no multi option, agonize and choose, no results option, pick one to find out or scroll onward

the number of y'all in the notes mentioning how good the choices are/how hard it is to choose got me preening like "i am going to get a good grade in neurodivergent/disabled, a thing that is both normal to want and possible to achieve 😌"

Miss Congeniality (2000) dir. Donald Petrie

this year my challenge for everyone is to unlearn the association between love and morality. love is not something that is inherently morally good, and the absence of love is not something that is inherently bad. sex without love isn't morally bankrupt, it's just an action. people without love aren't less kind or less good, they're just people. when we can get past this false (and often unnoticed) dichotomy of good love/evil lovelessness then i think we are going to be able to take leaps and bounds in sex positivity, aro advocacy, certain discussions of mental health...

This is sort of tangentially related but the association leads to the idea that if someone is hurting you they don’t really love you, and that if you really love someone it’s impossible you’ll hurt them, despite it being demonstrably false.

very much related!! i didn't speak on this aspect of the issue very much in the original post because i wanted to initially put focus on a lack of love being neutral, but the love = morality mindset 100% does damage when it comes to a heroization of love and an inability to reconcile love and harm. all of your points are very real. would also point out an assumption that if another person Really Loves You then they wouldn't want to/can't really be hurting you, which can make it really difficult to recognize harm when it happens in relationships. a lack of love does not preclude the presence of goodness, and conversely, the presence of love does not preclude the presence of harm.

Here's the thing about Jareth from Labyrinth right?

He's made up.

That's not necessarily the same thing as not REAL. But he, just like all her friends who show up in her room before her adventure as toys and figurines, exist in relation to her, in response to what she wanted and needed. She told the story and there he was, there he always had been. But she's a teenage girl who doesn't know what she wants yet, and Jareth kind of pays the price.

"but the king of the goblins had fallen in love with the girl, and had given her certain powers." He's an archetypal oxymoron. He's both the dastardly baby stealing villain and the royal love interest trying to relieve the heroine's suffering, Cinderella style. He's fucked either way by being both. She doesn't know if SHE wants to be the villain or the heroine until he shows up and then she decides on the heroine, so he has to sneer and menace and challenge but it's too late for him!! it's too late, The King Of The Goblins Had Fallen In Love With the Girl, he's Cinderella's prince too and he has to try, he gives her a poofy dress and takes her to fucking goblin prom, sweeps her around the room like a music box with perfect posture and room for Jesus.

But it doesn't work buddy, it can't work. You're just a story for a teen girl to grow up in, and as the villain you have to be defeated. He's so complex because his tropes contradict themselves, and he doesn't understand why he has to lose when he was only doing the job he was given. In his last scene he is pale as death with shadows under his eyes, backing away and begging for his happy ending with nonsense mishmash promises that belong to both halves of him.

"I am exhausted from living up to your expectations of me." I'm sure you are, Jareth. No wonder.

Cocaine was a stimulant used by a priestly caste of the middle period United States called businessmen in order to commune with The Market. [1]

Ferengi Wikipedia

Don’t underestimate my desire to not wanna

To be an otter swimming in a river

remember when you were 10 and you would hang out with your friends in order to Look At The Computer together like you went to their house and experienced the information superhighway together. and then leave

How fucking old are you people?

normal amount

You see, there used to be a time (not all that long ago) when being offline was the default. And going online was the rare and wonderful thing that we (briefly) enjoyed.

It even came with happy modem noises.

They weren't happy noises.

They were polite and reasonable noises! The sound of protocol being followed! Negotiation and compromise!

The box would scream

in retrospect we should maybe have taken the unholy screams as a warning

environmental storytelling

I hope this cat didnt kill any of those birds .

wow you actually found a practical use for that reaction image

holy shit