#my problematic fave is high modernism

[st-just]

Remember, history was awful. Never trust the romantics.

[st-just]

Yeah given every story I've heard about the first ~6 months of my life the slices of time and space where I make it out of infancy without being left to die of exposure or just getting a lethal infection are, well, limited! So like yeah I will cop to having a strong bias in favor of the social processes that produce eyeglasses and antibiotics.

Definitely not anti-civ, but kind of anti-anti-anti-civ, you know. Like so many of the arguments against it are so useless and annoying that they make me yearn for the collapse of civilization.

[fipindustries]

i dont think an ad ever radicalized me this fucking instantly, holy shit, this is my cottage core

[darkcrowprincess]

i saw this rec from the threads app on my insta and i just had to share 😭😭

i think it's fairly accurate considering everything HRJFKDKD

other than fighting rick on a daily basis i also dabble in shipping certain things out of spite which i love that you do as well HHAHA they can pry my ships and hcs from my cold, dead hands-

im curious! what's your go-to trope/au when it comes to your fave ships? im personally a sucker for soulmate aus or anything with angst FJGKDK

I'm going to separate my favorite tropes/aus into normal and problematic/unhingedv

Normal tropes : fake dating, soulmates, forbidden lovers, best friends to lovers, enemies to lovers, friends to enemies to lovers, 7 minutes in heaven, fake out makeouts, kissing to distract the other person and being into it, sword training, secret identities shenanigans, bad boy/punk and nerd/sunshine, friends with benefits that gets real real quick,hand holding(its more sexy that kissing at times), showering a person with kisses, taking your time kissing everywhere but the lips to build anticipation, girly girl characters, nerdy bookworm girl characters(not Bella Swan, hate her) weird girl characters. Rich person x broke person, meeting at a bookstore(hate coffeshop tropes). Couples who have the same humor. Using humor to cope. Found family(but no one calls each other siblings. Hate that new trend) squads, squad are idiots, hot boys, love letters, diary stories, texting fics(to a point, hate it when it gets dumb). Saving person from drowning/fire/falling to there death/just saving someone in general. Protectiveness. Battles couple, power couple.

Normal aus: Period drama aus, Fantasy aus, sci fi aus, pirate aus, fairy tale aus, cowboy aus, ancient times aus(Egypt, Greek, roman, China, Korea, Middle ages), mythology au, reincarnation aus, time travel au, time loop aus, fix it fics, 80s 90s au. Hate anything high school or modern times(unless it's teen wolf, or dear Evan Hansen), road trip aus, running away aus, royalty aus, multiverse aus

Ok now for my unhinged/problematic faves. Stop reading if this makes you uncomfortable

Problematic tropes: Kidnapping, Monster fucking, age difference, student teacher/mentor and mentie romance, sugar daddy and sugar baby, ice play, knife play, some pain play, bdsm but not too much hate name calling, choking kink, prasie kink, possessiveness to the point of craziness, finding someone killing for you hot, abo, bandage, rape fantasy, dubious consent, extremely dubious consent, captor and captive, stolchm syndrome, secret relationships, dark romance to a point, villians getting the girl/guy, hot villians, evil female villians, evil queen, evil female characters, evil female characters winning, bad guys kidnapping kids and being good parents(but they were still kidnapped) evil found family, villian x female character, villian x hero, villans winning, killing abusers,killing horrible guys, gray mentality

Unhinged aus: beauty and the beasts au emphasize on the beast and kidnapping and captor and captive au, the lives and drama of the rich, dirty secrets(pretty little liars level, vc andrews level), arranged marriage, monsters, falling in love with monsters,evil queens conquering and being happy and in love,royals conquering, daddy issues, abusive parents, abo au, war bride/husband, men(mainly straight) being evil and getting what the deserve, werewolves, mates, gothic romance aus, gothic horror au, teacher and student/mentor and mentie. Gotham like or purge like world aus. Zombie world aus where there's just no laws. Supernatural type au with emphasis of the monster and dark. Romeo and Juliet aus. Jail aus.

[raymurata]

Kelp or Alec for problematic fave ❤️

I just did Kelp so I'm gonna go with Alec.

Alec is a fucking asshole. Like, seriously, he enjoys pissing people off. He has fun mocking other people, and he is especially likely to do that when he's feeling insecure himself because somewhere inside, he's a petty, emotionally constipated, angry little boy trying to prove his uncle wrong... Like a wharf cat, his hackles rise easily because he has an inflated and extremely fragile ego, and he does push back by being an insufferable nuisance or a downright ass.

(edit) How coul I forget to mention he is a liar liar pants on fire??? He's a huge liar. Why? To make himself sound better, and to have fun at other people's expense. And because it is a compulsive habit.

And gods, don't get me started on the grindset. I would never be friends with Alec. Like, I would enjoy his company on occasion but I don't think we'd get far into a friendship bc he's so obsessed with career and being the best and blabla, miss me man. I wanna rotate blorbos in my living room all afternoon I cannot match your energy without cocaine (lyrium). Which, by the way, Alec does. On occasion. And weed (elfroot) nightly because he's too fucking anxious to get proper sleep without a sedative. In modern au, sometimes he prescribes himself actual sedatives too.

Oh, and he's a blood mage who made a deal with Sophia Dryden ans then killed her anyway. He fits the "dead girlfriend the protagonist feels guilt over" trope. Fragile masculinity, and can't be single for more than a month. Also, he is a bisexual slut.

And like, poor Zev, you know? Alec is a shit partner. In canon he promises Zev to go to Antiva after the Blight and it takes him six fucking years and Zev nearly dying for him to actually fulfil his goddamn promise. And all because he was being a high-achieving workaholic to feed his inflated ego again.

He's got his head so stuck up his fucking arse he does not know how to ask for help. He takes on more than he can handle and when he eventually makes mistakes out of sheer exhaustion he then collapses into episodes of ocd and isolation and stress, not only completely neglecting Zev but being verbally vicious as well, like a wharf cat with sharp claws.

Did I mention blood mage?

Also, he doesn't like dogs.

He's problematic, man.

[intheshadowofwar]

04 June 2023

Weak Specimens

Canberra 04 June 2023

I had everything figured out. I was going to finagle a way to get out to Duntroon, and I’d make a quick little post about two First World War generals commemorated in the Canberra area, and it was going to be a nice little update before I went to Sydney. And then I got a cold.

This was not conducive to excursions.

That having been said, it has got me thinking about the role of illness and disease in war. Prior to the twentieth century, sickness was by far the biggest killer of soldiers. A posting to the West Indies (the modern Caribbean) was a near death sentence, for yellow fever would rip through the ranks of any regiment dispatched there. The pestilence faced by the British Army in the Crimea caused a scandal in the press at home. You might dodge the cannonball, or the bullet may miss its mark, but typhoid and dysentery always loomed ahead, waiting to strike you down.

By the twentieth century, medical science had advanced just enough that you were more likely to die in the trenches than from sickness - at least until the 1918 Influenza reared its ugly head - but unpleasant afflictions could still strike a soldier at any time. Nowhere was this more true than on the peripheral fronts - Southern Africa, Salonika, Mesopotamia, Palestine and of course Gallipoli. The terrible sanitary conditions on the front line attracted vermin, and vermin carried disease - by the summer of 1915, anything from half to three quarters of the men on the peninsula had some kind of illness, and diarrhoea was omnipresent.

(I promise this blog will not be entirely about that, but the runs are important to my point here.)

Diarrhoea wasn’t just uncomfortable - it had an impact on the combat performance of troops. They grew weaker from dehydration, exacerbated by the limited water and the heat of Gallipoli in the late summer. The island staging bases of Lemnos and Imbros was no better - Robin Prior notes that upon the British 11th Division’s departure from Imbros to take part in the landings at Suvla Bay, nearly every man had contracted ‘a particularly weakening form of diarrhoea’ and were also suffering from the side effects of a cholera inoculation.

These illnesses were not the reason for the failure of the campaign - the plan was fatally flawed from conception, and the direction of the August Campaign had been bungled before the first troops left their start lines - but it does play a role in the mythology of the campaign.

Remember how I said we’d mention Charles Bean again? Bean is a great example of a historical ‘problematic fave.’ He had a clear empathy for Australian troops, and his vision for the Australian War Memorial was laudably democratic and egalitarian in nature. His official history of the Australian Imperial Force is a mammoth work of historical literature. Yet he was also very much a man of his time - apart from his casual antisemitism , he was, like many educated men, a believer in eugenics. Bean saw the ailing British soldiers of the August campaign and saw confirmation of what he probably already believed - that the urban poor of Great Britain had degenerated. ‘After 100 years of breeding in the slums, the British race is not the same’ as it had been at Waterloo, he wrote, and that Britain had bred ‘one fine class [the upper class] at the expense of the rest.’

It should be noted that this was a private diary entry, and there were a great many British men who would have agreed with him - there was an obsession with urban degeneracy in the first years of the twentieth century. Yet the converse of this - the idea of the big, strong, manly Anzac, which was already being stoked by Bean and the British journalist Ashmead-Bartlett - has stuck around in the Anzac legend, and echoes of Bean’s private sentiment remain. I remember being told in high school about how Australians were huge and bronzed, while British soldiers were all short, stunted coal miners. I don’t think my teacher knew they were parroting eugenist ideas from the 1910s; I don’t think most people really think about it.

I’m sure this came out more than a little incoherent, as I’m still on the mend, but I thought I ought to put pen to paper on this line of thinking before I forgot. I just think there’s a benefit to thinking historically about myths, even ones that seem harmless. They all come from somewhere.

And on that note, carrots aren’t actually good for your eyesight. The RAF made that one up to prevent people from finding out they had radar.

[kulliare]

arthur morgan……..

*solemnly* arthur morgan..

sexuality headcanon: don't really have one for him.

otp: don't have one really for him on this front either-- though i have read a sadie/arthur fanfic and wasn't opposed to it! i didn't finish it either because it was super long. i think i also like the concept of charles & arthur because i played my arthur with high honor and charles is a good influence on arthur & what he ultimately wants to be

brotp: probs with john / sadie, though i really loved arthur's interactions with npcs, like the photo man and the dinosaur woman. i think those times where arthur's humanity really shone through and made me love him instead of looking at him on the surface level as True Macho man. the deconstruction of his facade is probably the reason rdr2 is one of my fave games of all time

notp: much like the bear i don't really think of this media in the context of ships so i'm very much like whatever

first headcanon that pops into my head: much like what i think in the asoiaf fandom, i tend to think that most content divorced from it's original setting makes characters (in this case arthur) less complex, since they're so especially tied to the setting. but i really think if arthur lived in modern times he would be SUCH a great father figure, he's just so innately gentle, especially to kids. i think he would love baking, though this might be because when i was playing rdr i had arthur constantly hunting because i was like... my man feels the need to take care of his Family!!! he is SUCH a caretaker, and it's really sweet.

also i think if he had a kid for some reason it would be cute if everytime he went to lush he would grumble about the smells or whatever, but this kid just gives him a bath bomb and arthur is like... ok this is good but doesn't admit it. arthur loves the small pleasures of life i think but can't really express that either bc he has to seem strong all the time :( i made arthur get baths a lot because i wanted him to take care of himself bc he was so sad, and he looked so happy while taking a bath. aware a lot of the shit i said here is kind of fluffy bullshit but he NEEDS that ok. don't care if its not in line with canon

favorite line from this character: every bit with the random ass NPCs. arthur's deadpan humor gets me

one way in which I relate to this character: his aimlessness and not knowing where to go, though obviously to a far lesser degree!

thing that gives me second hand embarrassment about this character: when he looks to himself in the mirror and goes 'i'm not handsome/lovable' BOY you were created by DESIGNERS!!! and you are so HANDSOME!!! and you are rich with personality DEPTH!!!!!!!! like a good SOUP!!!

cinnamon roll or problematic fave? i am so so scared of him but i do want to hold him like a stuffed animal

[st-just]

Really cannot emphasize enough the incredible degree to which no we wouldn't.

[ixchel-sketch]

So I wanted to join the bandwagon and list my favorite Ice Planet Barbarians books since I used my KU trial to read like...most of them tbh lol And Ive noticed my faves are different than the popular choices

1) LILA & ROKAN

A disabled character who isn't magically fixed by the khui? Sign me tf up. Because of this she notices things about the local wildlife that ends up saving their asses and also fuck Hassen for being Big Dumb and thinking she cries too much. I would cry for days if someone kidnapped me from my sibling on an alien planet too. Rokan's "knowing" sense is super fun too. Also that none of the humans seems to believe it's a thing (until later). You're gonna tell me that the khui can give someone healing powers but not a little foresight? Lol okay then. But yeah I loved these two so much.

2) ARIANA & ZOLAYA

I didn't expect to like this one as much as I did. But dealing with anxiety and panic attacks on an alien planet would definitely suck ass. And everyone seems to judge her for dealing with trauma with crying and being emotional. Except Zolaya, who can tell that she's upset even when she pretends to be ok and is determined to help her cope. Like. I love him, best guy. He even distracts the others when she has a panic attack so they won't notice. Their story is super cute, I didn't even mind it was told in flashback style.

3) ASHA & HEMALO

OMG hit me with that angst. I love it, I want it. And nothing gets those feels going quite like a second chance romance after a lost child. Neither of them had time to learn to communicate with each other (except maybe like those two years while Asha was pregnant? I guess they were happy?) so their relationship fell apart in the mourning process. But bonding over a lil metlak baby? So cute. This story had just enough feels that it stuck out as one of my top 3, which also surprised me.

4) HARLOW & RUKH

OH GOD HE'S NAKED.

I have some qualms with how Rukh and Harlow met, like any occasionally sane modern woman. The caveman bonk & drag is not sexy, the whole point of the euphemism is that it's not an okay way to act. But damn did I love this book. I didn't know taming a wild man was THAT high on my list of fantasies but damn did Ruby Dixon lock onto my problematic tarzan dreams and target this story at me. I wasn't a HUGE fan of the time skip in the book but I get it, especially when they were alone together for over a season as opposed to the few weeks that the others had spent alone. In any setting other than not hoth or like, 10,000 BCE I would say nopppe, but in this series Harlow & Rukh are one of my faves.

5) STACY & PASHOV

AGAIN

Give me the angst!

Pashov survives a terrible injury but can't remember his mate and baby? Sign.me.up. I also like that his memory issue isn't magically healed completely by the end of the book. There's no big rush of complete memories that fixes everything. They have to emotionally recover from those lost years and find a new way to move forward which kills me in the best way. Also I kinda love how Stacy is happy cooking for the tribe and fell into sa-khui mated life kinda easily, which makes it just that much more sad when their life gets turned upside down. Last place on the list because their baby's name is Pacey. Like. C'mon Ruby. Apparently the Not-Hoth couples have the shared braincell of Stephanie Myers when it comes to naming the next generation but whatever. We all have faults.

[cauchesque]

i think her criticism (if im reading it right) was that dickenson is clearly trying to do a thing where baru is genuinely tempted to fall in with the masquerade despite its flaws- but that's harder to pitch when it sucks as much as it does. even life within the empire is depicted as extremely bad, and only in the later books do we learn that the imperial core doesn't suffer the same way. i don't see it that way, but that's because my problematic fave is high modernism, ya know?

Yeaah it's, uh, not great

(Okay so first of all rereading this, you know 'Baru isn't gay or self-hating enough' is, well, not the usual critique I expect about Traitor)

Like

The Masquerade isn’t civilized. It’s civilization, but I don’t recognize it as civilized, and this is a problem with a constructed empire. An empire relies on itself as the definition of civilization – I would footnote here Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch as a SFnal example of an empire which is built on this principle, and which, for this reader at least, achieves the facsimile. (But then my ancestors were not enslaved, we were exterminated; not annexed, but exiled. Perhaps I like the Radch better than the Masquerade because I can find a place for myself in it, and cannot imagine a place within the Masquerade someone like me would ever be safe –) But I disbelieve in the veracity of the Masquerade, except for one factor.

Perhaps!

[fipindustries]

there is something beautifully elegant about the ways in which, in concept, the free market can push technological innovation.

it has to start with a technology that, while shitty and clunky and primitive and innefficient, it finds a use case, a purpose, a thing that it can do well enough that is profitable and so it can justify further investment to iterate upon it, perfect it, streamline it

no technology is created fully formed, no prototype arises from human creativity with all its bugs fixed and its kinks ironed out. is just a matter of creating something that even in its early stages can justify itself. so that it can jump that first hurdle where its utility overcomes the ammount of effort it takes to materialize it.

i really like the way in which it becomes a feedback loop, the way in which is almost a self perpetuating machine. once a technology finds the way to do something that couldnt be done before as well or as fast or as efficiently as what previously existed the market grabs hold of it and it almost takes care of itself

(this is not an iron rule, fusion power hasnt worked after decades and decades of tinkering with it and yet humanity still doesnt lose hope, we still throw millions and millions in investment its way. there are other many such technologies and dreams and castles in the skies that we are desperatly trying to make into reality despite it not being profitable to do so yet)

[that-was-anticlimactic]

Has no one asked Yue yet for the character ask game?? Talk to me about Yue!

i am taking a quick mental break to do this and oh boy i love yue !

sexuality headcanon:

i think everyone probably knows this by now, but ace yue ! yue is asexual ! she simply is. she told me. i know it's true because she told me. also she is pansexual <3

otp:

yueki yueki yueki i love yueki so freaking much suki will kick the geese for yue and yue will bandage suki after the geese attack her <3

brotp:

sokka and yue is always a good one, and so is katara and yue because yes and i just love them for that and yeah, those would probably be my two favorites <3

notp:

yue x h*hn nope nope nope do not like hahn deserves to be punched. grace had sokka punch him, i had zuko punch him, we just need to have the rest of the gaang punch him 😌

first headcanon that pops into my head:

yue has pots ! but also like... in a modern au, she was homeschooled until like her sophomore year of high school and she had a hard time adjusting to regular school. luckily, she already knew sokka and katara and they introduced her to their friends as well, but it was still a really hard shift for her and she had her first anxiety attack in class because it was so overwhelming one day because her parents heavily sheltered her <3

one way in which I relate to this character:

both have a thing for sokka--no but for real, we both have trouble sticking up for ourselves and expressing how we feel in a way that makes sense to other people ✌🏻also we're both ace. again, she told me.

thing that gives me second hand embarrassment about this character:

that she was engaged to h*hn but that wasn't her fault :/

cinnamon roll or problematic fave?:

cinnamon roll 100% she's just vibing and she's doing a great job and i think that she deserves the entire world and also i love her <3

[jacnaylor]

romance book recs!!

romance is my feel good genre, and it’s also usually somewhat easier to read during stressful times, so here’s a list of some books that are either romance or have a romance element i feel like mentioning.

(EDIT: I STAYED UP TILL 2 AM DOING THIS HELP. this is why some of the comments. don’t make any fucking sense.)

romance books and authors:

CONTEMPORARY:

1. The Bromance bookclub series by Lyssa Kay Adams (A group of men form a bookclub dedicated to romance books in order to understand women, improve their relationships and become better men. It’s funny, cute, and all about dismantling toxic masculinity one romance book at a time)

2. Mariana Zapata books (The queen of slowburn romance. The only book I’ve read by her is ‘Under Locke’, but ‘From Lukov with love’ and ‘Kulti’ have rave reviews. There is so much build up and SO much sexual tension with a great pay off)

3. Milly Johnson books (A uk author whose books are primarily set in the north, these are total feel good books. Not so much graphic and more romantic, but her characters are great and her plot lines really hook you in.)

4. The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren (Super cute, quick enemies-to-lovers story about a bridesmaid who has to go on a honeymoon with the best man when the bride and groom get food poisoning. Obviously this means the holy of holies: fake relationship!)

5. Well met by Jen De Luca (Oh my gosh! Super fun, the characters are just wonderful especially our heroine. A hate-to-love romance set at a renaissance fair! All about overcoming the limits you set on yourself and rethinking your first impressions.)

6. Katherine Center books (My personal favourites are ‘How to walk away’ about a woman who falls for her PT after a near fatal plane crash. And ‘Happiness for beginners’ about a woman taking part in a wilderness trail with her brothers annoying best friend. She writes such great plots and you really feel all the emotions!)

7. Mhairi Mcfarlane books (my personal favourites are ‘Here’s looking at you’ about a woman who comes face to face with her high school bully years later - only he doesn’t recognize her. And he’s not awful? Don’t worry. I know how that synopsis sounds. He’s not excused his actions, but you also understand how he’s grown and changed. It definitely gets you in the feels though. As does ‘You had me at hello’ Which is about a couple from university meeting again years later. God this woman can write angst and yearning!!)

8. A part of me by Anouska Knight (On the same day she and her husband have been accepted into the adoption process, their marriage implodes. This has such a cute romance which follows hate-to friends- to love and it’s v funny)

9. Southern Eclectic series by Molly harper (Just as it sounds. Southern small town romance with a great, quirky cast of characters)

10. Maggie’s man by Lisa Gardner (writing as Alicia Scott) (An escaped convict kidnaps a woman from the courthouse to act as his hostage whilst he tries to prove his innocence. Surprisingly funny and warm. Maggie as a heroine is an absolute joy. They’re sort of chaotic together and it’s a wild ride.)

11. The Mister by E.L James (LISTEN OK - SIT BACK DOWN - It’s not winning awards but it’s actually decent! I was skeptical, but I will admit I was won over. I mean parts are cheesy but it’s so addictive. Basically a rich man falls for his cleaning lady - but it’s also about the yearning. It’s also quite action packed as there’s danger, drama and a chase across europe to get the girl.)

12. RECENT Colleen Hoover (Now, you may enjoy older CH books. Personally I find them very problematic. Now I’ve really enjoyed her recent books though. Especially ‘Without Merit’ and ‘It ends with us’ and ‘Regretting you’. High angst, high drama, dark topics for all of her books. But you can tell she’s matured with her writing. She isn’t for everyone but they’re addictive, fast paced reads.

13. The Austenland duology by Shannon Hale (You might have seen the Austenland movie - The cutest, cheesiest, sweetest, campiest movie ever. Well there’s a book! It’s about women who go on a holiday and live their own Jane Austen story with actors. The first book leans towards Pride and Prejudice and Mansfield park. The second book is more Northanger abbey and Emma.

14. Brigid Kemmerer contemporaries (She is an auto-buy author for me, especially her contemporaries. She writes the best teenage characters, the best teenage boys I’ve ever read about. Her characters are real, she writes about kids trying their best, struggling, and being good, and kind, and the world not being kind to them. Usually the books have a pov from both the female and male love interest. I would rec any of them tbh. ‘Letters to the lost’ comes before it’s companion novel ‘More than we can tell’. I loved ‘Call it what you want’ with has modern Robin Hood elements!!!! seriously she is my favourite YA contemporary author.

15. Sophie Kinsella books (If you haven’t picked up her stand alone novels then what are you doing???? she is the queen!!!! Personal favourites are ‘Can you keep a secret’ and ‘I’ve got your number)

16. A quiet kind of thunder by Sara Barnard (I love her ok. Her books are short and sweet but she packs a punch. TBH these aren’t primarily romance, they’re more just about teenage girls but this one has a good romance element so I’m putting it on here. It’s about Steffi, a selective mute who sometimes communicates with basic sign language who is assigned to look after the new boy at school Rhys, who is deaf.)

17. Meet me at the museum by Anne Youngson (GORGEOUS! moving, tender. A lonely housewifes strikes up a correspondence with a widowed museum curator in Denmark. Oh gosh. I just love this one. It’s about friendship, love, grief, second chances, the choices we make. Seriously love this one and it’s not that long.)

FANTASY:

1. Sorcery of thorns by Margaret Rogerson (Elisabeth has grown up in the great library, protecting grimoires with powers and fearing sorcerers. When a dangerous grimoire is released, she’s forced to team up with an enigmatic sorcerer and his demonic servant in order to save the world.)

2. Sky in the deep duology by Adrienne Young (A viking inspired story about a warrior who is captured by the tribe she is at war with. Such good tension and it’s also got a lot of action. Battle couple romance! Mutual respect! Hate to love!)

3. The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley (I’ve reread this book once but will end up reading it again. It’s a time travel romance about a woman staying in cornwall dealing with the death of her sister who is transported back and forth to the 17th century. It’s a favourite. The romance is wonderful but the stakes are really high too. I also love ‘Belleweather’ by the same author)

4. An ember in the ashes series by Sabaa Tahir (Oh god, the romance. THE ROMANCE! it’s so much. The angst, the pining, the longing. The first book follows Laia, part of a slave class in a roman inspired world. She begins spying in the top military academy and meets Elias, a reluctant soldier. This is a proper fantasy series with only the first three books out, but it’s so great.)

5. Alias Hook by Lisa Jensen (Let me just copy the blurb ok: “Meet Captain James Benjamin Hook, a witty, educated Restoration-era privateer cursed to play villain to a pack of malicious little boys in a pointless war that never ends. But everything changes when Stella Parrish, a forbidden grown woman, dreams her way to the Neverland in defiance of Pan's rules.” I MEAN COME ON. a gorgeous adult fairytale with love and redemption at the center.

6. The Mediator series by Meg Cabot (Obviously Meg Cabot is the most iconic and we stan. But this series is my absolute favourite by her. About Suze Simon, a kickass, no nonsense mediator - Someone who helps ghosts move on to the other side. Sometimes by force. She has to move house and ends up sharing her room with a 100 year old hot ghost named Jesse. The tension. The angst. THE BANTER!!!!)

7. House of Earth and Blood by Sara J Maas (a half fae half mortal girl tries to solve a murder with the help of a fallen angel. It’s a LONG book, but for me personally it flew by. It’s a big new fantasy world but the romance has a great build. Overcoming grief! Being normal together! Being in danger together! THE UST! the characters are so good. I ahven’t been this impressed by a new series for a while)

8. Cursebreakers series by Brigid Kemmerer (yep, she gets another mention. This one is a beauty and the best retelling about a man forced to relive the same season over and over, becoming a literal beat, until a girl from our world can break the curse. The second book, following secondary characters, is my fave so far. But both feature kickass ladies and those small romantic moments BK is so good at)

9. A court of thorns and roses series by Sara J Maas (a fae inspired beauty and the beast retelling. The only time you support a ship switch. Also the secondary ships are getting their own books and oh my god. I’m so excited.)

HISTORICAL/CLASSICS/MILLS AND BOON

1. Jane Austen (The original rom com queen, obviously. Pride and prejudice and Emma are faves. Also I have a major soft spot for the alwayc chaotic and underrated Northanger Abbey)

2. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell (Actually might be my favourite classic ever. Often described at an industrial p&p. Margaret, from the south, comes face to face with the harsh reality of the world when she moves up north and comes face to face with a brooding millowner. There’s obviously a lot more nuance than that but. THE PINING!!!!!! THE MISCOMMUNICATION! THE DRAMA!)

3. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer (You might have seen the film. Please also read the book. Told entirely in letters. The sharp witted author Juliet Ashton falls in love with Guernsey and it’s characters whilst researching what happened there during the war. Funny, moving and romantic.)

4. The Veronica Speedwell series by Deanna Raybourn (A butterfly hunter foils her own kidnap and is paired together with a reclusive natural historian. They solve mysteries together. They can’t admit they wanna sleep together. The tension.......unbearable. See also the Julia Grey mysteries by the same author)

5. The warrior knight and the widow by Ella Matthews (So last year I discovered Mills and Boon and I have no shame about it whatsoever. This is a medieval beauty and the beast retelling about a woman being escorted to her fathers estate by an enigmatic and scarred knight. She’s hoping to convince her father to let her steward her own lands, and of course trying not to fall for her escort.)

6. The bareknuckle bastards series by Sarah Maclean (A badass, brooding trio of siblings who rule the underbelly of Covent Garden fall for smart, beautiful women. Opposites attract, Good girl/bad boy, strong women, banter. Super fun historical romance)

7. Redeeming the reclusive earl by Virginia Heath (I just read this and it was seriously cute!!!! And book where the hero blushes even once is a good book in my opinion. Basically aspiring antiquarian named Effie barrels into the life of a new earl - who really just wants to be left alone to be grumpy and sad and disfigured. ALONE. But Effie wants to dig on his land. And she won’t take no for an answer. She also talks A LOT.

8. A family for the widowed governess by Ann Lethbridge (Technically this is part of a series but you don’t need to read them in order and this is the best one. A widow who is being blackmailed accepts a governess post. She can’t tell her employer about the blackmail especially when she starts falling for him.)

9. The bedlam stacks by Natasha Pulley (I read watchmaker and didn’t like it but you might like it. This one also FEAUTRES A M/M ROMANCE. I know this list was super straight im sorry. Anyway this is about a botanist falling in love with a priest in the jungle.

10. The wilderness series by Sara Donati (Think outlander without the time travel and also not set in scotland. Basically Last of the Mohicans fanfiction about Hawkeye’s grown up son. An english woman moves to america when her father promises she can be a school teacher there. Little does she know he actually has plans to marry her off. Things get more complicated when she falls for Nathaniel Bonner, a white man raised native american and who’s daughter and extended family is Native American. Like outlander there’s romance, adventure, history. But unlike the outlander books the love interest is a decent guy (i say as if i don’t love the tv show)

STUFF THAT REALLY ISN’T ROMANCE AT ALL. BUT I SHIP A SHIP.

1. The Lacey Flint series by Sharon Bolton (Lacey Flint is a police officer who becomes involved in the hunt to catch a Jack the ripper copycat. There actually is a strong romantic element with the other lead police officer.)

2. The last hours duology by Minette Walters. A novel about the black death and a closed estate lead by a woman who’s trying to protect her people. There’s also a kind of murder mystery. But she also has a close relationship to one of the surfs that I got super invested in.

3. The Strike series by J.k Rowling (I know we don’t stan anymore but. This series about  PI and his assistant slowly growing closer? Becoming best friends and partners? Not acknowledging any feelings for each other?

[st-just]

#this is because living in a society is necessary but bad 

Yeah I mean I feel like I’d be an anarchist is I was like 30% more...optimistic isn’t the right word, but it’s in the general direction.

Because like, hierarchies do almost universally suck, and the more hierarchical something is the worse it sucks. Unfourtunately hierarchies and formal organizations are just like, actually really effective at accomplishing things! And kind of necessary for anything more complex than loosely confederated agricultural villages/hunter-gatherer bands with any amount of efficiency! (and within those villages and bands informal but often quite tyrannical hierarchies and cultures are pretty damn common anyway!)

(And, like, I like civilization)

But like, this is a tragedy. People taking too much glee in it or acting like it’s something to be enthusiastically embraced instead of, like, accepted and awkwardly worked with, are, I don’t know, worrying.

it is sorta funny though, like i think ideologically i align much more closely with communism than anarchism but on any given issue (and looking at my mutuals) i'm much more likely to be aligned with anarchists than communists.

[ravenbell-exchange]

Here come the prompts!

These are for all of us to use, so please feel free to peruse, reblog, explore, comment, and be generally delightful. Everyone will be receiving their assigned prompts later today, but remember that we are writing two stories each: one from the assigned prompts, and one from this list. You are free to pick anything apart from stuff you yourself prompted. There haven’t been any Dear Author letters I’ve spotted so far, so I’ve included some additional crossover prompts from people here, just for ease of reference. You absolutely don’t have to pick them - there’s just there in case you want them!

If you didn’t sign up for this challenge, but want to use any of the prompts below to write a fic – go for it! As long as you make sure to credit where you got the prompt from, you are very welcome to play with us.

Now, without further ado:

1.

Url: @autobot

Prompt 1: Sports AU: Bellamy and Raven flirt while their respective teams yell at them to get their head in the game.

Prompt 2: Delinquent Winter: It's snowing, so the delinquents decide to start a snowball fight. Raven and Bellamy really go at each other. Bellamy ends up getting a cut on his lip from an icy snowball, and Raven decides to remedy that with a kiss.

Prompt 3: Season 7: This is pretty vague but just anything with the relationship Bellamy/Raven/Doucette, with Bellamy having had separate relationships with the other two in the past.

Prompt 4 (optional variation on 1): HP AU: Bellamy and Raven flirt while their respective Gryffindor and Ravenclaw Quidditch teams yell at them to get their head in the game.

Things they don’t want to find in the fic you write for them: Momma didn't raise no wussy "N/A"

Also: Have seen all 7 seasons.

2.

Url: @growlereish

Prompt 1: post mount weather road trip. monty, miller, lincoln, gina, octavia, harper welcome to come too. maybe they find a bunch of cars and the delinquents take off into the sunset together. maybe it's just bellamy and raven exploring the world together.

Prompt 2: au where they're on a sports team together. any sport, the sport is not important, it's about the Team As Family and the Narratives

Prompt 3: fantasy au or canon + fantasy elements

Prompt 4: relationship negotiation / exploration

Prompt 5: anything from the expansive list of likes on my dear creator letter: https://growlery.dreamwidth.org/11097.html

Things they don’t want to find in the fic you write for them: somnophilia; humiliation, especially as a kink; d/s that's about punishment; discussion of diets/nutrition plans/exercise regimens/body maintenance/weight management/etc

Also: Have seen up to + including 3x08

3.

Url: @kinetic-elaboration​

Prompt 1: High school AU: Bellamy and Raven are exes, but Raven is still good friends with Octavia, so they still see each other all the time

Prompt 2: Bellamy/Raven/Gina negotiating/figuring out a poly relationship in Arkadia pre-S3

Prompt 3: Braven + First real, heavy snow on the ground (canon or canon-divergent AU)

Prompt 4: Librarian!Bellamy and Mechanic!Raven

Prompt 5: Modern AU: Bellamy, Raven, and author's choice other delinquents living in a cramped apartment together; Raven and Bellamy are either struggling with UST or in a secret relationship or FWB arrangement

Things they don’t want to find in the fic you write for them: pregnancy/kid fic of any sort; side/background Minty, Marper, or Clexa; explicit sex (implied/fade to black/generically described is ok); character bashing of any kind

Also: Have seen season 1-4 (really do not want to write/read anything related to the timeskip on, please!).  I'm not really into the Grounders generally; I love the delinquents; I headcanon Raven as bisexual but Bellamy as straight.

4.

Url: @justbecauseyoubelievesomething​

Prompt 1: Sci-fi/Space AU where Bellamy and Raven serve on the same ship; (fr)enemies to lovers with lots of angst along the way! Time loop/travel or interdimensional travel shenanigans would be appreciated as well!

Prompt 2: Dark Fairytale/Fantasy AU; very dark, stormy, foresty vibes; one of them is some sort of mythical creature, maybe even ruler of other mythical creatures; dark forbidden romance; for lots of bonus angst, one of them can be a magical creature hunter and reveal themselves at the end!

Prompt 3: Canonverse Ark AU; Bellamy and Raven meet as adults on the Ark because they both join the same secret revolutionary group planning to overthrow Alpha Station; other Delinquents can definitely make appearances!

Prompt 4: Modern AU; one of the two is driving through a small town trying to get home for Christmas when their car breaks down and they are forced to take it to the town's only mechanic; they snark at each other before the mechanic invites the stranded party to Christmas dinner; found family; fluff; basically you're typical Hallmark-esque set-up.

Prompt 5: Any setting! Bellamy and Raven are rivals in some sort of extreme sport (or if set in canonverse can be something like spacewalking). They're constantly pushing each other to their limits trying to beat each other, until Raven permanently injures her leg. She becomes very bitter during her recovery until she realizes that Bellamy isn't competing anymore and confronts him. Maybe feelings come out right away or maybe it takes them a while to get around to realizing it, but lots of angst and hurt/comfort during the build-up!

Things they don’t want to find in the fic you write for them: Explicit smut; pregnancy/kid fic; incest; student/teacher; character bashing of any other characters

Also: Have seen seasons 1-6 and the first half of season 7.

5.

Url: @ravenbells

Prompt 1: Raven discovering and enjoying the fact that Bellamy is a huge history nerd (can be canon, modern or some kind of fantasy/sci-fi setting).

Prompt 2: Modern AU. Raven is sharing a flat with friends, but one of them has to move out because of Reasons, and Bellamy rents the freed up room. Doesn’t have to be set in the US if you don’t want to, I don’t care that it’s an American show.

Prompt 3: Grounder AU, but set in the past. Bellamy and Raven were children when the nukes that caused the Ark to stay in space for generations went off. Now they are they first generation of survivors who have to build a life in a world without technology.

Prompt 4: Steampunk AU. Can be traditional Victorian-aesthetic steampunk, but if you want to lift your visuals from any other time period, be my guest. I’m going to love anything you do.

Prompt 5: Bellamy and Raven are exes who get back together (can be canon or any AU setting you can imagine).

Things they don’t want to find in the fic you write for them: Graphic violence

Also: Have only seen the first 2 seasons, please have mercy. If you want to incorporate the characters playing DnD into any of the stories, be my guest - just putting this in here because I know some people in the group love it (Bellamy would play a paladin, fight me), but if you’re not into this stuff, absolutely don’t feel obliged.

6.

Url: shortitude @ AO3

Prompt 1: Modern coffee-shop AU where they meet because both of them has a Specific Table they like to sit at and usually their schedules do not coincide, but then because of fate (someone's wi-fi broke, there's plumbing work happening at home, etc) they have to go to the coffee shop and their table is taken, as are all the others. Luckily, the traitor who took their Specific Table is willing to share it, just for today. (And then every day after.) Friends to Lovers is preferred over Instant Attraction in this one. Even open-ended works. (Please, no pandemic.)

Prompt 2: Canon-based AU: Give me cottagecore survival to replace the weird plots that happened to this show after s2. The idea of the Delinquents settling in a village, life moving on, peace being brokered, etc etc. In the middle of it all, Bellamy and Raven rely on each other to rebuild, and fall in love. A lot.

Prompt 3: Five times Bellamy tried to show his love for Raven and failed, and one time she finally got the point. Oblivious That People Might Love Her!Raven is my tragic and problematic fave. A bonus: competence kink. Acceptable: any form of AU; I am not a stickler for canon.

Prompt 4 (optional): Pacific Rim AU; veteran Jaeger pilot gets pulled back into action because of a need to pull off a last fight against the apocalypse/alien invasion, drifts unexpectedly with the supermouthy, supersmart, very capable engineer/mechanic. Add as many characters from The 100 as you'd like into this, but I am very much more into the wholesome survival of all of them than I am about everyone except Braven dying.

Things they don’t want to find in the fic you write for them: Bellarke content if the Braven content is just a way for Bellamy to "get over" Clarke, be it failed relationship or unrequited one.

Also: Have seen season 1 and Season 2 in full; vaguely familiar with STUFF about how they ended up in space, and nothing beyond that because I literally don't care.

[teabooksandsweets]

Very Long Post On Cancel Culture, Wokeness And Tumblr

Warning: This text is not one bit ordered because it all belongs together and I write it down as it comes to mind, and I also stray off topic a lot.

Also: This text is NOT about how all people are too soft or special snowflakes or too sensitive or anything of that sort. On the contrary.

I am glad that people finally begin to speak out against cancel culture, but their approach to it is usually wrong.

It’s not just that it doesn’t matter if people maybe were not perfect(ly woke/pc) in the past, and can change. What really matters is that people don’t have to be perfect and woke and pc at all.

And I am saying this for an entirely different reason than you might think, for a different reason than people usually speak out against political correctness, and “sjws”, etc. The problem is: all this makes people less kind, less considerate, less caring and open towards others. It makes them hateful and hostile and selfish.

In the late 00s/early 10s everyone was a relativist, saying how there was no right or wrong, etc. and luckily that’s over. But in the mid-to-late-10s people began to be absolutely obsessed with morals in an entirely corrupted way.

The thing is this: people should always strive to learn and to behave well and kindly. Generally. Everyone. Always.

But people ought to be generally kind and good, not specifically perfect in regards to very specific things, and otherwise absolutely hateful, as is nowadays encouraged, especially on tumblr.

Tumblr cares about specific social issues. All of these are incredibly important. But tumblr doesn’t see the Big Picture, doesn’t connect humans to each other, fails to recognise that all humans are human and should treat each other well.

Instead, to tumblr, the smallest offence of a Very Specific Kind, one careless word, one lack of knowledge, is seen as the worst crime imaginable. But truly bad, truly evil behaviour of another sort, a sort that for some reason isn’t condemned by tumblr, is seen as unimportant, sometimes even encouraged. “It doesn’t matter if you harm people and make them suffer, if you are hateful or dangerous, as long as you remember the strict codes we have made up.”

All this is done without any sort of coherent logic or consideration. Different social issues (e.g. sexism and racism) are sometimes played out against each other to make a point, sometimes blended to make a different point, as long as the person making the point can use it to appear as woke or good as possible.

It is seen as absolutely fine to harm great many of the people in whose name one claims to do good, if that brings one closer to the goal of Doing Good In Their Name For Everyone To See.

Minorities and people who are for some reason often oppressed are taken up by people who are (in that sense) more privileged as a sort of “cute little pet” to be infantilised and misused, in order to make a point, or maybe just to offend a family member one doesn’t like, or simply to Appear As Woke As Possible.

(The patronising attitude towards minorities also often shows in the context of religion. There are so many posts on tumblr claiming to support a specific (often oppressed) religion, only to make plenty of other posts on how they hate specific aspects of another religion (usually Christianity, but not necessarily) or of religion in general, which this particular religion shares. But of course—some people (usually people of colour) are “excused” for being religious, even if their actual faith is looked down upon.)

Groups of people are only seen in the context of one Time And Place (today’s USA) and members of these groups in other times and places are judged and treated in exactly the same one as one would judge and treat their people in That One Time And Place.

Good manners and generally kind and considerate behaviour are rejected for being elitist and snobbish and antiquated, and instead replaced by a perverted sort of Political Correctness, which is by far more elitist and excluding, overly specific and only benefiting a few people, and free of any sort of warmth or kindness, instead expecting people to pass a test of sorts, to remember the latest overspecific information, and to repeat it correctly, regardless if one understands it, regardless if one actually applies it towards actual people.

Being considerate of others, treating them well, not behaving absolutely horridly should not be special. And the idea to take away all good manners, all kindness, all consideration, because they are supposedly outdated or even elitist, and to replace it with a stiff and superficial degeneration of what used to be political correctness, so that people behave well in certain circumstances (and not at all otherwise) out of nothing but fear is Not Good.

Pseudo-PC behaviour is even sometimes used to disguise hostility towards the people it should actually protect, you can harm people as long as you are Saying The Right Things.

(This also shows in the treatment of fictional characters. A serial killer might be a fan favourite, but once they say something racist or otherwise bad it’s like “uh, I can’t believe they did that! Now my fave is problematic!” No, your fave has always been very problematic and now there’s just another bit that shows what you should have known for a long time!)

Groups whose actual intention is supposed/claimed to be of a social and helpful nature are destroying themselves from within, attacking their own members or subjects of care in precisely the manner in which they claim outsiders do.

People are actually speaking out in favour of bullying people “if they deserve it” even though people always find “good reasons” to bully and harm people, and claiming that particular people deserved it is their go-ahead. As someone who has been bullied, I can assure you that people always find reasons, and if they are encouraged to bully people who “deserve it” they will make sure that they appear to deserve it.

People are encouraged to denounce people, which specifically means to accuse people of something to the personal benefit of the accuser, usually either made-up or twisted. I repeat this: People are not encouraged to report people for doing something bad, they are encouraged to denounce them, which has a very different and very specific and very, very harmful meaning.

Even more so, whatever accussation of a person is made, is believed. “Innocent until proven guilty” has been abolished. The moment a person makes a claim on someone the judgement has been made.

Even more so, well-meant, but politically incorrect things are considered worse than pc hate. If a person knows all the language, has all the background info, they can be personally hostile. If a person actually means to be kind, but is doesn’t go about it the “right way” is considered horrible (eg. a man who may be a unintentionally sexist but who doesn’t mean any harm is seen worse than a true misogynist who knows feminist lingo).

Even more so, “tumblr swjs” much too often adopt concepts of their actually hateful people. For example, while actual Cultural Appropriation is a horrible thing, people on here take it as far as “all cultures are valuable but they Need To Stay In Their Place and Never Mingle and Make Them Impure”. Which is precisely the argument of many... what? Ah, yes, white supremacists. Yes, you here me right. Not all WPs openly admit that they hate all people who aren’t white. No, many claim that they just want to keep people seperate, just like so many of the people on here who claim to be anti-racist. But cultures have never been seperate, many cultures people think to have nothing to do with each other have influenced each other greatly, and others that people were one and the same culture are actually not.

(In that vein, people on here also don’t understand that racism is always bad, but also always different, and that that dividing people into “white” and “poc” is once again a very Modern Day USA thing, and that people can be racist in many more shapes, and that what people have been considered white or not has changed greatly over the years. All racism is bad, but not all is the same.)

But even more so, in the name of social justice, many methods of actual fascists have been adopted. People don’t notice it, because the primary focus is not on what things are done, but on who does them and to whom they do it.

But that’s a particular problem. Consider the concept, not the victim or the culprit. Even if you apply it to people “who deserve it” it does. not. help. if you model for path to social justice after bloody revolutions that led to fascist governments, or if you systematically (help to) ruin people in the same manner as fascist states did and do. Perhaps I am biased. Perhaps I am simply a German who is frightened of seeing people on the internet telling others it were their moral duty to persecute people in manners common in nazi times and/or the gdr. But perhaps people should also consider whether it really makes sense to condemn people for using the term “witch hunt” outside of sexism. Because it’s also a method, a structure, no matter to whom it is applied, or why.

But to get back to the terrible lack of proportion. This is especially relevant in regards to celebrities. The bar is so high and so low at the same time, and so randomly adjusted, that people are praised and put on pedestals for absolutely no proper reason, simply because they acted like normal decent people, and then, just as quickly, pushed off it, and condemned, just for acting like normal decent people. Normal = nonetheless flawed, because: human. There’s so much undeserved hate following so much praise, usually unexplained, so that people just join in nwithout even knowing what “good” or “bad” that person has done. People are glorified for nothing, and then ruined. And what does it teach normal people?

To always look out, to always be frightened. To worry about every thing one says or does. Not about the way one treats others—treating people badly is a power move, of course, and general decency is entirely insignificant. Just to remember the special jargon of a superficial political correctness, and sometimes even the in-jokes of people. (I have once witnessed people bullying a child out of this site, claiming she was homophobic, because she didn’t understand a gay in-joke. You only get that on tumblr. I hope.)

And because people constantly have to prove that they are not bad, they can not even be normal. It’s not enough to be normal, considerate, kind, but imperfect people—everyone has to absolutely perfect, by standards set by some random people who claim to know better, and whenever people just appear particularly good by those people’s standards (especially if they are something Inherently Evil, like men) they get praised to be Especially Different Someones And The Only Good People Of Their Sort. Until they got found out, are finally proven to be normal, decent human beings, like the majority of all people, and are suddenly brushed aside, hated forever, another point made to prove that This Sort Of People Is Always Bad. (To this adds: Too many bad things are immediately attatched to a specific group of people, even if it is commonly done by various groups/all people/actually the people complaining about it.)

I mean, sure. Tumblr is the first place in which I’ve seen people who criticise Christianity don’t do it for the obvious problems in churches and with some of their members, but for the concepts of loving one’s neighbour and forgiveness. The first place in which I have seen people who “advocate” for human rights also support the death penalty and vigilante murder. The first place in which I have seen people talk unironically in favour of the French revolution and the USSR.

But, kids, I know, most of you are over-excited and extremely well-meaning teenagers, and it’s important to rebel, and all, and I hope you will never outgrow your social conscience, but you should really outgrow the way you apply it. Because there’s people among you who don’t mean well, and who take advantage of you.

I mentioned the (luckily) outdated relativism earlier, and I need to say more about it. It’s mingled its shades of grey with today’s black-and-white mindset. In the past, nobody could citicise people for doing something because nothing was seen as really good or bad. Now everything is either good or bad, and people still can’t critise someone for doing something they don’t like—unless they prove it’s bad. You can’t just say “Oh, this is not for me. I don’t like it.” Or even “This or that aspect of this should be looked at critically.” No. You have to say “Here I Will Prove Why This Is Evil And Shouldn’t Be.” Criticising someone, or just disagreeing, can’t be done out of worry over hurting their feeling, just as it was in the olden days (aka ca. 10 years ago) of Everyone Should Do As They Like, so what to do instead? Prove they are Bad and Everyone Who Doesn’t Agree That This Is Bad Is Also Bad. “Not my cup of tea” is over, everyone has to drink the same tea, always.

To this adds that things that people don’t like are always equated to things that are really undoubtedly bad. Thanks to this, actual terms used for actually bad things lose their meaning, and the demonisation of harmless things ultimately leads to the trivialisation of what’s truly bad. Words have lost their meaning and are used just as one pleases in order to “call someone out”.

(A particular common matter on tumblr is the equation of pedophilia and age gaps between adults; but the issue that many adults on tumblr seem to consider themselves children and seem entirely concided that they could also become victims of child predators, whereas they themselves can prey on children because they like Disney movies or whatever; and many children on tumblr think they had a right to patronise adults, is a different issue about which I really don’t care to talk right now. The idea that people also shouldn’t be in relationships with people who may have some sort of societal advantage over them, also holds plenty of implications that make me very uncomfortable, but about which I also really don’t care to talk right now.)

To come back to an example mentioned earlier. Take misogyny and racism. Two bad things, two things to fight against, two things that shouldn’t be exploited to fight the other. To say “I want to fight the bad treatment of women, and specific things are prevalent in specific cultures therefore I can be hostile and prejudiced towards these people.” is not good feminism, not even bad feminism, it’s plain racism, and nothing else. But to say “This thing may be really harmful to a lot of women is valuable to people of this or that culture, so one has to support it.” is also not anti-racist in the least, it’s just an attempt to appear open minded by people who are in no way affected by it. And these are two examples—it goes far beyond racism or misogyny.

There’s plenty of very right and good posts on tumblr on how people should benefit from society, rather than society benefitting from them. The same should be applied, for example, to feminism, and anti-racism, and other social causes. They should be positive and helpful to the people who need their help, and they need to work together. These are just two examples, to all other work to help people of all sorts applies the same.

If you don’t ask yourself “How do I help individual human beings, and how does my cause help some of them?” but instead ask “How do I help My Specific Cause That I Care About, regardless of the people?” you are doing it wrong.

And tumblr woke culture teaches that all humans are are seperated into little groups, which sometimes overlap, and that all people within these groups are exactly the same. But all humanity is one big group, and every human being is an individual, and some individuals have more in common with each other than others, but all in all, we all do belong together.

But I am not saying this to encourage even more people to attack others for caring about a specific social issue, seeing that as prove that they only cared about that. People cannot probably handle everything, and all things to play into each other anyway.

And yes, I believe in social mindfulness, in work to help others and especially to help those who are in particular need of help, in care and in consideration. But I believe that the means to these things, whether it’s a specific group with which people choose to identify or even join, or a concept such as political correctness, etc. should serve the people and their well-being and safety and happiness. People should not serve them out of fear or being torn down by strangers on the internet.

And people shouldn’t alienate each other, they shouldn’t attack those who want to help, they shouldn’t refuse people to grow and to learn, they shouldn’t seperate social issues from each other as if we weren’t all people, as we shouldn’t cooperate to b help those who need help. And to do all this, we must allow humans to be human, to be imperfect but generally kind and well-intentioned. This striving for over specific perfection combined with disregard for general kindness can not possibly help. It only alienates people, frightens them, and paints those who actually want to do good in a bad light.

Please: My writing was perhaps very muddled up, and it may be that I took up some strings that I didn’t finish, or phrased some things badly. So if you wonder about anything I wrote here, or dislike anything of it, please tell me so that I can explain myself. I’ve seen so many people lately write things that in the end got negative responses that were in no proper relation to the original text and obviously based in misunderstanding, and I don’t want that.