#old irls for the record

[quintessential-candles]

THERE ARE 6 PEOPLE IN THIS CALL. ALL OF THEM WANT ME TO BREAK UP WITH MY BOYFRIEND. ONE OF THEM IS ME. I CANNOT.

[the-final-sif]

what is your opinion on the situation?

I've been at work all day so I haven't been able to sit down with stuff fully, it also seems like Caiti is planning to release a statement later today with more information I think? So I'd like to get her response there, but based on what I've seen so far I think I fall more on the side of "people made some dumb choices and should learn from them" than anything else.

Consent is messy and it gets messier when people start lying or are drunk. In this case, both Caiti and George were drunk. From what I understand, either Caiti had a 21+ wristband from the vidcon party, or her friend group did and assumed since she was drinking with them, she was also 21+.

Honestly, when it comes to the matter of underage drinking, I don't think it's even remotely fair to place blame on Dream/George for that. The blame there lies with Caiti deciding to drink while under 21, and on her friends, Ghostie and the other person present who were both over 21. Unlike Dream/George, both of them knew Caiti and knew exactly how old she was and were letting her drink. They were also letting her drink with no one sober and no one making sure she got home.

Now, Caiti is 18 and also I'm not a goddamn square, I'm not gonna stand here and be like "oh no drinking at 18 clutch my pearls" but like, if people are going to blame other people for that situation, that very much lies with Caiti's friends who knew they had an underage person drinking with them. I feel like people are weirdly assigning blame to Dream/George for not like, iding every person they hang out with (particularly if she had a 21+ bracelet at vidcon, which would mean she already got IDed). While completely avoiding placing any blame on the people who 100% knew they were taking an 18 year old drinking without a doubt.

Putting that aside, from my understanding George's side is he believed at the time that she was having fun, and the most they did was cuddle on a couch with other people there. He believed at the time that everything was cool, and that she later decided she was uncomfortable with what happened.

Honestly, I don't really think that's an unfair reading. At this same party, her best friend was there and from Ghostie's own words, she also didn't realize Caiti was uncomfortable until several months later when Caiti told her. If her best friend didn't notice she was uncomfortable or see anything wrong, then I find it hard to think anyone else would pick up on it.

There's certainly risks taken here that I wouldn't have taken. I think that George needs to do better with checking for consent and maybe vetting the people you're hanging out with. Although I also understand that doing a full background check on everyone you ever meet is an absurd requirement and if, at the time, they trusted the person that they actually invited, I get how that shit happens. Per consent, given that he was also drunk, I get how it may've appeared to him that he had consent. I do think it's still something to work on, but I'm also perfectly aware that in real life, people are often going off vibes and social cues, and sometimes those don't mash.

I also think that Caiti's friends have been pretty shitty throughout this. They take no responsibility for having let an 18 year old drink and then ditching her. They are absolutely milking drama out of this shit and they have a weird obsession with blaming Dream for shit he had no fault in.

As for Dream, I don't think he did anything wrong here. Full stop. If Caiti's best friend didn't notice that she was uncomfortable or unhappy, it's insanely unreasonable to expect Dream to have managed that. He was also drunk and hanging out with people, and he had no way of knowing Caiti was underage. None of that shit was his fault, and his statement seems very measured and reasonable. People are trying to blame him for things that he had absolutely no part in, and the UK group are absolutely trying to pull that shit.

Overall, sounds like several people involved made dumb choices, I hope they learn and grow. Otherwise all of this honestly sounds like shit that should've been talked out privately and not tossed to the internet for speculation. Human beings are messy and will fuck up sometimes. This feels like a case of miscommunication and people making risky choices that left people with some hurt.

Again, I may change my mind with further evidence presented, but that's how it feels to me.

[numberonebestratedstimboard]

An oilrose stimboard for @highchimbley !!

💙-💙-💙

🩶-🩶-🩶

💛-💛-💛

[box-dwelling]

I don't normally like posting MCYT stuff because the fandom both scares me and also tend to engage with it in a way I don't. Not hate or to yuck anyone's yum if that's your thing, it's just not normally how I engage with SMPs at least not the stuff from the dream influenced side.

But I will say as someone who's been watching Lizzie and Joel for basically as long as I've had a YouTube account, (they were both some of the first channels I ever subbed to and the original Shadowcraft was like the first every long form YouTube content I ever watched) and who has Joel screaming Lizzies name in terror shock and awe at the insanity of her antics as a deeper core memory than my mother's voice, the exchange with Grian in the the most recent episodes of secret life of:

"I thought you two were married"

"that doesn't mean we have to be nice to each other"

did make me cackle. They're dynamic is iconic and I love them both dearly

[violet-moonstone]

gotta love how often european art/architectural history just went back to: what if we did rome again but just...slightly different?

it's like, florals? in spring? groundbreaking.

[smoreboi]

im considering going back to making shitty youtube videos edited on imovie again just to try and feel some sense of purpose. dont have brawl stars downloaded rn because i kinda fell off on it, but i could to twst vids or something. record my dot connection game dailies or something, idk, just something to do.

[wolpatinga]

[ponyimg]

Ampex VR1000A (serial 329)

[cassieloveswhump]

Ankle injury prompt

Okay so Whumpee has escaped and is now fleeing from Whumper. Fun! Except they’re so tired and hungry and in pain that they can’t stop trembling, and the ground is pretty uneven. So they step wrong and twist their ankle. It hurts, and from what Whumpee can see through their tattered pants it’s swelling, but Whumper is just behind them, so they can’t stop running, no matter how much their ankle hurts.

Bonus points if Whumpee has an old injury in that ankle already.

This may or may not be inspired by me.

[directyourfate]

someone stole jerry cantrell's original blue dress g&l i am going to do something drastic

[autism-swagger]

It really irks me when people blame Misty for the Yellowjackets not getting rescued right away, because like. Airplane black boxes don't have gps????You can't track them, they have to be found. They just record flight information so you can tell what caused the crash.

[blurrycow]

For those who aren’t aware, I go by Toby now! this has been a psa

[time-like-tears-in-rain]

"hey remember when the two most attractive marines in Aliens played vampires?"

"Hicks was in Near Dark?"

"..........no, he wasn't..."

[roseverdict]

it is 4 AM which means it's Desperately Claw At Hobbies In An Attempt To Make Some Form Of Money To Set Aside So I Can Go Be An Adult Instead Of The Parentals' Puppet time!

[gordonstanheight]

i irrationally hate reading my old tweets oh my god if i ever become famous or smth i’m nuking all of my socials. i’m sure in a few years i’ll feel the same with whatever i’m yapping about now but cringe is Real and i Feel it

[sybbi]

i think people want to replace biden because they dont see any chance of him winning against trump anymore and most people have lost faith. another candidate would restore optimism and bring in more voters

Would it?

Here's my issue: what candidate should replace Biden? I ask that question and everyone seems to have a different answer. That, for me, is more dangerous than Biden stumbling over his words a little. It is too fucking late for us to go running around looking like chickens with our heads cut off while the Republicans present a strong, increasingly unified front behind Trump.

Harris, some people say. Well ffs, Harris is already on the ticket. If you're one of those people who's afraid Joe Biden can't run things or won't live through his full term or WHATEVER, SHE IS ALREADY GUARANTEED TO REPLACE HIM. And I see no reason to switch him out wholesale when, again, there needs to be a show of a unified front. That's part of what kills me in all this - you have to have faith to inspire it in others. To fight against a unified front, you have to show unity and strength in your own cause, but instead the left-leaners are doing what they have almost always historically done: fracturing over internal perceptions and differences instead of saying "The biggest threat right now is not us, it's them."

I saw, on that giant lame-ass post by Wheaton, that he was saying we needed a candidate that can force the American people to see what kind of danger we're in. And frankly that is horseshit. The American people, I believe, largely know the stakes here. And Biden has, repeatedly, made grim and coherent speeches about the threat our democracy currently faces. The only thing that has distracted the American public recently FROM the grim threat to our democracy is this aforementioned public pants shitting that, for some reason, has gained more traction than the fact that Trump will be in effect a fucking king if he is allowed in the Oval Office again.

If the Democrats and anti-Trumpers had ANY sense they would be fucking HAMMERING on that. They would be reemphasizing all of Trumps unpopular policies, his instability, his cozy relationship with foreign leaders who act antithetical to American values and ideals, his corruption, his EVERYTHING. Because again, THIS IS A REFERENDUM ON TRUMPISM, FIRST AND FOREMOST. But no. Once again, the left is letting perfect be the enemy of good.

How much faith do you think you can drum up for Harris, who has been torn apart by the left and the media separately, or any other random replacement this late in the game, that you couldn't manage for Biden with an actual concerted fucking effort? The logic of "we need a new candidate that can draw in voters" is so flawed because there is NO candidate that is not going to be torn to shreds by a certain crowd, that will not have doubt placed on them about something, who won't be scrutinized for a story under a magnifying glass. If you give in here, why the fuck wouldn't you give in when the next guy or girl gets torn up for something innocuous, something not reflective of their actual public service? What the fuck are you going to stand for if, every time people show an ounce of criticism about ANYTHING your side does, your solution is to throw the baby out with the bathwater? Meanwhile the MAGAts continue to fortify themselves, casting themselves as strong leaders, as we run around directionless and grasping.

All this is doing, in my view, is giving in to panic and inviting more confusion and panic which can have an even more demoralizing effect on more offline voters. Because where did the loss of faith come from? A bad debate that many voters didn't even watch, because most have probably already made up their mind? Once again, everyone already knows these two candidates. They know Biden is old. They know he's tripped over words before. And they know Trump, too. Biden wasn't elected the first time because he was the perfect candidate. He was the anti-Trump vote. And I agree that just being Not Trump shouldn't be good enough for a candidate. But Biden had managed to return the country to some semblance of normalcy, and despite far right politicians and interest groups throwing up obstruction after obstruction, he has still managed to help many and has done what was within his power to undo the harms brought on by the first Trump presidency.

All this to say, once again, that there WAS a time to talk about replacing Biden. IT IS PAST. I will eat my fucking words if the DNC doesn't nominate him and simultaneously mald over what I think would probably be one of the stupidest decisions they could make. But whatever. It's out of my hands.