humbled

I am begging everybody, fucking begging them, to slow the fuck down and fucking look things up. Right now, there are a lot of people who are making money off of creating headlines that are meant to make you mad, and it's going to get worse as we get closer to the election.

If someone tells you that there's a secret conspiracy to [do a thing you don't like] and that it's unique to Biden, you better fucking look that thing up, because chances are you're going to find that it's been happening under every administration for the last 50 years. Is that good? No! Should you want to change it? Probably! Is it a unique crime to Biden? Nope!

"Biden said [bad thing] [X] years ago." Well, this bad thing he said happens to be true, but it looks like it was 45 years ago, and he changed his stance 40 years ago. "Biden said [other bad thing] [Y] years ago." What's the source on that? So there's one person who says he said it? And nobody else who was there has corroborated that account? Who posted the story?

These are all random examples of things I've seen over the last couple of weeks, with the details slightly changed from the Tumblr posts and news articles I've seen, because the point isn't the details of the particular story, so I don't want to get bogged down in particulars that don't matter to the point I'm making.

The point of this post isn't the specific things I'm referencing but the fact that in each of these cases, the reality was not what was initially presented. Either the reality was wildly different, or this story can't be corroborated and was told by someone with a clear and very well-known agenda of their own, which means that at the very least, the story should be treated with extreme suspicion.

And on that note, please don't believe that because you're a leftist that you can't be radicalized in the same way that right-wingers are. You aren't immune to propaganda either. I'm not saying you have to like, or should like, any particular politician or political entity. I am saying, however, that you should view a lot of the news with a gimlet eye, and that goes double for anything that makes you real fucking mad.

You need - need - to stop and read the whole article and ask yourself if you can verify the claims and who benefits from this making you mad.

Please. For the sake of the people around you who have to patiently explain to you that you've gotten fucking bamboozled again by propaganda if for no other reason. We're all very tired of you thinking that leftists can't be propagandized.

Repeating for Emphasis:

You need - need - to stop and read the whole article and ask yourself if you can verify the claims and who benefits from this making you mad.

This is super important, and I know I don't fact-check as much as I should (often I just... choose not to share things).

Another problem I see here is that people on Tumblr barely report any positive moves, or use disingenuous framing to make them incredibly negative when they do. Sometimes it dives into conspiracy theory territory.

Gonna resist the urge to call out examples, but... do look out for positive stories, even as you continue to fight. It doesn't do any good to be on the doom train all the time.

(Verify the good stories, too, of course. That goes without saying.)

Yeah, let's please not get into specific stuff here simply bc I don't want this post to devolve into nitpicking about specific issues. I would prefer it stay focused on the idea of checking your work and the work of others.

Judaism and Zionism are NOT equivalent. Islam and anti-semitism are NOT equivalent either. These students know that!

thinking abt this tweet again

instagram: smacmccreanor

oh toph you will always be iconic

*grabs both your hands in gesture of sincerity*

Don't let this die. Taylor Swift is the Pollution Queen now. We need meme edits with her photoshopped onto backgrounds of wildfire-ravaged landscapes and oil refineries chugging out black smoke.

Photo of smudgy black eye shadow? That's THE Taylor Swift-inspired look now, it represents fossil fuels.

We need parodies of Taylor Swift songs about pollution and killing polar bears.

Give her representatives a full-time job for the rest of their lives defending her from the phrase "Pollution Queen." Make this meme a the figurehead of an entire fleet of other celebrity-terrorizing memes.

"But this doesn't dismantle the system that—" Shut. Don't care. Isn't it great that such a huge portion of environmental damage is being done by human individuals with egos, whose feelings can be hurt when people are mean?

Money can save you from physical harm, but can it save you from looking ridiculous?

Like this

Bothersome beast, comforting friend

HELP

MY ASSIGNED ANALOG HORROR SERIES IS PENIS FILES

ME WHEN GENDER CASE ✨✨✨✨✨

THE BOOB DOCUMENT IM GOIGN TO CRY

THE RATIO EXTRACT 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

THE ANIME CASEthat just sounds like a fourth wall breaking murder mystery anime🔥🔥🔥💥💥💥💥

Omg Suzy you’re so crazy

i watched one (1) video on how to draw hands that changed my life forever. like. i can suddenly draw hands again

these were all drawn without reference btw. i can just. Understand Hands now (for the most part, im sure theres definitely inaccuracies). im a little baffled

for those of u asking for the vid!

I honestly cannot believe how far T(W)ERF rhetoric has spread on this site. They used to be the ONLY ones I saw openly mocking the concept of identifying as queer, the ONLY ones I saw referring to people as ‘kweer’ in a mocking way.

You all are so 100% certain you know how to identify radfem and T(W)ERF rhetoric and can’t possibly fall victim to it but guess what.

They are nowhere near above pulling this shit. And you all are falling for it.

And if you think that screenshot is an isolated incident, think again!

There are countless radfem and T(W)ERF blogs that I’ve blocked that said ‘secret radfem sideblog’ in the description.

Like, it’s great that we’ve made being a T(W)ERF so unaccepted on this site that they can only be open about the most toxic of their views in secret side blogs rather than on their main, but it’s time to accept that they’re taking advantage of that in a really fucking insidious way.

Just a tip on how to recognize these blogs. If you follow someone and you start getting suggested t*rf blogs that’s a good sign the person has sideblog for that stuff. There was some cowboy blog I followed a while ago and I used to get follow suggestions saying “this blog is similar to cowboy whatever” and it was a ton of t*rf shit and low and behold they ended up outing themselves

This is why we learn about what actual TERF ideology is. Saying “trans women are women” and “TERFS not allowed” and putting “TERF destroyer” or whatever in your bio is not enough. Learn how TERFs actually work, and what they believe, and where it stems from, and how they express diluted versions in order to warm up non-TERFs to their ideas.

Do the fucking work. Unfollow/block people who express TERF ideas even if they don’t label themselves as TERFs, challenge those ideas in your community, and you won’t have to worry about secret TERF blogs anymore.

Just in case you happen to be unaware, some of the “radfem lite” they post to warm you up to their rhetoric, just off the top of my head:

The following are some red flags I’ve seen:

And also, just so we’re clear, if YOU, the person reading this, are looking at that list and thinking “what’s so bad about ___? That’s not terfy that’s just feminism!” then congratulations, you are dipping your foot in the well, and you have some shit to unlearn before you jump in whole hog.

Learn how to fucking recognize radfem and terf rhetoric even when it’s supposedly welcoming trans women, and do your part to oust them from the queer community.

Really important and I think I missed it on the list:

This doesn’t mean “ace lesbians are TERFs.” It means that if someone’s idea of lesbianism excludes kinky lesbians or the idea that a lesbian can be abusive in a relationship or… doesn’t encompass the idea that women can sometimes be fucking horndogs? It’s leaning on some very radfem ideas about women and their sexuality, ideas that infantilize women and flatten their lives down to “innocent cherubs.”

And it’s fucking weird.

Note to vacationing non-Americans: while it’s true that America doesn’t always have the best food culture, the food in our restaurants is really not representative of what most of us eat at home.  The portions at Cheesecake Factory or IHOP are meant to be indulgent, not just “what Americans are used to.”

If you eat at a regular American household, during a regular meal where they’re not going out of their way to impress guests, you probably will not be served twelve pounds of chocolate-covered cream cheese.  Please bear this in mind before writing yet another “omg I can’t believe American food” post.

Also, most American restaurant portions are 100% intended as two meals’ worth of food. Some of my older Irish relatives still struggle with the idea that it’s not just not rude to eat half your meal and take the rest home, it’s expected. (Apparently this is somewhat of an American custom.)

Until you’re hitting the “fancy restaurant” tier (the kind of place you go for a celebration or an anniversary date), a dinner out should generally also be lunch for the next day. Leftovers are very much the norm.

From the little time I’ve spent in Canada, this seems to be the case up there as well.

the portions in family restaurants (as opposed to haute cuisine types) are designed so that no one goes away hungry.

volume IS very much a part of the american hospitality tradition, and Nobody Leaves Hungry is important. but you have to recognize that it’s not how we cook for ourselves, it’s how we welcome guests and strengthen community ties.

so in order to give you a celebratory experience and make you feel welcomed, family restaurants make the portions big enough that even if you’re a teenage boy celebrating a hard win on the basketball court, you’re still going to be comfortably full when you leave.

of course, that means that for your average person with a sit-down job, who ate a decent lunch that day, it’s twice as much as they want or more. that’s ok. as mentioned above, taking home leftovers is absolutely encouraged. that, too, is part of american hospitality tradition; it’s meant to invoke fond memories of grandma loading you down with covered dishes so you can have hearty celebration food all week. pot luck church basement get-togethers where the whole town makes sure everybody has enough. that sort of thing. it’s about sharing. it’s about celebrating Plenty.

it’s not about pigging out until you get huge. treating it that way is pretty disrespectful of our culture. and you know, contrary to what the world thinks, we do have one.

Reblogging because I honestly never thought about it but yeah, this lines up.

This is also why the idea of “pay a lot for fancy food on tiny plates” pisses so many Americans off. Unless you are rich enough not to care about throwing your money away, it’s not just a ridiculous ripoff in terms of not filling you up, it’s stingy. Restaurants are places of hospitality. If I pay that much for a plate it had better be damn good and it had better be generous. Otherwise they are just trying to fleece me out of my money AND saying they don’t value me as a customer.

If I go to IHOP or Olive Garden or whatnot, I absolutely don’t need to eat again until evening if I had leftovers, and until the next day if I did eat everything (you can’t really take pancakes home as leftovers).

But EVEN IF I DID EAT EVERYTHING and then ate a full meal on top of that, later, it’s really not anyone’s place to criticize what other people eat. It just isn’t. Let it go. It’s old.

Making fun of American food culture and food habits isn’t original or surprising or witty or funny or getting one over on us or crafting a clever retort or whatever. It’s lazy and petty and childish.

Yeah, we eat a lot of hamburgers. They’re fucking delicious. Cope.

The culprits (i would die for them)

C // Amythestsparkles • Hal Brindley

Yep, I’m on the side of these superb piggies. This is play stupid games, win stupid prizes territory.

Native wild animals engaging in natural animal behaviors?!?! I'm shocked!

Image by http://wryote.bsky.social

that quote like “god gave us transness for the same reason he made grapes but not wine; yeast but no loaves — so we may partake in the divine act of creation”

- Julian K. Jarboe, quoted in Something That May Shock and Discredit You by Daniel M. Lavery

Here's where they originally said it! And, with an icon I drew! We went to school together, I owe them a lot.

incidentally, from their website’s FAQ:

Little jockey

(Source)