff?" starter kit

Posts & Articles

Check your conspiracy theory. Does any of it sound like this?

Check your conspiracy theory part two: double, double, boil and trouble.

QAnon is an old form of anti-Semitism in a new package, experts say

Some antisemitic dogwhistles to watch out for

Eugenicist and bioessentialist beliefs about magic

New Age beliefs that derive from racist pseudoscience

The New Age concept of ascension - what is it?

A quick intro to starseeds

Starseeds: Nazis in Space?

Reminder that the lizard alien conspiracy theory is antisemitism

The Ancient Astronaut Hypothesis is Racist and Harmful

The Truth About Atlantis

Why the Nazis were obsessed with finding the lost city of Atlantis

The Nazis' love affair with the occult

Occultism in Nazism

Red flag names in cult survivor resources/groups (all of them are far right conspiracy theorists/grifters)

The legacy of implanted Satanic abuse ‘memories’ is still causing damage today

Why Satanic Panic never really ended

Dangerous Therapy: The Story of Patricia Burgus and Multiple Personality Disorder

Remember a Previous Life? Maybe You Have a Bad Memory

A Case of Reincarnation - Reexamined

Crash and Burn: James Leininger Story Debunked

Debunking Myths About Easter/Ostara

Just How Pagan is Christmas, Really?

The Origins of the Christmas Tree

No, Santa Claus Is Not Inspired By Odin

Why Did The Patriarchal Greeks And Romans Worship Such Powerful Goddesses?

No, Athena Didn't Turn Medusa Into A Monster To Protect Her

Who Was the First God?

Were Ancient Civilizations Conservative Or Liberal?

How Misogyny, Homophobia, and Antisemitism Influence Transphobia

Podcasts & Videos

BS-Free Witchcraft

Angela's Symposium

ESOTERICA

ReligionForBreakfast

Weird Reads With Emily Louise

It's Probably (not!) Aliens

Conspirituality

Miniminuteman

Behind The Bastards

[sreegs]

You're interviewing as a software engineer and you sit down to begin a coding exercise via remote video chat. Your interviewer joins a minute late. You exchange light pleasantries, then intros. They ask you a few questions relevant to your experience and you answer them satisfactorily.

The interviewer says, "Right, lets move on to the coding exercise," and directs you to a collaborative coding website. You select your language of choice and they begin to describe your problem.

"You have an array of souls recently liberated from their mortal shell, represented by this array of signed floats called "theDead". You must design a function that determines which souls go to heaven and which souls go to hell,"

"Heaven and hell are empty. The cumulative value of all the souls in heaven and hell must both be nonzero, and exactly equal to each other. You may leave any number of souls in purgatory,"

"Your function must return a bool indicating whether the balance of heaven and hell can be met given the array of souls. The count of souls will be 0 < n < 1,000,000. Do you have any questions before you begin?"

[cleoselene]

since the internet doesn't get it and apparently never took a political science class or an economics class:

American political liberalism is not the same thing as economic liberalism or neoliberalism

burn that sentence into your brain PLEASE. I learned this in literal Intro to Political Science.

Neoliberalism is a system of unfettered free-trade global capitalism that favors markets controlling prices and basically everything

American political liberalism is defined by a dedication to principles like free speech, civil rights, bodily autonomy. John F. Kennedy put it rather succinctly:

"If by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people — their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties — someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal."" -John F. Kennedy

like i know words have lost ALL meaning and people have no desire to learn but this has been frustrating me for literal years.

Also, I spent all of my formative years hearing conservatives use "liberal" as a pejorative. JFK's quote was responding to that, decades before I was born. The fact that the left uses "liberal (derogatory)" just shows how well Conservative Propaganda has seeped into the culture. I refuse to drop the identifier because the definition has not actually changed. I believe in all those things in the JFK quote. I believe in a state that uses institutions to do what markets cannot. I fully support every socialist program this country has put in place. Because I am a liberal.

If you want to use "liberal" as an insult from the left -- congrats, you are falling for propaganda. If you want to call me a "neoliberal," well, you just sound fucking stupid? I don't believe in unfettered free market global capitalism.

[felixwikipage]

I really hope we see more of the ORIGINAL grumpy felix. It's just not within his character to be so happy (""how dare a child be happy after such liberation!"")

I just don't think he would be so happy go lucky like the others, because he's not like the others. He still has so much emotional baggage. I understand him being happy for the pool party and i guess this training session in the metro- it's just to lump everyone together for plot/a scene- "everyone happily cheering".

But moving on, I hope we see his natural grumpy personality. At least that part is still shown in the intro. He hasn't gone through the right development to be so happy all of a sudden. With so many issues unresolved, he would still be paranoid, cautious of other humans and making friends, trust issues, etc, etc.

Revelator episode 11- was actually chronologically sometime before Daddycop episode 5. Which is so like...why are the episodes/story all over the place. I get it they want it to be like a puzzle...but kids and those with puny minds (such as myself) will be so confused.

{EDIT: intro was a flash back- i'm confirmed stupid}

I still just want to see some PROPER felix...

[librarycards]

Hello! I am trying to read “the right to maim” by jasbir k puar and I am getting almost nothing out of it, bc of the depth + breadth of academic concepts :( I’m particularly frustrated by it bc it seems to talk about subjects I think about, talk about and do daily, like disability, transness, and (anti)colonialism. I’m most of the way through the intro and it’s gone almost entirely over my head except for a couple isolated paragraphs that are meaningful.

Do you have any advice for how I can get the most out of this book? My main limiter is time, bc I got it out from the library and it is highly requested so I can’t have it for very long

Hi anon! First of all, in terms of time, I recommend piracy. I recommend it in general. I'm not going to post links here in order to protect the places I use, but dm me if you want them.

If you're having difficulty with the concepts (which makes sense - right to maim is a challenging book!) I recommend going back to basics with some background reading. You can get some of Puar's rec'd background reading from the bibliography, and from the keywords she uses in the preface of the text. a few that I see (i'm looking at the PDF now) include debility, rhizome/rhizomatic, soverignty, biopolitics, homonationalism, impairment [in the disability studies sense], precarity, and neoliberalism. if i was teaching this preface, i'd have students break down each of these terms (and probably others, this is just from a skim) using outside readings. it's totally normal to feel overwhelmed when jumping into a scholarly text w/o any context, and most people who use and cite this book have past experience reading Puar's interlocutors and existing familiarity with this language.

you can get up-to-date while reading using resources in tandem with this text. For example, you can read Puar's discussion of debility at that link to get a sense of the context. You can read a decent summary of Foucault (the coiner of the term "biopower") and his thought at Brittanica. I recommend using Google Scholar for terms you're not familiar with, and taking quick notes so that you don't have to google them all over again each time. if you think you have enough context with a new word but aren't 100%, keep reading and use other clues. think about academic reading like learning a new language. the strategies are very similar! because it basically is.

I recommend using the annotation strategies i just mentioned in this post (and/or developing your own). i also recommend looking up Puar's talks on youtube - she's a well-known scholar who does a lot of events, and has spoken extensively about this book and its genealogy (especially in relation to praxis / Palestinian liberation). You can also read her talk with the hosts of Death Panel, my absolute favorite podcast.

Below, I'm going to give you an example of how I close-read, annotate, and analyze a paragraph from Right to Maim (and, by extension, other academic texts. This strategy may not work for you 100%, but hopefully it gives you some solid suggestions. Overall, remember that learning to read scholarly work takes time. A long ass time. Even when it's about things you've experienced yourself! Academia has its own conventions, verbiage, knowledge base, etc, and it's a learning curve for everyone. Don't expect yourself to read as fast or get as much as someone more familiar with the conventions of academic writing - anticipate reading all of these works many, many times, and getting more with each reading. Progress is more important than perfection, and improvement, even if slow, *will* happen, as long as you don't give up. <3

Below is a quote from the preface to Right to Maim, where Puar lays out her argument. I recommend everyone highlight/remember paragraphs like these (pretty much every ac text will have something like this in the beginning as a roadmap) to anchor their reading practice and help them get the most from a book (emphasis mine):

In The Right to Maim, I focus less on an impor­tant proj­ect of disability rights and disability studies, which is to refute disability as lack, as inherently undesirable, and as the sign, evidence, or fetish of injustice and victimhood. I am not sidestepping this issue. Rather, I centralize the quest for justice to situate what material conditions of possibility are necessary for such positive reenvisionings of disability to flourish, and what happens when those conditions are not available. My goal ­here is to examine how disability is produced, how certain bodies and populations come into biopoliti­cal being through having greater risk to become disabled than ­others. The difference between disability and debility that I schematize is not derived from expounding upon and contrasting phenomenological experiences of corporeality, but from evaluating the vio­lences of biopo­liti­cal risk and metrics of health, fertility, longevity, education, and geography.

In the bolded part, Puar outlines what she's not doing: she's not taking a mainstream (white, colonial) disability studies approach, which is, in her words, to refute disability as "lack." She's stating that her goal isn't simply to prove disabled people as equal to able-bodied people, or to claim that disability can be good and liberating (though it is/can be!). Her point is to look at the conditions in which people become disabled, and stay disabled. Often, these conditions are violent and unjust. Acknowledging this injustice kinda throws a wrench into western models of disability pride.

So, if she's not interested in just arguing that disability ≠ badness, what is she arguing? she's looking, in the latter half of the paragraph, to how people become disabled in multiple ways. One, using the verbiage in the book, she's interested in how people become debilitated - physically incapacitated in a way that may not line up with the social category of "disability"). She's also interested in how "disability" as a social identity is constructed - that is, why do disability rights groups look at Palestinians maimed by the IOF and see an injured civilian, but not a disabled comrade? words and context matter immensely. she's looking at why, and what are the implications.

that last sentence sums up the distinction she's making: "The difference between disability and debility that I schematize is not derived from expounding upon and contrasting phenomenological experiences of corporeality, but from evaluating the vio­lences of biopo­liti­cal risk and metrics of health, fertility, longevity, education, and geography."

the difference, she argues, between disability as western disability studies sees it and debility as experienced by people under colonial occupation isn't because we experience our bodyminds differently, or because Palestinians (for example) magically aren't as hurt by occupation as their white/western counterparts would be. rather, the reason she's using debility over disability is because the category of disability isn't objective: it's informed by biopolitical forces such as the ones she listed. her meta-argument is that what we call "disability" can't be divorced from its settler colonial context, not because colonized peoples are immune to disabling violence, but because the category of disability (and health, and violence) is itself affected by settler colonialism.

in "right to maim," Puar is offering a major shift in the way we collectively discuss disability, because the category is not applied equally across sociopolitical, geographical context. it means Palestinians and others living under occupation are either left out entirely, or unsuccessfully co-opted into western-/colonizer-centric disability discourse that doesn't acknowledge the different conditions under which they live. ultimately, "right to maim" means to make that difference, and its implications, visible.

Let me know if this makes sense! it's wordy and tedious, but lots of academic texts are. i hope that breakdown helps you make some more sense of Puar's main argument/the architecture of the text, and maybe serves as a model for future engagement. :)