#the cringe level

[reasonsforhope]

Sometimes you just have one of those moments where the progress we've made as a culture get thrown into stark relief. You look at something and go "Holy shit, that would never have happened when I was a kid."

Today, I had one of those moments when I realized that the teenage boys I'm working with are just. genuinely, openly enthusiastic about going to Build-a-Bear for their outing.

These are sixteen and seventeen year old boys! They just had a whole conversation about what to name their "cute", mostly new squishmallows! They're genuinely excited that they're going to Build-a-Bear this weekend and asking other kids to pick up specific accessories for them!!

Holy shit, that never would've happened when I was 16. None of the boys would have dared to be visibly interested - and neither would most of the girls! There would have been a million gay jokes and "Haha, you're a girl" jokes and "What are you, a baby?" jokes. Teenagers weren't even supposed to care about anything back then!

Less than 15 years later, and I'm watching three 17 year old boys treat all that as not even worthy of comment.

So let's call that a reason for hope. Even when the kids aren't alright, in some ways apparently they are alright. Go Gen Z, honestly. It's so lovely to watch you guys just openly doing and saying stuff that, when I was a teen, would've been a social death sentence.

[kaleidoscopiccc]

oh you hate musicals? oh so youre allergic to all fun and whimsy then? youre against all joy and giddiness brought in front of you huh? you just hate any and all happiness and silly times dont you?

[saturdaysky]

when your waterdhavian crush ambushes you with extremely cheesy flirting and to your deep horror, it works

if you respond equally cheesily — "Read it? I could've written the thing 😏😏😏" — he hits you with this:

i'm afraid there was simply no one else for me after that

[jesse-pinko]

“Stanley wouldn’t actually be that nice to Fiddleford” “Stan wouldn’t treat Fidds any better than Ford did” WRONG u guys have no vision unlike me and I am exploding your dimension to liberate you so you see the stars (yaoi). Stan wouldn’t be nice to Fiddleford… at first. He would be too wrapped up in his guilt over accidentally pushing Ford into the portal to and preoccupied with getting him back, his defenses are already up from years on the run and he would assume that Fiddleford thinks as little of his intelligence as Ford does. He would be snapping and boorish and difficult to work with, but one day when Fidds gets fed up and begins to angrily storm off, wondering aloud why he’s even there, putting so much time and effort into rescuing someone who wouldn’t have to be rescued if he’d just listened to him in the first place, Stan throws himself in front of the door and begs him to stay and help him save his brother and opens up about their relationship in a panic, and the two warily wind up bonding over their respective complicated feelings about this person who they both deeply resent and desperately miss. And Fidds isn’t bad company, for a hippie, and it’s been so long since Stan has had anyone to talk to at all. And then, when Stan had to cook up a last minute scheme to get them out of some Gravity Falls monster shenanigans, Fidds actually called him brilliant. This guy is a riot! Blah blah getting stoned karaoke night as a euphemism etc etc… but in the harsh light of day it all begins to make sense. He’s just a cheap copy of Stanford to Fiddleford, that’s the role he’s played his entire life, and when he tries to call Fiddleford out on this, Fiddleford does call him stupid. And pigheaded. And… courageous? And creative? And caring?? And one-of-a-kind??? And… a good brother????

[lylahammar]

I think a vastly underrated form of anti-capitalism/fascism/discrimination is radical self acceptance. Like just accept being “ugly.” Fuck beauty standards fuck beauty products fuck trends fuck diet culture fuck fitting in fuck “beauty is pain” mindset fuck “healthy things have to taste bad” fuck skin care fuck plastic surgery fuck filters fuck trying to appeal to beauty standards that profit off of your insecurities just exist outside of what the system demands of you. Leave your acne gain weight wear the same clothes forever learn to view what society deems as your “flaws” as an anarchist symbol of power and freedom

[tizeline]

If by a chance - IF - Donnie joined the drax brothers what his outfit would be?

Like... deadass?

Like deadass.

As in he'd literally just steal this particular Megamind outfit, no question about it.

[slow-reader-reads-books]

I find the most interesting difference between Shen Jiu and Shen Yuan isn't "malice" and "kindness" but rather Shen Jiu being a desperate-to-survive sore loser and Shen Yuan being an uncompetitive good sport, and it's interesting to see how their differences kind of flow from those two opposing traits

Both are desperate to survive in their own ways, however I guess you could argue Shen Jiu did everything to secure the life he wanted, meanwhile Shen Yuan idled and idled until fire was put under his ass and he finally had to do something to secure better living standards for himself

You could argue Shen Jiu has a stronger will to survive, but even being alive he didn't seem to enjoy it and be happy all that much. Meanwhile Shen Yuan strives for very little but generally is happy with the bare necessities and choosing to just loudly inflate his complaints about little things instead, which probably endears him to the people around him

[mannyslog]

iconic lesbians

[pentosesuga]

my fav trashy romcom, jodha akbar (2008) <3

[the-music-maniac]

I'm not gonna lie, I think I would become Homophobic™ if I had to coexist in real life with one of MXTX's couples.

No, but seriously, what do you mean you don't like anyone but your partner. What do you mean you're also powerful enough to destroy the world. Keep your love drama and excellency out of my salad, I can't even afford to buy groceries in this bitch. insufferable.

[gideonisms]

This is such a small problem when you compare it to problems anyone else has or even previous problems I personally have had but I am bummed out by the lack of weird too online genderweird dykes in my real life. I have to pretend to be normal so much. Soooooo much. Do you know how many normal sentences I come up with daily? It's so many. And I am like I can't keep doing this by myself. where are my fellow freaks

[indelicateink]

as an american, sam reid’s total inability to hide his contempt for overly fake-chipper american journalists, especially ones who Have Not Done The Assigned Reading know and care about the show, will never not be hilarious and iconic to me

[rowrowronnie]

anyone remember that pyro is a robot headcanon? yeah um erm i also remembered that and also sorta maybe mightve gotten carried away a little bit.. tee hee..

[lara-cairncross]

Let's see

We have a blue snarky speedster who uses portals and is voiced by Ben Schwartz with Leo and Sonic

We have the young tech wiz who uses his tech to fight with a unique body part that he uses to fly with Donnie and Tails

The big, strong red guy who is actually a big sweetheart that takes himself a bit too seriously at times with Raph and Knuckles

So by default, Mikey and Shadow are the same. In this essay I will--💥

AHDHEHFHRH ILY ANON BUT YOU NEED TO DROP THE ESSAY NOW. RIGHT NOW. I WANNA READ IT.

anyway lemme see. i 100% agree with Knuckles/Raph and Leo/Sonic, but Tails is such a weird case in my opinion??? like if we're being honest, he's basically Donnie and Mikey wrapped up in one character. more of Donnie's talent + preferences, but more of Mikey's personality! best of both worlds!

I think if I had to come up with a mirror for Shadow in the Rise universe, it would definitely be Casey??? like-- red and black color scheme, rival who eventually joins the good guys, kinda snarky and standoffish (theyre just unsocialized ok), got manipulated into working with the bad guys initially ??? DUDE THEY EVEN GOT THE RED EYELINER IN COMMON. CMON.

also theyre both gay af but you didnt hear that from me

[geosaurus]

back-seat forensics

[bonesandthebees]

sigh feeling nostalgic for my old fics/the old community these days. I miss it man.