knew this woman who used to be a gay man and when he was a gay man he liked ‘ironically’ referring to himself as she/her and so when he came out as a woman he decided the next logical step was to also switch his pronouns to he/him.
ive heard it said that part of the appeal of the original star wars movies was the suggestion of a much bigger world in which this story was taking place. As the characters frantically flew from planet to planet, much more was hinted at than was shown. Like… to me, Cloud City is special. The idea of a colony in a gas giant, and that George Lucas was able to depict that, to show it on screen. It’s the site of a brief rescue, but you can imagine more going on there.
The difference between Star Wars and Lord of the Rings is that in Star Wars these hints of a bigger world are illusions whereas in Lord of the Rings it’s real. Well of course they’re both illusions, they’re both fiction. But Star Wars, if you take a moment to really examine it, is clearly just an assembly of cliches, which makes more sense in reference to what inspired it (this is an Old West saloon, that is a kung fu master, etc) than in its own internal logic. Attempts to fill in the gaps consistently (and there are many) quickly become ridiculous. Whereas Lord of the Rings hints at a world and a long history of which our story is just the latest development, but then also delivers on that promise: it has coherent answers to as many questions as I have the patience to ask.
And I don’t ask that much. I haven’t read the Silmarillion for example, and I never will. I don’t care that much. But the fact that Lord of the Rings is always deeper than the extent to which I’m willing to investigate, that makes a big difference to me.
Because, part of the appeal of an adventure story is precisely these hints at something bigger, partially explored. It’s a report of a journey, and the strange things that were seen there… Lord of the Rings both provokes curiosity and rewards it. There’s almost nothing like it.
okay with Tolkien you know that if you point at some background character and say what’s his deal then you can get his complete family tree going back to Numenor and similarly for every tree, brook, and stream the fellowship passed on their journey, yes that’s good, but the world is only “consistent” in the sense that you’re exploring the imagination of a medieval literature professor with a Catholic worldview adapting his elvish conlangs into stories for children, like it might be an impressively deep work but consistent it is not! the first thing he had to do in Lord of the Rings is retcon the Hobbit!
and in a similar way I think you can consider Star Wars a consistent universe not at the concrete object level – even though yes the Expanded Universe will give you more background information than you wanted to know about every stupid alien in that Mos Eisley cantina – but at the abstract conceptual level: you’re exploring the world of pulp serialisation and movies that influenced George Lucas, so of course there’s a Ben Hur chariot race scene and of course Darth Vader wears a samurai helmet, it all makes perfect sense and if you ask “well how long is a parsec then” you’re asking the wrong question, much like if you asked how long it takes to sail to Valinor and how Middle-earth shifted from flat to round without cracking.
(Discworld is another interesting reference point here as it’s a huge world with tons of background detail that is so inconsistent that it’s a legitimate plot point with the wizard wars and the sourcerer and the history monks and the trousers of time and quantum, but ultimately the consistency also rests on the world being a fantasy parody of our own, and you’re exploring the implications of that premise).
Me [pointing to a stream on the map]: what’s up with this lil’ guy?
Here I’ve got Globby giving off some sass as he’s clearly not having it with whatever he’s hearing or seeing. ;) I can practically hear him saying, “Really?” ;) XD <3<3<3
Here I’ve got Globby giving off some sass as he’s clearly not having it with whatever he’s hearing or seeing. ;) I can practically hear him saying, “Really?” ;) XD <3<3<3
Here I’ve got Globby giving off some sass as he’s clearly not having it with whatever he’s hearing or seeing. ;) I can practically hear him saying, “Really?” ;) XD <3<3<3
One of my favorite thing I’ve learned about animals studies is that you should avoid using colorful leg bands when you’re banding birds because you can accidentally completely skew the data because female birds prefer males with colorful bands
Apparently if you put a red band on a male red wing blackbird his harem size can double
So like you can completely frick up the natural reproduction of a group of birds by giving a guy a bracelet so stylish that females CANNOT resist him
Me, putting a red bracelet on the leg of a male red wing blackbird: ON GOD we gonna get u some pussy bro
I remember reading a study where researchers realized that female birds of a certain species preferred males with a darker breast. So they created what they literally called a “Super-Sexy Male” by catching a male and coloring his chest with a marker. They then ran dna tests on the eggs in the area.
Previously when the researchers had run these tests, they found a certain amount of infidelity was common for these birds. Somewhere around 10% of eggs were fathered by males who were not the primary mates of females.
After the advent of the Super Sexy Male, however, stuff got crazy in bird world. Infidelity skyrocketed, with upwards of 25% of ALL EGGS in the area being fathered by this specific male. Furthermore, his mate’s eggs were 100% his.
This is just insane to me. Just imagine you’re living your bird life when suddenly somebody scribbles on Dave’s chest and the ladies can’t stop throwing themselves at them. It’s stupid that we theoretically can wreck this kind of havoc on an ecosystem.
goyishe tumblr leftists seeing a quote from the torah: wow. i can’t believe they fucking mentioned israel. kind of problematic. fucking zionists.
when the genocidal settler state that calls itself israel falls, the jewish religious concept of israel will still exist. and leftists have to be okay with that. because the alternative is getting rid of judaism entirely. and you can see where that line of thinking is flawed.
if you can’t conceptualize that the state and the religious concept are two different things, then israel-the-state’s propaganda has worked on you. zionism and judaism are not the same thing, and if you think they are, you’re an antisemite. sorry.
this post has gotten way more attention than i expected it to. if you’re going to be annoying on this post or in my inbox i ask you to instead please pick any fundraiser from this vetted list and help out a palestinian in need. any amount of money can make a massive difference. thanks.
I wanted to share a journal entry I wrote a few days ago, just to see if someone could identify with it. Or if I’m sending it into the ether, that’s cool too.
I’ve been thinking about gender today. I always feel so dysphoric whenever I take my hair down. Its so strange because my hair is the most feminine things about me. Its like I carry all of my feminine energy in my hair. Which makes sense concerning hair in Black American culture. But sometimes, I think its wrong to think of myself in that way because I’m transmasculine; almost like I’m betraying myself? I’m sure its internalized enbyphobia (?) (I’m not too sure how I feel about that either), as I’m still examining my relationship with Black womanhood, but also, I can’t help but think of it as misogynior as well.
Like, my rejection of my natural fro is in part becasue I still outwardly present as a Black woman. And with that, I know that any masculinity attached to me will signal to people, black and non-black alike, that it is acceptable to treat me as an “ungendered woman-thing,” as opposed to an ungendered Black woman.
Interestingly, if I imagine a hypothetical version of myself where I have an outwardly masculine appearance, but a feminine hairstyle (think butterfly locs), I feel an overwhelming sense of euphoria. Contrasting again with where I was yesterday, a feminine appearance with the hair to match left me underwhelmed. Not dysphoric nor euphoric. Partially because I’m used to that version of myself but also, there’s a weird kind of pride I feel in being Black and hyperfeminine even when not fully identifying as a woman. By defying the misogynioristic notion that Black women cannot achieve femininity, or womanhood, I feel that I have triumphed over something.
And once more, when I hypothesize myself with an entirely masculine presentation, I feel apprehension, maybe wariness, as is expected of people who are Black and masculine in a white supremacist society.
If I were to make sense of all of these hypotheticals, they’re all thought exercises on Black transmasculinity as it relates to Black humanity.
I know that whatever my appearance is, no matter how euphoric or dysphoric, my humanity will always be called into question. No matter the presentation of masculinity nor femininity, in any combination or expression on a Black body, there is not “safe” presentation. Thus is intersectionality. I cannot experience the trauma of gender identity or expression without the trauma of antiblack racism. The ungendering, the degendering of Blackness is intertwined with the ungendering and degendering of my transmasculinity.
Anyways, just some thoughts while I develop my theory of transwomanism.
at some point we gotta acknowledge that getting the majority of your news and takes and general opinions from tumblr is not meaningfully different than getting it from tiktok even though on here it’s in textual form. understanding the world through the lens of viral videos vs understanding it through breathless unsourced text posts written by dykeastarion69
A quick reminder that the Associated Press is totally free, and also often covers the news stories that Tumblr users say no one is covering. NPR is also free. So is ProPublica.
Also, here’s a chart that might be helpful, in terms of determining bias and reliability: Interactive Media Bias Chart
My understanding of evil, age 0-10: MY NAME IS SMOG SMOKESLY AND I RUN THE POLLUTION FACTORY, IT PRODUCES POLLUTION!!! MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
My understanding of evil, in my teens: You can’t really boil things down to good and evil. People are complicated. Everyone is the hero of their own story, and someone who seems evil to you is actually doing their best from their own perspective. If you could walk a mile in their shoes, you’d understand. There is no such thing as evil.
My understanding of evil, in my twenties: Look, it’s basically just tribalism. We are all necessarily thrust into competition with one another. There are always going to be winners and losers. Whining about evil is just being upset that you lost the game.
My understanding of evil, in my thirties: MY NAME IS SMOG SMOKESLY AND I RUN THE POLLUTION FACTORY, IT PRODUCES POLLUTION!!! MUWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
”Um actually that’s Frankenstein’s Monster” well Frankenstein is an arrogant snivelling little bastard who wanted to marry his adopted sister and kicked out a newborn, so I say we let his creation reclaim the family name, don’t you?
I read the book in lockdown before I turned thirteen and one of my main takeaways was that I detested Victor Frankenstein with a burning passion, and I still do 🤣
What Jesus Wants: for humans to be considered better than dogs?? better than RATS?? better than snails?!!??
What Satan Wants: all life forms are good, wonderful; perfect
I’m sorry, but the idea that humans are above snails is a goddamn fallacy.
Why does god hate his eggs sunny side up
How is everything above octopi
To be fair, it’s not talking about which creatures are “better” than which other creatures. The theological concept it’s referring to is natural dominion, i.e., which creatures naturally have authority over which other creatures.
Thus, the infographic on the left implies a natural order in which - among other things - sharks have dominion over trees. How often is that actually going to come up? That seems like poor planning on God’s part.
As someone who is into pen and paper RPGs, I would’ve thought you’d understand the danger that unforeseen rules interactions could pose to a proper working order.
Okay, now you’ve got me trying to imagine the bizarre edge case that obliged God-the-GM to issue an official ruling that sharks have dominion over trees. That feels like the sort of rule with a story behind it.
I have no trouble believing that someone went through the bible and used various verses to create a ranked order of dominion, BUT… How on earth would said order be related to these verses???
1 Timothy 4 (NIV)
4 The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. 2Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. 3They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. 4For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.
The first rule of Evangelical Christianity is that if you can’t think of a verse that actually supports whatever point you’re trying to make, just cite one of the verses about not being led astray by false teachers and call it a day.
i fucking hate the “this is the good luck post.” Girl stop contributing to a superstitious environment with ur anecdotes there’s a million goddamn notes on it it’s statistically reasonable that a bunch of people remember the good things that happen after they reblog it
this is the statistically reasonable post, reblogging it will have no effect except for putting this post on your blog
