#they're a little r/atheist but like it's fun

[dearhartselfships]

matryoshka siblings for the deviantart tropes! now technically, it was supposed to be a romantic prompt, and it was magnet pose. and to give myself credit, I tried! but um,

[snarltoothed]

Its pathetic how you're trans exclusionary and also bisexual & agender. Do you think that if transphobia continues they're not coming for you next? You think you're safe from being called a freak or a pedophile or from being accused of invading other people's spaces? From legislation and the dominant social paradigm othering you and making your life hell? You think throwing others under the bus will save you? You're a fucking coward and I hope you get a sense of reality.

i totally forgot that you even sent this ask because guilt-tripping from random strangers really doesn’t faze me — sorry!

anyways, umm, it’s pathetic how you’re sending random feminists hate mail over something that is literally not even true! i fully include trans and nonbinary people within my feminism — just not transwomen and nonbinary males because i believe female people of any gender still face challenges, discrimination, and oppression directly related to the sex we were born as!

…which wait, before you tell me intersex people exist, i know that! but intersex disorders are medically sex-specific and binary, and in the extremely rare case that a chromosomal male was born and grew up with entirely female external genitalia (usually as a result of Sweyer syndrome), i’m fully open to nuance when it comes to their inclusion within the radical feminist movement, especially given that the trans/qu**r movement has repeatedly ignored the requests of both individual intersex people and intersex organizations to stop equating the trans and intersex experience. it’s not like they can turn to you guys for any actual understanding or compassion.

in my LGB advocacy, trans people are also not excluded based on their gender identity! the only people excluded from my LGB advocacy are heterosexuals — which yes, i’m sorry, i do live in the real world where sexuality is based on actual physical sex, so yeah… “transbians” and “gay transmascs” are generally excluded (those open to or exclusively T4T aside) on the basis that they do not experience same sex attraction. but if you’re not straight, congratulations! my LGB advocacy is also for you.

the “agender woman” in my bio is also mostly a joke, “agender” more as in “atheist” — i do not subscribe to the belief system of gender. although, if i did, that’s probably still how i would describe myself because even if i thought that innate gender identity was a thing for other people, i don’t have one. i don’t identify with femininity. i do identify with my lived experience of being female. idk how else i would explain that in your community without being scalped, lol. and it’s poking a little bit of fun at my teenage self for actually genuinely telling the more micro-label oriented of my peers that the best i could describe myself was as a “demibisexual agender girl”.

if anything, though, the people standing in my way of being freely truly agender and living as a woman are BOTH conservatives and the trans/qu**r movement, because i really don’t want to have to have an ideological argument with either of you about what the fuck my leg hair means, i don’t want to be assigned a non-woman for having body hair and not being extremely feminine by EITHER of you! you are both supporting a dominant social paradigm which others me and women like me, it’s only the way in which you shame me and make me feel like a freak that differs.

i’m fully aware how the American political parties have lumped very separate issues into the same bills and are practicing other nefarious political schemes to remove womens’, childrens’, and LBG peoples’ rights by using the decrease in public support of the trans/qu**r movement to pass bills and laws that otherwise wouldn’t be passed… because y’all keep supporting fucking pedophiles? maybe stop doing that or if you personally aren’t, tell your buddies that trans people can be horrific criminals, just like any other subset of people, because all individuals are different, and murderers and rapists and pedophiles don’t deserve public support even if they’re trans. the fact that the most vocal of the trans community keep defending and supporting convincted pedophiles, rapists, and other dangerous violent criminals simply on the basis that they are trans is a large part of WHY many of us “cis” LGB people are publicly separating ourselves from the TQ+, we know how bad that shit looks and have historically condemned the members of our own communities who have been revealed to be pedophiles and rapists. not to mention the fact that the heterosexual TQs are like, wildly homophobic.

pretending outright that trans people cannot be violent criminals is something that can and rightfully should be criticized — i would criticize the assertion that any protected minority class status makes a person immune to any sort of violent criminology, or otherwise not deserving of facing consequences for committing violent crime, especially sexual violence against children, including the minority classes i belong to. i’m certainly not against trans people recieving proper legal defense, and i believe trans people deserve the same presumption of innocence as anyone else until proven guilty in a court of law… and while i do not believe males belong in female prisons (as inmates OR staff, tbh), i do believe that prisons in general are in desperate need of reform and that that reform should be considerate of the needs of vulnerable male populations such as transwomen and gay men for safety from other men while also maintaining female-only prisons.

i don’t know what you expect me, a poor & disabled woman living in a northern democrat-controlled state, to do about the shady shit happening in Florida and elsewhere in the American south. i’m not even in a position to vote on anything that could be considered “throwing other people under the bus”. the biggest things i’ve voted for were keeping the state democratic, legalizing weed, and protecting the right to abortion. i’m sooo politically evil and throwing so many people under the bus and totally perpetuating a genocide… which i guess if you’re a conservative you could say about the fetuses, but, since you’re barking up my tree for siding with conservatives, i’m hoping that you’re at least fucking pro-choice.

I’m not trying to be mean here, but you kinda came up in my inbox being mean first… so frankly I think you’re the coward for not thinking independently and for needing to harass women who do, and I hope YOU gain some sense of reality, as well as empathy and nuance.

[automatismoateo]

Fuck Christian Fascism With A Giant Fucking Cactus via /r/atheism

Fuck Christian Fascism With A Giant Fucking Cactus So, certain states are now doing age check laws with your ID to assure you're 18+ before you visit certain porn cites. God. Fucking. Damnit. Why do Christians have to ruin everything that's fun? Why can't these fucking asswipe little bitches mind their own business? I HATE THEIR RELIGION SO FUCKING MUCH. I swear if I ever see an evangelical trying to convert me, let's just say what I'd do to them would violate Reddit's TOS. American Christian Purtianism has completely warped and distorted the pleasure of making love as something "evil" a "sin", or in some cases an "abomination". (That's totally not geocidal language against the LGBT community! Seriously guys!) It has been there like a cancer for so many centuries. The last backlash against that type of thought was the sexual revolution of the 1960s. I think America is long overdue for another one. And they say it's about "protecting the children", and then some of them go ahead and molest children in their own church or even worse. "Protecting the children" is just a dogwhistle to deprive us who are NOT children, to fuck over our basic human rights to expression, bodily autonomy, and being proud and different not to conform to the cis, hetro, white, male, Christian "norm". America needs to wake the fuck up and stop these Christofascists, who think they're god's chosen libido scrooges, making sex look evil. It's a normal human function such as eating, sleeping, urinating, defacating, and breathing. I am reminded of Jello Bifara and his spoken word track "Ban Everything" which is where Jello parodies the thoughts and actions of your typical Christofascist. And he said this, and I think this is what these fascists what to do to us: "And why are we so obsessed to do these things to you? Because, if we can choke off your natural emotions and desires, we can choke the rest of you off too." Thank you for coming to my angry atheist TED Talk. Submitted January 01, 2024 at 09:26PM by ChocolatGelato (From Reddit https://ift.tt/VspWqlm)

[blorbocedes]

ok blorbie gimme 5 headcanons for nico and lewis as... ghosts. they are dead and they are haunting somewhere.

1. There is a... quaint little abandoned house... in Monte Carlo~ that overlooks the hills and the ocean, where lovers go to leave their offerings. Legend says it was inhabited by two star crossed lovers, who, upon realization they could not be together took their lives so they could spend eternity together. Sweets are often left as offerings, and disappear when one looks away. Dogs, instead of growling or sensing some malicious presence, are usually elated and run around.

2. Lewis and Nico would like you to know that is completely blown out of proportion, and no dramatic murder suicide took place. It was a gas leak, carbon monoxide poisoning, they woke up and continued normally and then realized fuck.

3. They were actually broken up when they 😵, so they've diligently redlined Monaco so they don't have to interact with each other. Lewis gets the hills for his morning run, Nico has the harbour where yacht parties happen. If you've spent an evening with an earnest hiker who never seems to run out of breath and all his references are just a little dated (vine and Snapchat) or you've partied with a fun blonde with an accent you can't place and are looking for him later, there was no name on the list -- you just might have seen a ghost.

4. When property developers come to bulldoze the little house on the hill, Lewis and Nico set aside their differences to fucking terrorise them. Like complete horror movie shit. Doors and windows slamming shut, things falling over, seeing a vaguely translucent figure running at you. you gotta do what you gotta do to prevent ugly apartment complex housing. but then after that they immediately go back at being passive aggressive to each other. They both think -- they've only got forever and ever to get together, so why bother?

5. They have an age old debate -- Lewis thinks this proves God is real, Nico thinks the meaninglessness of being ghosts proves there isn't a greater force in the universe. Lewis says this must be hell cause I'm stuck here with you, Nico is like oh so you agree, your god would send you to hell. It's very r/atheist vs r/christianity. And then some teenage lovers sneak in to carve their initials on the side of the wall and makeout, so they pause their living room argument to give them privacy. And they don't know it, but they're patron saints of love in Monaco.

Other ghosts exist. They're just too self obsessed with each other to seek them out or even realize.

[chromochaotic]

there are 100 little things i should be doing, but instead I feel like doing a write up on the books I’ve read this year... mostly so I remember them better, but also bc it might be fun to read later

The list so far (that I remember) (not including ones in progress... like dracula and gideon lmao) (also not including fanfics but man what if):

**12/27: update! adding 4 more (RIP my nice grid)

I'm gonna try and do a positive-negative-positive sandwich with these "reviews", because apparently I'm very picky, ahahaha.

in actual reading order...

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

Thoughts: Read this with a discord bookclub! Which made it a fun read, kind of throwing around our theories about possible backstories before they got revealed, the "limits" of the magic in the book, what we wanted/didn't want to happen. I actually really enjoy non-chronological stories when they're not too convoluted, haha, so that was a treat. Also enjoyed the way the author conveyed all the different settings and time periods.

(vague spoilers in this paragraph) Every once in a while I got a little miffed at how... French the entire vibe was. Like, this will sound/probably is petty, but I don't click with main characters when they're being just like, dolefully beautiful, and how all these love interests seem to be drawn just to Addie's Unique Mega Gorgeous Face and her vague manic pixie air of mystery. I liked her as a character much more in moments like her interactions with Luc, which focused more on her defiance and cleverness. In a way that I swear is related, I remember being a little exasperated at the underlying feeling that romantic love was like the end-all-be-all of existence itself. I get that that's like the whole point, this being an epic romantic story, and romantic in the way that like wistful poems about the French countryside and Moulin Rouge are capital R Romantic. I also don't love Moulin Rouge, though. So it's probably a me problem, haha.

Still, the storytelling was very rich! I liked how lush the emotional moments felt... I also got a kick out of the characters around Henry, like, his friends and family were a mix of quirky and heartfelt that made something about his story get to me a little more than it would have otherwise. Ohhh, and I loved the little visual art "records" printed throughout the book! It always added to the story for me, seeing how they tied in and captured certain feelings. WOO

The House in the Cerulean Sea

Good things! The story is immediately fun and whimsical—this was another read with the discord bookclub, and during our first chat we were all having a really good time talking about the world and the characters that get introduced. The setting is just ridiculously charming.

(spoilers) I know the book is touted for being like, feel-good and lighthearted, and I usually super-enjoy stories like that. It's just that, I feel like it didn't 100% commit to being Cozy Fun Queer Romance when it dipped into having fantasy racism. It might have been one thing if it was just like one or two narrow-minded characters, but the book doesn't really let you forget that systemic fantasy racism is built into their society... This is ofc 100% subjective, I get how a story like this where everything gets wrapped up with a little bit of "oh, phooey on those bigots! cheerio!" could be exactly what we need to read now and then. It just didn't quite strike the balance for the time and mindset I read it in. Also probably didn't help that bc of the bookclub's schedule, there was a looooooong pause in reading in the middle, though!

But again, tons of charming moments, the characters and especially the kids are delightful. My sweet blob son Chauncey sparks infinite joy.

Myths to Live By

So this was an odd one. Backstory: I was one of those people who read The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell and sort of had my world rocked by it, like, went quickly from a cynical atheist to being like "oh shit religion might be good, actually." I had a vague sense while reading that book that like, yeah, sure, the things he was saying were tinged with some sexism and euro-centric vibes etc... But I was still pretty pleased to pick up this Myths to Live By book in a thrift store for like a buck.

Halfway through the book, I'm bopping around on tumblr and finally stumble upon The Discourse (tbh it's not that bad I'm just being dramatic) about Campbell. Like, the way I summed it up to friends was that apparently he's regarded in the academic field of comparative religion the way Freud is in psychology—a big name, probably sparked a lot of people's interest in the subject, but the ideas he spreads are super out of date/inaccurate/oversimplified, especially when it comes to non-western culture. So...

Idk, it was still an interesting read, and probably a good exercise for me in trying to think a little more abstractly. And he still somehow makes me appreciate the significance of rituals and how make-believe stuff can actually hold societies together... I dog-eared a handful of pages (mostly in the first half before my online digging made me kind of disenchanted ahaha), and the last one is on this page putting forward the idea that as humans, "we are a natural product of this earth... If we are intelligent beings, it must be that we are the fruits of an intelligent earth" and this stuff that of course isn't new, but still comforting, like not thinking of man as separate from nature but a distilled-and-connected bit of a big, amazing, living universe.

House of Leaves

Weird!!! Weird book!!!!! Very novel!!!!! Which I liked! okay it's getting a little late which is probably not the best time to type this out, but overall I had a good time with this book. The weird formatting and framing of the story as a movie within an academic analysis within a story and presented as the very book you're holding—nice! The little puzzles to figure out along the way that add extra meaning that you can dig into if you so choose—nice! And ooo the horror, the horror of the house was very fun for me, as someone who enjoys more psychological kinds of horror.

There were parts of the book that were... trying, to read. But I think they were sort of meant to be that way? I don't know, some of Johnny's parts of narration were just so disgusting and off-putting I had to skim/skip them, but I feel like somewhere on a forum someone is arguing that that's a perfectly valid way to read the book. I was also pretty bummed out by like... which characters don't make it out of the story. That's a way I'm not suited for horror stories, but, like these two felt especially personal. Ahhh, well.

But yeah! Very funky, and I absolutely vibe with the final message that the book lands on. I'm also blown away, like everyone else is, by how much research and super-detailed knowledge went into this book to make its sticky spiderweb of complexity really land.

Klaus: The Art of the Movie

heeheeheeheehee okay this was just a fun thing I also picked up at the thrift store, but I love a good art book and the movie is gorgeous all on its own. The way they animated it is super unique—it's 2D made to look 3D, and the art book goes into some good detail about how they accomplished that thanks to new animation tech and stuff. I've always kind of thought 2D animation is more appealing than 3D animation, and this is going off on a tangent, but I will say the book and the commentary in it made me feel Valid.

I don't think there are any downsides to this book?? Unless like, idk, I guess some of the full-page spreads are a little pixelated in print, lmao. and i feel like i have to, as a jew, say it should probably skeeve me out a little more how a story about The Big Christian Holiday is constantly portrayed as "universal". But also it's! gorgeous!! look at this

The book did a great job helping me understand/appreciate how every place and character was designed to be Distinct but also flexible—like, a lot of the locations had to go from Scary to Charming while still looking like the same place, and it was cool seeing the tricks they used to do it.

The Fruitful City

I just finished this tonight! Kind of an odd one, I picked it up at this anarchist bookstore that made me feel like a big poser on a trip to Philly. I feel like I don't have as much to say about it since it's nonfiction, haha. But, yeah, it helped me understand the ins and outs of what growing fruit in the middle of a city looks like. I feel like it makes everything seem a little more possible, like, the author wants people to be less afraid to go out into the world and harvest in a hands on way.

It was a little dry at times for me, but I think my attention span has really suffered since.......... a while ago, haha.

Overall, it was a nice thing to read. There were some really lovely descriptions of people interacting with their communities via shared resources, and small, interesting bits of immigrant history. I have zero cooking skills whatsoever, but it made me think that like, maybe, mayyyyybe, I might attempt to make a jam or something next year.

OKAY i should sleep, this was fun, maybe I'll update it when I finish my next book, who knows! more!!

Gideon the Ninth

Positives: what hasn't already been said! I guess, first off, I love the cast of characters & the whole setting. Like, even though the world of TLT was pretty unusual, the characters feel so grounded and vibrant—they jump off the page through dialogue and things Gideon observes (or fails to observe) about them, and I either love to love them or love to hate 'em, there's no middle sliders! And I loved exploring Canaan House along with the story! The book wouldn't be the same without the haunting presence of its backdrop, this sense of decaying grandeur and old tragedies described so beautifully, all around.

I think I only have a few nitpicks... One would be, as fun as "show, don't tell" was in this book��honestly, I way prefer how this book introduced its history and magic system and everything compared to the one I'm reading rn, which just kind of dumped exposition at me—it was a little overwhelming at the start! I honestly thought I'd accidentally bought the 2nd book in the series when I saw so much odd jargon and strange, offhand details in the first few paragraphs. I was also a little thrown by how suddenly it felt like some of the character dynamics changed, but that might have been a symptom of me binge-reading and then having to take breaks bc of life now and then haha.

So, yes, overall, really enjoyed it! I think the book was very hyped-up for me and it mostly lived up to expectations... More than anything, love Gideon!! Love this beautiful herbo who, by virtue of being a gold-hearted meme-ing brick house, flexes her way into all sorts of secrets and everyone's hearts. (also love Cam and Pal, would die for them. also magnus. maybe ianthe, for sure corona. yep.)

Dracula

lmao guess who did Dracula Daily... This review might be more of that whole experience, which was pretty fun! I definitely fell behind for a while, but I had a chance to catch up, and at that point things were getting wet and wild. I think what I enjoyed most of all was, as some post somewhere on this site points out, the story is pretty touching when you view it as a community of people trying to look out for each other vs. the parasite of self-interest.

Again, like everyone pointed out, there's all the dated things about the book... The asylum-related parts were no fun, and god the way working class people and roma are portrayed vs. the honorable, constantly-bribing-people main cast is just, nah!

But still, for a book this old, it had its surprises! I loved some of the more romantic descriptions of little seaside villages and eerie mountain roads... And the high stakes (haha) of the story were really uniquely explored—reading it along with The Internet helped me get way more destroyed by Jonathan's promise to follow wherever Mina goes, even if it damns him. And the line about Mina's mark at the very end, as the sun rose? No spoilers but I got teary.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief

I listened to this as an audiobook, since I'd never read it and I've seen posts about a new show coming out. The series has always seemed interesting! And it was a fun listen, very whimsical, plus I have a soft spot for summer camp settings.

I felt a little old to be getting into it now, haha—I kept wanting more nuance in certain characters and themes, which isn't a fault of the book considering the intended audience!

Overall, I think the writing did a great job capturing a relatable, exciting story for young teens, plus it's very cool how the author worked to make diversity a sticking point both when he first wrote it and, from what I hear, to this day. There's a lot of joy packed into this adventure, and I'll probably get around to listening to the rest of the series next year.

Harrow the Ninth

First off, I just finished this one, and... I liked it more than book 1! I enjoyed them both, but this one feels like the storytelling kicked into overdrive. Once again, the characters leapt off the page—the number of times I wheezed over lines from Ianthe or John, or got gut-punched by [redacted] and [redacted] and [super redacted]. More than anything, I feel like the mystery(/ies?) unfolding in this story were more engaging than before, where instead of just clinging to the story without a chance of prediction, the reader has more of a chance to puzzle things out along the way (and then still be surprised).

The rollercoaster ending was a page-turner, but there was one point that I think really toed the line of being just plain convoluted, haha. I also remember reading things and thinking "I know if I reread this series one day, this line would probably make me lose my mind, but right now it's just absolute nonsense." Which... I just felt like documenting! I don't know if it's a bad thing, like, I get that part of the fun is squeezing as many clues out of the context as you can, but there certainly is a lot of context-squeezing going on.

Anyway, this was definitely one of my favorite reads of the year! The way the writing plays around with framing—the PAYOFF!!! The payoff of the 2nd person voice!!!!! There's one scene, you'll know what I'm talking about, where the perspective does something and suddenly all these lenses shift into focus and I went wild. I need to draw something for it. My god. I can't rehash all the great things about the series, I guess, but I love it! It's so much fun! There's a stussy! There's a makeout with god! what more can you want!