100% TRUE

Pro tip: If you copy and paste a link that said “no free articles” into a private/incognito browser, it will let you read the whole thing.

also if u press the “esc” (escape) key on ur laptop before the page fully loads, it won’t load any pop-ups blocking u from reading. if the article has images, then this method sometimes does not u see them. but! the words will be fine :)

If the site is particularly badly designed, you might just be able to delete the overlay itself. Right click > Inspect element and delete the line of HTML (it’ll be highlighted automatically)

hey kids there is a website called outline.com that will let you read from pretty much any news site with a paywall for free

outline.com is amazing - it hasn’t failed yet on any site that I’ve tried it on.

There’s a chrome extension and firefox extension.

the last comment

This passed my timeline earlier today on a different platform, but I’m only watching it now and am mildly amused and disturbed by the realization there was THIS MUCH FOOTAGE OF PAUL RUDD DANCING on separate occasions that it could be edited into a video this long.

@alicat-gotyourtongue

Paul Rudd is one thing we can all agree on

This makes me unreasonably happy.

BONUS: Booth dressed as a Squint squinting.

this whole discussion about a Mulan life-action baffles me. Like… I love the fun with Mushu and all but? Why do we need a Disney remake of the movie when there is

a pretty much epic

beautiful

actually Chinese version

with great characters

and Mulan’s more accurate story

readily available??? 

Since 2009??

Well I know what I am watching now

UPDATE: I just watched this and I have so many emotions. Seriously, check this out

OOH! On my list!

i didnt know this existed!!! ok

I’ve failed all my followers for not letting them know about this immediately. I’m sorry you guys missed out.

I NEED IT

http://www.veoh.com/watch/v19697192DZSkejpc

Here is a link to watch it free online with English subtitles.

Just as a warning, it is a little violent, some horses are killed during the battles, and there is a scene where Wentai cuts open his wrist. It is a very good movie, I just finished watching it and would recommend everyone watch it.

Hey now, you’re an all star

listen to what I orchestrated

SoundCloud

THIS IS FUKING AMAZING WHY CANT I SPREAD THIS EVERYWHERE I WANNA SHOW IT TO EVERYONE. LITERAL GOOSEBUMPS

H ★ M I L T O N composed by Lin-Manuel Miranda

this is now a daveed diggs stan blog. i will not be taking any questions.

daveed diggs has my entire heart

stupid leftists and their belief in *checks notes* the intrinsic value of human life

Reblog if you would burn down the statue of liberty to save a life

Here’s the thing, though. If you asked a conservative “Would you let the statue of liberty burn to save one life?” they’d probably scoff and say no, it’s a national landmark, a treasure, a piece of too much historical importance to let it be destroyed for the sake of one measly life. 

But if you asked, “Would you let the statue of liberty burn in order to save your child? your spouse? someone you loved a great deal?” the tune abruptly changes. At the very least, there’s a hesitation. Even if they deny it, I’m willing to bet that gun to their head, the answer would be “yes.”  

The basic problem here is that people have a hard time seeing outside their own sphere of influence, and empathizing beyond the few people who are right in front of them. You’ve got your immediate family, whom you love; your friends, your acquaintances, maybe to a certain degree the people who share a status with you (your religion, your race, etc.)–but beyond that? People aren’t real. They’re theoretical. 

But a national monument? That’s real. It stands for something. The value of a non-realized anonymous life that exists completely outside your sphere of influence is clearly worth less than something that represents freedom and prosperity to a whole nation, right?

People who think like this lack the compassion to realize that everyone is in someone’s immediate sphere of influence–that everyone is someone’s lover, or brother, or parent. Everyone means the world to someone. And it’s the absolute height of selfishness to assume that their lives don’t have value just because they don’t mean the world to you. 

P.S. I would let the statue of liberty burn to save a pigeon. 

also, there is an extreme difference between what things or principles *i* personally am willing to die for, and what i would hazard others to die for. and this is a distinction i don’t think the conservative hard-right likes to face.

an example: so, as the nazis began war against france, the staff of the louvre began crating up and shipping out the artworks. it was vital to them (for many reasons) that the nazis not get their hands on the collections, and hitler’s desire for them was known, so they dispersed the objects to the four winds; one of the curators personally traveled with la gioconda, mona lisa herself, in an unmarked crate, moving at least five times from location to location to avoid detection.

they even removed and hid the nike of samothrace, “winged victory,” which is both delicate, having been pieced back together from fragments, and incredibly heavy, weighing over three metric tons.

the curators who hid these artworks risked death to ensure that they wouldn’t fall into nazi hands. and yes, they are just paintings, just statues. but when i think about the idea of hitler capturing and standing smugly beside the nike of samothrace, a statue widely beloved as a symbol of liberty, i completely understand why someone would risk their life to prevent that. if my life was all that stood between a fascist dictator and a masterpiece that inspired millions, i would be willing to risk it. my belief in the power and necessity of art would demand i do so.

if, however, a nazi held a gun to some kid’s head (any kid!) and asked me which crate the mona lisa was in, they could have it in a heartbeat. no problem! i wouldn’t even have to think about it. being willing to risk my own life on principle doesn’t mean i’m willing to see others endangered for those same principles.

and that is exactly where the conservative hard-right falls right the fuck down. they are, typically, entirely willing to watch others suffer for their own principles. they are perfectly okay with seeing children in cages because of their supposed belief in law and order. they are perfectly willing to let women die from pregnancy complications because of their anti-abortion beliefs. they are alright with poverty and disease on general principle because they hold the free-market sacrosanct. and i guess from their own example they would save the statue of liberty and let human beings burn instead.

but speaking as a leftist (i’m more comfortable with socialist tbh), my principles are not abstract things that i hold aside from life, apart or above my place as a human being in a society. my beliefs arise from being a person amidst people. i don’t love art for art’s sake alone, actually! i don’t love objects because they are objects: i love them because they are artifacts of our humanity, because they communicate and connect us, because they embody love and curiosity and fear and feeling. i love art because i love people. i want universal health care because i want to see people universally cared for. i want universal basic income because people’s safety and dignity should not be determined by their economic productivity to an employer. i am anti-war and pro-choice for the same reason: i value people’s lives but also their autonomy and right to self-determination. my beliefs are not abstractions. i could never value a type of economic system that i saw hurting people, no matter how much “growth” it produced. i could never love “law and order” more than i love a child, any child, i saw trapped in a cage.

would i be willing to risk death, trying to save the statue of liberty? probably, yes. but there is no culture without people, and therefore i also believe there are no cultural treasures worth more than other people’s lives. and as far as i’m concerned the same goes for laws, or markets, or borders.

Well said!

This is an excellent ethical discussion.

The first time I came across this post, randomslasher’s addition was life changing for me. I suddenly understood where the right was coming from, and I had never been angrier.

This is also why so many people on the right fail to see the hypocrisy of trying to make abortion illegal when they themselves have had abortions. They can tally up their own life circumstances and conclude that it would be difficult or impossible to continue a pregnancy, but they’re completely mystified by the idea that women they don’t know are also human beings with complicated lives and limited spoon allocation.

This is also why they think “get a job” is useful advice. In their heads they honestly do not understand why the NPCs who make up the majority of the human race can’t just flip a switch from “no job” to “job.” When they say “get a job” they’re filing a glitch report with God and they honestly think that’s all it takes.

This is also why they tend to view demographics as individuals. They think that every single Muslim is just a different avatar for the same bit of programming.

Borrowed observation from @innuendostudios​ here, but: there’s also a fundamental difference in how progressives view social problems versus how conservatives view them. That is, progressives view them as problems to be solved, whereas conservatives do not believe you can solve anything.

Conservatives view social issues as universal constants that fundamentally are unable to be changed, like the weather. You can try to alter your own behavior to protect yourself (you can carry an umbrella), and you can commiserate about how bad the weather is, but you can’t stop it from raining. This is why conservatives blame victims of rape for dressing immodestly or for drinking or for going out at night: to them, those things are like going out without an umbrella when you know it’s going to rain. 

“But then why do conservatives try to stop things they dislike by making them illegal, like drug use or immigration or abortion?” And the answer is: they’re not. They know perfectly well that those things will continue. No amount of studies showing that their methods are ineffective will matter to them because effectiveness is not the point. The point is to punish people for doing bad things, because punishing people is how you show your disapproval of their actions; if you don’t punish them, then you’re condoning their behavior. 

This is why they will never support rehabilitative prisons, even though they reduce crime. This is why they will never support free birth control for everyone, even though that would reduce abortions. This is why they will never support just giving homeless people houses, even though it’s proven to be cheaper and more effective at stopping homelessness than halfway houses and shelters. It’s not about stopping evil, because you can’t; it’s about saying definitively what is Bad and what is Good, and we as a society do that by punishing the people we’ve decided are bad. 

This is why the conservative response to “holy fuck, they’re putting children in cages!” is typically something along the lines of “it’s their parents’ fault for trying to come here illegally; if they didn’t want to have their kids taken away, they shouldn’t have committed a crime.” It doesn’t matter that entering the US unlawfully is a misdemeanor and child kidnapping isn’t typically a criminal sentence. It does not matter that this has absolutely zero effect on people unlawfully entering the US. The point is that conservatives have decided that entering unlawfully is Bad, anything that is not punishing undocumented immigrants – due process of asylum and removal defense claims, for example – is supporting Badness, and kidnapping children is an appropriate punishment for being Bad.

Aristocats play Lizzo. Sound on!

Created by Brenden Cary 

(Thanks to @caliblair for letting me know who made this!)

This is art.

2020 YA Reads By Authors of Color

10 Things I Hate About Pinky by Sandhya Menon - The follow-up to When Dimple Met Rishi and There’s Something about Sweetie, Pinky and Samir pretend to date—with disastrous and hilarious results.

145th Street: Short Stories by Walter Dean Myers - A salty, wrenchingly honest collection of stories set on one block of 145th Street.

A Map to the Sun by Sloane Leong -  A coming-of age-story about a struggling girls’ basketball team of a fictional neighborhood in the LA area. 

A Song Below Water by Bethany C. Morrow - About the strength of black sisterhood set in Portland, OR, best friends Tavi and Effie discover their true supernatural identity when Effie starts being haunted by demons from her past, and Tavia accidentally lets out her magical siren voice during a police stop.

A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne A. Brown - Inspired by West African folklore in which a grieving crown princess, Karina, and a desperate refugee, Malik, find themselves on a collision course to murder each other, despite their growing attraction.

All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson - Journalist and LGBTQ+ activist George shows readers how they can fight for themselves or be allies in the struggle for equity and equality.

A Breath Too Late by Rocky Callen - After 17-year-old Ellie dies by suicide, she looks back on the events of her life that led up to the moment, directly addressing the characters in her world—including her mother and the boy she loved—both animate and inanimate, interweaving past and present. 

All The Days Past, All the Days To Come by Mildred B. Taylor - The saga of the Logan family–made famous in the Newbery Medal-winning Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry–concludes in a long-awaited and deeply fulfilling story.

All The Things We Never Knew by Liara Tamani - After locking eyes on a Texas high school basketball court, black teens Carli and Rex discover how first love, heartbreak, betrayal, and family can shape you—for better or for worse. 

Almost American Girl by Robin Ha - A Korean-born, non-English-speaking girl, abruptly transplanted from Seoul to Alabama,  struggles with extreme culture shock and isolation, until she discovers her passion for comic arts.

And the Stars Were Burning Brightly by Danielle Jawando - A story of suicide, mental health, bullying, grief and growing up around social media, after 15-year-old Nathan discovers the horrifying truth about his brother’s suicide. 

Anna K: A Love Story by Jenny Lee - A  modern reimagining of Anna Karenina, set between Manhattan & Greenwich, CT, where a Korean American “It Girl” is caught between her picture-perfect, family-approved boyfriend and the guy who just might be her one true love, along her high-flying cast of friends. 

The Archer at Dawn (The Tiger at Midnight #2) by Swati Teerdhala - Set in an Indian & Hindu-inspired world, long-held secrets will force Kunal and Esha to reconsider their loyalties—to their country and to each other.

b, Book and Me by Sagwa Kim - A poignant coming of age story about two Korean high school girls, who equally despair over and desire adulthood. 

Banned Book Club by Hyun Sook Kim, Hyun Ju Ko & Ryan Estrada - Set against the backdrop of political oppression, bookish college student Hyun Sook finds her political views slowly challenged after she joins the Banned Book Club and befriends a group of student activists.

Before The Dawn (RWBY #2) by E.C. Myers - Unsure of whom they can trust, Teams CFVY and SSSN must contend with new teammates and uneasy rivalries, all while The Crown continues to plot their next move. 

The Betrothed by Keira Cass - Lady Hollis Brite realizes that falling in love with a king and being crowned queen may not be the happily ever after she thought it would be, after she crosses paths with a commoner who challenges her future. 

Black Girl Unlimited by Echo Brown - Echo Brown is a wizard from the East Side, who transfers to the rich school on the West Side, and an insightful teacher becomes a pivotal mentor. But a black veil of depression soon threatens to undo everything she’s worked for.

The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta - A boy comes to terms with his identity as a mixed-race gay teen - then at university he finds his wings as a drag artist. 

The Black Kids by Christina Hammonds Reed - A coming-of-age debut exploring race, class, and violence through the eyes of wealthy black teen Ashley, whose family gets caught in the vortex of the 1992 Rodney King Riots.

Blazewrath Games by Amparo Ortiz - 17-year-old Lana Torres, who after rescuing a prized dragon, is awarded a spot on her native Puerto Rico’s Blazewrath World Cup team. But the return of the Sire, an ancient dragon, soon threatens to compromise this year’s tournament.

The Blossom and the Firefly by Sherri L. Smith -  Set in Japan during eight days in 1945, two teens, former student Hana and violin virtuoso-turned-kamikaze-pilot Taro, find their lives intertwined in the midst of war.  

Breath Like Water by Anna Jarzab - When swimmer Susannah Ramos finds her sports dreams put in jeopardy, she struggles to keep her career afloat, before two important people enter her life: a new coach with a revolutionary training strategy, and a charming fellow swimmer named Harry Matthews. 

Broken Wish: The Mirror by Julie C. Dao - As 16-year-old Elva taps into her powers for the first time, she discovers a magical mirror and its owner—none other than the Witch of the North Woods herself. As Elva learns more about her burgeoning magic, the lines between hero and villain start to blur. 

Brown Girl Ghosted by Mintie Das - When the queen bee of the school ends up dead following a leaked sex tape, Violet Choudry’s spirit world friends decide it’s the perfect time for Violet to accept the legacy of spiritual fighters from whom she’s descended. Her mission? Find the killer. Or else she’s next.

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas - Latinx trans teen Yadriel, hoping to release his cousin’s spirit and prove himself as a brujo, accidentally summons the wrong ghost and resident bad boy Julian Diaz, falling in love with him.

Check Please!: Sticks & Scones by Ngozi Ukazu - Bitty and Jack must navigate their new, secret, long-distance relationship, and decide how to reveal their relationship to friends and teammates. And on top of that, Bitty’s time at Samwell is quickly coming to an end. 

Cinderella Is Dead by Kalynn Bayron - 16-year-old Sophia would much rather marry Erin, her childhood best friend, than parade in front of suitors. At the ball, Sophia flees, hiding in Cinderella’s mausoleum. There, she meets Constance, the last known descendant of Cinderella and her step sisters. Together they vow to bring down the king once and for all.

Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo -  Separated by distance and Papi’s secrets, sisters Caminos and Yahaira Rios, are forced to face a new reality in which their father is dead and their lives are forever altered.

The Court of Miracles by Kester Grant -  In 1828, Paris, talented cat burglar  Eponine Thénardier goes head-to-head with the nobility as well as the leaders of Paris’s criminal underground, during her quest to save her sister Cosette’s life, which will take her from the city’s dark underbelly to the glittering court of Louis XVII, following the dangerous days after a failed French Revolution. 

Keep reading

2020 seems like a good year to read and expand our perspectives! (And the year after that, and the year after that…)

That little girl is going places

I know more about economics than AOC and my knowledge on economics is on a high school level. Its actually embarassing how little she knows about this shit. But hey, expecting a socialist to know about economics is like expecting a fish to know what a desert is.

Much of the ocean is a desert

You know what? Let’s use the allowance example again to make it even clearer.

Let’s pretend we have an allowance tax bracket with a 70% tax on money received after a certain point. To keep things simple, we’ll make the limit $90.

If a kid does chores and earns $10 in allowance, they get $10. They’re not going to be affected by the 70% tax.

If a kid does chores and earns $50, they get $50. They also aren’t in the 70% tax bracket, even though they make five times as much money as the kid making $10.

If a kid does chores and earns $100 in allowance, then they’re in the allowance tax bracket with the 70% tax.

$100 minus $90 is $10. This is the part that’s going to be taxed 70%.

70% of $10 is $7.

So the kid getting $100 in allowance will have $93 after the 70% tax takes its share.

Now, I’d never impose such a thing on actual kids. All of this is a thought exercise.

But if it were real, the kid making $10 and the kid making $50 would probably be kind of mad if the kid getting $93 was bitching about being short $7.

the phrase “curiosity killed the cat” is actually not the full phrase it actually is “curiosity killed the cat but satisfaction brought it back” so don’t let anyone tell you not to be a curious little baby okay go and be interested in the world uwu

See also:

Blood is thicker than water The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb.

Meaning that relationships formed by choice are stronger than those formed by birth.

Let’s not forget that “Jack of all trades, master of none” ends with “But better than a master of one.”

It means that being equally good/average at everything is much better than being perfect at one thing and sucking at everything else. So don’t worry if you’re not perfect at something you do! Being okay is better!

These made me feel better

Also, “great minds think alike” ends with “but fools rarely differ”

It goes to show that conformity isn’t always a good thing. And that just because more than one person has the same idea, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a good idea.

what the fuck why haven’t i heard the full version to any of these 

“Birds of a feather flock together” ends with “until the cat comes.”

It’s actually a warning about fair-weather friends, not an assessment of how complementary people are.

I’ve always felt like these were cut down on purpose.

I really like these phrases and plan on spreading this knowledge.

The early bird catches the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

I want to make designs out of these.

Funny how all the half-finished ones encourage uniformity and upholding the status-quo, while the complete proverbs encourage like…living exciting, eclectic lives driven by choice and personal passion.

NICE

The legendary thread is back

IT’S FUCKING BACK!!!!!!!!

This one is perfect for Tumblr: “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing…” ends with “drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring: there shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, and drinking largely sobers us again.”

So, it’s not that knowledge is dangerous, the emphasis is on having just a little knowledge.  Having just a cursory understanding of something causes overconfidence and potential to misunderstand, but when you really delve into a subject in depth you realize the full complexity of it.

THANK YOU I had no idea that these were unfinished!

#2020

Hahaha I’m a functional adult that can use the phone no problem, yep, definitely *sweats*. In all seriousness, I’ve had a huge problem with doing phone calls most of my life and have made huge progress with it to the point that I can sound almost normal during them. The build up to a call is still pure agony though.

WHEW felt this one

Bughead + tangled parallels

sunrise color change

by Denny Bitte

here’s the thing about greta gerwig’s little women. it’s really not just about jo anymore. almost every adaptation of little women has been a version of here’s jo and her sisters who have two dimensional stories. meg marries off, she’s happy. beth dies and nobody is really that sad because we never got to know her well. amy married laurie and everyone is confused. but with gerwig’s telling, she affords every sister real autonomy and story. she showed the struggle and sacrifice and love that meg has. she gives beth one of the most beautiful story arcs ever. she lets beth exists in the movie and grow on us before her death. and she completely translates amy to a character that may have always been right there, but not properly communicated. amy and laurie make sense. you feel beths absence. you understand meg. and you still have jo right there in focus. but they all feel real. the other three don’t feel like accessories anymore but real and important characters of the story. and it’s fucked if gerwig doesn’t get nominated for best screenplay and direction because she took a 150 year old story and made it seem brand new.