Quick question, genuine question:

Why on earth does "more than half of US adults under 30 cannot read above an elementary school level" not strike horror into the heart of everyone who hears it?

Are the implications of it unclear????

I'm serious, people keep reacting with a sort of vague dismissal when I point this out, and I want to know why!

If adults in the US cannot read, then the only information they have access to is TV and video, the spaces with the most egregious and horrific misinformation!

If they cannot read, they cannot escape that misinformation.

This obscene lack of literacy should strike fear into every heart! US TV is notoriously horrific propaganda!

Is that???? Not??? Obvious???????

I know this sounds sarcastic, I know it does, but I'm completely serious here. I do not understand where the disconnect is.

ETA: This post continues here, with citations

ETA 2: There's a tag on my blog now; it's simply #literacy. You can click it at the bottom of this post to view on mobile, or click here for desktop.

ETA 3: Stop saying children are being manipulated on purpose. That's how you get conspiracy theories. This entire situation is just a serious of bad decisions, not a nefarious plot. Focus on the real problem if we want real solutions.

ETA 4: PUBLIC SCHOOLS ARE THE SOLUTION NOT THE PROBLEM, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE? I mean you can't read, obviously. I just said that. But holy SHIT.

ETA 5: I have begun compiling a list of resources, including at least some practice books at each difficulty level. Check the tag "reading resources" on my blog by clicking it below.

This is a test post to confirm that my icon and header uploaded correctly.

So now an older contestant is struggling (and REALLY trying) to pronounce unfamiliar spanish words, while actually shaking and stuttering with the effort.

So obviously both the voiceover and Paul Hollywood are mocking her for it, which, horrible but whatever.

So then the voiceover comes on to describe her plan, and???

LITERALLY MISPRONOUNCES IT WORSE.

Read this article this morning, thanks to a close friend who thought I'd like it (I did).

If you enjoyed "everyone's beautiful, no one is horny" a couple years ago, this is an excellent followup to the fact that this has Just Gotten Worse Over Time.

One thing I would personally mention is that while, as the article states, this is most obvious in terms of sex scenes, it's also true of just about every sensory pleasure.

You know how we all ogle "anime food" with an almost feral thirst? There used to be scenes in western media that also treated food as a glorious pleasure. Fried foods, desserts, rich meaty dinners... When was the last time you saw food treated with love in a film?

The same is true of just about every kind of pleasurable thing one can do with one's body. Sex, drugs, dance, hell even fighting.

Ask any stunt actor who worked before the last decade and they'll be very clear: fights are now composited in post instead of with choreography, often putting stunt actors in greater danger in the process because they're forced to fight against nonexistent opponents without the ability to, eg, trust their partner to catch their weight. To say nothing of the additional lack of safeties in other ways that have become extremely common in the Marvel era, where stunts are usually performed in a very controlled environment that leads safety directors to cut corners since everything is "under control."

If you ever thought, "wow, the fighting in Netflix Daredevil looks So Good" that would be because it's actual choreography with multiple actors on set at once.

This evaporation of bodily pleasure from media extends well past just sex scenes.

Yes, yes, Sanji letting Zoro help in the kitchen by letting him chop vegetables because he's good with pointy objects.

BUT. Have you considered?

They live in a world without most electrical appliances. A FUCKTON of physical labor goes into baking (and keep in mind how often Sanji bakes treats for the girls).

Sanji being tired (physically) and not feeling like taking 10 min to whip whipped cream. Being tired (mentally) of Zoro making fun of him for never working out. Sanji saying "fuck it" and just starts putting him to work.

The foccacia dough needs to be kneaded? "Have fun working a sticky mess for 20 minutes, asshole"

Need meringue? "No, STIFF peaks marimo. Don't tell me you're wimping out already"

"Are you even TRYING to flatten that steak Marimo?"

"Yes, it needs whipped cream. YES, I know you just made some yesterday. We need more"

Zoro's shoulders are burning but he's trying SO HARD not to lose face with the cook and meanwhile Sanji is silently losing it at Zoro's shock that cooking can in fact be a workout

OMG U GUYS WILL NEVER GUESS WHAT I JUST DID (I finished the video)

remember to make sure the dreblr tag stays clean by reporting spam :D

Does no one else check to see when posts were vaguely posted? Especially when they relate to dates or "trending"? Am I going to have to start putting little datestamps on my posts?

Your character Banger is nonbinary but they just look like a man to me? Are they like, pre transition or? Post? Or?

my queue is now filled up with enough posts to last til June...maybe I should increase the amount of posts it dumps out every day lol.

HEY CAN YOU VULTURES STOP COMMENTING THIS SHIT ON MY POST, PLEASE???????????

Look mate I'm an anticapital anarchist but I'm starting to wonder if you dipshit assholes purporting to share my name actually know what the fuck capitalism IS because you cunts get pissed about the most innocuous shit

@elisamaza

Can you see this one? I made it without my VPN so it should be clear.

Hey GBBO narrator? Hey?

What the FUCK do you think the phrase "Mexican Standoff" means??????????

Apparently this sideblog is blocked by the OP of this post, which seems weird but okay.

In any case, this is a good post, go read and reblog it.

So there's this post with a troubling number of notes going around insisting that "dead dove" is not a genre, it doesn't inherently have anything to do with darkfic, and that the tag could be applied to fics that are "100% fluffy where everyone's having a good time" if they happen to contain some abnormal (though entirely non-problematic) content like an unusual kink. The claim is that "dead dove: do not eat" is simply a "courtesy tag" that means "this is a very specific niche, mind the tags." And that's just... wrong.

I wrote up a whole rebuttal to this post since I can't stand misinformation and frankly OP was being kinda rude and judgey on top of their wrongness. But right after I posted my reply, OP turned off reblogs because, and I quote, “some fuckwad added some dumb shit onto this post and it is no longer educational” (the “fuckwad” being me and the “dumb shit” being proof that they were wrong). A couple people have asked me to make a rebloggable version of my response, which I've decided to do because this isn't the first time I've heard similar claims and I want to help set the record straight. However, I'm not linking the original post on the off chance this gains traction because OP did the right thing by turning off reblogs, preventing it from circulating further, and I don't want them to get hate for being unfortunately misinformed.

For those who don't know the history, "dead dove: do not eat" was originally proposed as a catchall "hydra trash party" alternative label for any fandom to warn that the content of a fic may be considered problematic or potentially upsetting and to read the tags carefully so you know what you're getting into and won't complain later. Specifically, DD:DNE was intended to convey that the Bad Things in the fic would likely be reveled in and not explicitly condemned by the narrative, which some people tend to get up in arms about, hence the need for the extra warning in addition to the tags. Don't believe me? Here's the original proposal (note DD:DNE can be found on a handful of fics dated before 2015 but this is when it really took off and became a Thing).

There are currently around 50,000 fics tagged as "dead dove: do not eat" on AO3 and close to 50% of those also include the rape/noncon warning (which of course is not the only type of "dead dove" but is one of the most popular and most consistently tagged). The normal percentage of noncon fics in any given fandom? Around 1-3%. That's a HUGE disparity. So don't tell me that dead dove is just a general "courtesy tag" and doesn't or shouldn't have dark connotations. Even the context of the original joke on Arrested Development has a dark undertone. Micheal Bluth casually finds an animal carcass in a bag in his refrigerator with the label "do not eat", as if eating it would be any sane person's first thought. The whole situation is kinda fucked up. And this fucked up vibe very much carries over into fandom usage too, as was intended.

The claim that dead dove has nothing to do with the content's genre and could just as easily be used to describe a 100% fluffy fic in which everyone's having a good time is straight up Wrong, or at the very least, severely warping the original meaning. Also, when someone these days says that they like/dislike "dead dove" most people in fandom automatically understand what that means because of the consistency of its usage over the years and the way language evolves. Whether you like it or not, "dead dove" IS a genre now and the term does carry a specific connotation. I do agree that DD:DNE should definitely still be used in conjunction with other tags, when applicable, to be explicit about the exact type of fucked up content you may find, but to say that the term is meaningless on its own is patently false and I'm tired of people who don't know what they're talking about pushing this narrative and causing even more confusion.

You want a generic term that also means "mind the tags" and doesn't have any inherently dark connotations? Just use good ol' "what it says on the tin" instead of trying to force dead dove to be something it's not.