Anonymous EDward's Den

Are clowns patriotic

are you?

I’m asking the questions here. Would a clown die for its country

everyone who has ever died for their country was a clown

Wyoming, one of the most useless states in the union, has decided to make itself even more useless by disenfranchising about a quarter of the electorate in hopes of cementing its shitty republican majority and bloody senators.

any followers who live there and didn't vote previously:

There are fewer adults over the age of 21 in that state than there are children in my local school system. What the fuck, Wyoming, you’re pretty and all but HONESTLY.

can I get a job as an editor but the only thing I do is correct when someone uses the word "prone" when they mean "supine"

thank you wikipedia for this really good image

a helpful mnemonic for everyone

They love cuddling like that.

Hey gang, looks like Audible is pulling some shit at the moment (what else is new). Basically, they've opted everyone who uses the platform into a "hide all erotic content from the search function" agreement whether you wanted to have that type of content restricted or not.

It's not even just happening to content listed as erotica. It's anything the Amazon censors deem as "erotic," and given their propensity towards censoring LGBTQ+ content as inherently more sexual than het content, I can see this getting abused really quick.

I became aware of it when Laura posted this on her Instagram a short while ago and sure enough, when I logged in and checked my settings, I'd been opted into it.

As Laura points out in the above video, you can't opt out of it on the app; you have to log in to your account on a browser, navigate to Your Account, Settings, and then uncheck the little box:

Image ID: a screenshot from Audible showing the navigation page for an Audible account. On the bottom right of the navigation bar under Preferences, a box labeled "hide erotic content in searches" has been ticked and circled in red to highlight it.

I rarely use Audible unless I'm being sent something to review, so I never would have noticed this. But yeah. If you've been wondering why you can't find your favorite romance authors on Audible anymore, this could be why.

#like...why use this baby word when you can just say how you feel about it

Found this in the original post tags and I just... SIGH

Here’s the thing, anon. Squick isn’t just ‘I don’t like this’, it’s ‘I think this is gross and it makes me deeply uncomfortable but I pass no judgement on those who enjoy it, because I acknowledge that everyone is different and those same people may have the same visceral reaction some of the things I enjoy’ and was originally made popular in the kink community.

So yeah, if you want to say that every time you come across a trope or whatever you find icky then go ahead, say that every time.

Also, this term dates back to Usenet in the early nineties, so sure, go off.

This frustrates me so much because squicks and triggers are fundamentally different things and as someone with PTSD, the distinction is super useful!

Squicks are things I find personally gross but may not be gross to someone else. They don’t upset me or provoke my PTSD, they simply do not pop my corn. Example: Omegaverse. I don’t like it, it makes me uncomfortable and I’m not going to read it, but if you like it, you do you.

Triggers are things which directly provoke my PTSD. This means that my triggers may seem completely normal and innocuous to someone else, because my triggers are so personal and intrinsically linked to a specific event in my life. My reactions to these triggers can include panic attacks and flashbacks to this traumatic event. Sometimes being triggered can affect me for several hours or even days.

Describing something as either a squick or a trigger allows me easily establish the difference in my potential reaction to something without having to go into painful detail about why bodily fluids might make me back button quickly but poker games might leave me a crying wreck. 

Making this distinction, and having a specific word for something that is not your slice of pie, but also not an actual psychological trigger, is also REALLY important for making sure that the word “trigger” can retain its original, specific, purposeful, and collectively understood clinical meaning (both inside and outside online fannish communities).

If we encourage everyone to lump things that just make them slightly uncomfortable or simply aren’t to their taste in under the word “trigger”, it actually dilutes the meaning of the word. It makes it harder for us all to, for the most part, collectively agree on and understand what exactly is being described when the word gets used.

And that destruction of shared precise definitions is a problem! It is really useful to have the communal language to be able to clearly and quickly delineate between “this grosses me out, no thanks” and “this is going to set off a trauma episode, rattle my brain, and probably throw off the rest of my day/week as a result” while also maintaining your privacy, and to know that you will be understood in what you are saying. Not having it is actually detrimental to the effort of making our communities safe and navigable for people living with trauma. Which is a goal that is much more important to me, personally, than the idea of not being “cutesy” (a word which in this case which sounds a lot like it’s being used as a euphemism for “cringe”).

(Also, one has to wonder if people told Shakespeare he was being childish when he made up entirely new words that are still widely used in the English language today...... 🤔)

My understanding is that “squick” was also created to avoid using more judgmental terms like “gross” or “disturbing”--like yeah, I do find X kink gross or disturbing, but that’s my personal feeling, not an objective fact about the world, and if I’m explaining to my friend who is super into X that I’d prefer they leave it out of the story they’re writing me in the fic exchange, I want to use politer language!

“Squick” does sound silly, like onomatopoeia, but I think that’s part of its role--it’s a word that defuses if, again, you’re saying something squicks you in front of an audience that may include its connoisseurs. When I say I’m squicked, I’m clearly not getting onto a high horse of dignity and moral righteousness. At the same time I’m not being so indirect for the sake of politeness--”oh, it’s not my favorite thing, I’m not sure it works for me, I haven’t found a fic about it that clicks for me”--that someone could misunderstand how much I do not want to see it.

And, to reiterate, it is a grown up word made by grown up nerds in the 90s so if you think it was somehow born on and limited to Tumblr I'm going to need you to actually do some fandom history research before you ever speak authoritatively again about anything fandom-related or adjacent.

I love and deeply miss the term “squick” and really want to see it brought back. It allows dislike for its own sake and without judgement. It’s polite, gentle, and has an air of “you do you.” A squick is not a trigger. Triggers are related to trauma. You’re allowed to not like things and not have them related to anything other than just finding them unpleasant. And that aversion can be strong! That’s okay! I really don’t like watersports. Like, gag-reflex levels of aversion, but it’s not triggering. I just really don’t like it.  I feel like we’ve lost the right/ability to just... quietly not like things and move on with our lives. Not everything is for everyone, and you don’t need a reason to not like something. Just politely and quietly excuse yourself. No need to draw attention, and if someone asks you why you just say, “No, it squicks me out.” No judgement. No narrative necessary. 

There is a sad trend of trying to make everything you personally dislike morally reprehensible in some way to justify your dislike of it. You're allowed to just not like something for no real reason. You do not have to justify why you dislike something, and the word "squick" is perfect for that. It say "look I really really don't like this thing, but it's ok if you do" and that is useful.

I think the biggest problem is that a lot of these kids are VERY into the whole fandom purity culture thing, so they actually DO want to make it out to be morally reprehensible, and they DON'T think it's ok that other ppl might be into it.

Cheerfully using “squick” since 1992, because it means a specific thing and other words do not mean that thing.

Very much SAME.

Gonna need yall to stop putting Biden is Just As Bad propaganda on my dash. Had to unfollow someone because I don’t want to a start a fight with them over it, but I’m about to bite the next person who puts that shit in front of me.

If you don’t like Biden, vote in your god damn local and mid term elections for third party or further left candidates so that we get better democratic candidates for future elections. But this one is already fucking decided, and I’m NOT ending up under a Trump led dictatorship because yall value protecting your personal sense of moral purity over the collective good. Whether it offends your personal morals to vote for Biden is IRRELEVANT in the face of the alternative.

This isn’t a lesser of two evils situation. One guy sucks. The other guy is LITERALLY PLANNING TO OVERTHROW OUR DEMOCRACY AND INSTALL HIMSELF AS A PUTIN STYLE DICTATOR.

PLEASE look up Project 2025 and stop acting like abstaining is some kind of personal ethical decision!

REBLOGGING THIS BECAUSE IT FUCKING HAPPENED AGAIN.

You give me a single goddamn scenario where not voting does less harm then voting for Biden.

You give me a SINGLE goddamn scenario where Trump being elected does LESS harm than Biden.

You give me even the BAREST WHISPER of an ACTUAL, ACTIONABLE FUCKING ALTERNATIVE to just VOTING FOR HARM REDUCTION.

Jesus Christ. Even if you think Biden and Trump are 100% the same, which is a fucking asinine and ignorant goddamn position to take but sure, in that case voting, at absolute worst, makes no difference!

The ONLY reason to deliberately encourage people to NOT VOTE AT ALL is to SUPPORT TRUMP.

You are blindly spreading Actual Goddamn Propaganda for a man who is frothing at the mouth to become a christofascist dictator!!

CUT IT THE FUCK OUT.

This was inspired by a text post I had saw a while ago and I WISH I could find it but it may have been removed from Pinterest 😭

--SciFiBeatlesGleek

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Hank Anderson/Connor Characters: Hank Anderson, Connor (Detroit: Become Human), Amanda (Detroit: Become Human), Original Chloe | RT600, Original Characters Additional Tags: Weddings, Homophobia, Family Drama, Established Relationship, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Human, Connor (Detroit: Become Human) is a Little Shit, Bisexual Hank Anderson, POV Alternating, Happy Ending, Fluff, Not Beta Read, Good Parent Amanda (Detroit: Become Human) Summary:

Hank’s family are homophobes.

Connor is a little shit.

And there’s a wedding.

It's so good, yall!!

Mob Boss Hank

(this outfit is too good to not use it on everyone XD)

(click for better quality)

³ᵈ ᵐᵒᵈᵉˡ ᵖᵒʳᵗ ᵇʸ ᶻᵉᵖᵖᵉʳˢᵃʳᵗ ᵒⁿ ᵗʷᶦᵗᵗᵉʳ

The whole "the brain isn't fully mature until age 25" bit is actually a fairly impressive bit of psuedoscience for how incredibly stupid the way it misinterprets the data it's based on is.

Okay, so: there's a part of the human brain called the "prefrontal cortex" which is, among other things, responsible for executive function and impulse control. Like most parts of the brain, it undergoes active "rewiring" over time (i.e., pruning unused neural connections and establishing new ones), and in the case of the prefrontal cortex in particular, this rewiring sharply accelerates during puberty.

Because the pace of rewiring in the prefrontal cortex is linked to specific developmental milestones, it was hypothesised that it would slow down and eventually stop in adulthood. However, the process can't directly be observed; the only way to tell how much neural rewiring is taking place in a particular part of the brain is to compare multiple brain scans of the same individual performed over a period of time.

Thus, something called a "longitudinal study" was commissioned: the same individuals would undergo regular brain scans over a period of mayn years, beginning in early childhood, so that their prefrontal development could accurately be tracked.

The longitudinal study was originally planned to follow its subjects up to age 21. However, when the predicted cessation of prefrontal rewiring was not observed by age 21, additional funding was obtained, and the study period was extended to age 25. The predicted cessation of prefrontal development wasn't observed by age 25, either, at which point the study was terminated.

When the mainstream press got hold of these results, the conclusion that prefrontal rewiring continues at least until age 25 was reported as prefrontal development finishing at age 25. Critically, this is the exact opposite of what the study actually concluded. The study was unable to identify a stopping point for prefrontal development because no such stopping point was observed for any subject during the study period. The only significance of the age 25 is that no subjects were tracked beyond this age because the study ran out of funding!

It gets me when people try to argue against the neuroscience-proves-everybody-under-25-is-a-child talking point by claiming that it's merely an average, or that prefrontal development doesn't tell the whole story. Like, no, it's not an average – it's just bullshit. There's no evidence that the cited phenomenon exists at all. If there is an age where prefrontal rewiring levels off and stops (and it's not clear that there is), we don't know what age that is; we merely know that it must be older than 25.

The lesser-known crime of child adduction, where you sneak a kid INTO someone's home.

Changelings

Abduction + adduction.

i mean a child is abducted. that is a pretty significant thing that happens. like i understand where you’re coming from here but the fairies very much do abduct the child before replacing it

Yeah but depends on the brood parasite. Your average European cuckoo or honeyguide will kill its broodmates. So this is adduction followed by murdering every other kid.

You walk into the nursery to find all the cribs mysteriously empty except for one…

OKAY LET’S GOOO

So here’s the great spotted cuckoo (Clamator glandarius).

Like some other cuckoos like the European cuckoo, it’s also a brood parasite. But unlike them, their chicks don’t evict their nestmates! They specialize in parasitizing corvids, like the one below.

Now of course the bigger GSC chick ends up monopolizing the food supply anyway, so the magpie or crow chicks may end up going hungry.

But!

The GSC chick also produces a foul-smelling liquid from its cloaca in self-defense. So in areas where nests are at risk of predation, the GSC chick actually defends its nestmates from danger! If the predation risk is high enough, the host nests actually stand a better chance of surviving with the chick than without it.

So this would be like having a sibling show up out of the blue. They’re bigger than you and they eat your food, but you live in a bad neighborhood and they stink so bad nobody tries to mug you.

The more the bear identity is mainstreamed, the more it gets sanitised. The more you get people insisting it doesn't mean what it means, that it's just for "buff and mayyybe a little chubby" "dad bod" "strongman build" whatever euphemism they can to deny fat men a place in their own community.

Fat hairy gay men built this place for themselves and now you're barging in and pretending they never belonged there.

Repeat after me:

It is OKAY to have content preferences and to be uncomfortable with certain ships or topics, controversial or not. It is OKAY to distance yourself from such content and block certain tags or creators.

It is NOT OKAY to actively hate and harass real people for creating content of fictional characters that features things that make you uncomfortable.

Alrighty- the government's being a sneaky little shit again.

They're trying to sneak KOSA into a passing bill again because they know it's unpopular. I recommend voting NO and calling your representatives ASAP. Now, even.

Artist: Naughtie_Nie

went to delete a save file in bloodborne to make room for a new one and got jumpscared

screw it, DBH bloodborne au rambling that's been rotting in my drafts for like 3 years, IF you even CARE 😒 ......about half-baked incomplete thoughts that don't make sense unless you're familiar with both games lol:

Our story begins a while before the events of the game with church hunter Hank who is kept out of the cosmic fuckery loop and is sceptical about the church like “don’t get involved with the creeps above in the Choir or the creeps down below in Yahar'gul, that’s what i say.” 

enter Connor who shows up like “Hello, my name is Connor. I’m a scholar of the Choir from above, i have been assigned to you to investigate the School of Mensis down below in Yahar’gul.”

I know nothing of bloodborne, but id read the heck out of it!