https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/12/business/jeffrey-epstein-bill-gates.html

Dude... i dont care. Cry about it! Were both alive in the same day and age. I was busy away from keyboard on another blog.

If you tell me Im not allowed to enjoy Nature then thats telling me im not allowed to be alive, and frankly, thats not very egalitarian of you, and you obviously think all people are not at the end of the day actually equals.

Im not gonna respond to your tags because you decided not to post them as actual text.

Also, as an addition id like to add that Native Americans modernly are being ignored and put on the back burner. I dont think their number one priority is getting back the country, and even if it is, I dont respect that - but I will support them in getting food and in fighting to educate consumerists and ecoignorants and people who rape the Earth for money backwardsly and twistedly - in large part to honor them and what their culture has always been about and still remains valuing elementally to this very darned day.

If you dont like that then I dont know what to say other than, go be bitter in a corner while the rest of us do Kumbaya (kinda hard with the Coronapocalypse and the nearing end of the world due to corporate interests like Bill Gates and his viruses and vaccines, but you know what i mean maybe)

I forage for edible weeds and study ecology as my pastime. 

Say what you will but I have an unbreakable bond with Nature, even death will not part me and Nature, because.. like, its real and shit (and imma decompose and become plants and then plant-eating deer).

Bruh, so like, honestly, you can go cry about it, cuz I am not

I guess my hot take about cottagecore is

- it’s mostly aspirational/a coping mechanism and the vast majority of people who post it are not actually going to start a homestead. in a time when everyone is stuck in small apartments during a pandemic, it makes a lot of sense that people are dreaming of independence, space, and relationship to land. it’s a fantasy. i don’t think it’s fair to say that people are doing harm because of this.

- if people do start homesteads, they’ll be buying the land from other white people, not colonizing land that indigenous people currently hold. so at worst it’s perpetuating/not undoing the existing system, but like, it’s not like if they don’t buy it it’ll go back into native hands. there’s nothing inherently worse about white queer women owning land than white straight men owning land (and it honestly feels a little suspect to think there is!) 

- buying land is not in itself the issue, rather the issue is how you relate to it. get in touch with your local indigenous nation. ask them what they want and need. pay them reparations – i’ve heard of someone paying her local indigenous nation a land tax equivalent to what she pays her landlord. get involved in efforts to help indigenous, black, and brown people buy land. learn about the history of racist usda lending practices. there’s a lot more to this issue than “buying land is bad.” btw, you can engage in this work even if you’re not planning on buying land. - people should definitely have an awareness of how they are operating within this system, and an awareness of the harm the homesteading movement and white flight did, but this is not 1865. we can’t and won’t undo the harm of colonization by just telling people “stay in cities where you’re harming no one.” that’s ignoring all the harm that happens in cities (ie gentrification, food deserts, homelessness), and in any case, cities in north america are indigenous land too. also, tbh, i don’t think the way to solve the issues of a world where so much harm is based on displacement and movement restrictions is just to place more movement restrictions on people.

DONATE FOOD TO YOUR SOUP KITCHENS AND YOUR FOOD PANTRIES

I dont think it’s about being “in touch” with indigenous people, because if you look at it really really hard, maybe youll come to realize, i know it’s harder for you than for some other people, littleboybloo, but indigenous people are people too.

I guess my hot take about cottagecore is

- it’s mostly aspirational/a coping mechanism and the vast majority of people who post it are not actually going to start a homestead. in a time when everyone is stuck in small apartments during a pandemic, it makes a lot of sense that people are dreaming of independence, space, and relationship to land. it’s a fantasy. i don’t think it’s fair to say that people are doing harm because of this.

- if people do start homesteads, they’ll be buying the land from other white people, not colonizing land that indigenous people currently hold. so at worst it’s perpetuating/not undoing the existing system, but like, it’s not like if they don’t buy it it’ll go back into native hands. there’s nothing inherently worse about white queer women owning land than white straight men owning land (and it honestly feels a little suspect to think there is!) 

- buying land is not in itself the issue, rather the issue is how you relate to it. get in touch with your local indigenous nation. ask them what they want and need. pay them reparations – i’ve heard of someone paying her local indigenous nation a land tax equivalent to what she pays her landlord. get involved in efforts to help indigenous, black, and brown people buy land. learn about the history of racist usda lending practices. there’s a lot more to this issue than “buying land is bad.” btw, you can engage in this work even if you’re not planning on buying land. - people should definitely have an awareness of how they are operating within this system, and an awareness of the harm the homesteading movement and white flight did, but this is not 1865. we can’t and won’t undo the harm of colonization by just telling people “stay in cities where you’re harming no one.” that’s ignoring all the harm that happens in cities (ie gentrification, food deserts, homelessness), and in any case, cities in north america are indigenous land too. also, tbh, i don’t think the way to solve the issues of a world where so much harm is based on displacement and movement restrictions is just to place more movement restrictions on people.

Mary Oliver, Blue Horses; “Blueberries”

The thing that’s fucks me off about the cottagecore shitfight as someone who both lives/works on an actual farm and is from a rural area with a high indigenous population is that like. If you actually take to heart indigenous values and beliefs regarding the land then you wouldn’t have a problem with people wanting to move out of cities and plant strawberries and own a chicken or six. like nobody by living that way is harming native practices any more than they would be by living in a rank nasty city. Like you’re directing criticisms to the wrong kinda farmer bro, airy fairies who can barely get out of bed by 11 to feed the cows are not a threat to you.

I guess my hot take about cottagecore is

- it’s mostly aspirational/a coping mechanism and the vast majority of people who post it are not actually going to start a homestead. in a time when everyone is stuck in small apartments during a pandemic, it makes a lot of sense that people are dreaming of independence, space, and relationship to land. it’s a fantasy. i don’t think it’s fair to say that people are doing harm because of this.

- if people do start homesteads, they’ll be buying the land from other white people, not colonizing land that indigenous people currently hold. so at worst it’s perpetuating/not undoing the existing system, but like, it’s not like if they don’t buy it it’ll go back into native hands. there’s nothing inherently worse about white queer women owning land than white straight men owning land (and it honestly feels a little suspect to think there is!) 

- buying land is not in itself the issue, rather the issue is how you relate to it. get in touch with your local indigenous nation. ask them what they want and need. pay them reparations – i’ve heard of someone paying her local indigenous nation a land tax equivalent to what she pays her landlord. get involved in efforts to help indigenous, black, and brown people buy land. learn about the history of racist usda lending practices. there’s a lot more to this issue than “buying land is bad.” btw, you can engage in this work even if you’re not planning on buying land. - people should definitely have an awareness of how they are operating within this system, and an awareness of the harm the homesteading movement and white flight did, but this is not 1865. we can’t and won’t undo the harm of colonization by just telling people “stay in cities where you’re harming no one.” that’s ignoring all the harm that happens in cities (ie gentrification, food deserts, homelessness), and in any case, cities in north america are indigenous land too. also, tbh, i don’t think the way to solve the issues of a world where so much harm is based on displacement and movement restrictions is just to place more movement restrictions on people.

finally put into words why the cottagecore discourse makes me so upset and angry.

non natives can reblog but don’t say shit if you’re not native american.

i think maybe the cottagecore discourse is so funny to me bc on one hand like yeah there is definitely a problem w white people wanting to exempt themselves from society rather than improving it and just furthering a colonialist mindset, but thats been happening since well before “cottagecore” was in the internet vernacular and i doubt most of them would even associate w that word.

most of the cottagecore aesthetic bloggers/users on tiktok/twitter im aware of are like. 17. and just post pictures of frogs and moss lawns. and people on here just get so mad about it dsfkjhjskfhjkhfdhkhsdfkjsd

@bl4ckvamp​​ is a Nature hater and wants to mow down the woods to make a space center

Hey question, I’ve seen a lot of discourse about cottagecore, and the vast majority of the points criticizing it are valid. I still enjoy it on a surface-level of aestheticism, the flowers and things, but do you know of any alternative aesthetics that are similar, but without the colonialist implications?

im sure there are alternatives but i dont know their names if there are i dont know their names

cottagecore discourse remains the most baffling thing to me still

Then why dont you actively promote cottagecore instead of denouncing it? @witches-ofcolor​ By telling people they should sever their connection with Mother Nature how are they gonna be able to help anyone else? Dont you know airplane safety 101?

The cottagecore discourse confuses me so much, I've always wanted an old house with a large garden but its colonizing if I do it? How do I live anywhere without being a colonizer? How are we supposed to truly decolonize? I want to be helpful but I don't know how.

Okay, I had said I was going to clarify my stance, so let me make this the post where I do that. I don’t see anything wrong with what you want to do anon. There is nothing wrong with wanting to go live in the woods and have your own house and land.

To decolonize I highly recommend being invested in conversations from cultures who are/were colonized, and seeing how you can work towards helping those populations, be it community service, activism, awareness, etc., it will differ for everyone. 

The issues I have with cottagecore (and these are MY issues, i”m not going to be speaking for or over Indigenous users because I don’t want to get anything wrong but feel free to add on) is people calling themselves homesteaders, this act of white liberals wanting to run away from the institutions that their ancestors created (You uphold that institution as well) instead of actually combatting our society to make it a better place. 

This is double especially for those who call themselves feminists and liberals. 

It’s like, “Wow the world is so fucked up, let me and my gf move to a cottage and forget everything.” And i’m like: 1) running away isn’t going to solve anything 2) your people and ancestors are responsible for the state of current politics 3) it’s really, really easy for white people to just fall off the grid and live some hippie dream while people of color, who are barred from this lifestyle because of institutionalized racism, are still here fighting. 

My biggest issue with cottagecore is the THOUGHT PROCESS and hypocrisy because to me it’s just…iffy. Lowkey kinda racist (also, Like did slaves plow that land? Were they forced to work that land that you’re calling your cottage now? Learn about the history and give back to the people). It’s about having so much privilege that you can say “to hell” with something you and your people are very responsible for creating, and that’s just the story of our history. 

Do I believe you can do cottagecore as someone who’s white while being unproblematic? Yeah, sorta? Do what I said above, immerse yourself in conversation, become an activist to the best of your abilities, think of what you say and the implications it means. 

Go live in your cottage, but come back to ensure that others can be comfortable as well, especially if you’re out here calling yourselves feminist and liberals. 

Descending fog

This is one of the beautiful sukkahs made by the Bnei Menashe, the Jews of Mizoram, a state in the northeast of India.