#but it is PART of discerning it

[itspileofgoodthings]

I only half believe this because I truly believe that doing the right thing can be synonymous with doing the hardest and most painful thing but also——

good solid and true moral wisdom doesn’t hurt you past the point of ever healing or being able to function. if someone is recommending a course of action to you and it‘s tearing you apart to contemplate it or to follow it there’s probably something wrong with that advice.

#or let me put it this way. God’s wounds are pure wounds. they’re clean #they take courage to embrace and to face and they absolutely do hurt!!!!!!!!!!! #but they don’t fester and they don’t torture and they don’t unsettle #so if you’re trying to follow moral advice that does any of those things …… it probably ain’t if fam #there’s a lot of nuance to be added here re: developing your own conscience and doing a certain amount of strength training and refining #in your own emotional life #but like. yeah. #it was really important to me for a while —that concept of doing the hard thing can break your heart #and it still is!!!! but actually there is a martyr-ish blindness that thinks the path of virtue is paved with thorns #that unrelentingly tear you to pieces and it’s like …………. #1) grow up #2) the path IS thorny and narrow #the cross is real!!!!!!!!!!! #the cross also brings peace. #not as the world gives sure! #but !! it !!!!!! is !!!!!!!!!! peace !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! #it is not torture #if you are constantly tormented by trying to live a certain way that is your body/soul trying to tell you something is wrong #your comfort is not the ultimate test of whether or not something is the right moral course of action!!! #but it is PART of discerning it #you need to calm down!!!!!!!!! smell some roses!!!!!!!!!! and take the most common sense advice you can!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! #if you're stuck in a toxically morally evil situation then yeah. it will take a knife to set you free #but it will not continue to needle you forever! there will be peace even in the sharpest wound of it #there's either emotional self-indulgence where the pain is something you're holding ONTO or the situation causing it is bad!!! #anyway i feel i still need to distinguish between the kinds of suffering but i'm talking about the panicky never-ending festering kind #we ARE actually pretty good at figuring out if we're at peace underneath a wound. or at least we can if we investigate #me: i can't explain! no time for nuance! also me: tries to add nuance in the tags #no idea where this came from but here you go

[thegayafrienda]

Me on AO3 at 18: this is the most fucked up shit I have ever read or imagined, kudos

Me on AO3 now: I like this fic best because it talks about my favorite character's knee hurting and my knees also hurt

#our flag means death #supernatural #hannibal #i think you can easily discern which if these tags goes with which part of the post

[doodleodds]

Happy Valentines, Akira. Happy Valentines, Asshole.

If you can’t read what Akechi’s secondary inner-dialogue says cause I obscured it too much behind his regular dialogue, here’s a transcription in panel order: Hello, you fucking- Ah- Hello, Akira! Fuck off, why should I tell you- Just a soda- there’s a new flavor.

I don’t want your shitty gift. Oh- haha! You’re so sweet.

I hope I choke. They’re lovely, thank you.

Like hell. Likewise. There’s no way it’s just a coincidence. Still though, it’s a funny coincidence.

#p5 #akeshu #akechi goro #kurusu akira #wow- me?? posting a valentines comic... actually on?? valentines????? wack. absolutely wack #it's a short one! I purposefully tried to keep it short. it was a challenge and it still ended up being 3 pages. but i blame my canvas size #also in case u can't see what akira is holding out to akechi: theyre chocolate covered strawberries on sticks! #i saw them irl and was like oh god i want those. i am going to project that feeling on my favorite characters so help me god #and now! here we are! but my shitty-ass coloring & line quality make it hard to discern them so. sorry about that lmaooooo #ANYWAY i don't do enough post-maruki stuff so. i made this one a little bittersweet. :) #why did i put akechi's scarf in a bow? honestly i dont know! i think i saw some art a while ago that did that too and i thought it was cute #well. plus i guess there's the symbolism of 'akechi being alive and reciprocating your feelings (however involuntarily) IS a gift' part #hence that hes wrapped up in a bow. like a present. :) #also god. the first panel is supposed to be akechi's reflection in a vending machine window. I could NOT get it to look right #so for reference!!! just so you guys understand!!!!!! thats what that panel is supposed to be!!! he is NOT in fact a ghost. (sigh) #hope you enjoyed and had a lovely valentines!! for my part i have eaten nothing but sweets today and hoo boy will that have been a mistake #ALSO in terms of the audience-participation comic...hopefully coming soon. if i can ever gain the will to draw it. #but at least tumblr has polls now so i can do the audience-choose-y bit without needing to use a separate website! so thats good i guess #anyway anyway anway thanks for listening to me ramble if you made it this far! have a lovely rest of your day and hopefully see u again soon

[dostoyevsky-official]

why are they addicted to amogus anyway? it was a game for covid teens/young people when these kids were in 1st grade, and the youngest were in k/pre-k. i don't know. but one of the teaching tactics i forget the name of is to get their attention to settle down with a call/response type of trick and you can very easily yell out SUS! and have that work out for you

#or 'emergency meeting!' or something #i tested some theories of child perception e.g. they could not discern in age between me and the other middle aged teachers very well #only roughly. very wild variation in responses to 'how old do you think i am?' #they think every country is either a US state or every other US state is its own country #they don't even know what history is #the top career choices are 1) compsci for AI 2) streamer 3) artist #they thought i was married to the other young art teacher because there's no way i'm not #i quit in part bc she did ask me to marry her #got them candy for holidays and their reactions were muted until i figured out i need to buy things like kitkats and not whole foods pastry

[riumeri]

12. simmer

#mob psycho 100 #mp100 #kageyama shigeo #huevember #huevember 2022 #i accidentally fell asleep before finishing this yesterday so i missed the deadline lmao #anyways. wanted to try my hand at the food imagery that mp100 often uses #literally googled 'boiling soup' to use as references haha #my intent was to draw simmering 'emotions' but. that was a bit vague? #so i settled with drawing ???% instead bc it was more... discernible #and i think it still gets the idea across of like. #trying to repress an overwhelming emotion or a part of yourself

[unproduciblesmackdown]

it occurred to me to Juxtapose the current lackadaisy triumvirate w/the former, now especially mysterious one: namely [rocky ivy freckle] vs [atlas mitzi mordecai]

you have mitzi and ivy where this is sort of an alternate, glamorous, welcoming and potentially promising world. ivy saying everyone treated her like royalty, mitzi's focus on atlas individually and the surprise of his interest & treatment.

then there's freckle and mordecai at least somewhat spontaneously drawn into "but he's just so good at it!"-based professionally shooting and killing you. perhaps also being obliged to someone as further motivation, whether they helped you finish school or not be killed today.

atlas is too mysterious & undialogued to cite any examples while considering Parallels, but you can wonder about rocky kind of being at the helm of the trio / drawing the others in, and trying to get to compose the result you want even if you're improvising your way there, but the proximity of disaster anyways

#lackadaisy #mitzi and mordecai murder mystery #which is already enriching b/c it's like oh there's just gonna be themes & character material in there #versus that say it seems all-important whether mordecai noscoped atlas himself or someone else did to argue legal liability #sort of have a smoking gun even like yeah and i bet he shot him with atlas's own gun; as comparable b/w Revolver Silhouettes there #but the detective work is like; discerning apparent Themes. speculating on what could bolster Character Arcs lol. classic #like furiously rotating like ok if you suppose mordecai absolutely living for Professionalism & avoiding Professional Complications at the #fun new Uniquely Terrible gig is in part a reaction to [murder mystery] then how to figure in a potential parallel wrt mitzi.... #and that imo peak mysterious ''how Could she have even theoretically been like indirectly at fault for atlas's death'' matter.... #like if you presume mordecai's thusly Doubling Down. does mitzi think atlas died to leave her the Potential that lackadaisy offers. maybe! #since she's All About That now. and trying to figure out who can best help her with that; exactly #rocky trying to be a contender thusly for sure lol #of course plenty of differences in these juxtapositions but thinking about more general parallels wrt those themes; emotional arcs.... #we do love it #just have fun; that's what murder is all about. more like foulplay.die

[commander-goo]

vash wgen he goes

wo-o

#trigun #vash the stampede #gooarts #i like when hes a bug its the best part of trimax when his only discernible feature is his glasses

[phantastragoria]

At least he has a cape!

Bonus scribble.

#adam warlock #guardians of the galaxy #mcu gotg #my art tag #universe: mcu #yes yes i know NOW via the funko figure that the main part of his suit is a lighter gold rather than a dark gray #it was hard discerning the color scheme from the unflattering set photo okay!!! i tried #im not sure how i feel about his mcu look at the moment really bc i want to believe he'll end up in something that looks.. less complicated #we shall see. #i think he should have evil red eyes like the design from that one avengers cartoon episode featuring the guardians tho

[punctuation-completionist]

you don’t have to answer this ask but wow how are you supposed to be the bad guy fucking apologizing for reacting badly to being told to kill yourself?? i hate this website

well okay hold up i never said i was the bad guy. i said there were misunderstandings on both sides and that i was sorry for an issue in one part of how i handled it. just one.

#ask tag #not counting #like um. i do understand that maybe this person's sense of humor is way different then mine okay #but like. they said that they didn't mean it legitimately and once they saw it was haarmful they apologized #for me to say ''i am glad i understand your side of the story and you understand mine'' i am not saying i'm the bad guy #there's really no ''bad guy'' in this situation as i see it because the world is more nuanced then that y'know #like. sometimes people have a sense of humor that you can't pick up on. it doesn't mean you shouldn't state your point of view #and say ''that wasn't how i want people to talk to me and i also won't let you do that'' #also the only part i really ''apologized'' for was that i used a term for them that was uncomfortable #i assume for gender reasons. and i understand where that comes from. if someone called me ''girl'' while arguing i wouldn't like it #whenever i said sorry after that i did my best to try and word it in a way like ''i am sorry this happened but it's not my fault'' #like how when. idk. someone's grandma dies and you say ''sorry for your loss'' you're not saying that you killed their grandma #you're just saying that you feel bad that the thing happened but not that it's your fault #and yes. i do agree that the situation may have been fixed if they just said it was a joke but hindsight is 20/20 right? #anyways. that's my take on the situation. #and like. idk. if they apologized and told me how they saw it. i'm gonna believe them because i have had WAY more malicious people here #like idk. there have been anons who have said wayy worse and there's no discernable reason for why they would #like that one anon who told me that i should get my arms chopped off or something. idk. i deleted it before i could commit it to memory #and that was on purpose #but like. my point is. there's worse people. and if i focus all of my energy about being mad over a person who made one joke in bad taste #idk just seems like a waste of time #at least that's my perspective on the situation. never said i was the bad guy. just sorry it happened #also sorry it happened so late at night for me! i need an ibuprofen and a bagel now

[wizard-irl]

Reminder that any practice that harms or has potential to harm your physical or mental health should not be part of your practice.

Even if it’s commonly practiced.

Even if other practitioners seem fine doing it.

Especially if people push it on you saying you have to do it to be a witch.

And refusing to do a practice that harms you, even if it’s popular, does not make you any less of a witch or any less magical.

#self post #meta #|| #An add on to a previous post. #Part of discernment is knowing your limits. #Vaguepost about blood magic sex magic manifestation and shadow work. #ESPECIALLY manifestation and shadow work. #They’re not inherently bad things but the way I see them shoved onto people who are hurt by them… it’s not good. #And I’m not saying witchcraft HAS to be an always good and soft and fluffy experience. #But if you’re triggered and way beyond the boundaries of what you consider acceptable discomfort then that’s a sign you should stop #||| #witchcraft #witchblr #beginner witch #baby witch #witch 101 #witch tips #witchcraft 101 #witch101

[tchaikovskaya]

although it is often inaccurately used as a kind of shorthand description, the term "proxy war" does not actually apply to the war in ukraine. but i do think you have to have your head entirely inside your ass to reject the idea that the conflict at its heart is about spheres of influence.

#which has a corollary of a lot of the stuff (partially) that people do bring up as reasons for the invasion #like the only alternate explanations are: russia wanted the territory surrounding the sea of azov/leading to crimea real bad #(any benefit of that obviously far far far outweighed by the financial and political costs of instigating a war over it) #OR. theyre just evil. they did this for no discernible benefit they just wanted to kill people. (which is a 3rd grader ass take) #if u do think the latter well....... theres a lot to say about it but i think its simplistic #not to get realpolitik about it but nations do not prosecute a genocidal campaign unless they stand to gain something from it #and further still... genocidal campaigns fall under the umbrella of fighting over spheres of influence. forced integration is part of that

[branmer]

i think it's kinda important to remember that just because you offer criticism doesn't mean the person recieving it has to take it. like sometimes you just give crit that isn't relevant to what that person is trying to achieve, or they just flat out disagree with it, and that's um, fine actually

#'you have to listen to crit!' #yes but also an important part of that process is discerning whether or not that crit is valuable to you! #that's an important part of articulating your own vision as an artist #so funny that the ridley scott drama of all things is making me think about this #but ive been thinking about it a while re the criticisms marginalised creators recieve #who don't have the same luxury of being able to just go 'fuck off' and go on their way #but should!!! imo

[cinnamontoads]

i think the fandomization of south park was a mistake this is a show that should be enjoyed and despised ONLY among close friends or by yourself and no one else

#when i was 14 i was in the fandom a little bit and just that bit was like. too much man #but the most fun i had was enjoying it between myself and like five other friends and that’s it #also i think it’s a lot harder to discern what’s bad and what’s satire etc when you’re viewing a show like this on a fandom scale #same goes for any piece of media #i love fandomization i love being a part of something with people who also like it but sometimes we as a group get lost in the sauce

[siena-sevenwits]

:-)

#I've spent the past week organizing in the play's wake - sorting and laundering huge numbers of costumes #some to return to those they belong to and some to come home to my costume storage room which had become chaotic over the last few #months #so a complete spring cleaning for the storage room became part of my task list too. Now the play's been over for a week #and the emails are starting to come in from admin about next year. As some of you know I did a lot of discernment this semester #about what next year should look like and I have decided a mix of continuity is best. I won't be working for my 'main' schoolboard anymore #but I will continue to teach and direct for the one program in the city (the one I did the play for) and possibly with a new home school #enrichment program that may go ahead this year if there are sufficient numbers. Otherwise I am going to spend a semester #tutoring and running workshops f I can get it off the ground. Then we'll see. #Anyway - admin wants me to get new syllabi in to them within a month's time so my thoughts are all in that direction! #I get to teach 19th/20th century Canadian history to the middle schoolers and Late Antique/Medieval Church History to the high schoolers! #Also direct another play and do a humanities course centred around an epic in the spring (the last couple of years we've done Iliad and #Odyssey - they want Aeneid this year but I am trying to talk them into another option. The Aeneid is valuable but I am not sure it's the #time or place with this group of students. The result of all this is that I am spending far too much time doing Internet research for ideas #and then taking breaks on tumblr - which isn't good for my eyes or mental health. What with the play and end of term #I fear I've been out of the reading habit. I'm still hyperfixating on the Book of Romans so there's that at least #but I lost the novel I was in the middle of and am not feeling so motivating with out books. It's a proper reading slump! I need a kickstar #of sorts. Feel free to yell at me that I should pick up a book!

[longlivetv]

Being a critical thinker doesn’t mean you have to be critical of every damn thing. You can be a critical thinker and also love something for the pure enjoyment of it even if you know in the back of your mind that it’s flawed. There is too little joy in this world to deprive yourself of any shred of it in the name of using critical thinking skills.

#I’m just so tired of seeing hot takes on things that don’t need them #part of critical thinking is discerning when it’s worth it #and a lot of the criticisms of various things that I’m seeing just…aren’t #save it for when it counts

[aeide-thea]

so i went to reblog some fanart earlier and started to tag it #oh this is. incredible actually, and then paused and thought, @‍self why the 'actually.' what is that adverb conveying. and i contemplated it for a bit, and finally concluded: well, shit. it's reflexive deprecation.

the thing is, deprecation is my starting position pretty much always, and that's a problem in itself, but mostly my problem; but when you're talking abt somebody else's work, and you start backing defensively away from imagined negativity before anyone's even actually voiced any? you may think you're playing bodyguard, but in reality you're the vanguard of the assault, opening a wedge for enemy forces to strike.

i was talking a couple of weeks ago abt seeing ppl tag that kristin sue lucas name-multiplied-by-one post with tags like 'this is art To Me' vel sim., and honestly i think it's a similar sort of reflex—i think exposure to the tumblr vernacular often leads people (very much including me!) to produce turns of phrase like this, that ultimately serve to convey roughly

'i, a clever girlblogger,¹ am, yeah, engaging with this frivolous hai pollai²-coded material; but my relationship to it, unlike that of most she-ple, is Intellectual and Analytical and Examined! and to make that clear, i'll be dropping in these little verbal particles from time to time, in order to distinguish my own, elevated examination of the subject from the state of risible naivete³ i'm implicitly ascribing to the other, more ordinary audience members i'm conjuring up only to instantly put down—but like, it's fine, i'm a free-and-easy girlblogger(TM), so you can't think i'd ever deliberately propagate establishmentarian prejudices! never mind the effect my rhetoric might subconsciously be having, on me or on anyone else…'

and i think this framing is worth squinting at, and worth attempting to excise from one's speech and from one's mindset, because when you get right down to it? it's just yet another insidious manifestation of respectability politics, that's gotten people to adopt it via the cuckoo-chick strategy of positioning itself as cutesy tumblr idiolect.

and like, circling back around to that fanart i mentioned at the outset: yeah, the tag did feel weirdly prosodically truncated to me without that 'actually'! but this way, if the artist ends up seeing my discussion of their work in their notes, they won't be getting slapped in the face with a wet dead fish first, so like. what's more important, you know?

⸻ ¹ ""(gender neutral)"" ² https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoi_polloi in the feminine, if i haven't totally fumbled my declensions… ³ phrasing nicked from a comment of @‍proudheron's.

#anyway like. this for sure isn't the definitive post abt this #and really what i'm getting at is just another facet of 'self-deprecation isn't usually actually separable from disparaging others' #but i do think there's a particular subtle flavor of it here that's worth sticking under the microscope in its own right #for those of us who may have breathed it in without noticing‚ and now be spreading it‚ again without noticing‚ in our turn #i mean. obvs also extremely possible i just *think* i've put my finger on something important bc it's late! #but like. imagine tagging‚ idk‚ the winged victory or sth with 'this is art. to me' #it would be SUCH a weird rhetorical move! but consider: it's *always* a weird rhetorical move‚ actually. #bc fundamentally it's a speech pattern that's seeking affirmation of yr own taste/authority/status as Critic #at the expense of the thing you've evaluated�� #like‚ you're going 'i think this is neat!! (but that might just be me 😔)' #and then other girlbloggers are supposed to be like 'yeah no i totally see what you mean!!!' and affirm you! but the thing is— #the '(but that might just be me 😔)' part doesn't just undercut yr discernment‚ it undercuts the praise *predicated* on yr discernment #so it's like. you're dissing yourself in a way that's supposed to earn you affirmation‚ which. is fucked up actually‚ lol :) #but—it's one thing when you do it to yourself; when you incorporate it into the foundations of yr compliment #you've actually totally undermined that compliment and rendered it an insult #(not to mention undermined the idea that the thing might have merit in itself‚ beyond yr authority to bestow or withhold— #like. if you're speaking in terms of what's good/deep/Art/&c To You? you've effectively already ceded the main field of universality #and retreated to defend only yr own walled garden—and implied you'll cede even that small ground if it's disputed) #so like. in the context of yr social relationship with yr followers‚ those sorts of qualifiers are affirmation-seeking moves— #though like. also ones that reinforce yr rhetorical passive-victim positionality‚ in a way you shd perhaps consider *not* reinforcing— #but in the context of yr interaction with an OP? they're negging. #and i just think like. i get it and i'm @-ing myself here as much as anyone else! but it's not‚ like‚ a healed-world way to behave. lol. #so like. consider: tagging things 'art' without the cutesy little qualifiers. praising things without the hedging. #i'm not at all good at that but. i'm going to try. #metatumbling #language #the psyche #'close readings no one needed for 300‚ alex' #(extremely tempted to just scrap this writeup tbh but like. the thinking was worth doing‚ so a record of it is worth keeping)