Like, I’m not gonna say that the X-Men and their various imitators are anything like a perfect allegory, but “it’s a bad allegory because super powers really are dangerous” has never held water for me. Like, are we really just gonna uncritically accept the implicit assumption lurking in that argument that bigotry is only wrong to the extent that its targets lack the ability to threaten the status quo? Hand-wringing over whether certain minorities are inherently dangerous is – and, critically, always has been – a smoke-screen for the real conversation about who has the right to possess the capacity for violence, and you can’t engage with that conversation if your opening move is to concede that the only legitimate victim is a powerless one.
To underline what I mean about “the right to possess the capacity for violence”, let’s peel back the allegory and bring it back to the real-world issues that are allegedly being allegorised.
Every time the cops roll up and shoot some poor guy thirty-seven times in the back because the cell phone in his pocket looked kind of like it might be a gun, the public conversation always centres around questions like “are the police telling the truth about thinking it was a gun?” and “were the police reasonable to assume it was a gun?”
These are not the right questions to be asking.
The right question to be asking is “so what if it was a gun?”
Would the public execution of a guy who was literally just walking down the street have been justified then?
It’s not accidental that stories of this type are most popular in America, where the people who can be counted on to argue that cops are behaving correctly when they kill on sight every time they see a member of a visible minority who looks like they might be packing are the exact same people who argue that carrying concealed automatic weapons without a permit is the God-given right of every red-blooded American man, woman and child.
This is not hypocrisy. They know exactly what they’re doing. It’s not about who is and is not dangerous: it’s about who has the right to be dangerous.
Is anyone else ever a little baffled by the cis women who consider women’s restrooms and locker rooms these safe havens from abuse and sexual harassment?
Like I feel like there are two options here:
1. They did not have mean girls in their school
2. They were the mean girls in their school and didn’t realize all the shit they were doing to the other girls in the locker room was absolutely sexual harassment and sometimes assault
I would only nuance this with two other possibilities that work in tandem with these:
3. They’re probably skinny and able-bodied with no significant scarring on their bodies
4. They didn’t grow boobs as a preteen
I will add:
5. They were lucky. (It actually does happen!) and
6. None of the above apply but they have been as adults able for one reason or another to align their understanding and experience and even memory of Women’s Bathrooms to be a) that this is the case and b) that even if very occasionally it’s not it SHOULD be and those times were mere errata that will get Horribly Worse if anyone is allowed to even question the idea of the sanctity of the space.
The latter one is important because it’s genuinely important to remember that people edit their memories, and also that with time memories fade and don’t leap to mind, and that beliefs strongly held can sometimes overwhelm them, especially if they’re not stopping to question the immediate surface recall.
And I bring both these options because I’ve seen them happen - I’ve both met women who were just genuinely the kind of lucky where their year at their school didn’t suck even THOUGH they developed boobs at 11 and quite literally had constantly visible scarring due to spilling coffee all over the side of their face and shoulder as a small child*.
And I’ve also met the people who have one set of superficial memory-beliefs about a lot of these things where they’ll say a thing and then you ask them some friendly, interested questions, and they suddenly are going “ … wait, well, I guess not - ”
(Remember how that happens for toxic childhoods? Where people are like “oh my childhood was fine, x never affected me, I never had bad times” and then for one reason or another this gets prodded at and there is the realization that eg “mom throwing out all my toys because I backtalked her one day, screaming at me while she did so” actually isn’t fine, and wasn’t fine, and is still having affects? etc? That applies to peer shit in school too. Same process.)
*she was also just That Person Everyone Loved. Statistical minority! But extant.
i get that i can expect to see the “unreality” tag a lot on my stuff. i post a lot of weird eldritch shit and even when i post something that isn’t it’s still deeply steeped in my nonsense.
but i’m fucking losing my mind at how even my posts that are correct and true will be tagged that. fatal incuriosity is inescapable when you’re me.
my “a coin is a three sided object. never forget that.” post earned an unreality tag at one point
i’m sorry but maybe you’re not the best watchdog for what’s real and what isn’t, champ. i think being the arbiter of reality requires at least a basic understanding of 3d space.
tumblr users experiencing “unreality”
i once posted the south up map in here and someone tagged it unreality… buddy that’s the earth……..
“reblog this or you don’t support minorities!” “if you don’t reblog this then all of your followers should hate you!” “if you have a bad thought then you actually think that way and you’re a horrible person!” “you can only like ‘good’ things and if you like something ‘bad’ then you’re awful!” i am going to throttle you with my bare hands
Welcome to the future, where you don’t own anything and the stuff you rent stops working once your phone has no signal.
App powered car? 🤦♀️
I wish people remembered the age old wisdom that if something doesn’t absolutely require an Internet connection to function, it shouldn’t be connected to the internet - same goes for apps.
WHY IS A CATFOOD DISPENSER CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET
Sometimes I’m glad that I’m too poor for my “cool future stuff” monkey brain to be set loose to buy stupid shit like this.
please please please do not buy into the Internet of Things. Digital displays for appliances are one thing, but you shouldn’t need the fucking internet to do your laundry or use the fridge.
Also read something but a Dutch e-bike manufacturer going bankrupt and the bikes only functioning with an app. I’m no expert, I don’t have one, but something about digital keys to lock or unlock your bike. Seems a third party is going to take over the digital keys and the servers will remain online, but … yeah.
When I was a kid, my dad hated when I hung up anything on my walls. My art, band posters, movie posters, anything. Not with taxks, not with tape (it “ripped the paint off”) not with anything. At one point in 5th or 6th grade he came in my room and found me hanging up a Diary of a Wimpy Kid poster with tacos and he was like “EVERY HOLE YOU PUT IN THE WALL TAKES $10 OFF THE VALUE OF THE HOUSE.” so when I was mad at him, I’d insert tacks into the wall in places he couldn’t easily see just out of spite. Whoever owns the house now is probably wondering about it.
bro didn’t even know you could just fill holes with toothpaste 💀
I know this is about an owned house (that you should be touching up and repainting the walls of before reselling anyway???) but for ppl who are paranoid about putting holes in rental walls: don’t be. Put up posters. Shelving if you need it. Have hanging plants. Invest in a studfinder. Spackle kits are cheap and everywhere now, or you can use white toothpaste, glue, or even soft air-dry clay to fill holes. Scuffs and rub marks are considered normal wear and tear and landlords can’t charge you for them. Most places will have you fill holes but will have to repaint between tenants anyway, so even if the spackle doesn’t match the walls, it’s not a big deal. Check your state laws about what is considered normal wear and tear. Most states have laws covering everything from paint to flooring. For instance, in my state, carpet that is 3+ years old is considered past its normal life cycle and therefore any damage to it cannot be charged for because the landlord/management is expected to put in new carpeting.
Before any move-out, check local laws considering paint, flooring, light fixtures, appliances, etc. Landlords and management companies make BANK on people not knowing that they’re paying for paint rubs that they’re painting over anyway and carpet that has been paid for 6 times over.
Reminder: they’re never ever ever ever going to give you your security deposit back no matter what you do. have fun with life.
Actually, if your landlord isn’t giving your security deposit back without good reason (in new york, they gave to give you a itemized receipt listing why they deducted from it) bring them to small claims court. Don’t let the bloodsuckers get away with your money.
Our last landlord tried keeping all the deposit and charging is for more. When we moved in, I took a whole lotta pictures. I took pics when we moved out and did my research regarding local laws and looked at how frequently tenants win in small claims court here. Over 80% of cases are in favor of tenants.
So I wrote a very professional letter to the landlord and property management company. I provided this information and sent a CD with copies of before and after pics of the place with notes, like the place hadn’t been cleaned before we moved in, there was a hole from the second bathroom to the outside, large enough to fit a fat raccoon, husky fur everywhere, nails, hooks, and tacks in the walls, footprints on the ceiling, human hair on the walls and ceilings of the main bathroom.
I informed them they had 60 days to return our deposit or we will take them to small claims court. Local laws state that if a tenant wins, we receive 3x the deposit, and the landlord pays all court costs and fees. 58 days after sending the letter, we received our deposit with an apology for “confusion.”
These people are dependent on ignorance. Be aware, be knowledgeable, and make them afraid.
every artist who has ever attempted to satirize masculinity i am so sorry
you could name a movie Portrait of a delusional abuser ruining his own life in pursuit of a fictional standard of manhood and 89% of its fanbase would still be like “Fuck yeah man it was so cool when Shit Cumdick gave that badass speech about how pushing everyone away and never letting yourself feel emotions is actually a good idea for your life. fuckin dope flick”
