The amount of negativity today on my dash is killing me, from Gale/Wyll fans shitting on Astarion fans, to gay Astarion fans shitting on hetero Astarion fans (basically Astarion fans shitting on each other), to people arguing over content stealing, Larian saying deuces to further developement on BG3, like what the shit is happening today 😭

Had to unfollow yet another blog I've followed for years for going down the dark hole of assuming a few dumbasses *claiming* to be Americans making shitty comments and displaying an extremely myopic worldview is representative of what most Americans are like as a cultural fact.

So. I suppose I'll make this point: As an American, it does not shock or surprise me when someone from any other nation or language can speak fluent English. I can usually tell they're not American by their spelling conventions, however. I was taught both. It does not weird me out or bother me when I see the rest of the world use the metric system--I honestly don't care. Just tell me what side of the ruler, measuring cup, or thermometer will best communicate, and that's the side I'll use for that person and occasion. I was taught both. It does not strike me as fanciful--novel, maybe--but not unrealistic when I learn or hear about foods and other sundry good being sold in a different fashion elsewhere than they are here. Do they accept money for me to acquire those things should I want them? Yes? Okay then, that's not so alien. I think any culture shock would wear off in less than a day.

What does dishearten me is the gross ignorance--or intentional ignoring--of the fact that all social media platforms are well populated by bots and trolls who quite literally draw paychecks for spreading Anti-American views, and that one of their tactics is to pose as Americans and act proudly and flagrantly *stupid* and incurious with regard to the rest of the world.

Do we have some loud, rabid, bigoted assholes over here who are proud of the fact they can scarcely see any facts about the world outside of their own back yards? Sure, but so does everyone else. Ours are just amplified and manipulated by algorithms and bad actors, which have unfortunately allowed them the boldness to crawl out from under their rocks. They think they're more populous than they are...and sadly, it seems a not so negligible chunk of the world has bought into that illusion as well. I suppose it does not help that there is a wealthy contingent of US persons--that is, those most able to travel abroad for any meaningful amount of time--who feel their good fortune has bought them the right to act rude, clueless, and entitled.

(And no, you can't point to the US's current political problems and dangers as a sign of the will of the majority. There's decades of legal and legislative fuckery that has led this country to where it is now, threatened by a looming shadow of authoritarian *minority* rule.)

I'll end this by repeating three things I've said in the past:

1. Xenophobia is wrong no matter where it's pointed. And yes, I am also saying it would be wrong for me to make broad and sweeping character judgements of Russian and Chinese folks, even though the governments of those countries are by and large the sponsors of the aforementioned bot/troll problem.

2. There always seems to be a marked difference in perspective on the US between those from other nations who've been here and those who've merely interacted with people claiming to be Americans online. The former understands that the reality of how most Americans see themselves and the world is far more complex, varied, and nuanced than standard internet stereotypes and hot takes. "American Exceptionalism" is not currently a broadly held attitude. At all. Would we like to be exceptional someday? Sure. But by and large we know we're not, and we can barely even come to any kind of real consensus on what that means or the right way to get there.

3. No matter the nation, it is deeply inappropriate to hold random, non-wealthy, non-influential individuals from that country responsible for that country's gravest past errors as an international political entity, or to develop hard and fast opinions for all people of a given country based only on cringy bouts of internet behavior you've witnessed.

Character: I think boys are pretty

Fandom: oh! They're gay! That's canon!

Different character: I have no interest in romance or sex. I don't understand it. Relationships confuse me. They seem pointless to me. I have no desire to be in a romantic or sexual relationship. I am an aromantic asexual.

Fandom: well, I guess you can interpret them as aroace...I don't see it though.

ok related to the last poll because everybody had fun tags:

I need more fic where Steve does dumb teenage boy, bastard older brother shit The party rings Steve to ask for a ride to the arcade, and he asks them if their bikes got flat tyres, or broke. And when they say no, Steve just says - cool, you can bike there then - and hangs up. He goes back to flop on his couch to watch the baseball because he has plans today and they do not involve leaving the house or wearing pants. He goes out to lunch with Dustin, both of them going to a diner together. And Dustin forgets his wallet, it's fine, and he watches Steve order two burgers, two fries, two drinks. Only when they arrive Steve starts eating both of them himself and laughs his ass off when Dustin shrieks indignantly (Steve gives him one of the burgers. It has a bite taken from it). Steve is working a shift at Family Video with Robin, the pair of them reshelving the rewound tapes. He asks if she can hold his stack while he ties his shoelaces - and Robin says yes - and after he finishes retying his laces he just, doesn't ask for the tapes back. And he doesn't say anything and sees how long Robin can shelve his tapes for him before she realises.

Steve whispering in Eddie's ear, dropping his voice low in that way he knows Eddie likes. Acting all coy and sexy and asking Eddie if he wants to know what Steve's thinking. When he says yes Steve burps in his face super loudly and Eddie laughs so hard he almost pukes.

Irondad fic ideas #155

Tony can be... a bit overbearing with his helicopter parent tendencies. To combat this, Peter sets up a small protocol with FRIDAY. 

Any time Tony wants to do something paranoid or invasive, FRIDAY is to send him a helpful article first, with titles like "Excessive Surveillance Can Harm Adolescent Development, Study Finds" and "Why Teens Need Privacy From Their Parents"

Peter leaves the choice of articles up to FRIDAY, trusting her to send ones that fit the situation.

While this protocol does get Tony to reconsider some of his more... extreme impractical requests, in most cases it fails to change his mind. Being hands-off about Peter's safety is not something he can do -- not when he knows the kinds of dangers this particular kid could face.

He's grateful for the insight that the protocol has given him, though. So instead of removing it, he decides to add to it. He asks FRIDAY to make it a two-way street. Now, whenever Peter complains about one of Tony's safety protocols, FRIDAY will send an article to help him understand

However, Tony doesn't anticipate the kinds of articles FRIDAY will choose. While she continues to send Tony studies and editorials, to Peter she sends news reports from Tony's past

Peter's mad that Tony has put trackers in everything he owns? -- "Tony Stark Still Missing: Inside Month Three of the Harrowing Search"

Peter hates the constant health monitoring that FRIDAY does when he's in the tower? -- "Death Wish or Death Sentence? Stark Behavior Tied to Secret Illness that Almost Cost Him His Life"

It goes on and on. For every seemingly insane overreach, there's a story, an experience Tony is trying to protect Peter from. 

They both still disagree about how much protection is too much, but at least they understand each other better now

one shots are so good and legendary 😭

When I talk about something bad I've experienced, Baked In to my experience as A Woman, I am not "making my little cousins feel like shit for being women", because I am talking in a space with, allegedly, adults. I am not bringing my problems to children in the first place. That said, I don't HAVE to make my baby cousin feel bad, because she's already experienced sexual harassment in her life, and she's only 8, and doesn't even understand what any of it means yet. And everyone in her family can try to instill confidence in her, and never talk about our bodies in a negative way. But she can still feel like she's too chubby, because she still goes to school, and talks to other kids and their parents, and still sees ads, and still watches tv. We can be positive, but we can't fix the root of the problem. And I don't HAVE to tell trans women that "pain is a rite of passage", because that's not a Rule being enforced (by me), because I've already sat and listened to my friend complain about constantly shaving as a Baseline necessity and how it hurts her skin and she has to put makeup onto fresh cuts on her face because going out without a full face of properly feminine makeup would make her life worse, and being anything less than thin and lithe makes her "less feminine", and ALL the things that can make her "more feminine" are behind a paywall. And I can try to make her feel better, and I can hear her experiencing the tenfold version of problems I relate to, but I can't fix the root cause of her problems by just telling her not to complain. Forcing happiness as a core personality trait for women is not the Girlboss Feminist move that you think it is, and no amount of gender euphoria in the world will make you immune to systemic oppression.

Tell me why pretty gamer boys that act all sweet and nerdy are actually filthiest motherfuckers out there

Graphic design is my passion

(Please buy Spock's line of T'Shirts)

Time to debunk and pick apart some more bad mental health advice!

The doozy I've come across today asserts the following: "Anxiety makes you self centered."

The idea was that even 'nice' acts done in a state of anxiety would be done in a spirit of selfish and unhealthy control. This was not truly a post about coping with anxiety, though it certainly presented itself that way. It was, as far as I can tell, advising on how to control or at least mask some kind of fundamental bent towards less than pure or moral motives that anxious states create in a person so as to be more convenient for others to be around.

Just off the top off my head, there are numerous problems with this line of thinking--

It's ableist as all hell, reinforcing the stigma that certain kinds of mentally ill people are to be assumed deficient or 'bad' in some way.

It plays into the gas-lighting flavored notion that anxiety makes you incapable of perceiving and reacting to reality correctly. One of the things the post stated specifically was that anxiety blinds a person to their own self-centeredness on a neurological level. In other words, it implicitly insisted that an anxious person can't possibly be self aware.

It ignores the necessary context of what the anxiety is about. Anxiety tends to have a source, trigger, or a topic that sets it off, whether consciously or subconsciously. Those topics are often far from self centered. Most anxiety about another person's welfare, for instance, can hardly be said to be truly selfish without some serious mental gymnastics.

It enforces shame and degrades the little confidence that an anxiety sufferer often has to work with. Remember: One of the major goals in a therapeutic setting is often to build an anxious person's confidence in order to reduce the anxiety. The more an anxious person sees themselves as this 'thing to be managed' and less as someone who has a right to take up space, the less possible this end goal becomes.

It enforces a flavor of purity culture that suggests that your thoughts are equal to deeds that can be shamed, punished, etc. if they are not 'good enough'.

Consider for a minute how this line of thinking and framing might work in an abuser's favor. That alone probably deserves its own write-up.

There is something to be said about reducing reactivity and increasing good communication, of course. Sometimes high reactivity to anxiety can result in actions that are inconsiderately control-freakish, it's true. But dunking on anxious persons by framing them as typically having shitty self awareness and selfish motives that they can't therefore even tell are selfish is NOT the way to address those things.

As a person who operates nearly 24/7 in some degree of heightened anxiety myself, the one thing that has helped pump the breaks on any excessive 'control-freakish' tendencies is simply to communicate, quite bluntly, what exactly my anxieties and needs are. This requires an audience ready and willing to receive those concerns in good faith, of course. It requires being seen as someone who means well, and this idea that anxiety produces nothing but self centered or selfish motives and actions is not conducive toward that end.

And last but not least--and this one might be an unpopular opinion for some: With a small and context-laden exception for those who have children, the person you're supposed to take care of and respect first and foremost is YOURSELF. This does not mean you get to bulldoze others' needs or not take them into consideration; it means that interaction with those people and situations which frequently or consistently cause you to feel like you have to neglect your own needs and/ or reduces your capacity to be honest with them are probably best reduced if not outright avoided.

Prompt 98

So there’s been a leucistic raven around the area I live and they are giving me ideas. 

��Danny is having fun. He’s on vacation! Sort of. Look, the GIW can barely find ecto-animals, and apparently being a halfa means that once Amorpho helped him with shapeshifting, he was golden. Well not literally, apparently his form’s coloration is based on his hair. So. But even then, who expects a raven of all things to be stopping crimes? Or aiding them. Look, the plant-lady has the right idea and he thinks Sam would adore her. Er, as long as she doesn’t kill anyone that is. 

 And Clockwork even gave his approval to do some time shenanigans too! Apparently there’s some super-speed heroes who he’s getting frustrated with and he’s allowed to follow them back in time to mess with their own stumbling through the time stream. Or something, does he really care? No, he’s on vacation! 

 But his absolute favorite has to be this sad funky british man and this age-shifting magic boy. He of course brings them all the best gossip- and food for the kid. Look, just because he’s on vacation doesn’t mean he’s gonna’ be heartless. He remembers how it is as a teenage-hero and the kid is like, ten so. 

 Though he’s pretty sure Mr sad-trench coat dude knows he’s not a normal raven but it’s hilarious to hear him try to figure it out. 

I keep seeing people bitching about "uwu when I say 'from the river to the sea' people say I'm calling for geeenocide! They say I'm antisemitic!" and like.

Maybe. instead of clinging to a phrase that a bunch of white leftists have co-opted because they think it sounds nice. And digging your little immature heels in. You should LISTEN when people tell you that yes. The phrase's FUCKING ORIGIN was a call for the eradication of Jews from the area known as Israel and Palestine. That NO, you cannot divorce it from those roots. YES, it IS still used to mean that TO THIS DAMN DAY.

And look. Maybe you DON'T think that Israelis should all be killed and/or exiled from Israel and Palestine. Maybe you DON'T think that the genocide of an entire people is the solution. Maybe you DON'T hate Jews and want all of us dead. And if that's the case? Great!

But how the FUCK are we supposed to tell the difference when you are using the EXACT same phrase as countless people who DO want those things. People who DO hate Jews, who ARE supportive of organizations that want to commit violence, people who SUPPORT what happened on October 7th?

When people tell you "hey, this phrase means something else, it has ALWAYS come from those roots, and using it is NOT OKAY because it is STILL used as a rallying cry for violence against Israelis and Jews worldwide", the way to react? Is NOT to fucking double down and use it.

Because that? DOES make you an antisemite. And if I see you using that phrase? Then I MUST assume that at best, you do not know what it means and have SOMEHOW avoided the countless Jews and non-Jews I have seen talking about it, or at WORST you actively hate me and want me and every single one of my people dead.

And frankly? You are not worth that risk to interact with.

Stop saying it. There are SO many ways to support Palestine, the Palestinian people, and their fight for rights, that do not involve spouting genocidal, antisemitic rhetoric. it is NOT HARD.

But apparently, some of y'all are insistent on being racist.

too much public focus on the reader's experience of a fic. too much framing the reader as the expert. the fic is for the writer. the writer is the expert on their work. you don't like it? zip your lil lid and hit the back arrow. it's like. so simple 😐

introducing "Hellish Rick" --- aka V-037 (my Rick oc)

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V-037 comes from an alternate dimension that mimics the appearances of "Hell". V-037 was never fond of his original dimension and it's suggested implications of spirituality, especially how the dimension's naturally occurring magical energy interfered with his scientific research. It didn't take long for V-037 to leave his original universe and family behind.

Despite his physical appearances, V-037 is much older than he appears. Due to his naturally accelerated healing capabilities, V-037 ages slower than some other universes, giving him a much younger appearance.

V-037 has an increased capacity for violence and aggression with a penchant for manipulation. He will not hesitate to use physical violence when others don't act in line with his values (or simply for his own personal sadistic pleasure)

Unlike most Ricks, V-037 did not return home to his original universe. Instead, V-037 continued to parade across the multiverse, corrupting and manipulating those he thought would be amusing to him (and killing them when they weren't).

V-037 is sadistic, ruthless, and cunning (but also simply just adorable).

Notes:

V-037's original dimension has a natural affinity for magic which he avoids relying on. Instead, he chooses to rely on science and the inventions he creates, only using magic in life-or-death situations.

V-037 has a tendency of cheating death and allowing the Glactic Federation to capture him, only to escape from the Galactic Federation Prison in order to create more chaos.

V-037's sole priority is satisfying his own twisted amusement through whatever means necessary, even at the cost of his own safety.

(He can fly...)

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ANYWAYS... enjoy my brainrot Rick oc... thanks!

another thing I dislike is how everyone talks about kevins exy obsession throughout the series.

it's always mocked or used to just take a dig at him yet they don't try to understand where the deep rooted obsession has come from.

kevin is obsessed with exy for the same reason neil is. it is all kevin has (or had).

kevin was praised, for his exy. kevin was noticed, for his exy. kevin is alive, for his exy. kevin is connected to his mother, through exy.

exy is the only safe thing in his life apparent from alcohol that hasn't hurt him or caused him fear.

when he plays, he's free. he's safe under the light of the court. he has a true propose when he has that exy stick in his hand.

it gives him a reason to try. gives him a reason to prove himself.

of course, he's obsessed with it! it's his only real security blanket!