Thinking of your post on the problems of veganism as a movement vs veganism as a lifestyle choice/one technique amongst many, that also applys super well to my issues with degrowth (And anticonsumerism as well) as a movement vs degrowth as one technique amongst many for dealing with the hydra-crisis of overproduction/resource overuse/destroying people and places for resources.

Like, in particular as an autistic person the continual recurring insistence that we need to just "change our desires" creeps me out. As someone who's difficulties were dismissed as just "having a bad attitude" and who's interests were so often dismissed as a waste of time instead of preparing for a job in the "real world" IDK if they truly understand the full horrifying implications of that line of thought.

So here's the thing with the concept of "overconsumption"

I had to do this whole project on overconsumption in my Anthropology class where I compared my consumption habits to those of someone 2 generations older, the prof clearly had in mind that we would discover a particular result that I did not end up finding.

I had to watch this documentary called "Affluenza" which was all about how Americans consume too much and they shop and buy things for fun and it's killing the planet, and it kept making these statements like "The average american does X..." and "X" would be something insane that I've never dreamed of doing.

Now I technically grew up below the poverty line, we were always financially insecure and struggling to pay bills and there was never any extra money lying around.

But my upbringing felt average, even privileged. We had a house instead of a trailer on cinder blocks, we had food and clothes. Compared to the upbringing of my mom and virtually everyone she knew growing up, we lived in fabulous luxury.

And the "overconsumption" lesson was bizarre to me because it brought up things like "going shopping for fun once a week" and "owning 20+ pairs of shoes" as if they were normal. I wear my clothes until they're unwearable and shop for clothes like once a year, and my mom has half as many clothes as I do. She feels guilty buying anything for herself and HATES shopping.

It feels like the dominant resources on living an eco friendly lifestyle presume that we have far more agency in what we buy and use than we actually do, instead of being stuck with the cheapest or closest available thing, and that our lives are full of extraneous, non-essential "consumption."

That class brought up the idea of "conspicuous consumption" a lot, or buying things to obtain social status instead of for their concrete utility. The way "conspicuous consumption" was addressed in the class was not very immediately relatable to me—I never had the option of buying clothes just to appear "with it" socially. My parents couldn't buy an extra car to fit the aesthetic of the American dream—we had enough trouble keeping the one we had running. The "conspicuous consumption" that class addressed was just not available to me.

However, I don't think conspicuous consumption is endemic to stable members of a certain socioeconomic status, because consumption is partially driven by the trauma of poverty. People who grew up poor will buy you more Christmas gifts than you can store or use, because they want to spare you the shame they experienced. Their brains are molded around the trauma of not having enough, and giving you enough is their way of keeping you safe.

Conspicuous consumption as a habit is pushed on you if your ancestors were shaped by this trauma. It is a misrepresentation to think of it as driven by pride, because your ability to perform the behaviors and mimic the appearances of a higher socioeconomic status has a concrete effect on how people treat you.

I know J.D. Vance is a nutjob now and Hillbilly Elegy was...not great (I'm more appalachian than you bitch, and I'm not even appalachian!) but the one thing that book got incredibly right was the idea of "social capital" and the way access to financial security and wealth gives you social capital. This is the main thing the current understanding of "conspicuous consumption" gets wrong—the need to escape the appearance and behaviors of poverty is seen as vain and self-indulgent, when it's a survival mechanism and it's something you're expected to engage in to gain opportunities and respect.

Poverty is humiliating. People with money never think about the fact that they have money. They think of themselves as average, if they think of themselves in terms of socioeconomic status at all. Being poor ends up embedded in the grooves and folds of your brain.

I remember when I was about 12, I gave my friend an informal tour of our house the first time she came over, showing her every room. I realized later that this wasn't exactly a normal behavior—I had done it because my mom did the same thing when she brought her friend over, and my mom had done it because it was a way of saying look, I survived. Look, I have a place to live to call my own, isn't this nice?

At its worst, anti-consumerism just reinforces the myth that your consumption is purely a matter of personal choice. And unfortunately when the conversation is ruled by the privileged, this idea will appear substantiated—because rich people can choose the aesthetics of poverty without concretely affecting the way the world treats them. A rich person can choose to live in a "tiny house" but they will never be "trailer trash."

Anti-consumerism revolves around ideas that are almost irreparably tainted by the mythology of an unequal society. Rich people possess and control the aesthetic of restraint and frugality, allowing them to playact living a Simple Life where they live in a tiny minimalist cottage and eat Healthy Vegan Oat Gruel, while McDonalds is the emblem of American excess. It is poor people's behaviors and habits that exemplify excess and greed.

Anti-consumerism isn't going to change anything until it openly confronts the fact that poverty is traumatic and consumption patterns often arise from poverty survival mechanisms.

guys holy shit i predicted melodie................

Saving to pintrest publicly is reposting. If you have my art on your pintrest you have stolen it. 

I’m actually getting really sick of this. I was considering leaving pintrest alone for reposted art, simply because most of what I saw could would still take you back to my blog, but there is so many people pintrest who simply saved the images publicly with no credit and no link which means I’m going to have to spend the next week dealing with this nonsense instead of working on another comic like i wanted to.

Guys, if you’re young and you use pintrest to save art the you like, you need to know that saving it publicly is reposting and you are actively harming the artists who’s work you claim to enjoy. 

Stop. 

And if you’ve been online for a while now, you should know better. 

More Finn practice. Ref from this GQ article

just some good DE tags

JUST DREW LIKE. 6 PAGES OF UNREQUITED XINGYUN(blacks out at 4am)

every single pmmm enjoyer that i've ever met has been insufferable. the inferiority complex they feel w media like utena or sailor moon is just laughable.

Stuff that happened in umbrella academy s3 explained by a person who didn't watch umbrella academy:

So this dude called Victor came out and Five and Allison just were like: ok, but we still hate you

And those other dudes were like Did someone say coming out party?

And also there is that old guy and he had cookies

Some guy is called Lucifer or whatever and my mutual warmed up to him

Girl called Lila is stealing someones mum

Dance battles???????

Bro called 5 hallucinated weird stuff

People died, Sissy didn't

Apparently Klaus is a dumbass beacause someone said he would've died at the age of 3 if he wasn't immortal

And Klaus AND Lucifer have been kidnapped and noone noticed.

I’ve passed 52% (yay!) and I have so many thoughts written down (yes, I take notes while reading (mostly keyboard smashes, though)). But I’m just gonna appreciate all of the relationships being portrayed here between the characters. And the level of complexity their personalities and worldviews and arcs are allowed. And also the fact that they’re allowed to show deep, deep emotion as much as they hide/deny it...and that their changes are so brutally shown to us readers and the people around them.

Just how? I don’t know how this book managed to show such character development, such a progression and changing of relationships, such nuance between characters (not just Dokja @ everyone, but also between the sides themselves), such belief in each other and the person they’ve become (312′s “I believe in the story they had built” - I’m dead), such lightheartedness but also such depth between everyone...

*suddenly throws the book into the wall* And how does it keep one devastating me with all these random exchanges!?!? It’s happening so close to each other and yet it seems so well built-up and paced?! I cannot....

Modern eliza scorn hcs

Because I promised these ages ago and I've only just had time

These are all set it an everyone signs the truce and nef doesnt break it au

She has been very lonely and really misses the war and the purpose it gave her

I mean, her lover has left her

But modern day brings TV, phones and most importantly online dating to give her a distraction

Hops from hookup to hookup, just living her best life

Adores reality tv like the real housewives or keeping up with the Kardashians

Watches it with Nefarian way too much during the truce

They've decided that if they cant kill people they need to get a distraction somehow

Also loves those fashion makeover shows, and watches America's next top Model religiously she hates tyra banks with a passion

Speaking of fashion she despises modern fashion, plus 80s and 90s

She will rant about it to anyone that will listen

On the other hand, she likes 30s, 40s and 50s fashion, and wears her dresses from that era when she is comfortable with a person

In public she wears simple dresses and blouses

She barely went outside in the early 2000s because the fashion nearly brought her to tears

It actually did bring her to tears once, but she was drunk at the time so she insists it doesnt count

It was not a great time for her

She likes the fact that she can be open about her attraction to women in modern times and thinks it's long overdue but never care much about mortals opinions on her

Is on Instagram constantly and pretends shes not

thanks for the tag, @sgtjamesrogers​ 

currently reading: i picked up the lies of locke lamora while i was pet/house-sitting over the weekend but i haven’t been in a reading mood so idk if i’ll finish it

last song: bidin’ my time from crazy for you (my ipod lives on shuffle 75% of the time. crazy for you was the musical we did my… junior? year of hs. the thing i most remember from that is helping build a car-shaped thing for the set) (second song since since i picked this up again: walking contradiction - green day)

last movie: treasure planet! i needed something to watch while i was knitting (i really should keep working on those socks)

working on: most recently a rook shepard doodle but lemme see if i have some more recent more finished things to share (also honorable mention to this magpie piece i keep picking up and putting down. and the ridiculous amount of words i wrote about magpie and rook in the notes app on my phone - enough that the app started lagging and i had to start a new note. also those socks i mentioned) oh, have this cirro from today and a… monsterfolk?? i’m trying to figure out

as for tagging people: @jesusbuchananbarnes​, @angelfeast​, @thefandomchoseme​, and anybody else who wants to do it

I think the funniest and best part about dnf to me is that at the end of the day they're just two best friends. Putting all possible romantic implications aside, they're two guys who have over 19k fanfiction works in a tag about them being together, they flirt on stream and they actively toss fuel on the fire/engage in the fact that people think they might be dating. Dream will like fanart on twitter with heavy implications of them being in a romantic relationship or that are straight up tagged dreamnotfound. George managed to talk about dnf so much that he fooled a friend who he's met on multiple occasions and probably talks to on semi-regular basis into thinking that he's was legitimately dating Dream/was gay. They put a donation goal of 50k for a charity stream in order to reveal like 3 texts, one of which read 'think about this dick fucko'. Dream paid George four thousand dollars to respond to a text of his with the 🤤emoji. Dream took an online quiz titled 'Are You In Love With Your Best Friend' while in a discord room with a couple thousand people listening in and he did it twice both times with said best friend listening in . There's been a fanfiction posted about them that broke ao3 three times and is currently one of the top fics on ao3 with over 2 million hits. It's surpassed in views only by another mcyt fic and a haikyuu fic. (Although it does have more kudos then both.) The bee video. "I can be your pet". George has talked about committing marriage fraud. Dream held a fanfiction contest wherein said popular ship was allowed. Their friend group brings it up as a joke frequently. George sent Dreams mom a message saying they were dating. Dream tells George what kind of haircut he should get and George calls Dream in the middle of said haircut to make sure it looks like he said. Dream has a room dedicated to fans' gifts, letters, etc. and in it there's a corner for dnf things. They were going to meetup but covid happened. They faked a meetup. Waiting is painful. George will look at the colors green and blue and say dnf. "Why now?", "Because George." They sync their sleep schedules. They spend 10 hours in a call together. They want to move in together forever. After 7 fucking years, they've finally met. They're two guys, they're best friends, they're soulmates.

man fuck my urge to write and it’s ability to only appear while i’m at work. i have an idea of a story based on a choreographed lightsaber fight i’ve done (it’s sexy), i have a story idea based on Hayden being a Dilf recently, plus i just reread a draft of mine that’s been untouched for probably nearly a year now and it’s actually PHENOMENAL,,,

i actually want to write fan fiction rather than original fiction for once and i’m at WORK? homophobic

ooc. u know i will add p.artitio once i finish octo2. tiny yehaw.

something i think about incredibly often is the episode of first draft i was listening to (i do not remember which one, i’ll go sleuthing later) where sarah and the author ended up talking about The New Generation(s) and writing.

and they pointed out that with the advent of the internet and text-based communication, people are writing constantly. people are growing up writing constantly. and no, it’s not usually prose or poetry or essays or anything, but it is writing.

and, i mean. look at tumblr, look at social media in general. we’ll kind of take any excuse to tell a story or make a poem, and that was always true, sure, but the internet gives us so much more opportunity.

and that’s not even touching on the fact that now it’s much easier to share that writing, to publish without needing to pass inspection or prove anything.

i think it’s neat