Something about the idea that voting for president only matters if you live in a swing state, and that all the people in blue states or red states can indulge themselves in principled nonparticipation because the outcomes are preordained, strikes me as akin to playing with fire.

Is it really coherent to say "both sides are awful, write in Mickey Mouse or burn your ballot or just stay home and get drunk, unless you live in Pennsylvania, in which case maybe consider taking one for the team and compromising yourself by voting for the lesser evil?" Is that really the message that will lead to a preferable outcome?

What it sounds like to me is a sign that 1) you take your local electorate for granted, and 2) you see avoiding the worst case scenario as somebody else's problem.

I remember when Florida was a swing state. I also remember when Pennsylvania wasn't.

For the love of fuck, vote in your local elections and don't fuck around with presidential ones either. States are in play now that I would never have dreamed of being 'swing' states. When I first started voting, PA absolutely was not a swing state. The district where I cast my first vote went blue for the first time I can remember last election.

Washington state, universally considered a safe blue state, has voted Democrat between 50.1% and 58.0% in presidential elections since 2000. Those are pretty healthy margins. But they are not insurmountable - Washington was reliably red up to 1984, by similar amounts - and they don't happen by magic. They happen because people fucking vote blue even though it's considered a safe state.

If enough people think, "eh, I don't have to vote, Washington is going to go blue no matter what," then guess what happens? The state goes red. And we don't want that.

Oregon is also considered by outside viewers to be super liberal. Then, when you zoom in on individual counties, it's like 90% red. A lower than average Democratic voter turnout in the larger cities could easily make the whole state as Republican as the bigoted Oregon town I currently live in. A higher turnout in rural areas could start making the state look like people think it does.

If you feel safe that your state is a "blue" state, look at the county maps and see just how few of them are actually as blue as you imagine.

As someone who has lived in rural Oregon and rural Kansas, I found rural Kansas less conservative. Do not trust in your state's reputation as one color or another. That reputation is often defined by a very small part of the map.

I think adults need to go outside and play more.

there is a huge difference between criticizing an institution and criticizing individual behavior. i can criticize the makeup industry without criticizing the 14 year old girl who uses concealer because she’s self-conscious about her acne; i can criticize the plastic surgery industry without vilifying the woman who decided to get a nose job after two decades of pointed comments and bullying. it is intellectually dishonest to respond to an institutional criticism as if it were a personal attack; on the flip side, it is cruel and unnecessary to leverage personal attacks in the name of institutional criticism

if i see one (1) more person respond to a perfectly reasonable beauty-industry-critical sentiment with “but i personally enjoy eyeshadow. why are you attacking people who like eyeshadow :(” or “exactly, all women who wear makeup are miserable and brainwashed” i am going to climb a tree and bite the top of it

fortunately i have only ever heard about this in passing but the idea of people criticizing fics for not being exactly what they want them to be is so funny to me. like with all due respect good sirs [gn] this is not the bespoke zone. nobody is measuring you for this suit. it is off the rack. if it's a good fit then enjoy, if it isn't well then that is a you problem. go get a different suit.

TIMOTHY OLYPHANT I AM NUMBER FOUR, 2011

strange way of life (2023)

DERRY GIRLS (2018 - 2022) | 1.06

hey hey hey

Assigning you a song that makes white people go nuts (from experience)

I didn't even care about the result, the questions here are just delightful

being an adult is just saying to yourself “this is the weekend i’ll clean my [x]” and then proceeding to not do that because it’s the weekend and you deserve to relax, goddamnit

talking to people while holding a beverage is awesome because you don't have to know what to do with your hands and when you don't know what to do with your face you can just take a sip

shakespeare wasn't lying that tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow can creep in this petty pace from day to day

neither was Smash Mouth. the years start coming and they don't stop coming

that sounds almost EXACTLY like the Besame lipsticks, to the point where I’m wondering if it’s a knockoff. how many lip colors stay put like a champ and smell like vanilla?

anyway another good option- albeit a splurge -is Besame Cosmetics lipstick. my favorite has historically been Red Velvet 1946, AKA the Agent Carter shade that magically looks good on most skin tones. everyone was remarking upon this back in like 2013

I don’t wear makeup often, and I lost my last tube of it in the fire, but it is excellent- especially if you follow the Golden Age Hollywood application instructions included

Many? It’s a long-standing joke that Besame knocked-off the ‘smells like vanilla’ stick from MAC Cosmetics who have had that as their signature lipstick scent since the 1980s

Save me, Oberyn Martell, save me

Maybe if he was a little less fuckable we wouldn’t be in this mess

If AO3 had a slogan

OBERYN MARTELL in every episode of GAME OF THRONES (2011–2019) ➡ First of His Name (04E05)