strange but not a stranger

"the cop inside your head" is how some of you describe what many would call a "moral compass"

cant leave these in the comments

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Block these sites in your uBlock Origin so you won't see that shit in your searches

The extension in the screenshot is uBlacklist and it's quite easy to use, both manually from the control panel to add the sites with the asterisk, or when in a search results page and clicking the "block this site" option. It's how I've gotten rid of random Pinterest site results, too.

They also provide subscription lists that keep up sites such as these and others on their github:

https://iorate.github.io/ublacklist/subscriptions

Not enough jobs are willing to do training anymore, no matter what the situation. Grocery stores won't teach you to work a cash register, businesses won't teach you how to use their programs, even the arts won't teach you anything

Everyone wants a triple threat, expects you to just have those skills. In the old days? you could show up to a random theater barely able to dance and they'd teach you, and then the incel living in the walls would make you a world class singer and actor and you'd be headlining your own show in a few years

been thinking about fantasy/scifi rule systems and free will

Train lesbians are such a beautiful thing

i keep thinking about that one blogger on here who mentioned applying to 80+ jobs and still not getting a single callback

i keep thinking of my sister's 2 degrees who are collecting dust because no one's hiring

i keep thinking of my classmate in highschool who said their father accidentally became a graphic designer without any real experience about 20 odd years prior

i keep thinking of me passing those extensive english exams for a fucking call service job and not showing up to the final online interview because of technical issues,I asked them to reschedule they just ghosted me instead

i keep thinking of that nepo kid in my college and his secure future

i keep thinking of my miscellaneous art skills and how none of them are worth anything without a degree,a connection,internet clout,or without a job willing to train me more except the entry level position is dead right?

i keep thinking of everyone everywhere who is dying or going to die in the streets despite all the money and shelter available in the world

a girl comes up to you at a party and places a random pill on your tongue only for you to realise it's a multivitamin. i hate this post this post is stupid. i've lost my touch meeting adjourned.

vote me prwsident i will invest in putting an aquarium in every american city. for yuri dates.

I love leather and I love fur and I don’t mind arguing about it.

“Do you think it’s okay to slaughter animals for their skin?” I eat them too AUGH AUGH AUGH AUGH

“doctor I’m wearing a leather jacket and eating a hamburger please you have to take me away I’m a danger to society”

don’t go in there

Venison and buckskin.

And mink and coyote and fox!

Listen, fellas.

The problem isn't fur, the problem is factory farming. That's always the problem. Buying fur and bones and shells from Indigenous folks who know how to get them correctly and respectfully is the best practise.

But you know what kind of winter coat eventually decomposes and doesn't cause pollution and doesn't contain microplastics? FUR. You know what kind of fabric stays warm even when wet? WOOL. You know what kinds of shoes last forever? LEATHER ONES.

Plastic is bad for the environment. Are you going to kill a thousand animals or one? Those are your choices at this point, there is no zero. You have to square with the idea that you cannot get the blood off your hands, and you shouldn't feel you have to. We all depend on one another, and it's possible to want an animal to have the best life it can before you kill it for food and whatever else. Domesticity is a good deal for most animals when it's done properly--they get protection from predators, free food, and medical care that they wouldn't get in the wild, and a longer life and a painless death.

Pleather is plastic. Faux fur is plastic. Vegan leather is plastic. It's all plastic and it all releases microplastics into the water supply every time you wash it. It is not 'cruelty free' that is a lie advertising is selling you. You have got to stop thinking with your disgust reaction.

affirmations for when you have to send emails

I see a lot of posts saying "teach boys about consent".

While that is true, a lot of parents will do that and fail to see how their own actions are the problem.

If you've spanked him, he's less likely to understand consent.

If you've forced him to sit on Santa's lap, he's less likely to understand consent.

If you've forced him to give hugs and kisses to family members, he's less likely to understand consent.

If you've grabbed him in order to force him to sit still, he's less likely to understand consent.

If you've labeled him as "too sensitive" for not wanting to be touched, he's less likely to understand consent.

If you've assumed he's okay with something because he technically allowed it even though he felt pressured, he's less likely to understand consent.

If you're only going to criticize his actions but not your own, it won't work.

I am a firm believer that it's not just what he experiences in his life, but what he witnesses too. Okay so you don't do any of those to him but you do those things to his sisters? His cousins? His mom? He is learning consent is for him hut not for women.

One of my sisters has young children, both of whom are some flavor of neurodivergent. She is too, and as a result she often lost patience quickly with some of their quirks. The biggest offender is that her kids are extremely wary around anyone they deem to be a stranger, making social connection very difficult for all participants.

When I first met her daughter, she was 3 or 4, and was extremely reluctant to come and meet me. My sister began to shame and push and pull her towards me and I stopped her. I said "don't force her, don't teach her that she has to let men she doesn't know touch her, she doesn't need to hug me"

My sister froze in place, processed it for a moment, and let her daughter go. She went back to hiding behind mom. We continued our conversation and her son slowly approached me, hugged me, and climbed up onto the chair I was in to sit beside me and partially in my lap. After a few minutes, her daughter joined him. She didn't hug me, but she came over to touch and talk to me.

My sister was speechless. Her kids DON'T do that. I've heard many complaints from many family members about how antisocial they are. All I did was stick up for their right to offer or withdraw consent- and really just her daughter's, as her son had met me pre-covid and had already gotten over the hurdle at 2 years old, but her daughter was born during covid and thus it made her severe distrust of strangers even worse.

Now her kids are in elementary school and making friends easily and I regularly get stories from her about how she witnesses them connect with other socially withdrawn kids and stand up for both themselves and their quieter friends. She took my advice to heart and started allowing them to voice whether they consented to something and now her little boy will approach a crying kid on the playground and say something like "do you want to play, or do you want me to just sit with you, or do you want to be alone?" and then actually listen to what the other kid tells him.

My niece has an incredibly traumatized boy in her class who escaped war with his family, and he doesn't talk to anyone. But he visibly relaxes when my niece goes to sit next to him when he's too scared and curled up in the classroom's Quiet Corner. She reads to him and shows him her toys and holds his hand on field trips and yells at anyone who is mean to him. I'm told she's the only person who can approach or touch him without causing a meltdown besides his family, and it started because the first time she sat with him she asked if it was okay if she did so and she waited several minutes for him to nod before she sat down.

But they still avoid the family members that forced them to interact even when they were uncomfortable. I still hear those complaints, hundreds of miles away, and the jealousy that I've only met the kids a few times but they talk incessantly about me. If I call one of my family members and the kids are over, I can hear them in the background trying to talk to me if they figure out it's me on the other line.

Anyway. Long story short I didn't have to advocate for my nephew the way I did my niece, but advocating for my niece in front of the both of them dramatically changed the way both of them were taught to manage social interaction. Consent isn't just about teaching the boy. It's also making sure he sees that consent being practiced with everyone.

John Paul Brammer, one of my favorite writers of all time, just wrote a beautiful piece about Madame Web. Unfortunately, this plus the tweet by leslekieuart comparing the movie to Argento's Phantom of the Opera tragically caused me to... want to see the movie.