#which is an even worse look if you're. yknow. actually in the community

[lurkiestvoid]

rambleramble bullshit time but I really dislike discussing politics in terms of idk traditionalist party/affiliation labels, mostly because doing so is effectively useless and conveys net zero information. "Party plattorms" even are useless, as 1) modern life and sociopolitical management is too complex to summarize into 3-12+ "Problems" and "Solutions" and 2) they're not even universal in their own parties.

Individuals, including elected officials, have a wide range of opinions on a wide range of issues, with a wide range of actual knowledge and/or lived experience on a given subject. I've met echo-chamber Christian Dems who were accidentally more leftist than the average college student, and "leftists" who were accidentally more christofascist than my 'blue line' magat neighbors. It's all arbitrary.

On a world scale, labels and platforms and parties are ... MUCH more varied for the average layperson to remember and discuss. A "blue" party is "liberal" in one country, but in other countries "liberals" are "red" or what we would instead consider "conservatives". It is, again, all arbitrary.

I like "progressive" and "regressive" not as Party Affiliations or Labels or Party Platforms, but simply as positions on an issue. Does the solution want to further disenfranchise, discriminate, restrict, regress, oppress the people? Regressive position. Almost always denies scientific data, modern science, and/or historical fact in favor of religion, bias, punishment, and reward. Does the solution take real data and people into consideration, seek to address inequity and access, consider historical precedent and pattern, and welcome evolution of ideas? Progressive position. Simple as.

People can have and be both. It's not a contest, it's not a moral signifier.

But I very much want my elected representatives to have as many Progressive views as possible, not as any kind of valuation other than that we are in dire need of as much Progress across the board as we can possibly scramble together.

My allies? I don't give a shit anymore what their "politics" are. I am TOO STUCK, TOO DEEP, in TOO "RED" territory to have that privilege, because I cannot "build community" anywhere other than where I am, and so I have to work with what I've got. So many of these "red" neighbors and community members are actually very open to "blue" ideas, if you simply avoid using "blue" terms.

It's all. Fucking. Arbitrary. Let the ideas flow, let the conversations happen, sidestep the flawed terminologies and outdated concepts and just fucking talk to each other, or at least allow others to do so without fucking excommunicating them for it.

[trickstarbrave]

i hate when ppl dont understand how intertwined all the fucked up systems of capitalism are. they present it as "take away [x] and things will work better!" when that damn well will not fix it. or they dont even realize the problem is actually capitalism not some other thing they have been fixated on

like. veganism argument: "we subsidize grains to feed livestock. if we stopped feeding livestock, we would have more food for everyone! the problem is livestock are eating too much of grains we could be eating"

a lot of the corn they are eating are byproducts of the ethanol industry. we are not in fact just growing huge fields of grains and refusing to eat them bc we can feed cows it instead. that would be way too costly. "subsidies" wouldn't cover it. at no point was the corn being grown for human consumption. most of the corn in the US is grown for biofuel. without livestock, we would not have MORE food to eat, we'd have a lot of leftover slop we have to toss out to slowly degrade in landfills.

its not the most healthy option to pump them full of byproducts. they should be allowed to forage and walk. but the problem is much more complex than than just "get rid of the cows to make more food for people!!" the cows eating the byproducts is whats making more food for people. not less. you can't just look at "grain products" and decide all of those were fit for human consumption. most of the stuff we feed farm animals is NOT fit for human consumption. for better or for worse.

and this is only one problem. some are relatively easy solutions (once all of the, yknow, capitalist incentive is removed) like how we have more houses than homeless people. just give people houses. except we should also look at: where are these houses being built, are they being built for quality and to last? because the answer is: they are built mostly in suburbs for cheap with lazy building standards and poor quality materials. we are tearing down homes with better bones and foundations for cheap, paper thin wood, new construction houses when many of them can be saved. these are homes far away from doctors and jobs that you actually need a car to get around to important places, so many people who don't have reliable transportation will still have many problems once settled in. to create more sustainable, walk-able communities and to have better public transportation we are still gonna need to tear a bunch of these down and rebuild communities, which is going to be a daunting task too.

food insecurity: okay we'll just give people food! except they might not have reliable ways to cook that food either. a lot of people who are food insecure grew up food insecure. they grew up in food deserts where microwave self stable meals were the norm. they might not have pots and pans or know how to find a recipe or make one themselves. many are chronically ill or disabled and don't have a lot of time and energy to cook. many people still think its better to give a food bank 10 cans of green beans that you forgot about and don't plan to use in donations rather than just giving the food bank 30 bucks.

idk. i dont really have an answer i suppose. i just wanted to complain about how messy and complicated these problems are. and i think if you're a serious activist you are going to need better, long term plans and big picture perspectives. these problems can seem incredibly easy to tackle on the surface to lots of online activists but are very complex issues to actually dismantle and combat. we can't just keep complaining and hope society collapses so we can rebuild from scratch. there is no after the revolution when everything will be good and perfect. no after the end of the world to pick ourselves up and make a utopia from the ashes. we gotta figure out the problem and start untangling it and deal with the first steps NOW. start with realistic goals. contacting local government. creating bettering, temporary solutions that are better than what we have now. disrupt the system bit by bit. get other ppl in on it. the world we wanna live in will not come to us overnight. we gotta build it brick by brick.

capitalism counts on it being too daunting of a task. they count on ppl just complaining and wishing it was better to sell them the solution without any real change. but real change has to come from small shit first. maybe start a community garden if you want a more sustainable community. make your own garden if you have the ability. collect rain water (YES ITS LEGAL IN ALL 50 STATES just heavily regulated in some. dont tell me its illegal in the US). create alternatives for companies you boycott. tell your local representative you want public transport and ask how to get it and rally your community for it enough that they have to bother ppl higher than them and actively have to start considering it. do ride shares. help out food banks with real stuff they ask for. look around your community for small problems you can address and find solutions.

[aviad1b]

"יש סיפור על אדם בשם חוני"

Every time I feel lost again, I find myself typing out these words. Sometimes, it'll be in Hebrew. Sometimes it'll be in English.

But always returning to this story, always viewing it from yet another angle and interpretation.

למה?

That... isn't really much of a question, actually. I already know the answer.

I made this account as a part of a community. A fanbase. A fanbase of a story that I felt like brought me back to childhood.

I felt that little me raise up once again, and I wanted to do justice to that little me. I wanted to re-do it. I wanted to recover again but this time do it the right way, this time I would do it the Right Way ™ and

and

.

It only makes sense that when it ended the way it did, I turned back to the story which that very same little me used to look up to.

This reference will not make much sense unless the reader knows what I'm referring to, but before all of this, I told myself that Honi was my Iccarrus. And I wasn't lying, I used to be OBSESSED with that character. I still am.

So.

There's a story of a man named Honi, who lived in the Hashmonean kingdom during the time of Zugot.

You read that last word wrong btw. The emphasis is supposed to be on the GOT, not the ZU.

Oh, and Hashmonean isn't pronounced like that, the H is supposed to be guttural.

Yeah, I suppose that's one way to do it, that's how most people do nowadays, but that's still not quite it, it's originally even more guttural. Yknow, like the Arabic guttural H? The one without a diacritical dot?

Oh I'm not making sense with this. Well, just know that most people read it the way that Google Translate does, but it's still mot quite right, the right sound is somewhat lost due to Roman colonization, second exile, etc etc etc.

Yeah, the Roman Empire ™ which Western culture likes to glorify so much.

Wow, sorry.

Where was I again?

Oh right.

There's a story of a man named Honi, who lived in the Hashmonean kingdom during the time of Zugot.

Zugot means "pairs" btw. It was a period of time in which the Jewish people typically had two leaders at a time (the Nassi and the head of the Sanhedrin). So I say "the Hashmonean kingdom" but actually the whole monarchy system wasn't at this point as it was in the past and-

"Stop referring to your religeon as a nation."

But it is a nation. It was a nation. I am secular and Jewish, Judaism is an ethnoreligeon, it's-

"So you support killing babies is what you're saying."

What? NO! When did I ever say that? I only tried to say that-

"You're using youre white privilege to-"

I'm not even white!

"You are brainwashed, you were literally calling against freedom-"

I wasn't! I WAS FUCKING TRAUMATIZED! Can you blame me? Can you blame me for getting triggered by the same motto that I've only ever seen in the context of death and murder and r*pe, specifically after seeing so many people that I used to know be directly effected in the worst ways possible, and and

You say that I am brainwashed but I only started fearing this phrase after being online, I only started having these horrible conotation by being expose to anything that is OUTSIDE of Israel, YOU have no idea how things work here, YOU only make things worse, YOU are making the only people with the power to DO something BACK AWAY, I see it happening, I see it happening every single day, you won't fix anything like this, you're only

Who is you?

Just

i don't know.

All I know is I keep being sickened by people using "pro life" as an excuse to make things worse,

and that you all are a part of that mold.

One's life is not kept safe by taking another, and I'm tired of people pretending it is.

It isn't your fault.

But it isn't mine either.

I would not have reacted the way that I did if I wasn't

yknow what

I'm done apologizing.

Let me take it from the top

There is a story of a man named Honi, who lived in Eretz Yisrael during the time of Zugot.

He cared for his people and their response was a Herem ("boycott"?)

Untill one other person decided he's fine.

And personally?

I think that's one hell of a circle

and I probably would

just stay inside.

For I no longer believe that a rainbow's promise is forever.

And if that's one too many Jewish references for you to understand,

then think twice

before ever accusing me of stealing culture again.

אנו העם העברי

[txttletale]

i mean i'm a communist and i don't think that teen celebrities should exist. so my response to the entire first four paragraphs is, yeah, i think all that stuff is unqualifiedly bad and shouldn't exist either.

anyways i suppose i could have been clearer -- when i made this post i was specifically thinking about like minecraft youtubers and shit where i think that the 'they don't have to see it if they don't want to' thing doesn't hold up. for a start, unlike 'real' celebrity, internet celebrity doesn't come with any of the barriers that separate people from their fans. internet celebrities don't (until they burst past a certain monetary barrier and become much like traditional entertainment celebrities) have agents or social media teams. and even real bona fide celebrities who do have these sorts of things can find their lives affected for the worse by this stuff (sorry for linking the sun).

and not only does that barrier not exist, but 'internet celebrities' are actually, like, obliged to exist in their own fan spaces and engage with their fans. this is what twitch is built on from the ground up, this is the bread and butter of building a brand as an influencer. so not only are these people not insulated from having to even think about this shit in a way that real celebrities aren't (e.g. margo robbie and henry cavill are never going to have to look at reddit posts about themselves!) -- they're obligated to engage on some level with the spaces in which this kind of stuff is made. Being On The Computer can lead to some real overestimation of what kind of social prestige or power actually comes with notoriety -- over what actual distance exists between a 'celebrity' and their fans. i think a lot of what you're saying applies in some sense to yknow the archetypal multimillionaire gated community Celebrity--but the weird and obsessive treatment those people get has been democratized by the internet and now almost anybody--including extremely online people enmeshed with their own communities!--can be on the receiving end of it

the fluffiest most 'wholesome' fic about a real living human teenager with a high likelihood of seeing it is 100 times more harmful and ethically fucked than the nastiest most taboo thing you can imagine being written about fictional teens and i wish people would talk about that more tbh

[crystu-cii]

XDD

I f e e l that pain in my soul-- my older sister uses cologne sometimes and it is sO STRONG AND WILL NOT STAY CONFINED TO HER ROOM-- AMD SOMETIMES SHED DO IT IN THE DOORWAY LIKE HELLO-- XDD

YEAH WH GET SOME SLEEP LEAVE THE STAYING UP TO US-- XDD

YES BABY JAIL, INTO THE UPSIDE DOWN LAUNDRY BASKET YOU KNIFE-WIELDING HEATHEN-- XDD oms XDD well I don't know them but I love them- YESSS THEYRE SO FLUFFY-- I'm actually curious what images pop up first imma check-- FLUFFY PUPPIES-- we've actually never owned ones that fluffy(those actually look more similar to shetland sheepdogs than the shelties we've had so far?? Very similar/similar enough where if someone doesn't know a sheltie we mention shetland sheepdogs), our current one is a purebred that we got for free(she was being given away bc her family never came back for her and the lady taking care of her couldn't afford the time to take care of a second dog long-term think) and she's got pretty short fur in comparison- still fluffy enough, but not quite so long of fur-- she's a blue merle(absolutely gorgeous fur, she's like 8 now with a lot of health problems but she's super loving still 💕💞) anyways about the fur, so long as you brush regularly you should mitigate most of that, and it mostly collects in corners- but like.. be prepared to eat and wear dog fur for the rest of your life-- (actually there's a thing called a fur zapper we bought recent that you put in with your clothes when you wash/dry them(I think it's dry but idk??) that's supposed to get a lot of hair off your clothes in that process? Also lint rollers are your best friend--) AND roombas are really helpful(we bought a knockoff one and rarely have to sweep ever so 👀) XDD WHEEZE I can't even imagine what you did-- but like you could ask for a budgie/parakeet /hj I mean, they aren't very expensive (actually they're pretty cheap) but they're very loud, need a lot of attention(especially if you want them to bond to you!) and you need to research into them a lot to make sure you're doing things right-- loads of vids online!! Loads of websites too!!! I'd know I have one- JUST A WARNING, FEATHERS AND SEED HULLS GET ALL OVER YOUR FLOOR XD p l u s like you have a friend who knows stuff about birbs :3 anyways ENOUGH RAMBLING FROM ME WOW THAT GOT LONG--

💕💕 I feel that XD OMS-- I WISH-- WHAT A D R E A M - s n a k - Awww but what a mood XD

XDDD oms YES-- EXACTLY-- XDDDD another good thing you should try eventually is SWEET POTATO CASSEROLE WHICH IS APPARENTLY DELICIOUS??? I TRIED IT FOR THE FIRST TIME(AT LEAST IN A WHILE) TODAY AND IT WAS SO FUCKIN TASTY????

H E A THEN-- XDD how cool of them to try tho :3 whEEZE Y 'A LL-- XDD

WHEEZE I SUCK WITH INSTRUMENTS SOOOO-- DAMN THA'S SOME BAD LUCK MY DUDE-- MAYBE YOU'RE CURSED DAMN-- oms wOWW--

Yesss-- ooh I've never played 👀 seen some stuff but never played-- (see: my computer sucks XD) I h a v e played Portal 1 and it is SO GOOD and SO SHORT and I WISH I HAD GOTTEN PORTAL 2 INSTEAD BUT THATS OKAY CRIES-- YESSSS THE SONGS SLAP--- ALSO THERE ARE ACTUALLY TWO WHOLE MORE CANON(PROBABLY KINDA MAYBE NOT?? IDK) SONGS, ONE FROM A LEG DIMENSIONS GAME("You Wouldn't Know") AND ONE THAT WAS CUT FROM PORT TWO("Don't Say Goodbye"(Harry101UK made an edit to make it Glados' voice!!)) THERE ARE ALSO A BUNCH OF GOOD FAN SONGS SO YEAH-- ALSO NOT TO BE A SIMP BUT GLADOS' VOICE? PERFECTION. I LOVE HER. ALSO I COULD LITERALLY DETAIL THE PORTAL LORE I AM INCREDIBLY EMOTIONALLY INVESTED IN THIS GAME-- ALSO THERES A CLIP THAT SOMEONE MADE USING A (VERY GOOD) GLADOS TTS TO HAVE GLADOS SAY TRANS RIGHTS AND ENBY RIGHTS AND IF I FIND IT AGAIN ILL SEND IT TO YOU-- YOU COULD PROBABLY FIND IT IF YOU LOOM UP GLADOS SAYS TRANS RIGHTS? IT HAS A VIDEO WITH TRANS FLAG COMPANION CUBES ACCOMPANYING IT-- ALSO YES THE PORT MODS(/ADD-ONS? MAYBE? THEY'RE COMMUNITY MADE I THINK BUT IDK ALL I KNOW IS THAT THEYRE COOL AF--) (also I apologize for all the screaming? XD it's like, four am and I was talking about portal so.. whoops?)

Right like wth???? I???? Okay but like December to February babies just fuckin DONT EXIST IN THIS GEN OR SOMETHIN-- CAUSE I FIND N O N E -- Maybe there are more December babies but there are definitely like NO January to February babies it is So Weird--

NEJFQOBGKW WOWW d an g like-p l e a se s t op over sp r aying-- xD and LEGITTTT LIKE- THAT WAS M Y ROLE TO STAY UP LATE- XDD

WHEHEHEZE- LAUNDRY BASKET TIME- G E T I N XDD anD YESS- any doggo is just such a cute doggo 😭💞💞 but for me- fLUFFY ONES ARE WHERE ITS A T- and ohhhh i see- FOR FREE?? W H A T A S T E A L XDD but awwww the poor doggg at least she's with you now ! ;0;; 💞💞😭 aaw such a lovable puppup 😭😭💞 and oHHH i see :00 but oh no- xD i also have a friend that has two dogs and whenever he would give me gifts- there would be dog hair on them no matter what- XDD and ooOhhh those sound really helpful! omg- i swear i dont have to have a pet for the need of a roomba- i already shed so much hair myself its so crazy-- xDD and oH MAN loud animals are really gon get my mom fired up- and OO birds just look so cuteee i always fantasize of having one- but then again- with the noise and all xD the more i think about it i dont think we are prepared to have a pet at all xD but i still dream of at least having one pet in my lifetime!

and OO that sounds awesome!! i have no clue if i even tried casserole before- man- sometimes i just eat food without even knowing wth it is XDDD but THAT SOUNDS so gooodddd :O

and LEGITT LIKE- TF IS HAPPENING WITH MY SCHOOL LIFE- XDD and oh my god- IT GETS WORSE- that year there was a FREAKINGG FIREEEEEEE- it wasnt that dangerous thank god- but it had to get a whole ass room renovated because of it- and guess what room it was- THE ORCHESTRA ROOM- AND GUESS WHAT M A D E I T W OR SE- that year- it was the first time the school replaced those 10+ year old instruments with new ones- NOW THEYRE B U R N T- and mind you that the school's budget isnt so- gr e a t- like oh my god i am still so bewildered over HOW MUCH chaos HAPPENED that year- and i thought that year was gon be the year- yknow? like UGH

and OHH MANN playing portal sounds awesome! but i just dont think the game would be worth my money cause i know the plot- and even with the mods and all my brain would be broken as i would possibly have no clue what to do- xDDD

and HOOOO MANNN game fan songs are just so AWESOMEEE- and those sound pretty cool! :OO and HOLY SHIT FUCK YEAH- GLADOS SAYS TRANS AND ENBY RIGHTS Y A LL- now im gonna look that up and let my ears be blessed by such words- XDDD and DONT WORRY BOUT SCREAMING ALOT- i scream a whole dam lot too XDD

and LEGITTT- finding someone's b-day in january and feb is so rare all of a sudden like wh a t - XDD

[faemytho]

I still don't fully understand neo-pronuons but you're cool and I'm not an asshole so I respect you and just want to say that I apologize in advance if I ever forget to use them

aww? you're sweet anon

dont worry about it, u know? neopronouns are hard for some people to grasp at first - i wasnt too keen on them myself a few years ago!

i grew up in a very conservative (not to mention catholic) household in america, which means i used to have all this ingrained internalized homophobia and transphobia. im really lucky i was able to be introduced to lgbtq+ labels without having them forced on me - they were just there, so i went and looked a lot of stuff up. im also gonna admit that my partner discovering their own identity alongside me was also what prompted me to look into a lot of queer labels and realize that i had all this internalized stuff i had to get rid of

i dont talk about it much, but i used to be pretty bad about all this. even today i have to actively look at my words and process what im saying about the community so i can make sure its actually me saying it and not what was ingrained in me from childhood. i think me accepting the use of neopronouns and creating my own set was the last step i had to take to fully get rid of my internalized transphobia

and im a better person today because i made that change. i'd rather i learned from it than being shoved away in an unhappy box and and into an identity i wasnt - im so happy i was given the chance to change rather than being screamed at by gatekeepers for not understanding. i never would have changed then, and id be in a much worse place if that had happened.

hfjsjff i tend to get off topic a lot dont i

the point im trying to make is, it's okay to fail. it's okay to make mistakes - as long as you're trying to learn from them and be better - like me with my ingrained phobias, thanks christianity.

that's why i dont really mind much if someone accidentally gets my pronouns wrong. if you're doing it on purpose thats a different story, but if it's genuinely an accident, i wont care. we're all human, yknow? we make mistakes. what matters is what we choose to do with those mistakes, and how we move forward from them.