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Much Ado About...

@ladyorpheus / ladyorpheus.tumblr.com

She/her. Gray-A. Ravenclaw. INTP. Fandom Old. United States. Are there any words to sum up a person? Well if there were I'd be a cornucopia of contradictions, each epitaph in an abnormal juxtaposion with the next, hardly conceivable and strangely chimerical...
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“I’m almost 50, and here is the best thing I have learned so far: every strange thing you’ve ever been into, every failed hobby or forgotten instrument, everything you have ever learned will come back to you, will serve you when you need it. No love, however brief, is wasted.” @louisethebaker on Twitter

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mr--link

No love, however brief, is wasted.

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nayters

I also like it when they're like hey what's up or something personal/natural instead of the welcome to wherever how can I serve you bit.

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lastoneout

I also like it when they are sitting down or listening to music they clearly enjoy

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fieldbears

There is something so nourishing about walking into a place of business and immediately thinking "huh, I wouldn't have guessed this place would be playing this kind of music" only to see an employee absolutely head-banging along because today is their day to pick the CD and they are living

Despite what capitalists might think, I do not want to roleplay being royalty in the presence of slaves when I seek professional assistance in obtaining my basic human needs.

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Shoutout to the Elder Millennial at the table next to me at the gaming bar, whose barbarian just charged into battle shouting "LEEEEROYYYY JENKINS!!!!"

and then had to stop and sheepishly explain a World of Warcraft meme to his genZ GM.

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the "canon isn't real we make our own rules" to "i am begging you people to revisit the source material" pipeline

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geeneelee

For me it’s the same idea as the “know the rules before you start breaking them” thing for art and writing-it lets you break them deliberately

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reblogged
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saturdaysky

Have you read @ariadne-mouse's shadowgast volcanology AU? It's lovely and poignant, so consider this a rec from me! I reread it just the other day, and it inspired me to touch up this old sketch I had.

Summary:

“Okay, you definitely have something new,” Beau said when he stalled for too long. “Spill.” Essek continued to chew his thumbnail. “Tour group on the lava field. There was a sudden breakout from a soft spot.” “...And?” He took a breath, then shrugged. “It looked like hands?” (Aka, the spooky volcanology AU that absolutely no one asked for.)
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marypsue

One of the worst feelings in the world: when you are just desperate, like claw-your-own-skin-off desperate, to create, but the only thing that even vaguely appeals to you to work on is a nebulous half-feeling that might be dreamily related to some half-formed notion of a concept. I must! Make! No thing! Only make!

Everything is boring. All activity is meaningless. I understand why Sherlock Holmes did cocaine.

YES. That's it. The number of people tagging or replying to this like 'yeah it sucks when you're blocked on your projects' or 'yeah it sucks when you don't have any new ideas' or even 'yeah it sucks when you're too sick/sad/busy to work on the things' no. No. That's close, but no cigar. I have ideas. I have plans. I have projects in progress. I know exactly what the next step on each of them would be. No external or concrete factor is actually stopping me from working on any of them. Except. None of them are engaging or help reduce this feeling.

There's just bees in my brain.

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Incredible how Americans are so brainwashed by capitalist realism that a large contingent out our leftists genuinely believe government regulation isn’t physically possible.

There was a time, not that long ago, when regular savings accounts paid you a whole-number-percentage of interest.

There was a time when the federal government forced auto makers to stop putting taillights in bumpers because they got damaged too easily.

There was a time when Chicago Midway Airport wasn’t 85% one god damn airline.

We could have this kind of world again we just have to kill the Ghost of Ronald Reagan.

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My hypothesis is that in like 10 years gen z is gonna have a big cult boom the way the boomers did in the 70s

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chazymandias

It’s already happening on tik tok. There’s a fun new thing going round that’s citing common symptoms of depression and anxiety as signs you’re about to have your awakening and that you are actually an alien and the reason you don’t feel right is because you’re home sick for your own galaxy. So that’s fun.

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aleatoryw

agreed, and i don't mean this in a "haha gen z is so dumb they're gonna join a tiktok cult lmao" i mean that conditions are perfect for the formation of cults right now.

  • high unemployment and a lot of underpaying, pointless jobs = people are looking for things to do with their life, a purpose
  • skyrocketing cost of living = most young people will not be able to live on their own, meaning some will end up in a group living situation with people interested in recruiting them
  • it's a time of great cultural and political upheaval, nothing feels real, people are desperate for meaning and human connection. cults promise that
  • there is a new wave of acceptance and understanding for ways of life outside the norm, which is great! ...except for when cult leaders tell you abusive and controlling practices are just their culture, their religion, their lifestyle, their beliefs, their tradition, and if you disrespect it you are the problem
  • social media influencers have already shown us how easy it is to build a cult of personality and attract people from anywhere in the world who are interested in the exact brand you are selling
  • spirtuality is having a boom, as are things like astrology, crystals, tarot, meditation, energy... those things aren't bad on their own but they are often used as tools of cult spaces
  • wellness. i think a lot of people are already in wellness cults. you can make people do a lot of things in the name of "wellness" and a big factor of maintaining a cult is keeping members in a state of decreased cognition..... like say, with regular fasting
  • i think people are just unaware in general of how cults function, especially because the satanic panic was a big stupid false alarm that convinced the youths that dungeons and dragons or doom were gateways to cults, which are scary evil child murdering, satan-worshipping gangs. people don't know how to spot them in real life.
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queersatanic

[ID:  Spongebob wrestling meme format. Buff Patrick labeled "predatory cult" flexes and growls in a wrestling ring at a stern, buff Spongebob labeled "my intelligence". In his corner Mr Crabs is labeled "my education". Final panel shows Patrick and whistling Spongebob walking out hand-in-hand, both labeled "rationalizing why this isn't really a cult" /ID]

(This is actually more relevant here than standalone.) 

Our popular media has tended to portray people in cults as ignorant or as losers when that’s really not how they work. Cults don’t want dead weight they have to support; they want talented, clever, energetic people they can exploit to siphon wealth and labor out of.

Some are religious, but some are political. You find yourself moving into a house full of Maoist revolutionaries because capitalism really is that awful and ecological collapse is imminent—but for some reason, the leader of the self-crit sessions is also the person everyone else in the house is in a polyamorous relationship with, and they can’t see anyone else outside of the house without her approval. Or you need a little extra money and you get told you’d be so good at selling Keto products. You’re a natural, and after you get through these first tough months, the leg under you will be developed enough you only have to work if you wanna hit bigger goals. Etc.

Loneliness, a lack of purpose, and desperation all make you susceptible to cults no matter how smart you are. In fact, your very clever brain is also extremely capable of redirecting your thoughts away from realizing you’re being exploited and abused because, after all, you’re not some idiot, are you? 

We’ve got a ton of very clever young people fully aware that they’re going to have to suffer through decisions of the selfish dead, and they’re going to crave salvation of all different kinds because the future is going to suck, and it won’t have been their fault, and they won’t be able to do anything to stop it. 

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Sometimes self-care is, actually, NOT getting onto the computer and little treats and watching youtube videos. Sometimes those things are self-care, but sometimes they're also avoidant behaviors.

Sometimes self care is waking up and just. Fucking getting in the car. And driving to the bank. And the store. And buying the cat litter. And changing the cat boxes you've been avoiding because your brains been stuck in a hole. And picking up the trash you've been piling up. And getting a load into the wash. And mowing the lawn before the village council sends you a formal complaint and potential-fines warning.

Like its hard and annoying to do because it sucks. It sucks so much. But if I don't start working on this pile of bullshit I've let build up because it stinks and i was stuck in deer-in-headlights mode, I risk letting it turn into fuckery. I do not have the patience for fuckery that I once - foolishly! - thought I had.

This mentality helped me so much. Framing my "chores" and mundane tasks as self care and something I can do for myself, really helped me. On a good day I feel like I can genuinely enjoy basic to-dos because I get something nice for myself afterwards, even if that nice thing is just a better living environment. And sometimes it's still too hard, and that's okay too.

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reblogged
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mockiatoh

My biggest frustration with the left has always been the inability/unwillingness to work on making progress inside of the system while advocating for greater change.

I remember the first time I came to this realization.

I was nineteen, pregnant. We couldn’t afford to heat the house because we couldn’t afford the deposit to turn the gas on. It was miserably cold. The duplex we were renting was old and rickety and drafty. The window frames were messed up and there were cracks you could stick your finger through that were open to the elements.

Just, like, to give you an idea where we were financially. And this was better than we’d been doing before!

Anyway, I had recently started going to DSA meetings. And that month, they were talking about how a moderate democrat had successfully gotten a small increase in WIC benefits monthly. It came out to, like, $10 a month.

The members talking—mostly male, almost all doing decent—were scornful. The democrat should have pushed harder and gotten more, refused to accept anything until everyone else caved to their demands. I remember sitting there, quietly drinking the latte in the smallest size they had that I had bought with scrounged quarters, listening. Wishing it wasn’t held in an indie coffee shop because it was a luxury I really couldn’t afford, but it would be rude not to. Enjoying the coffee anyway.

I was one of the lucky ones who was getting that additional $10 a month through WIC. Even more exciting, we were now getting a voucher for the farmers’ market. I casually mentioned that WIC recipients would now be getting farmers’ market vouchers, too.

The guy who organized the meetings was a hard worker, passionate guy. Did something in tech.

He was like, “That’s the thing! These people don’t want farmers market vouchers. They want—” and he went on to describe a bunch of pie in the sky desires. That, yeah, sounded good.

But one. I was one of those people! A lot if the tamiles were super excited about it, myself included.

I had never been to a farmers’ market before. I tried arugula for the first time, a piece pulled from a bunch by the grower as he explained the flavor difference. I hadn’t known before then that different lettuce greens had different flavors, that it was more than just the texture and shape. I tried pesto, which delighted me. Goat cheese. I got three full pounds of strawberries for two dollars, since they were closing soon and the old man selling the berries got a kick out of me.

Anyway. It was like, you have a decent life. Not great but decent! The things that are life changing for me, for us… you already have.

The ten dollars at the grocery store made the difference between a meal of broken-noodles-with-some-half-horrible-pantry-scraps and a meal. It kept me full and healthy! And the additional farmers’ market voucher was world changing for me.

The democrat who worked for those things barely got them through. And it was means tested to hell and back. They weren’t able to get everything they wanted. But what they got made such a huge difference for me, for people like me.

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283,000 likes………giant meteor strike the earth rn holy shit. oh my god.

"maybe it's not your pussy" is such a funny phrase and also correct. People wonder why chores are so hard and it's like, friends we used to have a whole intergenerational team on this and now Grandma is locked in a beige box. Cooking is hard.

Reblog the problem is capitalism and not your pussy

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