#means i don't struggle much and am low support

[casual-eumetazoa]

I feel like people have also pushed the social model of disability as the only valid model for explaining autism so much that it became just straight up misinformation. Like, listening to some autistic people on tiktok, it's like you can accommodate autism to such an extent that it stops being a disability or even a problem whatsoever. And maybe for some specific combination of traits this is true, but my guess is that it's quite rare. For most people who meet the current diagnostic criteria, autism would disable them in any context, especially since it is almost always comorbid with at least one other thing if not multiple, such as anxiety, depression, PTSD, connective tissue disorders, epilepsy, ADHD, intellectual disability, dyslexia/dyscalculia/dyspraxia, auditory processing disorder... the list goes on.

Point is, of course accommodations, support, and a good environment can eliminate a lot of negative aspects of autism - but most autistic people are disabled by our neurotype and it cannot be accommodated out of existence. Accommodations can drastically improve our quality of life, but not make us function on the exact same level as neurotypical people. And because activist circles and tiktok and so on have an overrepresentation of people whose combination of traits allows them to function on a relatively normative level, people forget just how many struggles you can have, even as a low support person. Like some people think that needing help with filing paperwork or keeping your house clean is high support. That's not even mid support imho, that's something the vast majority of low support autistic people would benefit from. I'm mid support and I need help with tying my shoelaces and preparing simple meals - and I have a master's degree and no learning/intellectual disabilities.

Two things can be true at once. Yes, autism is a natural variation of brain types and we deserve the same rights and dignity as everyone else. Many of us would not want to be "cured" of autism and it is a part of us. Also, yes, it disables us, and limits our functioning, and can be (and is, for many people), a very negative experience, especially in the current world. It's not either or, it's not black or white. It is a complex neurodevelopmental difference that doesn't just boil down to being sensitive and passionate. And it does suck sometimes, maybe even a lot of times. Abled people should learn to respect us and our wishes and needs without either comparing autism to cancer or sugarcoating our experiences.

the way people online talk about autism is getting really weird, like do they know that neurotypicals still have interests? that someone being passionate about a hobby doesn't mean they're autistic? you guys know that right

[luveline]

hi lovely :) i have a request for you!!

i’m thinking spencer reid x reader (and platonic!bau team if you don’t mind!!) where reader is having a bit of a rough time with mental health, but is 1 year clean and they have a lil celebration? thank you!!

-🍓 (this is my application for being an emoji anon lmao)

hi, thank you! ♡ fem 1k

cw implied drug use

You're expecting your boyfriend's voice when a hand touches your shoulder, but it's actually Hotch that speaks. "Good morning. Are you feeling alright?" 

You meet his furrowed brow with a softer expression. "Morning, Hotch. I'm good, I'm," —you stretch your arms out in front of you in a lie— "just really tired." 

"Take it easy today, okay?" You nod quickly. "Okay. And Y/N? Well done." 

You enjoy the shoulder squeeze he gives you and hide your abject puzzlement as he heads up the steps to his office, briefcase in hand. It's always nice to be doted on, but what's today? 

"Hello," a new voice says, a hand again on your shoulder, ducking down to kiss you behind the ear. Here's your expected boyfriend, Spencer's voice low and spectacularly sweet, "Good morning. You're here early, I haven't even made you coffee." 

"That's okay, I can make it." 

His arms cross over your chest. He touches you so confidently, his lack of hesitance a great encouragement; it's hard to find room to feel insecure about things when Spencer seems to see no faults in you. Hard, but not impossible. 

As though he can sense your rough morning (rough week, rough month), he holds you that second longer than usual, lips like angora silk where they touch to your cheek. "I'll make it, thanks. It's the least you deserve today." 

"Right," you say. He strokes your shoulder with his thumb in farewell, leaving you wondering. Today isn't your birthday, you'd probably know if it were. 

"Hey, good morning!" Emily says as she arrives, thrusting her bag and her travel mug onto her desk before she descends on you. 

It's her hug that breaks the camel's back, so to speak. You give her hands an absent minded hold but pull back in her embrace. "Emily," you say, frowning at her, "what's so special about today?" 

She blinks like she's worried to tell you, but she gets it together and hugs you again. "You're one year clean today. Everybody's so proud of you," she says quietly. 

You almost bite the tip of your tongue off. "How do you know that?" you ask. The thing about staying clean is that it haunts you until it doesn't. Some people can't ever beat it, and some people can. It's been a huge struggle for you, but eventually relapsing stopped feeling like an option, especially while you've been with Spencer. You can't do anything to jeopardise your safety while you're with him, you just can't. (That doesn't mean you haven't desperately wanted to.)

"Well, I knew it would've been around now, but Spencer sent us a memo. Nothing too detailed, you know, but we all…" She smiles at you wryly. "We care about you so much, and we didn't get it right with Spencer." 

No, they didn't. Spencer didn't get half the support he deserved, so he's making sure you do. 

There's something of a mental block in you that doesn't allow you to cry, but this shakes you roughly. Emily gives you a sorry smile and a last quick hug, apologising that she has to go and speak to Hotch before the work day officially begins. You lean back in your chair and click dazedly on an email from Penelope detailing how deeply loved you are and wondering if you'd like to go shopping. I know today might be really hard, so if you need me you know where I am. Love Pen. 

"You okay?" Spencer asks, placing your coffee in front of you on the desk. 

"Come and sit with me for a bit." 

You don't sound like you're asking, but you are. Spencer hears the need in your demand and immediately grabs his chair to sit next to you. You're surprised he didn't squat. 

You turn your face, lay your cheek on the short back of the chair uncomfortably, and take him in. He looks great these days, the memory of a young man firmly buried beneath a well-fitting suit, a cropping of facial hair, and the subtle, lean lines of muscle especially evident as he sits back to copy you, curls falling into his eyes. "You told everyone about my anniversary." 

"Your accomplishment," he corrects quietly. "I did." 

"I do want them to know, just�� I feel a bit raw." You hardly remembered yourself, though you knew it was soon. 

Spencer takes your hand, pulling the joined pair between his knees. "It's something to be extremely proud of. And there's nothing wrong with celebrating it." 

"It's embarrassing–" 

"It isn't." He sits up as someone comes closer and you follow suit. This is a complicated conversation and your simple intimacies are necessary but inappropriate in the workplace. "I'm sure there are a ton of people who find sobriety embarrassing, but those are all people who don't know what it feels like to have to do it. We," —his voice softens— "do. I know exactly how it feels, and I know exactly how you've been feeling lately, so I'm proud of you and everyone else should be too." 

"How I've been feeling lately?" you ask. 

"Come on." Spencer stands and takes your face into his hands. One is warmer than the other, and he uses it to stroke the baby hair's at your ear very gently. "You do a really good job at hiding how you feel, but you can't hide from me." 

"I'm not trying to." 

"Good," he says, leaning down to kiss you. A soft, brisk connection. "I love you." 

"Not as much as I do, loverboy!" Morgan says as he arrives, giving Spencer a little nudge as he needles his arms behind your back and kisses your cheek. 

"You're squeezing me." 

"Have I told you lately how much I love you?" Morgan asks, squeezing your harder. 

"Morgan, she knows you know." 

"Know what?" 

"You didn't see the memo?" Spencer asks. 

"What memo?" Morgan grins at you with pearly white teeth and scrubs at your shoulders until you're squirming at the pressure. It's nice. "Looking good, gorgeous." 

[chheolie]

ready get set go get it go ♪ (part 1) part 2 here

the members were scattered around the dance studio, lounging on the sofas, warming up with relaxed steps, or exchanging jokes. the rehearsal for lollapalooza berlin was about to begin, but the atmosphere was light, filled with the low sound of music playing in the background and the laughter that echoed as mingyu teased seungkwan about a move he kept messing up.

suddenly, the door burst open, and seokmin entered the studio with an explosive energy that made everyone look up at once. he had his phone in one hand, his breath quickened, and his eyes shining like never before. a huge smile dominated his face, and he could barely contain his excitement, practically bouncing with joy.

seungcheol furrowed his brow, both concerned and curious. "what's going on? did you win the lottery, seokmin?"

seokmin shook his head frantically, his breath still heavy, and clutched the phone to his chest as if it were the greatest treasure in the world. "you won't believe it... you... you know who just sent me a message?"

the other members exchanged confused looks, but curiosity was growing. "who, man?" vernon asked, watching closely as minghao approached, intrigued.

seokmin dropped to his knees on the floor, the sparkle in his eyes almost radiating. "y/n! y/n herself!" he repeated your name with a mix of disbelief and pure joy, as if he needed to confirm that it was really happening.

the members' eyes widened in visible surprise. jeonghan, who was closest, widened his eyes and let out a low whistle. "are you serious? y/n, the singer you talk about all day long? her?"

"yes!" seokmin nearly shouted, laughing in shock as he struggled to contain his excitement. "she reached out because she wants me to perform with her! at lollapalooza! she wants me to sing with her!" he threw himself back on the floor dramatically.

"this is amazing, seokmin!" wonwoo shouted, smiling genuinely. "man, you're going to sing with y/n! this is huge!"

seokmin nodded, still in disbelief, and sat down on the floor. "i can't believe she knows who i am! that she wants me to be there with her! she even mentioned she likes our songs!" he waved his phone as proof, and the smile on his face was the widest anyone had ever seen. "you have no idea how much this means to me... it's y/n, guys!"

the excitement was palpable, and the members didn't miss the chance to tease their friend. "i told you all that fanboying was going to pay off," seungkwan teased, pushing seokmin's shoulder with a broad grin. "it's going to be incredible, hyung! you're going to kill it, and she's going to love singing with you!"

seokmin laughed, his heart still racing, and took a deep breath, trying to process the surreal moment. "i still can't believe it..."

"and if you get nervous up there, just remember that you're dk, seventeen's vocalist, and now also y/n's partner," jeonghan said with an encouraging smile, patting his back. "she couldn't have picked a better person."

seungcheol, with a big smile on his face, asked, "so, what did you say to her? you accepted, right?"

seokmin hesitated, biting his lower lip. he looked around, taking in the friends who had always been with him during the most important moments of his career. "actually... i haven't replied yet." the studio fell momentarily silent, and seokmin laughed nervously, scratching the back of his neck. "i wanted to check with you guys first. like... i don't know, if you think it's okay for me to accept, if it won't mess anything up. you guys always help me with the big decisions, so i didn't want to do this without hearing what you think."

the other members looked at him for a second, and then seungkwan shook his head with an amused smile. "are you serious, seokmin? we're talking about y/n asking you to perform at lollapalooza! of course, it's okay! go and show her why you're the best vocalist around."

minghao patted seokmin's back. "this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. we'll be here supporting you all the way, so don't even think twice. just say yes!"

jeonghan nodded with a gentle smile. "this is going to be amazing for you and for us too, seeing you accomplish something so big. don't worry, we're all proud of you."

seokmin's eyes filled with emotion, and he nodded, deeply grateful. "you guys are the best. really, thanks for this." with an excited sigh and his heart pounding, he unlocked his phone, opening y/n's message. he typed with slightly trembling fingers, trying to contain his excitement as each word was carefully chosen.

seokmin: hi, y/n! this is dokyeom. seokmin: i’m so happy about your invitation! seokmin: first, i need to say that i’m a huge fan of your work, and getting this message from you is surreal for me. seokmin: i’d love to be part of your performance at lollapalooza and share this special moment with you. count on me to make something amazing on stage!

he took a deep breath before hitting the send button, and the members gathered around, curious and excited. when he finally hit send, everyone jumped on him in celebration. laughter and cheers filled the room, everyone thrilled that seokmin was fulfilling a fan’s dream. it didn’t take long for the phone to vibrate, and seokmin’s eyes widened as he started shouting, "she replied, she replied!"

you: hi, seokmin! i’m so glad you agreed! you: i love your talent, and i’m sure that together we’ll create an unforgettable performance! you: let’s schedule our first rehearsal tomorrow afternoon at the studio, at 3 pm, if that works for you. you: i can’t wait to get started! see you then! 😊

seokmin read the message with a smile that seemed to light up the studio. "she scheduled the first rehearsal for tomorrow! at 3 pm! she said it’s going to be unforgettable!"

the members burst into more celebrations, showering seokmin with hugs and words of encouragement. the group’s rehearsal was important, but at that moment, everyone knew that seokmin’s next step would be something extraordinary. he was about to live one of the biggest dreams of his career, and the thought of sharing the stage with you made his heart race like never before.

the day of the first rehearsal arrived faster than seokmin had imagined. anxious and determined to make a good impression, he arrived at the studio early, well before the scheduled time. his hands were slightly sweaty, and his heart was racing, but he felt ready to face that surreal moment. he sat on one of the benches in the hallway outside the recording studio, trying to calm his nerves while repeatedly checking the clock.

the anticipation grew with each passing minute, and he could hardly believe he was there, about to rehearse with you, the artist he admired so much. he took a deep breath, listening to calm music through his headphones, trying to relax, but his thoughts were running wild, imagining how your first interaction would be. so he rehearsed mentally what to say and how to act.

a few minutes later, you appeared in the hallway, carrying two takeaway coffee cups and a warm smile that lit up the space. seokmin quickly stood up, almost tripping over his own feet but managing to compose himself just in time.

“hi, dokyeom!” you greeted him with a friendly smile, extending one of the cups toward him. “i hope you like coffee. i brought one for you.”

he blinked, surprised and touched by the simple but thoughtful gesture. “oh, yes, i love it! thank you!” he carefully took the cup as if it were a precious gift. he was truly moved that you had thought of him on your way. his heart raced even faster, but he managed to maintain his composure, internally grateful that he hadn’t let his emotions show too much.

as you walked together down the hallway toward the studio, you started chatting casually, lightening the mood. “you know, i love seventeen. the energy you all bring to the stage is incredible, and your voice always impresses me. it’s powerful and full of emotion at the same time.”

seokmin felt his face heat up, trying to hide the blush that was surely appearing. “really? thank you! that means a lot, coming from you. i... i’ve always admired your work. your songs have a unique sensitivity, and being able to sing with you is just amazing.”

you smiled, appreciating the sincere compliment. when you reached the studio door, you paused before opening it, turning to him with a gentle look. “this studio is one of my favorite places to rehearse. i like to keep it quiet; i know you’re used to having a lot of people at rehearsals, but i hope you don’t mind it being just the two of us today.”

seokmin almost laughed in relief and surprise. “mind? not at all! actually, this is perfect. i was a bit nervous, but now... it feels like i’m exactly where i’m supposed to be.”

you opened the studio door, revealing a cozy space with soft lighting and a decor that exuded creativity and comfort. the environment was comforting, with instruments neatly arranged and some personal touches that showed how much that place meant to you. and he walked in, observing everything with great care.

“i’m glad you feel that way,” you said as you both entered the studio. “i’m really excited to create something with you."

seokmin smiled, finally allowing himself to relax. the warm atmosphere and your calm presence made him feel that he was about to experience something truly special. and he was ready to give his best, for you, for himself, and for the fans who were about to witness something unforgettable.

after you entered the studio, the first thing you did was take off your jacket, revealing a comfortable t-shirt that perfectly matched the relaxed vibe of the studio. you casually hung it on the chair next to you, showing a familiarity and ease that left seokmin impressed. there was something about the way you moved, confident and natural, that made him feel more at ease too.

you turned to him with a warm smile, crossing your arms in a relaxed manner. "there’s a specific song i’d really love to sing with you at the festival," you began, and seokmin felt his heart leap. "ever since i first heard it, i’ve been completely hooked on it. it’s from the soundtrack of twenty-five, twenty-one..." you laughed shyly as you revealed your current favorite song.

seokmin stood still for a moment, his eyes wide with surprise. he couldn’t believe what he had just heard. "you... you know i’m the one who sings 'go!'?" he asked, still a bit stunned.

you giggled, nodding affirmatively. "of course i know! your voice is unmistakable. from the first time i heard it, i couldn’t stop listening. the energy, the emotion... it’s incredible. and i think it would be perfect for us to sing together."

seokmin felt a wave of pride and happiness wash over him. not only did you, the artist he admired so much, know the song, but you wanted to sing it with him. he could barely contain the smile spreading across his face. "i... of course, i’m in! it would be an honor to sing 'go!' with you. actually, it’s one of my favorite songs to sing."

your eyes sparkled with enthusiasm. "great! it’s going to be amazing. i was hoping you’d say that." you approached the soundboard and began preparing the space for rehearsal. "shall we start then? i want to see how our voices blend in this song."

seokmin felt his heart race even faster with your excitement. he had been nervous before, but now it was a different kind of nervousness—one that came from anticipation and the joy of being about to create something really special. he knew this rehearsal would be unforgettable, not just for what it meant to him, but for the connection he already felt beginning to form between you through the music.

as you prepared everything, seokmin approached the microphone, adjusting it to his height. he still couldn’t believe his luck at being there, sharing the studio with you. when you finally positioned yourself next to him, ready to start, he took a deep breath, feeling the energy in the air. he took a deep breath. "let’s do this," he said, with a smile that mixed emotion and determination.

and when the first notes of 'go!' began to play, seokmin knew that this would be one of the most memorable moments of his career.

during the rehearsal, without realizing it, seokmin had a natural talent for making you laugh. every time he spoke, he made you smile in a genuine and carefree way. whether it was a spontaneous joke or a funny gesture, he was always creating a light and fun atmosphere, unaware of the impact he had.

you were enchanted. the connection you felt with seokmin during the rehearsal was something that transcended the music. you were so involved that laughter came easily, and the small interactions between you were creating a natural harmony. seokmin, in turn, was amazed that he was actually making someone as talented and admired as you laugh that way.

when the rehearsal finally ended, you looked at seokmin with a sincere smile, satisfaction written all over your face. “i want you to know that it was a huge pleasure meeting you in person. you have such a light and happy energy; it’s contagious. i really hope our contact doesn’t end after the festival performance. i’d love to build a friendship with you.”

seokmin was visibly moved, his eyes shining with gratitude. “i also really enjoyed meeting you, y/n. it was an amazing experience, and i really hope we can keep in touch. this rehearsal was one of the best experiences of my career.”

you said goodbye with a shy hug, laughing just as shyly, and seokmin left the studio with a sense of fulfillment and joy. the way home felt lighter and brighter, and he couldn’t wait to share what happened with the members.

when he got home, seokmin immediately grabbed his phone and sent a message to the members.

with a smile on his face and his heart still racing from the wonderful day, he typed:

seokmin: guys, you won’t believe how amazing today’s rehearsal was! seokmin: i met y/n, and she’s even more wonderful than i imagined. and even more beautiful!!!! seokmin: we rehearsed "go!" together, and it was an experience i’ll never forget. CAN YOU BELIEVE SHE LOVES THIS SONG? seokmin: she’s super fun, and her energy is simply contagious. we got along so well, and she even said she hopes we keep in touch after the festival. seokmin: i don’t think i’ll be able to sleep tonight.

[centrally-unplanned]

Let's see if I have one more election take in me:

I am deeply sympathetic to Sam Kriss's rage against the Democratic corpo-political shibboleth, and not just because we are both deeply enmeshed in the grand tradition of dissident Oxbridge-style cantankerous internet rants. He is right that Kamala was a weak candidate, for one. But more importantly, I still feel what he feels deep down. I remember the starry idealism of my halcyon youth, of believing that conviction, that vision, that the zeal only a platform birthed from authentic principles, tempered by struggle and sweat, would carry the day over crass, paint-by-polling-numbers incrementalism. When he describes Harris thusly:

"She’s a machine politician. She wants power, but not for any particular reason. It’s just that life is a game, and the point is to reach the highest level."

I see my own reaction to her when she first stepped into the 2020 limelight, and low-key hating her for it. I feel his heart, for it is my heart.

But it is not my brain. Because I am not a teenager anymore, and his critique is fucking bullshit.

He says all this stuff like:

The reason Kamala Harris lost is the same as the reason she was the candidate to begin with: the Democratic Party is allergic to democracy.

And how the electorate is seen as but ants from inside the towers of the Machine, like the Dems just invented "not running a primary" this time as a lark. As opposed to neither party in America ever having primaries against incumbent presidents! Because they are normally popular, and it would be a waste of everyone's time to do that! Could you imagine, launching a real primary against Obama in 2012? And possibly sabotaging his brand a bit for absolutely nothing? It is a reasonable policy, particularly when incumbents used to have an advantage for being so. Now they clearly don't, Biden was unpopular and too old, and the Dems took too long to realize it. A costly mistake, but it is a purely strategic error. Big orgs have inertia, and the Dems fucked up. It has nothing to do with an "allergy to democracy".

And Kriss can go off summarizing how the Harris campaign was offering voters nothing:

But for some unaccountable reason, among the general public, ‘Kamala: You Already Like Her!’ was not the brilliant pitch it seemed to be. [...] Another option would be to actually offer something to the voters.

Which sounds neat, but he made it up! I remember Kamala's actual campaign speeches, ads, and platforms, which she repeated so monotonically in her tightly-scripted campaign appearances: protect abortion rights, expand the welfare state, provide better child care support, lower the cost of housing. And most importantly, she ran on Biden's record of a strong economy and promised to deliver more of it. What does even mean for this to not be a real platform? Beyond not having some synthesized, totalizing "Critique" of modernity that packages it all into a beautiful, systematizing little box.

Because I promise you, voters synthesize jack shit. None of this is why Harris lost - voters have made that pretty clear:

You can find other data ofc, this or that point varies, but the story is not opaque. They didn't like Biden! They didn't like his inflation. They didn't like immigration, or they didn't like his liberalism, and they thought Kamala was too similar. She had too much policy baggage. And she wasn't charismatic enough to dig herself out of that hole - no disagreement from me on that front.

Though even then, by that we mean she lost an election by ~3-4% margins after getting subbed in at the 4th quarter while down by ~8% in the polls. That ain't bad!

None of the voters who matter share Kriss's sensibilities, and he cannot hide his disappointment in that. So he pretends that Donald Trump, the guy who promised 20% tariffs on everything to fight inflation, is giving them a real vision:

That’s what Trump did: he offered an enemy to blame and the prospect of doing violence to them

I don't know man, I think swing voters just don't like the last four years and think 2019 was better. I don't think the promises of orgastic violence against democrats are why Trump won! Actually a bit of an unforced error on his part.

But since Kriss presumes to value democracy, that thesis can't hold - so the lack of reality delivering on what his vision for democracy should be is displaced onto Harris's mistakes. The voters can never fail you. You can only fail to elevate them with the right candidate. Which, tactically? Sure, why not. But you can leave the moralism at the classroom door.

This ties into our dreaded media discourse debate, so it is time to bring in another explainer, by Michael Tomasky:

The line-by-line isn't interesting here; instead I want to focus on this quote:

Weren’t they bothered that Trump is a convicted felon? An adjudicated rapist? Didn’t his invocation of violence against Liz Cheney, or 50 other examples of his disgusting imprecations, obviously disqualify him? And couldn’t they see that Harris, whatever her shortcomings, was a fundamentally smart, honest, well-meaning person who would show basic respect for the Constitution and wouldn’t do anything weird as president? The answer is obviously no—not enough people were able to see any of those things. At which point people throw up their hands and say, “I give up.”

To which the immediate reply is: my dude, what are you talking about??

A 56 percent majority of Americans say Trump is probably guilty of a criminal conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election results through false claims of voter fraud, including 40 percent who believe he is “definitely guilty.” Republicans are less united than Democrats. Nearly 9 in 10 Democrats believe Trump is guilty, while nearly 7 in 10 Republicans think he is innocent. Among independents, nearly twice as many think Trump is guilty as think he is innocent.

You know how when you ~13 years old, and you have that friend who is just old enough to start taking Dungeons & Dragons books filled with splash art of succubi into the bathroom with him, but not yet old enough to get that "talking to girls" is an acquired skill? And they are blatantly, openly salivating over the first chick in the 7th grade class who discovered what power the combination of a camisole and a push-up bra holds over the male gaze? And she just completely ignores his faltering attempts at ~casual conversation~, so his brain script-cycles through its backlog of tween sitcom plots until it lands on, "Hey, what if I confess to her? Then she will know about my feelings!"

And you have to pull him aside and gently explain that, bro. She knows. That is not your problem.

Kriss is too intelligent a thinker to not understand this, but our dear Tomasky - and so many like him - has stuck his 14-year-old head in the sand over this. Swing voters know Trump is a scumbag! They know he lost the election, they know he raped a few women in his day, they know he is a serial fraudster. Even a bunch of those Republicans who, in polls, go "oh it's all a Dem conspiracy"? They know too; they just have the decency to lie about it. How could they not? Every media outlet in the country has been repeating it for a fucking decade! I might think voters are morons but even I won't stoop this low; they have eyes and ears, they aren't illiterate.

They just don't care.

Not enough at least, not enough to make it the only thing they consider. And here is the rub, here is the grand mistake Kriss & Tomasky are making - they are at least somewhat right to not care. The height of the Democratic privilege is that they get to play this card because they don't have to deal with it being turned against them. Kamala is a political chameleon but she is a decent person. She would never take a bribe from a foreign government, she would never assault a coworker, she would never, ever, deny a free and fair election.

Which means you don't have to choose between voting for a rapist and voting for someone who is going to shove a bullshit interpretation of the 14th amendment down your throat via a stacked court to ban abortion nationwide, forever. Pro-life people think abortion is genocide against babies! Why are you surprised they aren't voting for the pro-baby-genocide person because she is nice? How sure are you that you would do the same when that is reversed? I guess those boycott-Harris-because-of-Gaza people got some cred, but I think we all agreed they were dumb, right?

This is the rub of why outsiders always have so much difficulty understanding how people like Berlusconi, Trump, Le Pen, etc, get so much vote share - they have no stake in the political struggle beyond the vague idea of democratic norms. It is easy to say "Italy, choose a non-crook!" when you don't have to live with the policy programme of the other guy. From the inside the price of those principles is far, far harder. It isn't shocking that most choose not to pay it.

This isn't to give voters like a moral pass - Trump's conduct is truly disqualifying, I would vote Republican if the shoe was on the other foot in this case. My point instead is that they generally won't as a simple fact of life, and blaming them is futile. If you have wound up in a situation where the political system has taken its pool of hundreds of millions of potential candidates and narrowed it down to two for the voters, and one of them has "launched a coup but will say go to hell to the inflation guy" as a bundled package, someone fucked up and it isn't the voters.

You need political elites to do their part in the system - Republicans never should have let Trump be their candidate in 2016. Open primaries with no organizational thumbs on the scale are a mistake, actually, allowing arbitrary minorities to generate subpar candidates. The decision to let Biden run again was, fundamentally, born from the same impulse - the Democratic Party had no leadership capable of telling him no, because they outsourced that job to "primaries". The Dems are not "allergic" to democracy; democracy is allergic to too much of itself.

But the cat is out of the bag now! These changes happened for a reason after all. Which I won't dig into here - I will keep my point as focused as something as sprawling as this can be. Voters will not save you, and you should not be disappointed when they don't. It was never their job.

[riskyraiker]

Hello!!! I hope you're doing well!! I would like to request cybertronian! Reader with like four arms and that's like the Queen or King of the battlefield in ancient Cybertron history (example: reader was the strongest Autobot ever in history and there's ancient data about reader and photos too ykyk what I'm getting👍🙏😭) and the reader then got summoned by Megatron or idk at that point but you can choose what happens!! :33 I hope this isn't too much😭

OH MY!!! I LOVE THIS!!! but reader is an autobot in this, please tell me if you want to see an decepticon version. You are a head taller than Megatron in this.

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You remembered everything about how you got killed, the crying before you lost your hearing, the optics looking in horror how the strongest autobot is about to die. Now? Nobody has any idea what happened, your body vanished before they started looking for it. Optimus carried your legacy as the one and last prime. He was your friend, but you didn't get to be friends that long. Since he was made so late and you met 10 years before the war started. It felt like you woke up immediately you fell down. Where am I? you think, but soon enough you hear a voice you recongize. Megatron. "The legend is real! Y/N! I have summoned you to help us decepticons to bring Cybertron back to life and rise as the Queen/King of the battlefields like you used to be!" used to? Used to?! "Since when I wasn't the Queen/King of the battlefields? And what do you mean summoned?" I put my upper hands on my waist and lower ones crossed. "You have been offline for quite a while, Y/N. Join us since I don't want to destroy such a fighter." What is he talking about? Before you could answer a spacebridge appeared. Well it's a groundbridge but you don't need to know that yet. Through the groundbridge walks Optimus Prime himself! "Orion?!" "OPTIMUS!" Both you and Megatron yelled. "Y/N DESTROY HIM!" Did he just order me around, used-to-be-low-level mech just ordered me around?! "Are you! GIVING ME! THE QUEEN/KING OF THE BATTLEFIELDS, ORDERS?" I jumped to attack Megatron, he dodged. Another swing and a hit aswell. Punching again, Megatron catched my servo, but is definitely struggling against all my strength. I almost forgot! I have four hands! You thought as you go and punch Megatron into his 'stomach'. You pick him up and throw him to the nearest cliff you see. "Y/n? It can't be." That low voice..turning around you look at the red n' blue mech. "Optimus?"

Optimus Prime

He missed you so much! So so so so much! No matter how emotionless he can be he definitely hugged you either at the spot where you two reunited or back at the base.

Before you were summoned and revived he used to look through your files. He always stared at the picture, trying to remember how you looked when he would do something smart or help them with something.

He would try (keyword! try) to spar with you as training, but he lost usually. (Much to his shock, he did think he was good at fighting.)

Would let you go alone to a mission (HOW) and lets you have fun with the kids every now and then.

He need help? You're there. He's losing to Megs? You're there to beat some decepticon aft.

He loves your four hands, anytime he would be hurt or just needs support all your hands would around him hugging him gently.

But in the battlefield? Oh oh I'm glad you asked. He doesn't know if he should be scared or proud to see you back in action. He is glad about that you would save him no matter what comes against.

Ratchet

He had heard about you when Cybertron still had life on it's surface.

He never believed you're real, until the moment he sees you.

Four arms!? He had to check them out (for science research of course) and see how they work, because he's a medic!

Anytime you would get wounded he's rushing over to you.

He would be against it that you would go on the battlefield. You ALWAYS have to confront him that you hold the title queen/king of the battlefield.

He does like how nice and helpful you are. Since you're the queen/king of the battlefield he didn't think you would be nice and help him around the lab.

If he needs an substitute for work when he needs rest you would take his place immediately for his sake.

Bumblebee

He would be a little scared of you since you beat Megatron so easily.

The moment you prove you wouldn't hurt any of the team he would be your son from now on.

You two always had each others backs.

He would love clinging on to one of your four arms.

He has any form of a problem? Don't worry you already know about it and you'll solve it.

If he would ever get hurt you would show the enemy why you hold the title as the queen/king of the battlefield

Before you arrived he used to read some datapads about you which he got from Optimus.

He would ask you to teach him how to fight.

Arcee

She would be amazed by the amount of arms you have, but won't show it until she trusts you.

Would trust you the moment you beat Megatrons aft in front of her optics, because none of the cons would dare to even poke him.

She would be grateful that you saved her and others in the Battlefield.

Would be surprised to find some old files of you and would be more shocked to read them.

You both are badass in Jack's opinion.

Since you know how awful it's to lose a partner in the team you won't question her or how untrusting she is.

If she would get hurt in the middle of a fight you would carry her with one of your hands and fight others.

Bulkhead

He would admire you and your strength. You just beat Megatron with ease!

He had heard rumours about someone like you when he was a wrecker back in Cybertron, but never believed them until now.

He always wants to go in battles with you to see how ruthless is the queen/king of the battlefields.

He was in trouble and cornered by vehicons in a energon mine? Those vehicons looked like they belonged in a scrapyard after you attacked them.

He would be a fanboy with wheeljack and praise the ground you walk on.

Training? Hell yea he would be in. Until he loses every single time.

Wheeljack

Oh oh don't even get me started!

Would hate you, but love your fighting style at the same time.

"pshh, show off." Could be heard anytime you and him were in the battlefield the same time.

You did start to grow on him. Suddenly you weren't so bad in fighting, suddenly you weren't such a show off, suddenly he seemed to like your presence.

Now? You two are the destructive duo.

Ratchet would be worried about you more than wheeljack.

"ouch, that just broke my spark docbot." He was definitely kicked in his aft after that.

He would go on drives with you so he could get to know you better. (Surprisingly since he's such a loner)

Smokescreen

He would run over to you the moment you walk into the base.

"YOU'RE REAL?!" apparently he has read about you before.

You wouldn't have any privacy for a week since he's like a golden retriever who clings to you 24/7

He would be flabbergasped how somebots in the team didn't trust you yet. "They're the strongest Autobot in history! Let's keep them, pleeeease!"

Like I said already. He's such a golden retriever. He needs your attention, he needs you to teach him fighting etc.

Now you're his new mom too! You got two new sons! Yippee i guess?

When he sees you in action, he has star eyes. You know when he talks about it when optimus first uses the star saber? He talks like that but even more excited!

Ultra Magnus

Has high respect for you, but would hate how reckless you can be with wheeljack.

He would give you a lecture, but it falls through deaf audio receptors.

The moment he sees you in action he would doubt you less.

He knew that you used to exist, well now that you're actually alive he can't help but feel a little bit relieved that the autobots have the upperhand.

If you would call him Sir he would let you off easier.

Was surprised when he lost his hand that you supported him best you can. He didn't think that the queen/king of the battlefields could be so soft.

Denied it when you suggested that he's your adopted grumpy son, since he's always so worried about you. (He is your son now, but doesn't let the team know)

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AN: I HOPE YOU LIKED IT AND I APOLOGIZE THAT IT TOOK SO LONG. I HAD A CAMP AND NOW SCHOOL IS STARTING SO I WAS BUSY😭😭���

[nonspeakers-r-us]

Nobody talks about episodes of uncontrollable emotion and dangerous behaviors in severe Autism.

I apologize for the long post. This is important to me. Heavy CW for mention of knives, self-injurious behaviors, description of intense emotions, brief descriptions of restraints and police. Yes, I used the word "severe" to describe my Autism. This is because I am Nonspeaking, very High Support Needs, visibly Autistic, and have a Borderline IDD. This is how I choose to describe my Autism. Please don't attack me for this, Tumblr. Anyways. Darting out into busy streets. Repeatedly banging your head against walls. Throwing objects, sometimes even very dangerous objects such as knives. Breaking things - anything - no matter the value or durability. Unplanned, sudden violence towards self and others. Lashing out, in pure emotion, just screaming into nothing at the top of your lungs, for no obvious reason other than pure, unadulterated, terrifying emotion. This may not seem like symptoms of Autism for anyone, and they may not be caused by Autism at all. But for many young people and adults with severe Autism, this is what our families deal with regularly. "Difficult behaviors", as I've often heard them described as by social workers. There's often no clear reason for then. They just. Happen. We are almost never diagnosed with secondary conditions. It is considered a symptom of our severe/profound Autism. While in many Speaking and Low Support Needs people with Autism, they would be diagnosed with various conditions. Conduct Disorder. Bipolar. Borderline Personality Disorder. Maybe even a severe case of Intermittent Explosive Disorder. But for those of us on the more visible part of the Spectrum, nobody knows how to deal with us. It's scary and heartbreaking for our families, and deeply traumatic for us. Many times, our families and caregivers will turn to emergency services such as police or EMTs when they have no where else to turn. I don't like this option, I hate it. But in moments of extreme panic and fear, I don't always blame families for this. Nobody talks about those of us who have been restrained by our arms and ankles to hospital beds for weeks at a time. Nobody talk about those of us who turn violent on the people we love most, when we just can't control ourselves. I wish I had good advice for those of us struggling with this. I wish I could comfort you. While mood stabilizers and antipsychotic medications have helped me, it doesn't help everyone. DBT for severely Autistic individuals is another thing that greatly helped me. This is a fact of life for many individuals with severe Autism and their families. It's terrifying. But please keep trying treatment, keep advocating for yourself as much as possible, and keep going. I'm sure you don't think this means anything, but you are strong. You are brave. I see you and I want you to keep going. Nobody talks about episodes of uncontrollable emotion and dangerous behaviors in severe Autism.

[toutvatoujoursbien]

midnight thoughts (i hope i don't regret this)

Let me preface this by saying that these are just (very, very long) ramblings I’ve had in my head over the past few days and are MY opinions. I never post to Tumblr, but my level of emotional unhinged-ness right now needs an outlet so that I can process everything and feel, well, less unhinged.

I have never been this enamored with any celebrity or promo for a show like I have for this season of Bridgerton. Admittedly, I am a fan of the books and Penelope & Colin are my favorite couple. I’m going to age myself by saying that I read the series almost 20-ish years ago; past me could have never imagined I would actually get to see a Regency romance on my screen. Romances are for the girlies, and what the girlies like tends to be mocked, ridiculed, and not taken seriously - I’ve seen this time and time again across many different fandoms. I also really enjoy the tv series for being its own creative adaptation. I’ve liked many (though not all) of the changes they’ve made to the show; and I’ve liked all the little nods to the books that have been sprinkled in. Are the books or show perfect? Of course not, but that doesn’t mean I can’t love them for bringing me some entertainment and joy and escapism. I think that’s the beauty of it, I get to have the best of both worlds, so to speak. And for me personally, it’s been so fun to watch the press coverage over the past six or so months. As a fandom, I think we’ve been EXTREMELY well fed. 

Having Nicola and Luke as the leads has been a true blessing; I think/hope folks can tell how much they clearly love and understand their characters/roles. I know everyone has been talking nonstop about their chemistry and their close friendship, which I think is beautiful, truly unique and special. How can you not enjoy watching two people, who seem to genuinely like one other, talk endlessly about a project that they love and have poured so much into? And the way they have supported one another, not only during promo, but during their years of friendship? Astonishing, really. So while I am old enough to know better than to ship real people, I would’t blame anyone (myself included) if they got caught up in the whirlwind excitement and couldn’t help but wonder a sincere “What if?” (At least that was the case for me.) Isn’t that the beauty of hope and possibility and potential? Like, I knew rationally and intellectually that the likelihood of them being together was low, but damn if I didn’t feel giddy seeing their interviews, reading articles, and watching video after video.

“Oh, but it’s all PR!” they cry. Maybe, but like most of life, I don’t think it’s so simple or clear. I think there’s been a lot of nuance and perhaps some blurring of the lines during this promo tour. As long as we are respectful about it and realize that at the end of the day, the only opinions that matter in regards to their relationship are N & L’s, I don’t think some lighthearted dreaming is unheard of. We have to remember, though, that what we’re shown is only a fraction of their true selves, carefully and deliberately curated to accommodate their status as actors/celebrities/those in the public eye. 

(And yes, I know this is the internet and therefore everyone has an opinion - again, myself included. But I struggle to understand why some people think that their opinions should be deemed THE most important to the discussion or would have an impact on any type of outcome, especially in this particular scenario… I hope it’s obvious I’m referring to the very vocal people that chose to expend their energy in hateful, negative ways. Aren’t you exhausted?

However, as a longtime lurker, I have to admit it’s been absolutely fascinating reading all the different perspectives and takes on this too. I think reading other POVs and seeing people articulate points that challenge me and make me think is a good thing - again, as long as it’s all in a respectful manner. 

Also I have spent literal years curating and cultivating a social media bubble that doesn’t make me want to cry or give up on life. I don’t seek out negativity and hate - constructive criticism for a thing is a different matter. It may be “putting blinders up,” but honestly, real life can be a shitty enough place that I would like to spend my limited time online looking at cute things and learning or reading about stuff that makes me feel less alone in the world.)

Last week, I stayed off social media to avoid Bridgerton spoilers until I could watch Part 2. I did open Twitter on Thursday to check on something that was entirely unrelated, saw the absolute meltdown of a shitstorm brewing and quickly NOPED out of it. (I was also reminded of why Twitter scares me at times. And I'm not calling it X because that is stupid.) When I finally caught up over the weekend (both with Bridgerton and… all the other stuff 😅), I felt like I was experiencing mental and emotional whiplash.

Look, ultimately, I don’t know them personally and know even less about their private lives. As an outside observer (even though, yes, I have a vested interest in them), Nicola is fucking amazing and Luke seems to be a nice, sweet guy. I think they are each others support, and it has been mentioned many times that she has helped him deal with the intensity/anxiety of being in the spotlight this season. So here are some potentially hot takes: I just think, when they’re together, it’s like he’s a different, better person. When he soaks up even a little bit of her light (sorry, I had to), I can see all the qualities in him that she is constantly gushing about. But, and again this is my take on it, I also think he has a lot of growing up to do. I don’t know much about his supposed “hot/fuck boy summer,” but it seems to me that he’s perhaps going through his own Colin phase, which he can totally do. I genuinely want to see him and Nic succeed. However, I do think he’s got to get a better handling on his media image now (this whole thing reeks of a PR nightmare, but I need to take off my comms professional hat). The way this has all played out has been, imo, a clusterfuck. There are other issues that I’m also not going to get into at the moment. 

The thing that frustrated me the most is the timing of those “leaked” photos. You’re telling me that N&L went through SIX months of a - literal - worldwide promo tour, building up hype, doing countless interviews and appearances, etc., only to have these pap pictures “captured” on the night of the Pt. 2 London premiere??? And yes, while I’m aware there were rumblings of a gf being at various events/locations, I didn’t pay much attention to it (read: my curated social media bubble, lol). And I think the lack of confirmation up to that point from Luke and his team just mades things even more tricky/messy. So when the inevitable backlash played out online, piled on top of the hate Polin seems to get from many corners of the internet (Is it ship wars? Regular trolls just trolling? Polin and/or Lukola antis? People who, for whatever reason, don’t like the actors themselves or, worse, don’t like the creative choices/decisions made by the higher-ups and therefore deem it okay to spread hate online? All of the above, most likely.), I know I felt like I had been hit by a train.

Here’s my point: I think what should have been a moment of triumph and a joyous occasion for Nic, Luke, and Bridgerton season 3, was sadly overshadowed by the aforementioned shitstorm. And that’s a damn shame. Too many cast and crew put in a lot of time, effort, and blood sweat and tears, to pull this all together. I was happy with Season 3, which perhaps I will deep dive about in another post because this one has already spiraled out of control. Were there things I wished they had included or, rather, things that could have been left out? Yes, of course. But at the end of the day, I think we got a beautiful story led by two actors who love Polin as much as we do. And I cannot wait to see them back for Season 4. Plus, seriously, those viewing numbers alone should have been mostly what people are talking about. I hope all this doesn’t take away from the overall impact of the show and season.

I think it’s okay to be disappointed by all the stuff that has come out over the last few days. I think it’s perfectly human to want/need to process your thoughts and emotions. What is NOT OKAY is sending hate to anyone, period. And I hope you don’t let all that has happened sour your enjoyment of Season 3 and/or Polin.

Lastly, if you take anything away from this long ass post, it’s that Nicola is a GODDAMN QUEEN. Anyone who says otherwise is speaking slander and we do not stand for that in this house. She has carried herself during this time with grace, charm, and poise, consistently and constantly. And she is always ready for a mega fashion moment. She must be exhausted - already on to her next film/job but also perpetually online, and even stepping up to defend her costar. I may have to do a whole separate post just gushing about her and add to all the people already singing her praises. (And as a big fuck you to all the haters.)

Geez Louise, I clearly have a lot of feelings (more than I allowed myself to believe I did…). But I would love to hear what others think! Please, I need friends with whom I can have rational (okay, maybe slightly unhinged), spirited, deep analyses and discussion of this whole thing, or anything else we might have in common!

[nomoreusername]

How Maze Runner Character Would Help If They Found Out You're Bipolar

(I am not trying to stereotype bipolar at all. I have it so when I use terms like mania and episodes I am basing it off of what I know. I know it's a spectrum and different for everyone, but I'm still trying to generalize it as best as I can without being disrespectful)

Doesn't know a lot about it at first so he's a little lost

Secretly looks up stuff about it so he knows and can help better

Catches on to the signs and what helps you very quickly

Never tells anybody and reminds you that you don't owe anyone an explanation for something you can't even control

Will sit in comfortable silence and hold your hand when he can tell things are getting rough

Will journal with you so that you feel connected with him but not pressured to talk

Suggests speaking to him through writing when you physically can't talk

Is very patient when you do

Would drop everything the second you needed him

Basically, he doesn't care whether you need silence or a thousand words as long as you're safe and comfortable

Notices the red flags due to his past experience

Very gently coaxes what's wrong out of you

Opens up back so you know you aren't alone in your mental health

Makes you a list of reasons to live and gives it to you for the next time your low comes

Would have an alarm for when you need to take your medication

Would drive you to and from any psychiatrist and therapists appointment

Doesn't mind when he needs to remind you to eat, sleep, or so basic things when you're going manic

Lets you know when he's worried about you without talking down to or babying you

Would help you schedule a doctor's appointment when your crash or mania is worse than usual or goes on for too long

Would be on the lookout for side effects from any new medications or treatments so he can let you know to bring them up at your appointment

All in all, your most caring and loving supporter

Can tell when you're upset about having it and will try to make jokes to cheer you up

If it doesn't work he'll sit with you in silence and hold you

Would never, ever, ever let anyone talk bad about the mental illness, even if you aren't there

Would sometimes give you too tough love (telling you that you're crashing or having an episode when you're in denial)

When he can tell that it hurt your feelings and just made you defensive he would stop and give you a minute to cool down

After that he would calmly explain why he believes that and would help with whatever you needed if he was right or if something else was going on

Could sometimes be too much when getting you out of the house and doing stuff that's good for you when you're crashing but would realize before it does any harm

Would apologize about it and spend the day laying with and comforting you

To sum it up, his love and concern can be pushy but he will always be there for whatever you need

Would have a little bit of trouble understanding at first

When you had an episode for the first time he made an internal comparison to him lashing out when angry to help with that

Would be good at knowing when you can be calmed down, when you need to be with someone, and when you need to be alone

Would be your first and most intense defender if someone starts stereotyping, being rude, or assuming things about you because of it

Sometimes he would have to catch himself when he's about to lose patience when you're having mania but gets better at it

Knows when it's better for both of you and still safe for you to separate for a little bit (around an hour or two) before helping you work through whatever it was

Would be extremely proud of you when it's very under control and would let you know but also assure you he's aware it's a cycle

Overall, the longer he's with you the better he gets at supporting you

Would sometimes struggle with not taking what you say during episodes to heart but would still understand that you didn't mean and were working on it

Would stay awake and try to soothe you to sleep when your mania causes you to stay up

If you're up for really late he would drive you around and either let you have silence until you fall asleep or talk with you to keep your mind off of it

Would be good at remembering triggers to episodes and help you avoid them

Better at helping you with crashes than mania but isn't in any way bad at either of them

Sometimes would pull away from everyone when he could tell you just needed someone to help you

Sometimes would take your mind off of it and others he would let you talk about it or would hold you when you cried

Generally, very patient and loving while giving you any reassurance you need

Has a basic understanding at first

Researches things about it and keeps what she finds in a journal

Learns and memorizes all the terms and symptoms

Keeps track of patterns she sees with mania and crashes

Has comfort food, movies, and things you'll need near her when she can tell you're going to have an episode

Will watch whatever you want with you while cuddling you until you fall asleep

Gets worried when it happens but doesn't let that blind how you're actually doing

Will eat with with you to make sure you actually are

Tells you she loves you as much as she can so you know you'll never be alone through it

To cut it short, she'll learn everything she can so that she can be everything you need

Listens to what you tell her about it and remembers every last bit of information

Would ask how it went after every psychiatrist/therapists appointment but not pry for details

Knows that even though you need a little extra help from medication or people, you're capable of looking out for yourself

Will bring you your favorite fast food every time she finds out you're not eating because of it

Sits at the table and stares at you while eating her own meal until you finish

Gets you some kind of dessert if you want it when you eat what you can

Will lay on top of you so you can't get up and walk around at night when you aren't sleeping

Sometimes tricks you into thinking her telling you to look out for yourself was actually your idea so you listen

To sum it up, she'll let you be a person while also doing what she has to to make sure you're treating yourself right

Realizes something's wrong during a crash because it reminds her of when Newt was depressed

Tells you she's worried and gets you to open up

Feels a little bad when you do since she didn't expect that answer

When she gets over it she asks if you want to tell her more about it

Listens to every single word

Tells you she loves you and how important you are what when you're finished

Generally better at helping with mania since depression brings back some memories

Will stay up late and read to you when you're manic until you go to sleep

Tells you when you're making a rash decision and suggests you sit down with her and really think it though

Will start adding a "make sure to take your medicine," into her goodmorning/goodnight texts

Notices every change in your behavior and will reassure you she'll be there if you have an episode

Essentially, she makes sure you're being logical when manic and safe when crashing

Asks what she can do to support you when you actually tell her

Makes sure to always know your answer

Would pick up your medicine for you when she sees you're running low

Reminds you when you have to make another psychiatrist or therapist appointment

Has the appointments on her own schedule so she can be ready to drive you to or from there if it ends up being a rough session

Takes you to a quiet place outside if it was to get your mind off of it

Will drive you to her place after that so you still aren't alone

Talks about things that aren't actually important but make you happy until you fall asleep in her arms

Will ask if you want to talk about it in the morning after making breakfast

Respects whatever answer you give her

Overall, she'll make sure you speak for yourself while supporting you when you can't find your voice

[yumantimatter]

Death-Neutral Antideathism

[epistemic status: a statement of personal philosophy. questions and responses welcome, but please argue the tractability of ending death with people who are more invested in it as a goal than I am]

I'm pretty normie for an anti-death transhumanist. I haven't signed up for cryonics and don't plan to unless it gets way cheaper and better, I donate neartermist, I have pierced ears and zero other body mods, etc etc.

I still consider myself a part of the movement, because it's straightforward and obvious to me that if people don't want to die they shouldn't have to, and if they want to change their bodies and minds they should get to.

Personally I'm fine with dying someday. I think I am going to grow up into an old person who has had plenty of experiences and is comfortable with not having many more of them. If I found out today that I had a terminal illness, I would rather spend my time and money on fulfilling my bucket list and leaving my loved ones good memories (and donate the rest) than in the hospital desperately trying out low-probability treatments. (See my opinion on cryo)

(Then again, I certainly wouldn't turn down a miracle cure! Or a known, tested treatment with a decent chance of getting me through! Or something that was unlikely to work but low financial and opportunity cost to try! This is also the same as my opinion on cryo)

I don't view death as bad inherently. It's just a change of state, if one that's uniquely impactful in its irreversibility and all-encompassing scope. I don't agree that people dying is always a great screaming moral emergency, that death is a yawning horror for anyone who looks at it clearly, or that we are all fooling ourselves. For me, the way modern culture treats death is actually a pretty good match to how I feel about dying.

But, um, *gestures at anti-deathists more broadly* *gestures at all the people who do try any possible treatment for their terminal illness* *gestures at the instinctive struggle for self preservation when it would be so much less effort to stop* It sure seems like there's a lot of not wanting to die going around! And it sure seems like a horrible idea to just ignore that!

People who make peace with their eventual death even though they'd prefer to live longer are fine, and not making a mistake. People who make a thought-out choice to die or to risk their lives for other goals are fine, and not making a mistake. And people who desperately want to live, who cling on to cryo and fund anti-aging and search for any possible means of continuing on, are also fine and not making a mistake.

I think death is bad for the many many many people who want to continue living, or decide to live, or endorse being alive, and who die anyway. A natural death after a long fulfilling life isn't an exception to that. This is the part where I do wholeheartedly agree with the standard anti-death talking points, and want them to become more mainstream. That competing perspective which validates the desire to not die, and which spurs people into looking for ways to do something about it, is vitally important for the sake of people who don't work like me.

Maybe this is just a long winded way of saying I'm a preference utilitarian (ish) who takes weird and hard-to-fulfill preferences seriously? If so, I'm happy to take up that flag. Weird-preference-fulfillmentism all the way!

(I haven't even brought up the transhumanism, which I support on the same lines - I don't think my position there is particularly unusual in these parts though, seeing as this is the transgender website.)

For now, I am in coalition with the anti-deathists. And I will keep being in coalition with them, until and unless the world shifts far enough to count my viewpoint as neutral.

[agentdilf]

hi

i hope this request isnt too much to ask for but could maybe write some of the mercs (doesn't matter which one, do wtv you like honey<3) with a s/o who has a relative who's very sick, and they comfort reader who's suffering because of that?

im struggling with the exact same thing so i really wanted to have some comfort fics to help me go through this tough time </3

it's totally okay if you don't want to! feel free to ignore

have an amazing week sunshine 🙏🏼🩷

ofc ♡ im so sorry you're going through this, i hope you're doing ok, thank you for the ask ! I think Engineer, Heavy, Pyro or Sniper would be the best comforters for this situation, so I hope this is good ;; sorry this took so long am a little burnt out!!

GN reader, can be seen as platonic, I think. Engineer is obviously like, Texan dad vibes. He's totally gonna rub your back and support you through your lows, sweet old man 😢 I also think he'd just give good ways to cope. Help you get out of bed and take care of yourself if the information is effecting you that much. Also, I think he'd help you with transport to go see said family member (if you're able to). Overall, just a really good support system. Next up, Heavy. Ah yes, the family man. He's the sweetest thing, really. I think he'd be similar to Engie, very supportive, cooks for you if you can't find the motivation. Very sensitive when it comes to family matters, and would just overall be really, really sweet. One of the bests, in my opinion, for comfort. Would also threaten someone to drive you there. Our second last merc, Pyro. I think, at first, he'd have a little trouble understanding at first. He gets it after a bit, I think he has processing issues. But definitely understands you're upset. Literally makes you a nest if you'll let him. He also couldn't help in means of transport, but he'd try. He is so sweet :[ Finally, Sniper. Yeah, he's a social recluse, but he was also really close with his adoptive family. So, to a certain extent, he understands. He's supportive, in his own awkward sorta way. Makes you food with the stuff he hunts, visits you when he isn't working, offers to let you stay in his camper (don't, it's stanky), and totally drives you there to see said family member. (again, if you're able to.)

[stal3bread]

My experiences with autistic burnout as an LSN autistic person

For context, I was diagnosed with ASD nearly a year ago and I wasn't given a level as I was diagnosed according to the ICD-11. I don't use the term 'level 1' because it is a diagnostic term I was not assigned, so I use the term low support needs (LSN) for myself.

In school, I was very burnt out. The constant onslaught of sensory input for 10 hours a day (8 hours at school plus 2 hours of commute), constantly having to deal with uncertainty, having to mask at full capacity constantly, and dealing with my peers making me feel extremely unwelcome took a very heavy toll on me. Especially since I was undiagnosed until I was 17, I received no support for my autistic needs which led to me having severe mental health difficulties in my formative years.

I didn't realise that I was in burnout for years, including in the school year that I got diagnosed with ASD, because I was so used to it. I used to go home and be completely unable to do anything at all, I would just be able to sit under my weighted blanket listening to brown noise on my headphones, which made it a lot harder to stay on top of homework and studying. I was honestly just going through the motions of life without actually being present. It was exhausting, and I didn't feel like I was really a person.

The way my burnout ended was through me graduating high school, and having months of very few responsibilities before I moved out and started university. Additionally, my required hours on campus at university are much lower currently than they were in high school, my commute to campus is much shorter now, and the people are much nicer to me. This has (so far, a month into uni) prevented me from going into burnout.

My burnout was so bad and so prolonged that for a while I began to question if I could be on the lower end of MSN because I was struggling so much. It turns out I am definitely LSN (I currently live alone and don't need much outside support to do so), I was just not having those support needs met. LSN does not mean no support needs, it means low support needs compared to other autistic people, many of whom have very high support needs.

Hopefully sharing my experiences with burnout will make someone else feel less alone or help someone make sense of their experiences.

[miradelletarot]

Sad brain hours are stupid

Personal post alert. Just me kinda mumbling my random sad brain thoughts into the void, and hope something make sense (or at least helps me get this shit out of my head idk).

*note: this is all over the fucking place so...sorry.* My confidence is pretty low lately. I mean, it always has been honestly. I was raised to have a low self-esteem (just like my mother, who also had self-esteem issues, and projected a lot of her shit onto me). So, I have never ever really been confident. In my marriage, I can't recall a time when my husband truly made me feel sexy/desirable (unless he wanted something from me...you know what I'm talking about). Even mentally and emotionally, I'm really not that smart. I'm not witty, or quick, or brilliant in any way, and my anxiety and depression and ADHD make shit hard enough to cope with as it is. I struggled in school. Mostly an A & B student, but I had to bust my ass for those grades. Not to mention my horrible memory...I'm lucky I know basic grade school shit. I have no illusions that there is anything remotely spectacular about me. I think that's why I love supporting and helping others. Especially with tarot. It's my way of trying to help lift people up, and make them feel good about themselves, and their prospects because *someone* needs to be in your corner (general "you"). It's just easier to give my love to others, because I'd rather use my energy to celebrate the people I care about. Lately, I am really just feeling so down about my body. More than I have in a while. I think I've ignored it for so long because I was married. He stopped putting in effort and so did I. I had no one to impress anymore. But, despite him completely letting himself go (he's well over 400lbs now, and does NOT take care of himself in the slightest,) he said he was no longer attracted to me. (this will make sense in a moment...promise).

in 2018, I had a weird ass health scare that landed me in the hospital for a week, and the nurse said I nearly died of sepsis. Her words were (and I'll never fucking forget it...) "if you had waited even until tonight to come to the ER, there's a good chance you wouldn't have made it." Drs still dunno what the fuck happened to me. Ever since that happened, my thyroid went stupid (thanks again, MOTHER...) and I gained a ton of weight. I have always been on the heavier side (180lbs when I got married 16 yrs ago. I'm 5 ft tall for context). Now, I'm 243 lbs. I was 265, but I lost a lot of that stress weight after I left my husband. So, that's certainly something.

But...I just don't see the improvement. i don't feel any better. I have such a horrible relationship with exercise, and i am working so fucking much I don't even want to even though I know I should. I hate wearing makeup b/c of how it makes my face feel, and in the Florida, soul-sucking heat? I could never. But, I still have breakouts like a fucking teenager going through puberty. and my hair? fuck. i hate it. it's a poofy, frizzy mop. ALSO...fucking hell. I have had a slight lisp since i was a kid. I worked really hard to correct it b/c i was in choir and shit and my music teacher helped me with it, but recently i find that it's a lot more prominent than it used to be, and it sticks out to me SO fucking much, and i feel so insecure about it lately.

It's time's like these when something my ex said to me before i left really sticks in my head (he apologized for saying this btw, but it doesn't make the pain go away). He said "you'll never find anyone as good as me." I really want to believe he's wrong, but sometimes? It feels like he's right. Like I'll never be pretty or thin enough to be desirable to anyone. Too much depression and anxiety. Too weird. Too vulgar. Just...Too much, and oddly not enough at the same time. Even though it's only been 6 months since I left him I am fucking lonely. I won't lie, I miss having a partner (and all that entails). I'm so afraid I'll be alone forever. If I lower my standards, I'll just get some shitty asshole again. Someone just like my ex. I'm too fucking old to date around like I'm in my 20s. I'm pushing 40. I'm either going to find the man of my dreams (the Gale of my heart, a real one lol) or I'll be forever alone.

I'm in hell...and it looks like a pixelated paradise.

[greyauras]

Just wondering something. Is this idea that I cooked up in my head at 4 am a good one? Basically to sum up the tags, TFT/NB GhostSoap except Ghost is a retired veteran and Soap is a university student... continued

⇓⇓

(in what? Idk but I'm open to suggestions...engineering? Like some cool welding stuff? Because what do you need chemistry for in day to day life? See, this is why I'm stupid.) They become roommates due to both of their low income on an ad (they work at a bookstore together maybe?), become friends over the years and enjoy living together.

Simon is a trans man (which means afab) who never elaborated that he was trans or anything. He's never "said" it but he's very open about it, (walks around shirtless, doesn't care about periods but it's obvious that he has them, there's a box of pads in the closet)

(I'm using he/him pronouns just to make all of this easier to type out but I think the order of preference would be They/He/She? Possibly switching the he and she around depending on the "mood". Yet last night I thought she/he/they…)

Soap is an AMAB who's not very comfortable with how people see him. The way he sees himself is very confusing. He's comfortable "being" a man but doesn't "want" to be a man and doesn't feel the most comfortable in those roles. (Still enjoys traditionally masculine things and of course any gender can do this) But that's what's confusing, he knows that clothes are just clothes and people can wear whatever they want but it goes past the feeling of just wanting to wear pretty clothes. As you might've guessed (it's dysphoria).

Simon notices the way that his friend/roommate looks less confident and hides under big clothing that Soap usually doesn't wear. Basically this worry of change in confidence and personality makes Simon think that Soap is in an abusive relationship or something and tries to get him to open up about that. So no matter what, Simon is supportive, just guessing the wrong issue. (Maybe miscommunication needs to be added as a tag…)

But anyways, that's a very short summary of that. And basically, Soap struggles with the feelings of being a perverted faker (he's not but that's a common doubt) and being too masculine while also not liking too feminine. As there's some masculine attributes he likes about himself (body hair).

I haven't written anything, I just made a draft and this is all just floating feelings in my head. (In my head I said 3 chapters but this is getting too long? All this shit would have to be covered in at least 5) I just wonder if it's not a good idea because it hits a sensitive spot somehow. 😭

I'm a trans guy (AFAB) but never had any experiences with androgyny and non-binary feelings. I'm very binary...very dude like. So I obviously also have NO idea what being AMAB with any other gender identity would be like. (So Simon would be struggling with the same thing)

So feel free to tell me the differences between Bigender and Demigender (Demigirl/Demiboy). I just feel that's how a Soap that I've made in a TFT (that's not FTM4FTM) universe of them would mostly identify as. I've seen people hc Ghost as Agender before. I can totally see it. But never anything for Soap.

I looked up these attributes and feelings as if I was the one struggling myself and thought "Yeah that's what they would relate to". 💀

(the results were Bigender and Demigender if you couldn't tell but apparently there's a difference between them. Which I would like to know. Because maybe what I'm trying to describe is Gender-Fluidity.)

This is probably going to flop because I yapped too much (683 words? Omg bro stfu, no one wants an essay) but I'm not going to a place like reddit for this to know if it's morally incorrect. (I don't think it is but I would like a second opinion basically)

[mcromwell]

Ayo! New follower here. I love your art and your mind set of just messing around to make cool stuff. but I’ve also seen you love been to at least one convention (I didn’t scroll far enough to see more about conventions) and I wanted to ask. How you did it? I really enjoy making art and I would love to make it a career so this boils down to :

how did you do it? And how can I do it too?

not just like first steps but what happens after that? I’m young enough that if this doesn’t work out I have plenty of time to look into other careers before worrying about paying for rent or necessities with money from my future occupation. I know that everyone’s experience is different but I still hoping you can give me a somewhat clear answer.

thank you for inspiring me

(sorry this ask was so long)

Hello there! Thank you for your message.

These questions are large and hard to answer. Being more specific in your questions helps. "How I did it" is very... large in scope. That question could be answered just by saying, "I did it by never wanting anything else and never losing sight of my goal." But that doesn't help you much. So I'll just try to touch on some key points and contexts.

I'm 32. Only in the last couple years has my practice been enough to make a living doing it. I've always wanted this and literally everything I've done in my life has been to get here. I've worked two jobs my entire working life (age 19-now): retail/customer service and art stuff on the side. Because of the pandemic, I got double unemployment and stimulus checks, which became my initial investment into merch and savings safety net to get started. I started therapy to address my fears of asking for help, my negative self-talk, and catastrophic thinking. (Therapy has helped me with my art so much.) Then I was laid off for real in 2020 and hit the ground running with art. I split rent with roommates, I live very very cheaply, and art is my passion. If art for a living is what you want to do and you're happy to make lots of concessions to get it, this career works. It takes a while to get momentum and regular sales/attention-- just don't quit. The more stuff you do the more people will recognize you and like your work.

It would be dishonest to not address my privilege here, too. My parents have always emotionally supported my practice, my friends too, and I got to go to art school with no debt. I did outside of school art mentorships. My art education experiences taught me a lot of art techniques and self-employed skills and that only happened due to the support of my folks. I had resources a lot of people don't. (Which is why I want to help new artists learn this stuff as much as I can; not everyone is as lucky as I am.)

My advice for you if you want to do what I do, which is being self-employed making and selling art and art merchandise for a living:

Get used to making concessions right at first. Your art career will probably not start out gangbusters, so get used to low sales and saving money and working hard. Make things within your means and grow from there.

Fuck around and find out. Try making merch, try making videos, try things you see other artists doing, try everything and see if it works for how you like to make stuff. I learn so much from YouTube, to be totally honest. Artists are good sharers.

Follow a shit ton of artists and see what works for them. Join artist groups and ask thoughtful, specific questions to learn from those already doing it.

Learn how to write about your art. Write about why you make it. It helps make it more compelling to others. "How to Sell Your Art Online" by Cory Huff is a good book to read for tips on this.

Develop a healthy relationship with art-making. If you sit down at a blank page and it terrifies you: address that first. Don't try to start a business if you're still struggling with making art regularly.

In fact, don't start a business until you're really ready. Art comes first. You can easily do art and build skills and do commissions and run an online shop along with working a job that pays bills reliably while you grow into the artist you're meant to be.

Don't pigeon-hole yourself into only one channel: don't JUST apply to cons, try street fairs too. Don't JUST sell online, get your work into cafes as well. You'll see which routes are more profitable/worth the time as you try them out. Eggs in many baskets, you know.

There's probably a whole essay I could write on this. And you're right--mileage varies between person to person vastly. The part of the world you live in, your access to transportation, education, your mental health, what type of work you like to make, etc. Art careers almost never look the same 1:1 even in fandom spaces like furry/anime. If you're self-made, it will reflect that.

I recommend the YouTube channels Rafi Was Here, Robin Sealark, Cat Graffam, and the website The Abundant Artist (again by Cory Huff) for more resources.

Don't be afraid to take leaps of faith. Try everything. Be true to what works for you and what doesn't feel sustainable. Be authentic with your art and stay true to your interests. And good luck.

[letmetellyouaboutmyfeels]

Truly sorry people have forgotten the whole "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything" adage. But also that others are sending you the not so nice things that are being said. Like, that definitely kinda sucks too. Best to you and focusing on things that make you happy!

Oh god everyone's being so nice now I'm so embarrassed.

You're very kind dear. Well the people sending me stuff are only sending me nice things! At least on the main post! But then there will be comments or replies that complain about it - oh I don't like them anymore because they wrote BT, etc.

(Side note - BT stands for BuckTaylor so people using it for BuckTommy - dear GOD please stop. The ship names are confusing enough with y'all picking like ten of them. Please. I am smol and confuséd.)

So the people sending this stuff are well-intentioned. I only meant to explain why (among many other reasons) I won't listen to the (again, well-intentioned) people who say oh my gosh you're missing out on all the kind things people are saying on these other sites! I appreciate all that kindness, really I do and I'm so very lucky to have such enthusiasm and such love for my writing. But I would honestly rather miss out on some of it if it means that I'm protected from seeing the more spoiled or bad faith actors. I have seen very very little 'discourse' over this whole ship war that's sprung up and I'm glad for that, but part of how I've avoided it is by purposefully staying very much in my lane, not go looking through tags, and honestly even deeply limiting who I follow.

Honestly I don't let it usually bother me. 90% of people are so kind and lovely, and I know that the people being angry are not the majority. And I doubt that most of the people complaining even view it as all that deep, they're just venting because they're annoyed and being overly dramatic as we tend to be in fandom because acting overly dramatic is how we do everything around here (hell knows I do it too). I'm just really struggling in my 'real life' and having a bad day so it just kind of got to me, especially since my next three fics are BuddieTommy and I won't be publishing any Buddie until Halloween, and I was feeling kinda low like great, I'm gonna publish these and people will talk shit I guess. Not fun! I gotta say!

But I am and will be okay. I honestly did not expect my inbox to explode the way it just did when I vented in those tags. I, uh, don't expect people to care? that much? which sounds bad but I just mean that I don't expect people to pay all that much attention to me. So it's very sweet that people are sending me love and support.

Thank you for your kindness and thank you to everyone else. I really don't want this to be a Thing so I'm answering all other asks privately. Thank you dears.

[imthepunchlord]

Interesting that Marinette ended up tipping over Juleka for the Mantis the same way Kagami ending up tipping over her for the Ladybug LOL. I do personally hope that Juleka wins the Butterfly over Rose now; while I’m still neutral on Centipede!Rose too (though that anon articulated their thoughts very well, hats off), that ask reminded me how much better Rose canonically is at staying chipper and bouncing back from circumstances than Juleka. It’s not so much that it would be BAD if Rose got Bugettes!Nooroo, they would blend together pretty well, but that’s just it. In terms of character growth, it’s Juleka who frankly NEEDS something/someone like the Butterfly Miraculous and Bugettes!Nooroo to help her navigate and benevolently mature through life’s situations far more than Rose does and would therefore *benefit* far more from winning, which would thusly make the overall plot richer than if we got a Butterfly!Rose that stays more or less the same in personality and behavior. This is especially when considering the focus on SPECIFICALLY JULEKA in the everyday Couffaine family dynamic, Jagged reveal drama, and even school and social struggles (she got to have the spotlight in Reflekta and Reflekdoll, but there’s also the fact that she was canonically held back one year to explain her and Luka being twins but in different grades which didn’t get more than a B plot focus in Confrontation for such a sensitive topic that affects so many real-life kids) that we were denied in-show. That being said, I DO appreciate that we got to actually SEE Luka being a genuinely good brother to Juleka at the beginning of Reflekdoll; it’s the little moments like that of him being a sincerely good dude even outside of the main characters’ narrative that put him on the positive side of neutrality in my mind instead of annoyance like with the other characters created specifically to stir the plot pot whom we’re simply TOLD that we should be sympathetic towards by the story (ex. Zoe). Coming back to the main point of this ask, do you personally hope that Juleka or Rose will win the last Bugettes!Miraculous poll?

I mean, so far, last I saw, the majority are in agreement for Butterfly!Juleka. Which I am the same, and I will say, of the classmates that would've potentially been elevated to a major leading role, Juleka is one of the few that stood out to me.

While she was dealing with low self-esteem and anxiety, you could see she wanted to let her voice out, and that there was a lot of bottled up anger that was quite explosive when let out (like wildly firing at other students instead of just Chloe).

So between her and Rose, she's the natural pick given she's got the foundation on how she can grow. Rose doesn't really have one. If she does win, I'd probably go a route of her stance on love and trust is challenged, that she's regarded as "weak" or "naive" and her thing should be to show that it actually takes true strength to keep the mindset of having faith, kindness, and compassion. Kinda like the sort of route they went with Green Lantern in DC Superhero Girls where she's against violence and has a lot of faith and optimism.

While that is something to work off of for Rose, I'd still Juleka between the two. I just see more going for her.

I will forewarn though, I don't know if I'm going to stick to the canon Couffaine set up as I don't like it.

Before we got the slapped on decision of Jagged being the Couffaine's dad (ad doing more rich daddy issues), I theorized that, if he was related to the Couffaines, that he was actually Anarka's younger brother. By appearances, Anarka looks older than Jagged. I thought Anarka was in her late 30s to early 40s while Jagged was in late 20s at the earliest to in his 30s.

The other factor is that I find Luka kinda throws off how Juleka is. Most likely, Luka constantly offers Juleka a lot of support and encouragement, and she also probably gets that from Rose as well, so why is Juleka so bottled up still? Is Anarka just actively but unintentionally tearing her down and undoing all that encouragement? We don't really have much on Juleka with her whole family so I can't say for sure (at least to my knowledge she seems to be shafted a lot in the Couffaine family focus).

Maybe through Roaar they're implying that Juleka just needed some tough love to really push her forward but idk. It just doesn't help that Juleka was really focused on, so what's thought she really needs is speculative.

I will say, if it was just Juleka and Anarka, to me, it would've explained a lot to how Juleka is. I can speak from experience having a parent who is bold, talkative, and has a big presence, it can shape you to be muffled and quiet and have a hard time getting words out, especially when said parent has a tendency to cut in and cut you off when you're trying to speak, and take over a conversation. If you never get a word in, it's hard to talk.

Even more so when you don't have anyone else paying attention and would draw the conversation back to you, asking what you wanted to say.

Which I would expect Luka to do so as he lives there and is on the boat so much. Not say Juleka would be talkative with him, but I'd expect she'd be in a better spot than where she is.

Additionally, given that Jagged is clearly more tied to Luka than to both of them, I wondered if it'd be better if they were just cousins (who were born on the same day, but have a two year age gap as I didn't care for them being made twins, I think same birthday is funnier). It would work off Juleka not having an active support at home, it would work off Luka coming in so late, and it would work off Jagged just straight up being more tied to Luka than to both of them. From what I've seen, Juleka really seems like an after thought in this revelation.

So given that canon slapped this detail together and clearly the whole family doesn't matter, yeah I am not really inclined to keep this family as is.