#mention of conservatives

[thedigitalwave]

Seeing that bitchy crosstagger saying "hey antis 🥺 dont worry those filtht radqueers will never be accepted into society!!" Is just. Well. Telling, raw and gross.

You know, it's really really fucking strange to me that people genuinely say out loud that a group majorly composed by minorities trying to be themselves will never be accepted into normal society. What is normal society? Your everyone-stays-the-same, divide-all-into-distinct-groups, never-let-mental-illness-be-normal society? Cause that's not normal to me. That's fascist.

I know I'm saying a big word there. I don't mean it in the "all antis are secretly alt-right" way. I mean "all antis are explicitly conservative in some way", though.

How can you propose us the idea that everything needs to stay the same, never progress, that minorities need to stay minorities and privileged people need to stay privileged, that certain people should stay in the shadows, and not be conservative?

By saying transid-identifying people should never transition, you're saying that. By saying paraphiles should never be accepted, you're saying that.

I hope you realize what you're doing now. This isn't protecting anyone. This is maintaining the status quo.

[vmkhoneyy]

“People are inherently terrible” no!!! Have you ever seen a child wait for their friend while they tie their shoelaces? Have you ever known someone who would bring hurt squirrels and rabbits and mice to the nearest vet just so it doesn’t suffer? Have you seen someone grieve? Have you ever read something that hit your heart like a freight train? Have you looked at the stars and felt an unexplainable joy? Have you ever baked bread? Have you shared a meal with a friend? Have you not seen it? All the love? All the good? I know it’s hard to see sometimes, I know there’s pain everywhere. But look, there’s a child helping another up after a hard fall. Look, there’s someone giving their umbrella to a stranger. Look, there’s someone admiring the spring flowers. Look, there’s good, there’s good, there’s good. Look!!!!

[wildfeather5002]

I hate it when xtians reduce my religious trauma to "a religious person said something mean to you once so now you're mad at religion".

Like, shut the fuck up. My trauma isn't just someone being a little rude to me once, it was systematic, deliberate manipulation with the threat of possible eternity of suffering in Hell if I didn't obey religious rules and "keep Christ in my heart". It was "Nonbelievers burn in a lake of eternal fire. Tell your friends to convert to our faith or they'll be damned for eternity".

I have suffered from anxiety, ocd and other mental health issues for several fucking years because of this shit. I've suppressed my sexuality and felt terrible guilt just for the 'sin' of having sexual thoughts. I've feared for my loved one's souls, genuinely believing they would go to Hell for simply not being xtians and that I'd never see them again in the afterlife.

These beliefs are sick and twisted. What I went through was sick and twisted.

I seriously don't know what to say to you if you still think telling anyone, let alone a child, that they're going to be damned for eternity if they disobey 'God's word' is totally fine and not abusive.

Know your fucking place and stop speaking over trauma survivors who have been hurt by your shitty religion.

[pocketsizedquasar-3]

i mean, we knew this. but the fact that i’ve seen dozens and dozens of post focusing on queer ppl and telling queer ppl to take care of themselves and queer ppl that it’ll be ok and queer ppl to not kill themselves (which, not saying not to make those posts or that those posts are bad), and not a single, single post* checking in on or showing compassion to Black people, undocumented people and other immigrants, brown people, Muslims, Jews, or other religious minorities — basically, any and all POC in general** — is truly, truly emblematic of what we have known all along: white people fundamentally do not see oppression if it is not happening to them.

*the one or two exceptions were posts i saw before the elections, reminding Black&brown folks to stay safe (bc regardless of outcome, racist hate crimes spike around elections!), and the OPs of those were, predictably, themselves Black or brown.

**QTPOC of course exist. we exist especially at the most dangerous intersections of this violence & horrid effects to our health, mental and physical. but it is frequently clear when ppl make posts like this and consider none of the harm which we are subject to, only that which also affects them.

it does not occur to you to show compassion to us. it does not occur to you to show solidarity with us. it does not occur to you that we are in danger, and have been in far more danger than you, regardless of which color they slap on the white house. it does not occur to you that when you talk about violence against queer people, the vast majority of that violence will fall upon queer and trans POC, especially Black queer people. it does not occur to you that QTPOC exist at all, except when we can be used as a hypothetical argument.

white queer people are white before they are queer. white trans people are white before they are trans. white women are white before they are women. they are disappointed in the status quo only when it stops supporting them. they are aghast and appalled when they are treated like those people. they are shocked and disappointed when suddenly their whiteness no longer insulates them from being treated the way the rest of us are treated. baldwin of course said it first and best:

I think white gay people feel cheated because they were born, in principle, into a society in which they were supposed to be safe. The anomaly of their sexuality puts them in danger, unexpectedly. Their reaction seems to me in direct proportion to the sense of feeling cheated of the advantages which accrue to white people in a white society. There's an element, it has always seemed to me, of bewilderment and complaint.

white queer people, white people in the imperial core, are experiencing a fraction of the dread and violence that everyone else has been subjected to for years. you are afraid, rightfully so. but in your fear and your rage and whatever else, you do not look to those of us who have been fighting this violence for years. you do not offer us compassion and care the way you do with white ppl. you, of course, fall back on your whiteness.

again, none of this is new. we know this. we’ve known this. but it is frustrating nonetheless.

it does not occur to you that we are in danger. that we are dying. that we are being killed. it does not occur to you to to offer us the same hotlines and resources and reassurances and kindness and compassion.

keeping rbs on for now but if people start being weird i’m turning them off. don’t put words in my mouth. don’t say i said something i didn’t. i meant what i said and nothing else.

[tofixtheshadows]

Because I've been thinking about the fandom tendency to paint characters of color as conservative versus their white counterparts, who are usually valorized as progressives, I'm thinking about the way fandom often talks about Kabru (calling him a cop, saying he's Lawful Good/Evil, saying he'd be an econ or business major or tech bro in AUs, I heard through the grapevine they're calling him classist on tiktok) and absolutely refusing to see his actions- of repeatedly sabotaging an imperial force's military operations for the good of oppressed peoples- as radical.

Kabru was raised by a poor single mother in an economically disenfranchised region, then rejected a life of luxury in the imperial sphere. He explicitly aligns himself with the exploited population (short-lived races) he is a part of. He wouldn't be a fucking investment banker, in any AU he's the most likely character to be an activist. I can't scroll for three posts without seeing Chilchuck hailed as a girldad working class hero (and I'm not saying that's not deserved!) but there is barely any thought given to what it means for the brown guy to care so much about fighting against the takeover of a first-world power.

[incorrectbatfam]

That’s sucks about the nsfw thing but I have to say I hope Trump wins because Harris is for more gun control which doesn’t do crap except make it harder for legal guns to get out, gun control doesn’t do crap to stop criminals from getting them

I'd argue differently because it shouldn't have been so easy for me, a mentally ill alcoholic, to legally get a license and firearm myself

[cuthechicane]

Lando with Carlos' friends, post race, Mexico GP 2024 for @blorbocedes

[proteusolm]

Okay pardon my wild horse rant, but I'm going to rant about wild horses. The debate over if feral domestic horses should be left to their own devices to "fulfill the role ancient horses did" drives me nuts. I keep seeing people claim that North America had wild horses until as recently as 6000 years ago as justification, which isn't entirely untrue, but it's entirely irrelevant to the conversation of modern day feral horses. If you actually read the eDNA studies, it is abundantly clear that this isn't when the wild horses died out where feral horses are now. The 6k figure is specific to the what were once mammoth steppe ecosystems in Alaska and the Yukon, a refuge in which many Pleistocene mammals lingered much longer than they did elsewhere. This does not indicate that the rest of North America aught to have the same species as it did in the Pleistocene. Our ecosystems are not the same as they were then. Our ecosystems were already not the same as they were then well before european contact. There isn't evidence of wild horses being present anywhere near that long in the continental US.

Regardless, horses that have been domesticated for thousands of years from Spain aren't the same thing as the wild horses which roamed North America even if they're technically the same species. If you want to reintroduce megafauna, an actual extant wild animal called the bison is right there. Trying to replace wild horses that largely died out naturally in the early Holocene (yes, I know indigenous subsistence hunting was likely a factor along with the major climactic shifts at the time. No, I don't especially consider that to be an unnatural cause.) with domestic horses is silly. That isn't the same animal, and they don't need restoring. We need to focus on conserving and rehabilitating modern ecosystems, not restoring Pleistocene fauna.

In Europe there are rewilding projects using domestic horses and cattle, but they have so thoroughly decimated their ecosystems and wiped out so much of their wildlife that they're basically building from scratch. It's a very different context to North America. We don't need to be leaving domesticated horses out on their own so people who feel romantic about the idea of the freedom of a "wild" mustang can see a foal get ripped apart by coyotes or whatever. I don't view it differently than if someone was advocating for releasing dogs into the woods to fulfill the role their wild ancestors did; We don't need to do that, wolves are right there and make a hell of a lot more sense to conserve. We shouldn't be skipping over animals that lived in an area 100 years ago in favour of ones that lived there 10,000 years ago.

[cuubism]

a selection of The Library's customers

--

One day Hob will get used to The Library's many strange happenings. Maybe. Or probably not.

Today, it's the fact that there's a customer.

Sort of.

The small child who's essentially appeared in Dream's study frowns up at him, hands on her hips. She looks to be about nine. She's wearing a school uniform. Where are her parents?

"This," she says to Dream, horribly affronted, "is not the school library."

"I imagine it did not have what you needed," Dream says. Utterly unbothered by a random child wandering into his shop, seemingly out of nowhere. Hob watches with astonishment from where he's sitting at Dream's desk with a cup of coffee, evidently not needed for this interaction. "What were you looking for?"

"Unicorns," she declares.

It seems odd to Hob that a primary school library wouldn't have any fantasy books with unicorns in them, but what does he know. Dream nods with utter seriousness. "Please wait a moment," he says, and disappears into the bowels of the shop.

"How'd you get in here?" Hob asks as the girl sits down primly in a chair.

"I used the door, silly," she says. Not the front door, surely. Hob definitely hadn't seen her come up the stairs into the study.

Then her eyes light up. "Can I have a scone?"

Hob had brought over a container of them from the cafe, and Dream's been picking at them all morning. Hob passes the kid the container. What the hell else is he supposed to do?

Fortunately, Dream returns before Hob has to figure out what his adult responsibility is as regards an unaccompanied child that probably should be in school right now. Dream hands the girl a stack of at least ten books of varying sizes, presumably about unicorns. The girl looks through them, scrunches her nose up, and asks, "D'you have anything more scientific?"

Dream considers. Then hands her a large, flat book that he definitely hadn't been carrying a moment ago. The girl sets it on the ground, kneeling before it, flipping through the pages. It seems to be made up of scientific diagrams and large, full-color images. Hob sees viscera, organs, bones-- then the girl closes the book again. The cover says, Unicorn Anatomy: Piece by Piece.

The little girl smiles up at him, sharp and pixie-like. "Thank you, Mister Dream," she says, incredibly polite for a child currently grinning madly over unicorn dissections.

Dream nods solemnly. "I hope it will serve you well in your endeavors."

She trots off back into the stacks, to whatever door (?) she came from, and Hob turns to Dream. "Do you often get random children here?"

"The Library finds its customers," Dream says placidly. "She will find her way back to her classroom, worry not."

"Figured that, somehow."

Dream sets the other unicorn books aside and takes up a scone in their place, nibbling on it as he perches on the edge of his desk, looking down at Hob. He seems amused by Hob's confusion. "Why do you have a front door if people don't use it?" Hob asks.

"You use it," Dream points out. Which... is unexpectedly touching. Unexpectedly special.

"Fair enough," he agrees, voice tight.

--

Dream's next customer comes bursting in through a side door as Hob is helping Dream stack some new books. He runs in so fast he has to catch himself against the desk, his business suit tattered and smoking, his hair... literally on fire. He rapidly pats it out.

"Please," he begs, as Dream just observes him calmly from where he's sitting cross-legged on the floor. "I need--"

"1983 Alternate History," Dream fills in. "Yes, I'm sure you do. One moment, please."

As he disappears into the stacks, the customer leans against the desk, panting for breath. Hob doesn't think offering a scone is going to help in this case. He's not sure what else would help, either.

Fortunately, Dream returns quickly, handing the shaking man an equally tattered grey book that is indeed titled, in a concerning handwritten scrawl, User's Guide to 1983 - Alternate Version. And, subtitled: FOR EMERGENCY USE ONLY.

"Thanks," breathes the man, clutching the book to him. And with no more explanation than that, he runs back through the door he came from. Hob thinks he catches a glimpse of something very large and very on fire through the doorway, but the door swings closed too fast to tell for sure.

"They would do well to pass that around rather than returning it," Dream says, before sitting back down and returning to his book sorting.

Hob is naturally curious, but he thinks about all the fire and this time decides he doesn't want to know.

--

"...Hi?"

For once, Hob has successfully convinced Dream to stop working for a moment. Dream is, in fact, currently sitting on his lap, resting his head on Hob's shoulder in a half-doze as Hob regales him with a university story that's certainly crazy enough to fit in with any of the books in The Library. But Library customers don't follow a nine - to - five schedule, Hob's learned this well enough by now.

Dream does not seem embarrassed to have been caught in this position. He just stands fluidly, stretching his arms over his head. "Yes?"

The young person standing hesitantly in the middle of the room -- might be eighteen? twenty? once he crossed thirty Hob lost the ability to tell young adults' ages with any accuracy, they all seem like kids -- twists their hands together and says, "Could you help me find a book?"

Dream nods and waits for them to tell him which one.

The kid glances back and forth between the two of them nervously, like they think one or both of them might judge their selection. Hob tries to look non-threatening, even though it's hard to look more non-threatening when he's already half-sunk into the couch, wearing sweatpants, and was just caught cuddling his boyfriend in a semi-public space. He's also certain that whatever book this kid might be after, The Library definitely has something more concerning and more questionable.

Like Alternate 1983 History, for example.

Dream probably already knows what they're looking for, too, he always does.

Dream just tilts his head in beckoning and walks off into the stacks, his customer following behind, still wringing their hands.

Hob's fully expecting only Dream to come back, for his customer to disappear through another exit -- none of which Hob can ever find later. But they both come back through around ten minutes later, Dream carrying a book with a yellow cover. The study is close and cozy enough that Hob can make out the title -- Gender Queer -- as Dream passes it over, and oh, yeah, he gets it now. Granted, Hob himself has always been more of the type to punch people out whenever they give him any shit, but he understands the impulse, the need, sometimes, to hide.

The teen clutches yellow-covered book close to their chest. "You can take it home," Dream says when they make no move to leave.

They look down at the cover and then back up at Dream. "...I'm not sure I can," they say at length. "It's too, um. Obvious."

Dream just raises an eyebrow. "Is it?"

Hob swears he didn't look away, but as he follows the teen customer's gaze back down, the book has definitely changed. The cover is blue now, and it seems to be about maths, though it's hard to make out from far away. The kid flips through the pages, and they must be different from before for they look up at Dream in disbelief.

Dream, the fucker, just winks. Presses the book closed again, upon which the cover returns to yellow.

"Algebra is scintillating," he drawls, turning away and snatching up the container of scones from a side table -- a not-insignificant part of Hob's job, at this point, is just keeping Dream in scones -- "and suitable for any young person. Take a scone with you, too." He holds out the container. "Hob's are the best."

And with a tiny smile, the kid takes one.

[ouzel-time]

PSA: FUCK CALLERY PEARS!!!

The callery pear, sometimes known by the name of its infamous domestic cultivar, the Bradford pear, is a HIGHLY invasive species throughout the US! At this time of year (late winter to early spring), callery pears bloom and leaf out before any other native tree species, which can lead to overcrowding.

The history of the Bradford pear:

The Bradford cultivar of the callery pear was introduced into the United States in the 1960s as the ultimate ornamental tree: it flowers and leaves out early, it is naturally straight and tall, and grows super quick. Its leaves are deep red in fall and its toxic fruits are candy to birds. But these attributes would lead to it being a highly invasive species. Where I live, these trees are already greening up when most grass is still barely colored. The fact is that these trees fill in before any others, crowding out younger native plants.

(image courtesy of Leslie Mehrnoff)

Then there are the growing habits of the Bradford pear. The Bradford was originally praised for its rapid, even growth. However, these trees grow so fast that they can't build as much strength as slower-growing species, such as oaks. The forks in limbs and branches are the weak spots, and any amount of wind sends down showers of twigs. When I was younger, I lived in a house with three of these invasive shits out front, and it was a hassle to constantly pick up branches and twigs from the lawn.

(image courtesy of Rebekah Wallace)

As a result of their accelerated growth, Bradford pears are HIGHLY susceptible to storm damage, and this can hurt houses, automobiles and other people's property. On top of that, they're not very pretty to look at whenever they're not flowering or colored up for fall.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Pull/dig up any suckers or saplings that you find. Beware that wild-type callery pears have thorns on the ends of their branches, so proceed with caution.

Cut them the hell down. Depending on where you live, you may receive payment or even a free native tree for pear trees you cut down. Note, DO NOT cut down trees on others' property without permission from the owner of said property.

Inform others! The best way to stop the spread of these trees is to teach others about the problem! More people cutting down callery pears means less shitty invasive trees!

Thank you for your consideration!

[troythecatfish]

[ask-thearchivists]

I want to see the baby photos or I will die

The Conservator: Haha, alright, I will show you the baby pictures, though I do not need much convincing to show these pictures.

The Conservator: These are my older siblings, Compelor and Copyist. By the time I was born they had been adults for quite some time, so I never got to see them like this, or as children at all, but when I was small, I asked father what they were like when they were my age and he showed me these pictures and told me about them.

The Conservator: This is me, another picture father showed me. All the picture of me as a baby and child make me look very sad, though I think that is just how my face looks when I am not actively smiling.

The Conservator: This is the first image that I was able to get myself. When father was not busy caring for zir, I would hold and carry the Cataloger as much as I could. Ze was so small, I could carry zir in the palm of my hand. Ze spent a lot of time asleep, and was not very fussy.

The Conservator: And this is a picture of my youngest sibling, the Cartologist. E was such a cute, chubby little baby, and e loved being held so much. I think everyone also enjoyed carrying him, he was so affectionate, extremely huggy.

[weirdstrangeandawful]

TW: manhandling

I see a lot of shoving whumpees against walls in movies but I personally prefer them to be violently slammed against the wall. I want to see the momentum transfer. I want this to be so forceful that the shock absorption from their flesh is negligible to the amount of total energy involved in this collision. I want them to feel the rush of blood from the sheer inertia of being forced backward so quickly.

(I know this is two days after I normally would have posted it I had three midterms in a week and then accidentally slept though all of today)

[saints-who-never-existed]

I'm desperate now, absolutely desperate to find more information specifically on the conservation of the Peglar Papers but thus far, there seems to be next to nothing out there...

Who the fuck conserved them and how? I demand to know!

[awkward-teabag]

Love (cannot emphasis how much sarcasm there is in that word) that an official Canadian government response to high cellphone rates is to switch carriers.

Switch it to what? We basically have three companies since one was allowed to eat the forth (with the government saying it wasn't anti-competition and the company eating the other pinky promising they wouldn't jack rates up). Even the smaller companies have to rent infrastructure from the Big Three so there's only so much they can do if that rent costs an arm and a leg.

And that's not touching on how many "small companies" are actually just subsidiaries of the Big Three. You may save $5 but you're still with Telus/Rogers/Bell.

Or that the actual small companies tend to have shit coverage because they don't have the infrastructure available to them and are prevented from getting it. Or their traffic is throttled in favour of the Big Three's customers. Or both.

Or that they're extremely regional thus aren't an option for a huge chunk of Canada's population.

We have no true options and the government has shown time and again that they're fine with monopolies, in multiple industries, and don't care when said monopolies jack up prices to make shareholders and the c-suite more money at the expense of everyone else. At most there will be a verbal slap on the wrist and a giftcard for $25 that people have to register for, for a decade and a half of price gouging.

It's not talked a whole lot about outside the country from what I've seen and heard but Canada is a country of monopolies. A handful of companies own nearly everything, every province has a family or two that owns a hell of a lot (Nova Scotia is basically owned by one family at this point), and our government ignores it. Even the branch that is supposed to be against monopolies is fine with mergers and takeovers in most cases.

Because, you know, the company said it totally wouldn't use consumers' lack of options to increase prices.

[partyinthemysterymachine]

Hey just so you know vinecoveredgarden is a propara (pro paraphilia) pro-transID radqueer

jesus christ this was a word fucking salad. can you guys please fucking relax. did you know i can agree with a post's message without knowing the OP or following the OP nor agreeing with everything OP believes in. did you know that was possible.