Ngl I/Me/Myself is the absolute WORST song that could have gone viral for Will especially on tiktok of all places because it is an incredibly nuanced song and tiktok users are not particularly known for their understandings of nuance

it is totally okay to be hurt and tired and fed up with the american schooling system but i need you to understand that we need to be better about loudly and routinely defending public education.

yes, many teachers suck, many schools utterly suck. i also got bullied and was absolutely not given the right support for my needs. i am not defending public education because it was kind to me. i am defending it because it needs to exist.

right-wing republicans do not want an educated population. they want kids to be homeschooled or in private school. there is a huge religious undertone to this.

the most common argument is that despite high costs, the "result" is not "good" enough. they point to failing schools as proof that public education is just never going to work out. there will be arguments made here that you actually agree with: that teachers can be bullies, that we taught online for 2 years and still charged the same amount of tuition, that we have no recourse for students to actually have agency or a voice, and that schools are now unsafe for kids due to risk of illness and gun violence.

these are all placing the blame in a fraudulent way, one intended to get your parents to homeschool you. the less kids in a school, the less federally-awarded funding for that school, the less any school succeeds. they will not mention the fact it is their legislation that takes away important funding opportunities, that teachers are living at or below the poverty line, that buildings are not kept up to code, that administration is overpaid and forces specific curriculums, that corporations like (my personal enemy) Pearson Education control certain classroom goals because teachers can't afford other options. they pretend to be ignorant of the gun violence and say "oh just get a gun" - but these are the same people who will be sending their child to a private school with a bulletproof backpack. they don't care if your kid dies, though. they "don't believe" in covid, but they did get their kid vaccinated, because of course they did.

it is a closed loop. conservative parents hear the fearmongering and remove children from the system. frequently these parents are also deeply religious. the kids are raised without access to other media & learn to parrot their parents. you have now created a new generation of conservatives. additionally, one of the parents/caregivers must stay home and homeschool the children, usually for free. i will give you 1 guess which parent tends to stay home to homeschool the children. these parents are encouraged to have many, many children. those children are most likely not getting access to safe sex ed.

we might laugh at fox news suggesting teachers are forcing children to use kitty litter but: first of all, there is kitty litter in the classroom. it's part of an emergency kit in case children are locked in due to a shooter. so that's fucking dystopian, and the fact they've completely reimagined the scenario to somehow make the teachers look bad when it's instead a fucking huge symbol of our failure as a country to protect our children.... it feels a little intentional.

secondly: don't just dismiss the situation. because, yeah, obviously, no teacher is encouraging kids to be a catboy. but the actual undertone that fox news is trying to sew is an outright distrust of teachers and of public education. they rely on the dehumanization of trans people as a common touchstone to hide the fact they're pushing two agendas at once. (which is ironic. because the thing they accuse teachers of. is pushing. an agenda.)

whenever someone tells you they want you to read less, you should be suspicious of that. when someone tries to separate you and your education, you should be suspicious of that. i don't even like incel rhetoric nor would i want my kids exposed to it - but i would not take away my child's (age-appropriate) access to the internet. i would just provide more educational materials, not less. the difference here is that i believe we can resolve ignorance with knowledge; whereas conservatives believe that ignorance is bliss.

they misappropriate funding and demonize teachers. they pull the same trick each time - the same thing we are seeing with anti-trans rhetoric. they do not want you to have access to safe sex ed, so they act horrified, claim sex ed teaches you how to thrust deep, claim that we have no idea what "age-appropriate" means. since the mid-nineties, the united states has spent at least 2 billion dollars on abstinence-only education, even though to quote the above link: "a preponderance of studies has found no effect of abstinence education at reducing adolescent pregnancy". conservatives want you to think less of any person struggling with addiction so they can continue their racist "war on drugs", so they spend up to $750 million dollars a year on the DARE program which has absolutely no effect. acting like teachers "must" be "grooming" children is just the same thing - so they can demand that funding either goes to their causes or the funding doesn't "exist" ("i'm not paying for our kids to learn that thing!")

and they want you to feel uncaring about this. they are aware that you will hate some parts of your school experience. pretty much everyone does. they want to lean into the parts that you hate so that you don't put up a fight about it when they take it away for not being "good enough."

i know i maybe sound like a conspiracy theorist. but truly. truly. it is beneficial for conservatives to reduce your faith in the american public schooling system.

one of the explicitly stated campaign promises of the conservative party: to axe the Department of Education in 2024.

i know we are all tired and burnt out and there is so much else wrong with their entire platform. but maybe just - pay attention to this one.

[<==PREV PAGES] [NEXT PAGE==>(not out yet.wait a year.or maybe more.imagine.]

saw alot of comments on prev pages; saying 'i HATE that mean teacher! im gonna FIGHT HIM!!' & i LOVE the energy!! it WOULD be nice. to have that catharsis. but the story of young tidestrider is Not one of catharsis. it is a story of being so small and so special and sucking so bad.

OMG you like moral orel?? who is your favorite character :]c *Blinking and fluttering my eyelashes beautifully*

i watched the whole thing in a few days, ended yesterday. My faves are nurse bendy and joe (together and as a unit), stephanie (individually and then as a unit with the reverend but i dont like him individually), + danielle, of course

I do find it interesting that ATLA managed to use a very black and white narrative (stop Evil Empire) to tell several character stories with some nuance, while TDP claims it has a nuanced conflict and flattens everything to try and make up for that, ultimately leading to protagonist centred morality more than anything. And if they didn’t want me to compare the two then they should have let go of the ATLA references right away.

you're right and you should say it.

the constant and shoehorned references to ATLA do not really do this show any favors. honestly might be part of the problem (why are there 7 primals with color-coded elves? to follow ATLA's pattern of marketable separable elements. why is it an adventure story with a core crew? because ATLA was like this too. etc etc.)

but anyway. yeah. ATLA had a very simple main conflict to provide a constant source of tension throughout the show (even if they dropped the ball at the last season re: the plot), and this structure allowed for episodes that explore other aspects of the setting and characters while still making everything feel relevant and tied together by said conflict. it's not some arthouse show by any means, but it has good compelling story work into it. genuinely great show.

tdp immediately opens up with the nuance and it never really delves deeper. you'd think that opening with characters being aware of the cycle of violence stuff would be interesting and the show would explore that more, but it just... flatlines there. there's no progression or graduation or exploration of themes as the seasons go on like in ATLA. very rarely are there new questions being asked or arcs that feel sensical.

honestly the main characters having to be perfect in every situation is the biggest problem with tdp. the mains are not allowed to have shortcomings or mistaken judgements or anything to meaningfully interact in any way with the nuanced set-up. they emotionally exist entirely outside it, which ends up making them the Messiahs of Peace Who Can Do No Wrong. good for fandoms i guess, people bitched and whined about bato and the water tribe for years. but it's not very good for storytelling.

and also, they're just bad characters and the writers can't put two and two together while still asking you to take their world very seriously.

anyways i'm just rambling at this point. good observation.

guess who officially is going as a v*i*p with jeff and The Legend to the conference at the end of the month? ;____;

if i had a nickel for every time a male british comedian i like said that on a childhood birthday a patriarch in their family said they were too old to hug and kiss them bc it's girly/gay i would have two nickels???? which isn't a lot but it's weird it happened twice....

(ade edmondson:)

(jon richardson:)

I went to kiss my granddad once-I would have only been about 7 or 8, but I'd had clearly what my grandad viewed as a landmark birthday. I went to say goodbye, and I kissed my Nana Gwen and went to kiss my Grandad Ron, and Grandad Ron said, "You're a man now. You don't kiss other men anymore." (- meet the richardsons 2.08)

Going through my old Ray tag to remind myself of JUST who he is, is.... honestly an experience.

Man, I used to be so funny. And charming, and creative.

What the FUCK happened.

Idk man I just need to hold hands with Kai Satou and I’ll be good

so I was rewatching mark’s play through of power wash simulator and at one point he was talking about what he wanted to do after space and he mentioned wanting to help other youtubers make big projects since youtube originals shut down. and then he talked about how he knows other youtubers didn’t get the experience he did and namedropped daniel howell and his video about the series he was supposed to make.

and I remembered a few months ago when I was at the preshow q&a for we’re all doomed and somebody jokingly asked dan how he felt about markiplier onlyfans and dan offhandedly mentioned that he had been talking with mark.

so. having some conspiracy thoughts.

Old woman with dog: enters the store

Old man with dog: passing her leaving the store

His dog: gets interested in hers

Her: tells him to get it away because her dog is a service animal

Him: starts argument

Her: calls him a faggot, I kid you not

Assistant manager, younger than them, walking by: "Stop right now. Grow up."

Look, I love the opportunities that Forging Bonds presents in giving us more content and character interactions for our favorite characters. I love seeing characters interacting from different installments, it’s great.

But holy crap, I’m starting to see a negative effect from the Forging Bonds giving us the same character depictions over and over without showing the more interesting aspects of a character.

Like look at poor Balthus. He’s got a hefty amount of lore; a man on the run because his mother was exiled for being a commoner and his step-mother is absolutely horrid. Even though his manners are loose, his code of honor is unbreakable and he refuses any kind of compensation for trying to do a good deed from the heart. He’d probably have some really good conversations with characters like Corrin, Saber, Jesse (IF HE EVER GETS ADDED), Joshua, etc. He’s crass and loud and rambunctious but he’s a genuine sweetheart who protects the people he cares about, and he cares about a LOT of people.

Instead all we get is “haha funny gambling man gets slapped around by everyone” (Don’t think I forgot about that Malice Forging Bonds, IS. See if people would still be laughing if a male character grabbed a female character by the ear and twisted their neck in doing so). And it’s not just Balthus, all the subplots with the Heavy Plate Corps and the CHOP stuff (or Team Horny, with everyone like Laslow, Soleil, Gatrie, etc), while I get it’s there for comedy, really end up shoehorning these characters into perpetual comic relief. I’m scared for when characters like Vaike or Jesse (SERIOUSLY IS, I GET THAT YOU’RE RUNNING OUT OF VALENTIA CHARACTERS BUT. JESSE.) get added that we won’t see any kind of meaningful dialogue with other characters. It seems like they reserve the best interactions for fan-favorites only.

Actually here's a true example of where it's like bro you have the moral backbone of wet putty

He got banned in destiny 2 and he thought it was unjust, and I forget the details, but I was inclined to agree

He swore a blood feud with them, he'd never play again... then like a week later he rebought every last bit of content for it, and like was playing it last night complaining that he didn't think this latest season had much content... but my man... you're still playing it and giving them money... despite the fact you're not enjoying it and also the fact you said you'd never buy it again

I don't think you really get to say "well if a game's good people'll play it no matter what", cause you're just the Spider's Georg of playing every game even if it sucks ass

i will ask are your mutuals cool

yesss YES I shake all my mutuals around like bricks