#lots and lots of ranting

[fishyfishyfishtimes]

It's always so weird to come down from the biology heavens to see what the average person believes about animals, plants, ecosystems, just the world around them. I don't even mean things that one simply doesn't know because they've never been told or things that are confusing, I'm talking about people who genuinely do not see insects as animals. What are you saying. Every time I see a crawling or fluttering little guy I know that little guy has motivations and drive to fulfill those motivations. There are gears turning in their head! They are perceiving this world and they are drawing conclusions, they are conscious. And yet it's still a whole thing if various bugs of the world feel pain or if they are simply Instinct Machines that are Not Truly Aware of Anything At All????? Help!!!!!! How can you look at a little guy and think he is just the macroscopic animal version of a virus

[aerequets]

cost and benefit

[macskasbacsi]

they mean so much to mee

[osokasstuff]

uhhh okay it's time for angry takes but i hate how society treats vaginal variations that make intercourse difficult or impossible. like the whole talks are always about how to stretch vagina to make intercourse possible/easier and uhh

i know for some people it may be important, even crucial

but like

there is no single word how it's okay to just not have intercourse. how it's possible to do nothing with vagina. (implying that there is some kind of opening that allows menstrual discharge leave the uterus. because if menstrual discharge can't leave the body, it can cause inflammation, endometriosis, pain, and other problems. but there also is the problem that the only suggested solution is "create/stretch the opening" and never "would you like to have menstruations?").

i'm angry. every resourse mentions dilation and pelvic exercises, and most of them never mention that it's ok to just leave it be if you're not interested in intercourse.

maybe i understate the value of intercourse for average person because i'm asexual and was never interested in it and generally don't like when someone interacts with my genitals but like. really? not even mention? not even slightly?

and even in progressive spaces, in feminist resources that are all for non-conformant sexual practices and queerness, the most we can get is one paragraph from a long material that basically says "but you can don't do it if you don't like intercourse!" and i'm glad that they put it there and acknowledge this possibility, but i want more? i want more visibility. i want more talks about how it's ok to have vagina and not use it. how people don't owe their genitals to each other. how there are sexual practices that don't include intercourse. how it's okay to not have sex at all. how it's okay to have sex and not use genitals in it. how lack of intercourse ≠ failed sexual life.

idk maybe it sounds too picky but it feels like the world is extremely entitled to vaginas and can't comprehend that vaginas can exist not for fucking purposes.

[vizthedatum]

An apparently unpopular opinion: disabled people can have and do their hobbies. They deserve to have fun. They deserve to live their lives.

Their inability to do some things (like work, for example) does not mean they should be judged for… idk hanging out with their friends or to going outside. After all, having interests outside of work is often essential to our mental and physical health OUTSIDE of our disability.

And also *you might want to sit down for this* disabled people know what’s disabling for them (unless they people-please or push through due to necessity or survival of some sort). Disabilities don’t have to be visible or persistent to be disabling.

So yeah - my declaration: if an activity you want to do feels good and you’re able to do it, then do it. REGARDLESS OF YOUR DISABILITY WITH OTHER THINGS.

[zorangezest]

thanks for listening

[ender-of-the-sender]

Me cracking my back on the school chairs

[kiwinatorwaffles]

people can do whatever they want with fictional characters forever but one thing that always pisses me off is how aro/ace characters are treated in shipping.

while it is a naive mentality to tell people never to ship aspec characters, saying “aces CAN have sex” and “aros CAN be in a romantic relationship” to defend erasing their aspec identity just to ship them as if they were like an allo person means you don’t respect their identity, nor ours. yes aces can have sex. yes aros can be in a romantic relationship. but they will still be aromantic and asexual while in that relationship. and don’t even get me started on using demi identities as an “easy explanation” for why it’s okay to allowash them. other identities are treated with such absolution, so why should we continuously get the short end of the stick?

so i guess the thesis of this post is that people are absolutely allowed to ship aspec characters but if you mfs don’t care enough to understand the nuances of our identities i’m taking your aspec blorbos and putting them on a high shelf

[planariaareneat]

How The Nocturnal Bottleneck and Nipples Make Us Human

Almost every post here considers what humans do have, really. It’s a little tiring; realistically every world has its harsh environments and vicious species and a sophont to match. We probably wouldn’t be unique for our adaptability or our persistence or even adrenaline

But our evolution is fucked up as hell, to put it lightly.

Mammals went through what’s been dubbed the nocturnal bottleneck essentially since the start of the mesozoic right up until the Cretaceous ended the archosaur’s exclusive hold over the daylight. We lost a lot of things from every mammal spending most of its time in either a cramped, suffocating burrow or scrounging around in the faint hours of nighttime. Our blood cells lost their nuclei to hold more oxygen while we spent time deep underground, we lost protections against ultraviolet rays in our skin and eyes, we can’t even repair our own DNA using the light of the sun. Most aliens probably wouldn’t have such traits unless their evolution followed a very similar path to ours. They’d be able to see ultraviolet and wouldn’t have to worry about sunburn and all the wonderful privileges essentially all fish, birds, amphibians, and reptiles enjoy as we speak. 

There’s also what we gained from spending so much time in the dark.

Brown fat is only found in mammals, it’s a special type of fat which bear cells with several oil droplets and are utterly jammed with mitochondria. This lets it make heat, a lot of it, fast. We don’t even need to shiver to induce this heat generation from brown adipose tissue - factor in our downright hyperactive mitochondria, and we can warm up quickly. Sure, it doesn’t have too much use in adult humans, but it keeps our infants warm and still provides a little boost the whole run we have in this universe.

Unless aliens also went through a time where their small ancestors had to face cold nights, they’d have to produce heat the old fashioned way when chilled. Aliens might have to shiver the whole time they’re in a cold room while the human watches in confusion, quite literally unshaken, and wonders if the room is a lot colder than the thermostat set to 60 says. The aliens stare at their companion in confusion, it’s just a normal temperature to shiver at after all, how is the human sitting so still?

Our small ancestors spending all their time out foraging at night is also why we have such a good sense of touch, smell, and hearing. They were more important senses than vision (we’re lucky to have even redeveloped basic color vision, frankly) at the time and place and simply ended up continuing to serve us well. Birds and reptiles rarely have acute senses of smell and the latter especially are lucky to have acute hearing, and birds rarely have impeccable hearing themselves either. Our skin is free of scales and honed to sensitivity, and our external ears and complicated ear bones provide an immense range of hearing (from 20 all the way to 17,000 hertz!).

Aliens might not be able to pin down the chirp of a cricket or the light click of a lock being picked. The human might be the only one on board a ship that can pick out the finer sounds of the engine’s constant thrum and know the critical difference between when everything is fine and when something is wrong. The human could probably pick out the sounds of an approaching enemy’s careless footsteps - they’re only as light enough for *them* to stop hearing them, after all - and be the one to see the horrified expression (well, more on that later) on their face when we get the drop on them in spite of their perceived stealth. 

But perhaps the most versatile, convoluted, amazing, and utterly unique trait we have is right on your face this instant. Lips.

Lips in most animals are a simple seal to hold in the mouth’s moisture and protect the teeth, even if they’re supple they’re NEVER muscular except in mammals, and we have only one thing to thank for it; milk and nipples. Lips evolved exclusively to allow babies to suckle, it required a vacuum to be created in the mouth, and with no other animal having anything like a nipple it never happened in other animals. Many animals make milk, to be frank, but no other animal has nipples.

Your cheeks and lips are a marvel among tetrapods, no other animal can suck like mammals can. Aliens wouldn’t have straws or even be able to sip from the edge of a glass, they’d have to have a proboscis or simply tilt the whole thing back. Aliens likely won’t have woodwind instruments or balloons you can blow into. We take so much about our lips for granted. Hell, our muscular faces are vital for expressions, we’re probably absolute facial contortionists among a cast of creatures with mandibles and beaks and expressionless scaly maws. Aliens might find us ridiculously easy to read, if anything, compared to their own kind (all the better to deceive them) - or perhaps they’d find us hard to decipher anyways, with our lack of color-changing skin or erectable crests of bright feathers. Baring teeth might not be seen as a sign of aggression in most of the universe, smiling would be all too distinctly human. 

Perhaps with how infectious we are sometimes, that’s what we’d contribute to the universe; others might have to make do with opening their mouths just enough to show their teeth or splaying their innumerable mouthparts with just the right curve, but perhaps we’d teach the galaxy to smile, one ally at a time. 

Wouldn’t that be amazing?

[wodania]

Seeing people say it’s stupid to go into academic careers because “the market doesn’t pay” really makes me realize just how we got into this situation we’re in now. Maybe the reason everyone doesn’t care about history and politics and let tech bros run the world is because they’re stupid. They think the value of information is purely economic and not cultural. Elon Musk is the face of a big tech brand that makes big numbers so therefore he’s more suited to be one of the main faces in a global political and cultural campaign. Like no wonder your politicians don’t know anything about major cultural events that are crucial to the knowledge of current political and human issues. No wonder. They’re already banning books on “controversial” historical events. A disinterest in recording history and culture because it makes the 1% uncomfortable can only be a sign of a corrupt society. Boohoo it makes you feel icky when you have to admit to the atrocities that are apart of what made your country the way it is today. Facts over feelings!

[erebus0dora]

something something a chat i am in discussing the loneliness of Armand who needs someone to define him and see him, so

"...it was ghastly and awful and loathsome, and beautiful all at the same time."

and yeah i kinda just want to give ppl hugs with anything i do and talk to them in hushed tones, so there you go

[crabussy]

"well it's obvious this person is faking being part of a system LOOK! the way they draw one of their alters is super similar to an old OC they had!!" hey man so. I don't really know how to explain this to you but the way the brain works. is that anything your brain creates. FOR EXAMPLE an ENTIRE INDIVIDUAL. will usually draw from things YOU PERSONALLY KNOW. and that are PERSONALLY SIGNIFICANT TO YOU IN SOME WAY. "why doesn't this so-called system have a 30 year old bricklayer called bob in their system" that person is a queer teenager heavily invested in the alt fashion community. bricklayer bob is not in any way relevant to this person's life. why would their brain form an individual like that when it is not significant at all to this persons experiences or memories. shut up shut up shut up stop making the lives of traumatised strangers harder I'll EAT YOU

[emmavakarian-theirin]

🐦‍⬛

[angerydome]

“We need better public transit and more passenger railways” — fuck yeah I’m all about this~

“… and we need to actively discourage people from owning and driving cars and it should be illegal actually” — FUCK NO.

I don’t know why pro-public transit people have to be so obnoxious about this and ostracize people who would otherwise support their cause. I also find it amusing that they’re more than willing to be massive dicks to me for not hating on cars, until I mention I’m disabled and immune compromised and a lot of times not being able to go DIRECTLY from point A to point B (and limit my exposure to other people’s germs) will stop me from being able to do things and go places. At which point they usually stop engaging with me because I don’t fit the stereotype of disabled and unable to drive.

Overall, a lot of causes shoot themselves in both feet by saying that in order to do X thing (which most people would agree is positive) they need to take Y away from you (for no good reason).

[eggsolotl]

(Peak Lord!SY - Jiuyuan AU) Spending the afternoon lounging around on Jiu-ge's lap.

[zorangezest]

Shockwave somewhere off in the corner with starscream watching this personality swap unfold that he caused somehow

HOLD ON. YOU’RE RIGJT. SHOCKWAVE DEFINITELY CAUSED ALL OF THIS

you inspired me to make this comic why is this becoming an actual au why does this stupid blucking au have lore I’m going to cry