#i know I've been preaching to the choir for the most part with these posts but I think it's still worth writing them out.

[spaghettioverdose]

The whole reaction to TMA (transmisogyny affected) and TME (transmisogyny exempt) is so disingenuous and dumb. There are people who pretend to not understand it or actively change the definition to suit their rhetoric about the evil baeddel terf trans women. There's also the handful of people who genuinely don't know what it means, who've been scared and misinformed by the previous of people, so they don't even look into it any further. It's literally the easiest to debunk bit of misinformation too, if you even think about it for a few moments.

So essentially the people who take objection with TMA/TME language make the criticism that it is essentially introducing a new gender/sex binary and is forcing people to reveal what genitals they have.

The first point can be easily refuted by the fact that TMA literally only includes people affected by transmisogyny, meaning trans women and nonbinary people that consider themselves transfeminine or are otherwise affected by transmisogyny. TME is literally everyone else. You can be a cis man, cis woman, transmasc or any nonbinary person who isn't transfem (including non-transfem amab nonbinary people) and be TME.

Criticism of TMA/TME language almost always comes from TME people (for reasons we cannot fully understand) which makes the second point of the criticism, that TMA/TME forces people to reveal what genitals they have, particularly disingenuous. If this was true, then the criticism should definitely be coming more from TMA people since TME, as explained above, tells you almost nothing about a person, their gender or their genitals, but knowing someone is TMA can allow you to make a pretty good educated guess.

So then the language used is fairly easy to understand and pretty well focused on the issue that it's meant to talk about. The aversion to it is fairly clearly not due to misunderstanding in most cases, but due to deliberate hostility against attempts to talk about and acknowledge transmisogyny directly.

#transmisogyny #i know I've been preaching to the choir for the most part with these posts but I think it's still worth writing them out.

[gendergenius]

hiii! not to ebeg again because i've been quiet about it the past few months but long story short my boss fired me and is replacing me (and other part time workers) with volunteers

obviously there's not much that can be done about that. i'm filling out job applications every day and am in the process of taking an online bar-tending course but right now, only 1/4 of my household's members is making an income and it's minimum wage.

all that said, i know that i'm preaching to the choir for the most part. if you're currently in the same deep water as i am (or deeper, as i know i'm still fortunate in many ways), obviously don't feel pressured to donate

for those who are able to and interested in helping me pay next month's rent + groceries, my info's as following:

p*ypal

v*nmo

c*shapp

please share even if you can't donate because it helps a lot! and no tagging with anything that would get tumblr to nerf this post <3

#augh

[qqueenofhades]

Ignoring his inflammatory rhetoric, do you think Bernie's *POLICIES* are actually that extreme? I've read them over and, if he had a softer approach, they seem like they'd be sound policies to me

The problem with Bernie is that it's hard to know, in actual practice/reality, what his policies are. Yes, on paper, everyone knows what they are, and it's not a week if he's not writing yet another op-ed in the Guardian about Workers' Rights or Climate Justice or whatever. But like.... what good does that do anyone? Everyone who reads the Guardian probably agrees with those things already, and that includes me -- I read it, I financially support it, etc., but it's not where I come for policy actions or where I want to see US senators spending all their time. (Like, Bernie, aren't there other people you could be talking to, who could actually do something about this?) It's the definition of preaching to the choir, where he's regurgitating a boilerplate piece of progressive ideology but not actually doing anything about it or attempting to reach an audience who doesn't already agree with him. (Plus the Guardian, unfortunately, is always also willing to let his ex-campaign manager, David Sirota, bash the Democrats for something, but never mind that.)

Likewise, Bernie's actual voting record in the Senate isn't always a match with the things for which he has (very loudly) advocated, and he's a multi-millionaire old white man from Vermont (one of the whitest states in the Union) who has often seemed interested in preaching socialism for everyone else but resisting any scrutiny or participation in that for himself. He has gotten a lot of mileage and built a disproportionately influential political career out of championing so-called leftist progressivism/socialism, but as I keep saying about him, he never seems to do anything about it. "Tax billionaires" or "save the planet" are extremely broad-brush statements that everyone in the liberal camp can mostly agree on. And no, I wouldn't say those positions are particularly extreme; they're pretty much mainstream Democratic ideology at this point. Indeed, I think Bernie gets unwarranted traction out of positioning himself as the "radical" alternative to the Democrats, when most of the things he says are now basically part of the party platform and have been adopted or explored in some shape or form. Just because they can't actually be implemented at the moment, whether due to legislative roadblocks or otherwise, doesn't mean that they're not moving in that direction.

Likewise, Bernie's favorite hobbyhorse of Medicare for All is often used by his fans to irrationally bash the Democrats, as if we don't have universal healthcare -> quod erat demonstrandum, Democrats Are Neoliberal Shills. I've written many posts about the state of the healthcare debate in America and how passing even a much-watered-down Affordable Care Act cost Obama control of Congress for pretty much the rest of his presidency. So if Bernie and co. want to offer a roadmap for how to pass another major healthcare reform/overhaul that goes even further than the ACA -- trust me, everyone's listening and wants to know how to do that. That is neither extreme nor particularly, at least among Democrats, controversial in the way it was in 2009, when we still had Blue Dog Democrats in red states like Nebraska and South Dakota. But a) we have the united fascist bloc of Republicans who would object and obstruct it on principle, and b) we DON'T have enough Democrats to just pass it by fiat and have that be the end, because that's not the way things have worked in the history of anything.

So basically: if progressives want to endlessly harp on the Democrats for not magically pulling Medicare for All out of a hat, they're welcome to do that if, and only if, they can produce a credible policy/platform/program of action to actually get it passed that the Democrats could be following and aren't (and "they don't care enough about this and could fix it if they wanted!" is not that). That way, they could actually show that the reform is empirically possible and the Democrats are not carrying it out. But flatly ignoring all the political realities and blaming them for not producing a miracle in an extremely adverse legislative and political climate does not count as good-faith engagement and isn't directed toward any constructive end. It's just performative gesturing to show that they are Better Than The Establishment, something something something, and Bernie is usually one of the chief offenders in this regard, despite actually being part of the Establishment for decades.

I will give Bernie credit for two things: he has voted for all the major Democratic legislative packages with the relative minimum of selfish hostage-taking/sabotaging such as that carried out constantly by Manchin and Sinema, and he quickly shut down any talk of running (yet fucking again) in 2024, in order to support Biden's re-election bid. But as far as policies go, he's still not shown me that he either has a concrete plan to carry them out, that he knows what they are aside from broad-brush, vague and general talking points, or that he will put in the work to get them achieved, so yeah.

#anonymous #ask #politics for ts

[pinketine]

I think it'd be unfair to my younger self who'd loved Wilbur since Soothouse and my self of last week who loved RTSoot if I didn't make a final post saying my piece and giving myself closure.

As I've said earlier, I won't be supporting Wilbur anymore, as the memories will be too bitter, and his apology when compared to Shelby's story comes off as completely insincere. I'm aware of the difference between c and cc, but the lines are way too blurred in this case for me to feel comfortable.

Furthermore, I'm not mad at myself or anyone else for loving his content or missing any red flags. A lot of us were young, and found deep connection with his candidness about the uglier sides of mental health. He was also charismatic, and made good, enjoyable content. It's not a sin to say a bad person is talented, or made good things. It's more productive than anything else, because labelling all bad people in a certain way just makes you more likely to be blindsided. Don't feel guilty, you didn't know.

In addition, I thoroughly despise any arm chair diagnosing/demonisation of Wilbur's mental health. It's ableist to try and say he has a cluster b personality disorder, full stop. No mental condition makes someone an abuser. Also, Wilbur isn't a bad person because his mental health led to him not taking care of himself, he's a bad person because he's an abuser. While poor mental health can make someone lash out, it's disingenuous to remove Wilbur's agency in violating Shelby's boundaries and the like by blaming it all on his poor mental health.

I also think you guys need a bit more nuance when regarding how others didn't speak up about Wilbur's abuse until Shelby did. On one hand, some people probably were complicit in it up until it was safe to start virtue-signalling. On the other, some others might've been gaslit or manipulated or were simply too scared to speak out against one of the biggest, most beloved names in the sphere. Some people may have not even known about it. And even the people who haven't said anything, that doesn't mean complacency, or that they support him. They might still be reeling, or in denial, or gathering their thoughts.

At the end of the day, I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but we don't know these streamers. This is to say both that you shouldn't assume that they could never be horrible, and that you shouldn't assume everyone in the mcyt sphere is horrible. It's a large community, and every community has people, some more vile than others. That's just the nature of humanity.

Of course, the most important part is supporting victims, especially Shelby. She has been incredibly brave, and revealing something so awful to help protect and warn others is so very kind as well. This is about her, first and foremost.

Everyone make sure to take care of yourselves, this has definitely been hard for a lot of people. 💗

#sorry if i misphrased anything #i tried to be as succint as i could #wilbur situation #tw abuse #505 radio

[ehh-is-the-name]

iii 19 spoilers 'cause holy fuck man.

I have been making iii posts since 2021. You bet your fucking ass I'm making one with all my thoughts on the season finale.

And yes, it's Mephone-centric because I'm a meeple head. This time I'm not apologising for it.

This is more of theory and sobbing than the other ones but, let's be honest, we're all doing that anyway.

- - -

Ballpoint has been a guiding light in all this shit. I hope we hear more from him later on. Like, thank you for giving this phone the reminders he needs- Either way, scene 1 that made me a little insane.

Not gonna lie, I hated Springy before this ep. A character can't just look at Mephone when he's on the ground and say "The show's broken because he's broken" and not be public enemy #1 to me. Sorry, that's just the way things are. But, since they got a lot of development in this one, I can forgive (and also because Cabby kinda put them in their place but I digress). I kinda see what he said as like... projection for not being able to fulfil their purpose as a mascot advertiser. I'm probably preaching to the choir on this, but the whole "this IS my mask" and the "You thought I was helpful" were very much in tune with that projection thing. Hell, I might even like Springy now that I think about it...

You know... It probably took me way too long to realise that Walkie Talkie was, well the actual walkie-talkie. But whatever- This whole thing being 2 androids created to fulfil a purpose (reminds me of a certain creator-) and the whole obsession with fulfilling that purpose makes me fucking insane.

Scene #3 of insanity: This almost got me to shit my pants. I think we all are on the same page that it's Cobs who made Walkie Talkie and sent her here. I'd kinda be mad if it wasn't at this point (I blame that on me being a meeple head). Though, this got me thinking about what Walkie's purpose actually is. Was it to take over ii? Was it to watch mephone? Was it to watch mephone but she went rogue and tried to take over the show??? I wanna know her story so badly. If she was one of Cobs' creations, would that make her related to mephone-(more on that later). Anyway, I know mephone... and I know I'm not wording this right but I'm tired- I know he overcame his trauma associated with s2, but like every season someone has been built specifically to take him down and- there's no way he's fully alright after this finale. Even with knowing he has support... Maybe that's the point. Maybe the point isn't that everything's ok now, but he's getting better. God I love hate this phone. Show? Everything. It makes me ill.

CRITICAL INSANITY MAXIMUM INSANITY SHITTING PANTS INSANITY

When I say this scene made me scream, it made me scream. I literally woke up my mom from seeing 4s on the scene. I know a lot of us feel this way, but like WE HAVEN'T SEEN HIM IN FUCKING YEARS I'M STILL INSANE ABOUT THIS MAN!! Him coming back from the dead just to be like the most supportive sibling ever is killing me and NOT softly. Mephone breaking this cycle of people dying for him is the extra kick in the balls, man. I AM BROKEN AND HOLLOW BUT FULL OF LOVE AND WHIMSY BECAUSE OF THIS SCENE. I almost took the day off after watching this ep, because of how much it changed my psyche.

Also I've run out of images at this point so fucccckkin' hell part 2 is here like the finale was split into 2 parts.

And yes, the images are necessary to my ranty madness. nav: part 2 & part 3

#iii 19 rant/reaction #iii 19 spoilers #ii spoilers #inanimate insanity #ii mephone4 #meeple ii #osc #ehh exaggerates

[kashacreates]

hi there! i really want to be a part of writeblr, people asking questions is the top thing that helps me develop my wips, but everyone knowing what i'm working on terrifies me at the same time... especially since i'm a teen writer; i'm worried i'll deem my projects "cringey" in the future and then not be able to do anything about it because it's immortalized on the internet. do you have any advice on how to get over this, or any good "baby steps" to take when interacting with the writing community? thank you!

To start: Mechanical basics of getting started on Tumblr:

Make your blog. Keep it simple. Blogs are kind of disposable, but pick a URL you like. I went with KashaCreates because people call me Kasha and my Creations go here.

Set a header and icon, but use something that you made or is free to use for those things. There are like picrews that work for icons or stock photos if you don't like to draw. (Or you could do what I did and take some stuff out of your scribbles that looked nice) No icon makes some people think you're a bot. Worry about theme later unless you really want to work on it now.

Make an intro post and pin it. Start with simple info: a name for folks to call you, what you like to read/write, etc. I'm not a fan of putting exact age (who wants to update their stuff every year?), but as a minor, it's helpful to put some indication that you are not okay with nsfw/adult/erotic blogs interacting with you.

For the rest, there are a lot of good helpful tips here!

Put anything you may want to delete later under a "read more". It's the orange icon that pops up when you start to make a post.

If you ever want to figure out how to do something on Tumblr, Google is your friend. Just make sure to put the current year and whether you're desktop or mobile in the search. So "How do I make a readmore on mobile 2022." Google will still give you a ton of old ways to do so, but you'll eventually find some relevant post that'll tell you how to do it.

Pretty themes, aesthetics, images, etc. help, but are not necessary. They are a lot of work and do make your blog less accessible.

Tangents

This is like the third time I've wrote this, so I apologize if it's a little rough. But there are a few truths and ideas that I feel are important. Keep these as a general rule for the internet, not just Tumblr.

The internet isn't as permanent as people say it is. Websites get purged, hard drives die, servers get abandoned, etc. Always keep a local back up or two of your content, keep your passwords and 2FA up-to-date, and so on. Most of us don't go viral enough for people to keep an archive for us.

A tight-knit group of 2-5 peers who all share their work and comment on it is 1000s times better for growth than the faceless sea of social media.

You will eventually see your project as cringey, bad, problematic, etc. And that is okay! Future you has more life experience than current you and hopefully has been writing longer than you too. I wouldn't get too worked up about it (if possible).

Everything is problematic in some way and life has a ton of nuance. Very few things are black and white and you are the only person that can draw that line for yourself. Not your parents, not your teachers, not the president, not the news, not me. Keep an open mind, but still critically think.

Make the content you enjoy making and understand that you may not get a lot of interaction. Chasing validation is a quick way to burn out and losing the drive to create.

You get a lot more interaction in giving rather than posting content and sitting by receiving. You kind of have to make opportunities for people to find you.

Last Tangent, but it needs it's own section: Adult Blogs and NSFW Content

I am sure you know this and I'm preaching to the choir, but it's important for me to state.

Try to avoid blogs that handle nsfw content until you're over 18. Also, don't post nsfw content until you're over 18. Don't privately talk to someone you don't know and/or is over 18 about nsfw things. If someone tries to bring that stuff up to you in DMs or privately, block them.

It is perfectly okay for you as a minor to have interest in such things. But it is dangerous for everyone involved for adults and minors to share nsfw spaces. Any responsible adult that makes such content will try to keep their content a respectable distance from teens. Anyone that doesn't should be avoided.

It's not a matter of "uwu teens can't handle such content since they're smol beans and babies." I know teens do things on their own.

It's a matter of "some adults are fucking monsters and there is 0 way for anyone to know who is or isn't. Also, any adult can get in massive trouble for interacting with a teen in that way(for good reason)."

On that note, this ask made me realize that I need to put in my intro that my blog does handle "spicy" content (tagged, but still spicy). I tag everything.

Of course, I'm in no way offended, put off, or perturbed by your ask.

It's just that my work has adult content and I put no effort into filtering my posts on my blog to call it "minor friendly." I'm also human and make mistakes.

#advice #Just imagine me saying everything in a gentle matter-of-fact tone. #I feel like I don't give the advice people are looking for in these advice posts. #But I also feel that the information's important? #It's better to go in with an idea of what's going on than not. #Like I'd want to know to bring bear mace if I were to go hiking some place with a hungry polar bear roaming around. #I most likely will never see the polar bear-- but I'm prepared in case it sees me.

[ziptie-bouquet]

Honestly I'd love to know more about your view on kinks and stuff.

Not in a pervert kind of way. I'm just curious

Hi again if this is the same person as last time!

I'm not quite sure what you mean by my "views on kinks". I'm gonna cover what I think you might have meant in this long post.

Prefacing this with saying that I haven't been lucky enough yet to get irl experience with kinks. There will probably be gaps in my opinions or stuff I flat out am not aware of.

About how I view kinks in general, I obviously don't agree with any of the "kink critical" stuff out there.

Yes, kinks are influenced by external factors, but so are most things you like in life. No, people enjoying their specific power dynamics isn't the evil propagating misogyny and the likes out there. All of those arguments make me think about the video game scare with murders being linked to people owning violent video games. People like thrill or fear or anger or anything you can think of in consensual controlled environments, and there isn't really anything wrong with that.

I really think that misogyny does impact kink communities, tho. I've seen a lot of cishet guys who only see dommes as kink dispensers or who pretend to be doms just to get away with wanting to control women.

BDSM porn is most of the time catastrophically boring, especially the cishet one. Unfortunately, I do think it impacts how some people and online communities exposed to it think of kinks. You see this a lot with women not being the focus of kinkplay when it comes to receiving pleasure and vulvas never being on the forefront in most nsfw material (at most you get some focus on penis in vagina penetration but never anything about the external part of the genitalia really). This is true even in femdom circles as well.

Those issues are quite deeply embedded into anything pornography related in the first place. The industry is terrible, but once again, I'm preaching to the choir here probably, but I'm not anti-porn and props to sex workers. I hope their job gets decriminalized.

Queer stuff is much more comprehensive of femininity. This is especially true with drawn art imo, all of the artists who represent bodies or kinks in an appealing way to me are queer and, most of the time, trans. It makes sense considering the history between the two groups and how being queer makes you think about your own sexuality in depth.

Additional thoughts on this is that I truly despise how kink is talked about in online and irl spaces. It's constantly treated as being a victim of your own self. You see this especially with cnc because a lot of people use it as a coping mechanism it's always a talking point in the "you have to be traumatized to be this way" talks in my experience.

You can only either be a freak of nature or a poor innocent victim to some people and it's frustrating to deal with. It's worse if you're a woman because people can't imagine women in dominant roles and only see them as victims of misogyny.

On a more personal level I really love kinks. I've always known what I was into and I think being more aware of the mental pleasure that comes with sex than your average Joe makes me cool.

I do struggle to get physically attracted to people in general, like I get horny for them and want to fuck them, but I can't find anyone physically attractive despite that, if that makes sense (this is also a reason why I labeled myself as aro btw, and also probably why I don't get crushes). I've enjoyed sexting more than irl sex because of the whole "mind sex" aspect of it that combos nicely with kinks.

I'm not going to share a list of what I'm into or anything, that's really for my partners to know. I know there are obviously fetishes outside of the BDSM spectrum thingy but I don't have anything relevant to say about that, except have fun!

#ask #sex tw #kink tw #yeah this ask was also kinda funny #sorry i dont have many life changing opinions about this topic

[gnostic-heretic]

FUCKING THANK YOU!! I swear I've read so many fics where Russia out right calls people f*gs and tr*nnies given the current laws in Russia. It's disgusting and kinda spits in the face of the lgbtq+ of Russia. My wife put it best in saying that it'd make more sense and be less insulting for Russia to be closeted gay/trans. Same goes for period pieces. Lgbtq+ folk have always existed and I'm certain there were gay couples in the middle ages who wed in secret.

you’re preaching to the choir tbh this is a Good take... i have to admit i don’t read a lot of fanfiction with aph russia as a pov character BUT i can only imagine... ew

if you wanna know more about lgbt people in medieval times. this is so long so it’s going under the cut

tbh the persecution of lgbt people hit peak during the inquisition which means that we’re already at reformation vs counter-reformation times sooo post-medieval. and yes MANY people died. i’m not trying to deny it. however. first of all we only have trial records of those who were FOUND OUT and ACCUSED. so there’s a whole world we don’t know about (especially when it comes to lesbians since sodomy was seen as more of a men problem)honestly just because we are missing records of something it doesn’t mean it’s something that didn’t exist.secondly even if one was accused of sodomy... pal... at a certain point in the late middle ages more than half of the men of florence had been accused of “sodomy”. most of them got away with it or paid a fee and that was it. otherwise they would have burned like half of the city... not cool huhmost accusations were a smarmy power-move and not made out of moral outrage (unless someone was personally involved/someone’s family member was involved, then it became a matter of “it’s easier to get away with it if i say it was forced by the other person”). in other cases, someone could be completely str8 and yet be accused of sodomy- it was kinda like accusations of witchcraft really- and it wasn’t really as easy to prove as we might assume.

thirdly... as i said... especially in specific environments (especially in the upper classes, but also in some cases not- example from the records we have, “crossdressing” was more common with lower class people, possibly because it was easier to hide your identity/birth when you were not the son of the duke of the county of ‘stocazz) “sodomy” just like other “punishable sexual acts” (adultery, masturbation, sex before marriage) was... pretty much seen as not a big deal. like what people need to get about human history is that when a behavior is part of normal human sexuality you can condemn it as much as you want but it won’t go away. and people will just eventually think like... “yeah, this sure is happening”

tldr people knew that lgbt people existed- and more or less tolerated it, if they were not lgbt themselves. just like... at most points in post-xtian history i would say, lol. the victorian era was known for sexual repression: does it mean that people didn’t have sex? no, then i don’t see why we do not apply the same logic to lgbt people in the middle ages (oh wait i do know. it’s homo/transphobia)***by this i absolutely don’t mean to diminish historical homo/transphobia, i just mean ... to make a modern comparison, most homophobes are the “anyone can do what they want in their own bed as long as i don’t see it/think of the children/casually says a slur and thinks it’s funny” type of homophobes, not the “today i’m committing my fourth hate crime because all gays go to hell” type of homophobes... both bad, both make our lives hell not denying that, but you get my point4 and most important there’s also some p relevant records (though comparatively few) of people who, even back then, lived openly as lgbt and YES i am including the T. (i didn’t read shit tons of books about “””female crossdressers””” in history to endure people who deny that trans people existed even back then. in a book i read recently about a “crossdresser” called Giovanni/Caterina Vizzani there was the story of a trans man who managed to live his whole life as a monk and even get his gender recognized by authorities so if people could jot that down :^) when i say lgbt i mean lgbT)

but since history is full of these “exceptions” after a certain point it makes you wonder like... were they really that exceptional? or maybe medieval people were less... anal (lol) about these things than we think they were? more at 11 (i’m sorry if i’m not super coherent, it’s like half past midnight and i’m sick jdfhgjf)