#tbd probably

[retquits]

original set vs new...?

what do we think chat. should i do some winter versions

[orpheuslament]

i need to [remembers suicide jokes negatively impact my mental health & upset my loved ones] join a monastery

[mixingpumpkins]

Man, we really lost when we decided that the best way to feel safe or to try to prevent bad things from happening is to assume malicious intent from everyone and police every little fucking thing about existing.

Want to go shopping? You'll be treated like a thief. Security cameras, anti-theft sensors by the door, and a staff that may or may not follow you around isn't enough; we're also putting security tags on every single piece of $4 underwear in the bargain bin and keeping everything on the shelves under lock and key, so you can't even look at it without staff assistance/supervision. No, cameras and staff monitoring checkouts isn't enough. We also need someone else searching your bags and verifying your receipts at the door. (And god help you if a security sensor somewhere didn't get deactivated properly and the door alarm goes off.)

Are you a student taking an exam? We've already decided you're a cheater. Of course you are — all students cheat. So you get assigned, spaced out seats in the testing room, surrounded by cameras. Show us your photo ID at the door. Nothing goes in the room with you but your pencil. Leave your phone, wallet, water, and anything else in a locker outside. All your jewelry, too. No long sleeves. Let us check your hair/headbands/pockets/ears/religious garb in case you're smuggling something in. Need to leave for the restroom? No, you don't, or your exam is done. Emergency? You can choose between literally shitting yourself or failing your course and risking expulsion for cheating.

Online exam? Prepare to be subject to literal spyware. Your eyes better not waver a fraction out of the "acceptable" gaze window. Don't press any button you're not supposed to or mis-click anything; that's proof you're trying to cheat. Don't even think about shifting in your seat, even if your test is two hours long.

Do you work? It'd better be at top speed and no errors at all times. We have security cameras trained on you every moment, sensitive enough to read the text of any paper you handle. We're tracking exactly what you do and how fast. Did your metrics slip for even a second? Unacceptable, even if your rate is otherwise within our "acceptable" range, because we know you can work faster. Yawn? How dare you — we don't pay you to be tired. You're not working hard enough. You must not have enough to do — your requirements have now tripled and we've cut your pay as an incentive not to waste time again. Make a mistake? You must have done it on purpose. You must be trying to steal or sabotage. We'll be evaluating to see how quickly we can fire you and if we can press charges or sue you for damages.

Need to travel via plane? It doesn't matter if you're paying through the nose to do so; you're clearly a criminal who's only not committing a crime at this very moment because you're outnumbered by security officers. We need to question you excessively if you don't look exactly like your ID picture taken three years ago. Take off half your clothes and walk through our scanners that will basically show you without them. (Then prepare to be wanded, and possibly groped — maybe even by more than one person — and if we really feel like it, taken to another room to be stripped and questioned further.) You can't take some necessities with you. Your belongings will be x-rayed and pawed through and commented upon, and they're maybe even a reason to detain and question you further. Why does your purse have suspicious organic matter in it? No, that can't possibly be a bag of fruit snacks you bought from the kiosk 20 feet away; you're trying to hide explosives.

Need medication? You're lying. You're faking. You're just trying to get drugs. You're an addict. You're a dealer. No, you don't have a condition that really requires medication; if you just slept more/lost weight/did yoga/were a better person, you wouldn't have to feel like you need to use drugs. We don't care if your doctor says you need this medication — your insurance company says you don't. Oh, you can afford it anyway? At that price? You must be reselling. We need to investigate and put notes on your file.

Communicating via message? God forbid you take even a fraction of a second too long to respond. You must be trying to hide something. You're slacking off your work. You must be cheating on your partner. You must have a problem with the sender and are leaving them out of something. You left them on read; you're being a bitch. You edited a response or took too long to type something — you're actually being mean and manipulative by not just saying what was on your mind first. Company policy is we get to see everything on your devices. You shouldn't have a problem sharing your personal location/passwords/etc. with your partner if you're not up to no good.

Want to simply exist where a stranger might see you? That's suspicious. What are you doing out here? We don't recognize you. You must be stealing. You must be casing the houses or stores in this neighborhood. You must be looking for someone to rob/assault/harass/etc. You must be part of that rabble claiming they're protesting to cover up the nuisances and criminals they are. Why did you hold a door for me — are you trying to get behind me? Why have I seen you more than once while I'm shopping here — are you following me? Why did you smile at me — do you have a problem? Why are you walking down the street? Why are you sitting on a bench? Why are you visiting the library? Why are you eating alone at the cafe? You don't look like you belong here. You look like a creep. You need the police to come handle you. (If they use force, that just shows you were up to something and totally deserve it.)

Want to exist online? We need to know everything about you — your real name, address, email, age — to ensure you're not a criminal. But you're probably also lying. We need to spy on everything you do, too: every site you visit (and how long you spend there), every purchase you make, every message you send, every search you do. We will take everything you say in bad faith, so be careful about what you post. But it's also extremely suspicious if you don't post — who doesn't have an extensive social media presence these days? What are you trying to hide? You need to indicate that you think the right way. You aren't posting about this — you must not care; you must be a bad person. You deleted an old post — you must be trying to hide your awful views. You can't possibly just be removing things from your profile that no longer reflect who you are. You posted something that I don't like — I knew there was something off about you. It's not a leap to think you're also into worse things. You're probably a pervert. You're actually a criminal of the worst sort and this is an early warning sign for those of us who are smart enough to see it. We're only accusing you of these things NOW so you don't have an opportunity to do them.

Didn't you know? You need to be constantly watched and humiliated and inconvenienced and sometimes even attacked because that's the only thing standing in the way of bad things happening. If you find all this demeaning, there's something wrong with you. Only criminals would rather trade this for being less safe. You don't want us to go from thinking you're a criminal to knowing you're a criminal, do you?

...

Like, fuck. Aren't you tired of living like this???

Some of this stuff has been around for a long time, and it obviously isn't applied evenly across all demographics. But a lot of it has also gotten exponentially worse within the past few decades. Please don't ever accept any of this as normal or necessary or good, because it's not. I'm going insane watching people shrugging off the increasing infantilization and dehumanization of everyone just because this is all they can remember.

It doesn't have to be this way. Don't ever take this shit as a given — it wasn't that long ago that some of this would have been unthinkable. And the instant someone starts talking about doing things a certain way/supporting certain things because of "safety" or "security," be very careful about blindly agreeing with them. We lose very real, important things in pursuit of the nebulous concept of "safety."

[rainbowd00dles]

One time Andrew caught Neil staring and said 'take a picture, it will last longer' so now any chance he gets, Neil takes pictures of Andrew, because he loved the photo wall but these are just for him. And they're definitely polaroids, he just carries a camera every where with him now. It would annoy Andrew at first but when he saw Neil sifting through all his pictures and smiling to himself he figured it wasn't so bad.

[desnayy]

The reason I'm happy to see Chay and Lullah awake is both because I'm very fond of them, and also because this has to be a sign that things have changed, are still changing, behind the scenes. I'm of the belief that they are going to focus on paying the egg admins who've stayed and were chilling the whole time, and once they all get paid, work on getting the pay to the ones who left. Idk, I would rather look at this positively rather than negatively, as I've had too much negativity in my life just this month..

[chamerionwrites]

I should log the fuck off but like. The tyranny, the violence that you’re so terrified of? I’ve seen some of it up close. I’ve lived in the aftermath of a right wing coup. I’ve attended five funerals in the space of a week, of much-too-young men (with much-too-young children) who were killed by US government policy in a very real and direct way.

And then I have returned home to an election between Hillary Clinton - who openly bragged in her memoir of helping to facilitate said right-wing coup - and Donald Trump, whose entire campaign revolved around demonizing my former neighbors and friends, and promising to wield the violence of the American state against them and people like them. I have held my nose and voted for Hillary fucking Clinton, because I know a would-be fascist dictator when I see one and I understand what harm reduction is.

And then I have gone to immigration protest after immigration protest after immigration protest. In fact it’s no exaggeration to say that basically all of my human contact during the entire pandemic year was weekly immigration protests. I’ve stood up and argued against off-brand Richard Spencer fuckheads in city hall meetings and stared them down when they showed up to counter protest and intimidate. I have cried more tears than I’ve probably cried during the entire rest of my adult life over murdered and brutalized immigrant children who could so so so terrifyingly easily have been children that I personally know and love.

I’ve voted for Biden and hoped that he might keep his promises and dreaded that he wouldn’t - because I know what the Democratic party’s track record is, because I’ve worked with immigration activists who are many decades older than me and who have been betrayed over and over and over. I’ve watched over four years, sickened but not shocked, as the Biden administration did exactly that. I’ve watched Harris’ unbelievably callous response to asylum seekers fleeing for their lives (“Do not come”). I’ve watched as the New York Times and other media that screamed condemnation from the rooftops about Trump’s immigration policies justified those exact same policies with the tiniest bit of airbrushing, and anytime I criticized those policies I’ve gotten the predictable crowd of DNC fans having hysterics at me about how I must want Trump to win again. To my own shame I’ve been quieter than I probably should have been in my criticisms because I was so sick of dealing with those people.

And then I’ve held my nose and voted for Harris and STILL gotten accused of being a vote-abstaining traitor who should be deported the moment I expressed the tiniest ounce of frustration with the Democratic party - because you needed somewhere to put your rage, and you either don’t understand or (even more ghoulishly) don’t care what the violence of deportation entails, and because apparently anything less than choking myself on the DNC’s dick makes Donald Trump my fault.

I do not wish any of this on you, because I’m not a fucking monster.

Instead I wish you enough moral and mental and emotional clarity to understand exactly what it is that you’ve said, and enough scraps of conscience to regret it as you ought.

[shibaraki]

*hands pro hero bkg a quirkless teenager* here. this is yours now :-)

[becauseimrichandican]

Beetlejuice activates my ekekekek response. I want to hunt him for sport.

[nadjasantipaxos]

I can't believe we still don't know which Pickwick triplet did it

[veradune]

Photos from a mountain I'm attempting on Saturday. Maybe it's the anxiety brain or maybe I'm legit concerned about dying :|

[steddielations]

coming into the steddie fandom and complaining about steddies having... steddie events is an interesting choice lmao. also maybe think for a second or do any research and realize that when people have specific events it's because there is a LACK of that thing to begin with.

[jellisdraws]

Reblogging seems to have tanked again :/ truly don’t know how Ive got more followers than ever, I’m posting more of my own art more regularly than ever, and the notes on my recent posts are at like post 2018 site abandon levels of engagement. I don’t draw fanart that much, but like… what’s it take? Sometimes my stuff seems to find traction but as soon as I follow that direction all engagement falls off again. Is it cuz I’m promoting my patreon? People aren’t into the pinups or spicy stuff? Is everyone just queueing everything??? I can’t seem to figure it out.

[jaskierx]

the cat when i desperately want to give him some affection: wtf leave me alone i hate you don’t touch me

the cat when i’ve got into bed for a wank: hi mum hi mum hi hope you didn’t have any plans bc i love cuddles and pets and snuggling please let me fall asleep on your belly i love you i love you i love you

[rainbowofsinners]

// I can’t wait for Vox and Velvette to be awful on screen next season, because I’m tired of people acting like Vox is an innocent silly guy

Like... y’all. He stalks people. He knows and sees what Val does to his employees and doesn’t care. He enables him by giving him people to shoot. Both Val and Vel use his platforms to peddle their stuff and spread their influence.

Vox also hypnotizes people into doing what he wants them to do which very much is a non-consensual act. It feels like sometimes people forget that Overlords didn’t get up there by being nice. 🙃

[anneapocalypse]

I'm trying so hard not to be cranky about this but "it's their culture :) so it's fine :)" is literally just not what Wuk Lamat says about the regulators, or what she means, or what the game is telling us, and every time I see that interpretation I am just like. where is this coming from. what are you talking about. what.

[shibaraki]

having the time of my life being goofy with this fic lmao