i visited an old cathedral overseas, and on the walls were huge stone plaques.
Someone put up a plaque to memorialize his wife in 1788. His wife was 22. The plaque said she succumbed to fever.
Get vaccinated. Take antipyretics. Use mosquito repellents and nets. Take every measure modern medicine has available to protect yourself, for all the people before you who weren't so lucky.
We get this discourse from time to time about how oh, people didn't actually have lives that were that much shorter in the past, they mostly had adult life expectancies of 60+ years total, not 35-40, the latter of which is just the product of statistical distortions pertaining to youth mortality.
And that's basically true (if sometimes a bit exaggerated), but it does seem like a good opportunity to reflect on just how many dead kids it takes to reduce average life expectancy by a quarter century.
alright alright I know no one likes reblogging polls, but please at least like the darn thing so the algorithm might send it to for you pages
Which non-Kermit Muppet do you think would make the best author? What would they write?
Gonzo.
The Complete Works of Charles Dickens.
Historians going places like Blorbo From My Career Was Here 🥺
pls reblog for sample size etc
follow for more occasional useless polls :)
Ok but the lighter parts of the statues in the tactile room where blind people touch them the most often, that's where they made the art better
favorite films → return of the king (2003)
end? no, the journey doesn’t end here.
genuinely one of the saddest parts of this new era of the internet is how hard it is to rick roll someone now. with people's attention spans shortening so much, they wouldn't even get through the first few bait seconds before clicking off the video. like i saw a comment that ended with "btw i made all of this up" and the replies kept treating it so seriously because none of them finished the entire 4 sentence comment. and We're no strangers to love You know the rules and so do I (do I) A full commitment's what I'm thinking of You wouldn't get this from any other guy I just wanna tell you how I'm feeling Gotta make you understand Never gonna give you up Never gonna let you down Never gonna run around and desert you Never gonna make you cry Never gonna say goodbye Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you
So if you follow me (and aren't just stopping by because you saw one of my funney viralposts), you probably know that I've been writing a bunch of fanfiction for Stranger Things, which is set in rural Indiana in the early- to mid-eighties. I've been working on an AU where (among other things) Robin, a character confirmed queer in canon, gets integrated into a friend group made up of a number of main characters. And I got a comment that has been following me around in the back of my mind for a while. Amidst fairly usual talk about the show and the AU and what happens next, the commenter asked, apparently in genuine confusion, "why wouldn't Robin just come out to the rest of the group yet? They would be okay with it."
I did kind of assume, for a second or two, that this was a classic case of somebody confusing what the character knows with what the author/audience knows. But the more I think about it, the more I feel like it embodies a real generational shift in thinking that I hadn't even managed to fully comprehend until this comment threw it into sharp perspective.
Because, my knee-jerk reaction was to reply to the comment, "She hasn't come out to these people she's only sort-of known for less than a year because it's rural Indiana. In the nineteen-eighties." and let that speak for itself. Because for me and my peers, that would speak for itself. That would be an easy and obvious leap of logic. Because I grew up in a world where you assumed, until proven otherwise, that the general society and everyone around you was homophobic. That it was unsafe to be known to be queer, and to deliberately out yourself required intention and forethought and courage, because you would get negative reactions and you had to be prepared for the fallout. Not from everybody! There were always exceptions! But they were exceptions. And this wasn't something you consciously decided, it wasn't an individual choice, it wasn't an individual response to trauma, it wasn't individual. It was everybody. It was baked in, and you didn't question it because it was so inherently, demonstrably obvious. It was Just The Way The World Is. Everybody can safely be assumed to be homophobic until proven otherwise.
And what this comment really clarified for me, but I've seen in a million tiny clashing assumptions and disconnects and confusions I've run into with The Kids These Days, is that a lot of them have grown up into a world that is...the opposite. There are a lot of queer kids out there who are assuming, by default, that everybody is not homophobic, until proven otherwise. And by and large, the world is not punishing them harshly for making that assumption, the way it once would have.
The whole entire world I knew changed, somehow, very slowly and then all at once. And yes, it does make me feel like a complete space alien just arrived to Earth some days. But also, it makes me feel very hopeful. This is what we wanted for ourselves when we were young and raw and angrily shoving ourselves in everyone's faces to dare them to prove themselves the exception, and this is what I want for The Kids These Days.
(But also please, please, Kids These Days, do try to remember that it has only been this way since extremely recently, and no it is not crazy or pathetic or irrational or whatever to still want to protect yourself and be choosy about who you share important parts of yourself with.)
There is an additional layer to this thought, that only occurred to me this morning: it wasn't just queer people making this assumption that everybody was homophobic until proven otherwise. It was everybody. Which meant that homophobes were really, really comfortable with loudly and publicly sharing their views, because they assumed they were always in company that shared those views. And they tended to, as a rule, face far, far fewer social consequences for that than people did for existing and being known to be queer. I've seen commentary on a gifset of Anita Bryant (famous homophobic crusader) getting pied in the face on live national television that basically said the same thing: the moment the pie hit her proved to an audience of millions that, not only was that not always the case, but that the queer person you professed to hate might be in the room with you.
The general shift from social sanctioning of explicit, say-the-quiet-part-out-loud homophobia to it being widely regarded as kind of cringe and shameful has been due to a long, violent, constant, concerted effort on the part of queer people and those who love us. And I can never, ever take it for granted. I hope you won't either.
We can't take it for granted, but I hope "the kids" can.
While I appreciate your sentiment, it's actually the reason I made this post.
It's an incredible thing to think that queer kids can grow up in an environment where they can expect acceptance, and only be shocked and horrified when they don't get it. But it's downright dangerous for them - for anyone - to take that for granted. Same, I would say, for any kind of progress. It's dangerous to assume that things only ever improve with time, and it's dangerous not to understand that it wasn't always that way, that it took struggle and effort to achieve it, and - most importantly - that it will continue to take struggle and effort to maintain it.
We're already seeing the effects of this. From the James Somerton 'marriage equality was just the boring assimilationist gays who didn't get killed by AIDS because they were loser virgins, trying to play pretend as straight' horseshit getting passed around as gospel, to the drag bans, 'don't say gay' bills, transgender care bans, etc, there's backlash and pushback happening all over from both inside and outside the house. And when people's assumption is 'well that's just a few assholes, and they can't win, because it's normal and fine to be queer and everybody's cool with it and always has been'...it's easy to get complacent.
I also want kids to be able to grow up expecting that they'll be treated with respect and kindness. But I think it's dangerous to forget our history, and especially dangerous to take our progress for granted.
When I was a teenager in the late 90s, I had a friend in my friend group who everyone who ever met him assumed was gay. Like, he was just Like That. And all of us who were friends with him were super pro-gay-rights (many of us not yet aware we were queer too). And we all would talk to each other like "has he told you he's gay?" and question why he wouldn't be upfront with us about it.
One of my friends once just asked him straight up, in a fairly confidential time and place and he denied it. So okay, we left it alone. We thought maybe he just hadn't accepted it about himself yet.
And well when we were in college I talked to one of my friends from that group and she mentioned not only was this friend out now, but he had been actively sleeping with guys in high school (and she only found out in retrospect.)
I mentioned this once to a gay male friend of mine in college, like "why wouldn't he have just admitted it to us, his friends, who were totally and completely accepting and fine with it and loud about that fact?"
And my friend just shrugged and said "The closet's a weird place."
And ever since I've repeated that countless times. The closet is a weird place. Even now, if you're closeted or not ready to be out, it's a weird head trip and cannot be logiced.
The further back into the past the more the closet was a necessary place people had to live in. Until they can move away from their parents, until they move to a city, until they find the right environment, maybe forever depending on time/place/their job. And trying to explain why people in the closet reveal or hide certain things...IDK, the closet is a weird place.
listen up chucklefucks, i just gotta say. I'm not defending zir, but I'm sad zie deactivated. Like, i get that trauma lasts a long time and the good stuff is maybe easy to forget?? so maybe it's just like that. And my beloved mutual @/pompeyspuppygirl made a post about zir clout chasing behavior, which is pretty shitty behavior if it's true (and if we're canceling someone it had better be pretty severe). anyways now that zie's gone pompeyspuppygirl said it was okay to make this post (again, thanks ppg everyone go follow her --really everyone in this whole drama is worth a follow)
ANYways yeah zie was my mutual and like, reblogged a lot my smaller posts. (that isn't to discredit what my mutual pompeyspuppygirl is saying about zie clout chasing ofc). AND idk zie was always reblogging art from new and undiscovered artists and reblogging donation posts (which if you don't know is really bad if you're trying to clout chase...) (again, though, ppg is my mutual i believe her.) and like, remember on valentines day i tried to blaze zir posts and zie told me to stop because zie didn't want the posts to go viral? (but again ppg is my mutual and has a lot of proof in the Google doc I'm not trying to disprove that I'm just saying what else I know)
Idk, like i feel like a lot of people loved zir's blog a while back, bc like zie DID make some good posts?? So idk why everybody's acting like they aren't even a little bit sad.,. like ngl this feels like maybe all the reasonable people left to Twitter and all the Twitter refugees who love drama came here??? shdfhhdhdhdhdh haha but idk...look idk, i just, julie i do miss you. idk. more thoughts later sorry I'm getting worked up shshs
what the fuck is -- oh, oh God this is genius and I hate you so much for it
i should've known it would be julius zie/zir
Character idea- a medium runs an antique store and helps ghosts who haunt old objects move onto the after life. One of these ghosts haunts a 1950's rotary telephone and the medium is able to talk to her through the phone specifically but this ghost refuses to move on. Obviously they're lesbians.
Also there's a poltergeist who haunts the store and is just a pest that knocks shit over. The medium never sees the poltergeist (because ghosts can choose to allow her to see them) and so she thinks he's just an annoying pest. Turns out the poltergeist is a ghost cat just doing cat shit.
Sorry gotta take a call from my ghost girlfriend
Also a note: I imagine in the beginning of the story the medium can’t see ghost girl and only talk to her on the phone (cue the phone ringing demandingly when she has shit to say). All hauntings are different and ghost girl is just tied to the phone in that way. Though I imagine eventually gg’s abilities getting stronger until she is eventually able to have a visible form
read it carefully lol it's the callout of Caesar
i should emphasize, I did NOT write the original post, that was done by @heresmyfiddlestick and they get a cut of the sales from these prints.
I'm not sure how to format image IDs when they're this long so I hope this is right:
[image ID: A sheet of calligraphy print with gold and purple vinework and red daggerlike flowers. In the border there is a torn, purple lined bit of cloth meant to read as a toga and there it begins with a large drop capital F in red. the text reads as follows
Friends, mutuals, countrymen, do not scroll past;
I come to cancel Caesar, not to stan him.
The cringe posts that men make live after them;
The nuance oft interred with their bones;
So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was problematic:
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answer’d it.
Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest–
For Brutus is an honourable man;
So are they all, all honourable men–
Come I to comment on Caesar’s call-out post.
He was my mutual, faithful and just to me:
But Brutus says he was problematic;
And Brutus is an honourable man.
He hath brought many hot takes to my dash
Whose notifs did the general discourse fill:
Did this in Caesar seem problematic?
When that anons have cried, Caesar hath wept:
Toxicity should be made of sterner stuff:
Yet Brutus says he was problematic;
And Brutus is an honourable man.
You all did see that on the Tumblr Blaze
I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refuse: was this problematic?
Yet Brutus says he was problematic;
And, sure, he is an honourable man.
I speak not to start discourse with Brutus,
But just to provide some context on his call-out post.
You all did stan him once, not without cause:
What cause withholds you then, to follow him?
/.End ID]
i’m screaming Xena caused the Ides of March
Xena caused most things. Xena influenced the development of Taoism. Xena gave directions to Joseph and Mary, but she ALSO stopped Abraham from killing Isaac. Xena does ALL THE THINGS.
Xena singlehandedly created history.
That she did
i think game night on the waverider would either have sara sat in ava's lap and they just work as one team Or ava is over the other side of the room like. for the next four hours that is Not my wife that is my Rival and i Will win
I may be becoming the guy at work who won't let people talk bad about their own singing voices, but to be fair people keep talking bad about their singing voices to me
I mention karaoke offhandedly and people start describing ways that their singing voices are supposedly bad and I just
"people tell me I sing along to everything an octave lower than it's supposed to be" yeah dude you have a deep voice. that's what you're supposed to do when the song isn't in your range and you're not trying to sing harmony. you bring it into your range while still following the melody. and you're doing that without even thinking about it!
one of my coworkers was at karaoke with me and they were talking shit about their voice too like bro. sure it was off sometimes but when it was on you sounded like a fuckin angel. I am tapping the sign. I can tell you what you picked out as sounding bad, it was lack of airflow control and occasionally some notes that may be out of your range
what gets me is like. it says something about societal messages around singing when a bunch of teachers, who will talk about growth mindsets all day long, are like "oh yeah I'm just naturally a bad singer and always will be"
like I said in another reblog chain, singing is a skill. or really a bunch of complicated interweaving skills. and if you don't wanna improve your singing that's cool, but you absolutely could if you wanted to