#within the system

[chronicbitchsyndrome]

so: masking: good, unequivocally. please mask and please educate others on why they should mask to make the world safer for immune compromised people to participate in.

however: masking is not my policy focus and it shouldn't be yours, either. masking is a very good mitigation against droplet-born illnesses and a slightly less effective (but still very good) mitigation against airborne illnesses, but its place in the pyramid of mitigation demands is pretty low, for several reasons:

it's an individual mitigation, not a systemic one. the best mitigations to make public life more accessible affect everyone without distributing the majority of the effort among individuals (who may not be able to comply, may not have access to education on how to comply, or may be actively malicious).

it's a post-hoc mitigation, or to put it another way, it's a band-aid over the underlying problem. even if it was possible to enforce, universal masking still wouldn't address the underlying problem that it is dangerous for sick people and immune compromised people to be in the same public locations to begin with. this is a solvable problem! we have created the societal conditions for this problem!

here are my policy focuses:

upgraded air filtration and ventilation systems for all public buildings. appropriate ventilation should be just as bog-standard as appropriately clean running water. an indoor venue without a ventilation system capable of performing 5 complete air changes per hour should be like encountering a public restroom without any sinks or hand sanitizer stations whatsoever.

enforced paid sick leave for all employees until 3-5 days without symptoms. the vast majority of respiratory and food-borne illnesses circulate through industry sectors where employees come into work while experiencing symptoms. a taco bell worker should never be making food while experiencing strep throat symptoms, even without a strep diagnosis.

enforced virtual schooling options for sick students. the other vast majority of respiratory and food-borne illnesses circulate through schools. the proximity of so many kids and teenagers together indoors (with little to no proper ventilation and high levels of physical activity) means that if even one person comes to school sick, hundreds will be infected in the following few days. those students will most likely infect their parents as well. allowing students to complete all readings and coursework through sites like blackboard or compass while sick will cut down massively on disease transmission.

accessible testing for everyone. not just for COVID; if there's a test for any contagious illness capable of being performed outside of lab conditions, there should be a regulated option for performing that test at home (similar to COVID rapid tests). if a test can only be performed under lab conditions, there should be a government-subsidized program to provide free of charge testing to anyone who needs it, through urgent cares and pharmacies.

the last thing to note is that these things stack; upgraded ventilation systems in all public buildings mean that students and employees get sick less often to begin with, making it less burdensome for students and employees to be absent due to sickness, and making it more likely that sick individuals will choose to stay home themselves (since it's not so costly for them).

masking is great! keep masking! please use masking as a rhetorical "this is what we can do as individuals to make public life safer while we're pushing for drastic policy changes," and don't get complacent in either direction--don't assume that masking is all you need to do or an acceptable forever-solution, and equally, don't fall prey to thinking that pushing for policy change "makes up" for not masking in public. it's not a game with scores and sides; masking is a material thing you can do to help the individual people you interact with one by one, and policy changes are what's going to make the entirety of public life safer for all immune compromised people.

#dyspunktional #cripple punk #actually disabled #cripplepunk #a lot of these are major concessions for me personally as i'm an anarchist and loathe to support further concentrations of state power #but if you're gonna be operating within the structure of the system. here you go. handing you a cheat sheet for what you should demand.

[thethingything]

I just realised we can use the polls to ask the clone fucking debate questions. let's go!

(two answers are missing because you can only have 10 options. oh well)

#thoughts #poll #🍬 post #memes #I'm so sorry it popped into my head and I was like yeah I have to do this #we reference this meme constantly within the system

[randomminty]

Enchanted by akatsukis princess carryisms

#art tag #enstars #wait can i tag akatsuki. what if thats naruto. #keito hasumi #souma kanzaki #kuro kiryu #i like posting non pokemon stuff here than twt bc of the tagging system </3 feels safer #waiting for akats climax event is like pulling teeth i really thought theyd be next i couldve never predicted 2wink #GOOD for them tho i love 2wink. yutas finally free from 5 star jail #i love posting a buncha pokemon then a random non pokemon thing im unpredictable. i keep you guessing. i draw the same 3 enstars characters #i only scheduled this bc i just posted smth i feel like i should let it breathe first #ok thats all. gotnight #edit i forgot to make it as clear as possible the only thing i ship within akats is kurokei </3333 i dont like shipping souma w them #which is why kuro and keito get a whole 3 drawings together. spoiled

[hegodamask]

"I've learned from Palpatine."

#Star Wars #Andor #StarWarsEdit #AndorEdit #SW Edit #Mon Mothma #Palpatine #Sheev Palpatine #genevieve o'reilly #ian mcdiarmid #gif #edit2 #i know i've made like ten posts about this line already #and it's late #but sometimes the inspiration to make a gifset just hits you and you have to follow it before you lose motivation again #anyways: love my two red-headed senators who are trying to bring down the system from within (for VERY different reasons) #would sure like to see them share an actual scene one day...

[mueritos]

i hope we continue to see more protests within the US military. i see a lot of leftists and folks who are anti-military who have such an open disdain for the people who are in the military, yet neglect to considering the conditions this country makes to produce ideology, poverty, and the illusion of choice to make all kinds of people choose to enlist in the military. You ever see those videos of ROTC kids recording each other asking why they joined the military and everyone's like, "healthcare", "it helped me go to college", "I was bored" or "free ptsd lol". I hate to remind everyone but folks who are in the military are people, too, and they are the same victims and perpetrators of violence as the rest of you, we have all been shallowly conditioned to view each other as enemies just because one person is wearing army greens and the other is not.

some of the biggest anti-war advocates are those who engaged in war. Veterans who genuinely believed they were protecting the US against "terrorism" come back with blood on their hands, and they choose to realize that it was US imperialism that forced them to carry out violence, instead of doubling down and shielding themselves from the fact that they too are capable of atrocities... This is a class of people who are intentionally conditioned to be as poor and as ideologically aligned to US imperialism so that the military has a never-ending pool to send their youth to destroy other country's youth. The only people I have ever heard say "do not join the military" are those who ARE military.

This is in no way to ever excuse or explain away any of the atrocious war crimes and violence this industry and its people have committed against others. What I am saying is that we absolutely cannot cast aside the individuals who have been victimized within US imperialism, even if they are wearing army greens. I was speaking with my Palestinian classmate last week and another classmate--a member of the US air force-- walked up to me and struck up a conversation. My military classmate showed me her new bird, bid both of us goodbye, and left. My Palestinian classmate asked me if I was close with her, and I said we talked quite often, and she said, "I never met a person who's in the military. I still hate the military, but I never knew that they did, too. I didn't realize that they were also victims."

If my Palestinian classmate--one who is actively watching her own community die--can understand that it is not individuals who are the problem but it is in fact systems, US imperialism, white supremacy, capitalism...why can't we all? And she has EVERY reason to hate any individual military member. A lot of online activism just creates more barriers. if your optics look bad, complicated, or contradictory, you are cast aside. Everyone has got the be the perfect activist, you can never make a mistake or share a half-baked thought, you should always believe every word from a marginalized persons mouth (because being marginalized doesn't mean you're not entrenched in white supremacy too!) and you should never question what you see...Do you know what you sound like? The very imperialists who are convincing poor whites to vote against themselves. Perfectionism is white supremacy. Black & white thinking is white supremacy.

I'd rather have a military member who genuinely believed in the US imperialism machine but was disillusioned after being deployed as my comrade than some leftist who cherishes the performance of "being a good person". I don't want "good people" in our movements. I want humans who care. I want humans who make mistakes and who learn from them. I want humans who accept the messiness of a person. I want humans who hold others accountable and allow themselves to take responsibility for their actions. I want people who change for themselves and others.

fight systems, not individual people. we can change each other, but if we're too preoccupied looking like the World's Perfect Activists, we will only consume each other alive. Connect to your fellow humans, forever and always.

#muertotalks #a mind dump after seeing so much come out after the self immolation of the us air force member #i know hes not the first one to self immolate for palestine #and he might not be the last #i hate the military #i really fucking do #but i choose to see the people within them as victims within the overall system just like the rest of us #i will never go through what they did to make them choose to enlist #i never struggled with poverty homelessness healthcare or social acceptance #i wont shame them #shame is not productive #i want them to know there are civilians who support their protests #i want them to know that we their allies too #a note on my palestinian classmate #if youre arab or also a colonized person impacted by the us military feel free to hate every member of the military #i dont intend to police yall in how you choose to feel your anger #im angry with you #the point i mean to make is about understanding and compassion #someone who has every right to hate these people still chose to see them as the people they are #yes i even want the best for the “bad” people in the military too #i dont want these people to continue the ideology but we cant stop that without dismantling these systems #and we cant do that without creating spaces for healing and reform and growth #so many thoughts so many thoughts #none of this is easy #i fight daily against impulsively hating the world #everyday is a fight to choose compassion and understanding #but being a leftist and doing leftism is not fucking easy #if you genuinely think it is it isnt #and you may be missing the point of what leftism is #anyway

[ashes-in-a-jar]

My feeling right now about the cast

#in some capacity #they all know something fucked up #but sam knows in the most clueless way #breaking it down. sam has seen shit he about the magnus institute he wants to understand because it haunts him #alice knows much more than she lets on. shes seen something within the government's office that fucked her up. #maybe one of her previous coworkers who got fucked up? maybe shes an insider for the group who has the man in black? hmmmm #lena is boss lady probably starkwall related. working beyond her work description. regarding cover ups? #gwen saw stuff her family was privvy to one way or another and wants that power #colin knows about the recordings. saw somw lines if code in the system that fucked him up. ate some keyboards at work idk #and celia? oh boy celia definitely works for aomething pn the putside and infiltrated the govt to gwt some inside stuff. #shes seen and knows it all... whether from tapes or its her she knows about the multiverse #tmagp #the magnus protocol #tmagp spoilers

[sadsongsandwaltzes]

I just think the public school system is evil and the medical system is evil and big pharma wants you sick and the government wants us sad and stupid

#I want to point out that I’m admonishing the SYSTEMS #not every single person within those systems #or like modern medicine itself (when used rightly)

[greensaplinggrace]

does anybody else think about how all of the darkling’s survival techniques were taught to him by a woman experienced at surviving in a man’s world?

#aleksander morozova #the darkling #shadow and bone #grishaverse #sab #baghra morozova #general kirigan #myramblings #im sorry but *everything* about the way he views men and his oppressors and operates within the system is so incredibly similar #to how women navigate through life #and how they navigate power structures with their oppressors #i think a lot about that scene in ditw when he's observing how his mother seduces men #i find it fascinating #like obviously he's still a 'man in power' #and his privilege as a man is unmistakeable #but i think any analysis of his character as a 'man in power' only is wholly incorrect #especially when it comes to his relationship with the royal family #and baghra tries to teach him how to operate as a man in a man's world #especially with that speech about being a leader of men and reading the relationships between the elders in camp really well #but even that coming from baghra is SO incredibly 'you need to be able to read the power dynamics between men' #so you can learn to navigate them the way i do - as a woman #because that is all she really knows #and the way she teaches him to accept all of the trauma he will inevitably suffer #and instead only teaches him how to mitigate it #how to turn even the worst atrocities committed against him to his own purposes #it is all so VERY #oooauuughh #i think some of the WORST anti character analyses for him #come from people who ignore baghra's influence on him as a parent #in every way

[our-inspire-verse]

I always feel so out of place even in system communities. Does anyone else relate at all??

Like, idk some system memes are cool and relatable bc obviously not everything is gonna line up, but so much of it doesn't click with us.

We've almost never been put off by the voices, we all wanna communicate, we don't think less of each other or think 1 deserves more front time than anyone else, etc. Idk, there's so many memes about denial and eating each other's food and all this distress. Which is i know, a major part of many system's lives. Part of what makes a meme is the repeatability and a lot of systemhood IS struggles in that area.

But what about systems who do everything right (in the sense that we have healthy coping and such)? What about systems who unconditionally love each other and dissociative barriers are something we work around instead of fighting? What about the systems who love the voices?

#this comes off as abilistic i know im gonna get some bs from this #but listen. listen to me. ur allowed to struggle and this post isnt about/for u if ur gonna get mad or defensive #im talking systems well on their path through purposeful recovery #systems years into studying themselves and having full comfort and understanding within. full love. full acceptance. #i want memes and content that isnt medicalized and saying the same stuff over and over and over and over #all this misery. where is the system content where we're just being plural and silly. im so tired #dont even start on syscourse like its so bad in here #smells like stinky #system babbles #osdd #actually osdd #minor vent? #system posting #memes #did #actually did #actually traumatized #actually traumagenic #endo safe #syscourse dni #positivity

[nicnacsnonsense]

It is insane to me that this show wants us to believe that everyone just left Faith to rot in that motel room until the Mayor stepped in to give her a place. A) That reflects really badly on both Giles and Wesley that neither of thought to arrange for better accommodations for Faith when watching out for the Slayer is their entire job. And B) what actually would have happened is on the first night when Buffy invited Faith over to dinner, Joyce would have asked Faith where she was staying while she was in town. Faith would have told her the motel and of course, Joyce would have none of that and insist that Faith stay with them. And Faith, poor affection starved child that she is, would have ended up attaching herself to Joyce like a limpet.

#btvs #joyce summers #faith lehane #and let me tell you Buffy would *not* like that #but Joyce would just be like deal with it you have a sister now #but what I really want from this is for it to lead to Joyce questioning the whole Watcher system #leading to the discovery that Watchers get paid and slayers don’t #and Joyce to be like not on my fucking watch #Buffy & Faith are on the payroll within a week #they even get dental!

[fortheloveofexy]

I'm thinking about how like, aside from perhaps Renee, none of the Foxes had ever truly tried to connect with Andrew before.

Sure, there were people who wanted to connect with him - Aaron, at first, then Nicky. Even Kevin, in his clumsy way, is trying to build an emotional bond with Andrew. But nobody is able to fully reach him because nobody is speaking to him in a language he understands.

Nobody, that is, until Neil comes along.

#honestly if it wasnt for wymack and bee working so hard to build a foundation of trust and support with him #i think Andrew would have spiraled out within his first year at psu #they were his first real support system ever and i think they deserve credit for that #bc lord knows nicky and aaron were dealing with enough of their own shit at the time #not to mention kevin #and i dont think andrew would have allowed any of those three to be his emotional support at the time anyway #bc he had already positioned himself as their protector #aftg #all for the game #the foxhole court #andrew minyard #andreil #neil josten

[aroaceleovaldez]

in your most recent tyson post, you said something about leo being distinctly autistic-coded and I was wondering if you could elaborate on that? it sounds really interesting (sorry if you've already posted something on this, I couldn't find anything though)

Of course! I do have a specific tag for talking about Leo's autistic-coding/traits - [here], and [one for Nico as well].

The main aspects with Leo being autistic-coded actually have a lot to do with Nico being autistic-coded, because it's the comparisons between the two that most clearly indicate Leo is autistic-coded rather than it just being his ADHD or etc.

So with Nico being autistic-coded, it's very clear in the Titan's Curse that he's intended to be autistic. First, the first series has a repeating pattern of secondary characters being very distinctly neurodivergent-coded in different ways (Annabeth's adhd/dyslexia, Tyson's down syndrome-coding, Nico's autism-coding). With Nico's introduction, he's pretty stereotypically autistic and we're given a lot of descriptors about him that are notably not attributed to him being ADHD, like it would be for other demigod characters. He doesn't register social cues such as people getting annoyed at him, he's asking/making inappropriate or impolite questions/comments, he gets particularly upset about change (such as Bianca joining the Hunt) and generally gets emotional, and one of his most notable traits he's introduced with is the fact that he has a special interest (MythoMagic) - and we're shown that this special interest particularly colors how Nico navigates the world. While ADHD has hyperfixations, we don't really get much acknowledgement of hyperfixations with demigods usually - Annabeth gets a little, but most others don't and it's not nearly as focused-in on as Nico's is.

Then as the series continues we see these traits stick with him and him start to show or voice more traits that similarly indicate he's autistic: He regularly mentions how he doesn't understand living people and prefers the company of the dead (social issues). He has more notable stims than other demigods (twisting his ring, fiddling with bones, etc). He's indicated to have strong sensory preferences (usually wearing mostly black/aversion to bright colors, usually wearing layers/his coat, multiple times he's described as wearing loose/baggy clothing or clothes too big for him). He has specific comfort items (his ring, likely his jacket(s) as well). We later get even more information about his special interests (Mythomagic/mythology/history and an older interest in pirates - the latter he specifically notes likely heavily influenced his feelings towards Percy). He struggles with emotions and facial expressions and tone. He struggles particularly with ostracism and feeling like he doesn't fit in and has something distinctly different about him from the people around him (who notably, all have ADHD, which indicates it isn't the ADHD that's making him feel that way), and other characters regularly describe him as being off-putting because of his strange behaviors - again, different from specific ADHD traits they recognize. And that last point is kind of notable because we have Hazel and Bianca for comparison - we know people are off-put by both Nico and Hazel because of being children of Hades/Pluto and their powers/aura, but other characters get past that general feeling of discomfort way faster with Hazel. And even after characters get past the death stuff with Nico, there's a second thing that they aren't moving past that isn't a factor with Hazel (Nico's autism).

So that brings us to Leo - Leo is paralleled to Nico a lot. And there's some very specific traits about him that we know are autistic-coding because of how they're used with Nico: He similarly struggles with social cues/etc, and in a very similar parallel to Nico describes how he prefers the company of machines to people because machines make more sense to him. He has similar types of clothing/sensory preferences (again some stuff with layers but also - pockets! He likes having pockets and things to put stuff in! He's even introduced as having a jacket with lots of pockets), and he has a distinct special interest (machinery) that we specifically know heavily influences how he views and navigates the world (constantly comparing things to machinery, describing things with machinery metaphors/terminology, etc etc). He even describes his entire general worldview to Hazel and it's a machine metaphor. He also similarly struggles with ostracization like Nico does, the only difference being that Leo specifically puts on a persona to compensate for areas he knows he's lacking in and very explicitly describes it as a means to make people like him, because without it he normally struggles to fit in (He's masking!). We also see notes of characters describing that similar discomfort with Leo's behaviors that they do with Nico, except without the aura of death this time. And when we're in Leo's POVs we see a very stark difference between his masking and his actual personality/behaviors such as his internal dialogues or how he behaves when he's alone. Also, like Nico, he stims more than other demigods, though for Leo it's more attributed to his ADHD. Leo also, more often than most, similarly struggles with tone and reading the room, such as making misplaced jokes/comments or etc.

But yeah! It's really interesting. Also it's just a fun thing that ADHD/dyslexia and autism have comorbidity, so it makes sense that we see demigods who are also autistic. It's also really fun to look at how other characters are coded in the series, what coding looks like in the riordanverse specifically (usually it's tied into the mythological stuff - like Chiron being in a wheelchair but he's actually a centaur, Grover being introduced as having a muscular disease but he's actually a satyr, demigods having adhd/dyslexia, Tyson being coded as having down syndrome but he's a cyclops, etc etc - it's a lot of specific metaphor stuff that I've talked about a bit before), and to look at how characters are compared to one another.

#pjo #riordanverse #leo valdez #nico di angelo #autistic nico #autistic leo #autism #analysis #Anonymous #ask #long post // #woof sorry that got long #im very passionate about this topic #re: characters being paralleled #Ms. ''Constantly Neutral - No Emotions'' Reyna looking at Nico stimming in the exact same way she does (twisting ring) #and internally going ''We have a lot in common. I don't know how I feel about that.'' is one of my favorites. #like. reyna. ma'am. you might be autistic. good luck with that. #with the pattern of coding in the first series i do suspect Rachel has some coding as well but i haven't been able to pinpoint what it is #I think it may be the whole seer thing and the fact that she could see the future #even before becoming the oracle/despite being a mortal rather than a demigod (who just get rare prophetic dreams normally) #and in BoTL her entire thing is that she's able to see things that no one else can and that's how they navigate the maze #particularly also with how the labyrinth is treated/how it affects people within it (see: Chris) #and how the only other seer in the first series - May - is characterized and her coding compared to Rachel's #also something something the seer traits become more prominent once Rachel meets Percy #something something metaphor about only being able to recognize neurodivergency traits once you're familiar with them #so Rachel meets Percy = introduction to the community > Rachel recognizes her own traits/symptoms > gets a support system (oracle)

[raayllum]

Yeah, you can face this You're on your own, kid You always have been

#ezranedit #tdpedit #tdp ezran #ezran #my edits #graphics #music #taylor swift #i always thought if i edited a solo ezran amv to anything it'd be 'uneven odds' #and i still think it might be but #maybe a trio amv to this song tbh #idk i think a lot about how Alone even within the trio ezran probably feels #he's king he can't up and leave without consequence whenever he wants #he's not part of the couple he's been picking up callum's pieces and running his kingdom #ez being lonely growing up as a kid. ezran being lonely growing up as a king #but also loving his family. and having his council and a support system #and eventually things will get easier #it'll just never be Childhood again in the same way

[obae-me]

Listen, as someone who can appreciate certain parts of Hazbin Hotel (although I certainly have my many criticisms of it) why are people tagging their Hazbin art with "obey me lucifer"? Did those people not click on the tag and see that allllll the other posts are like, not the same fandom?

Or is it some kind of inside joke turned unfortunate coincidence?

I... it just bugs me for some reason, I follow only my favorite tags and seeing my beautiful Solomare boy and then getting jumpscared by radioapple fanart is just not what I ordered...

And no hate to any artists or even anyone in general! I just like my neat little things in their neat little boxes...

#and listen i dont want any hazbin discourse within 20 feet of me #not even a whiff of it #this little irk is mostly me being upset about the tagging system #not writing

[jtl-fics]

You ever just get consumed by thoughts of an AU of your AU?

#Fluent Freshman AU #the Fluent Freshman AU....AU #Where Smith through a series of errors within both the school system and the government's switch to digital #is marked down as 2 years older #and no one notices #And Smith doesn't mention it to nobody because he wants OUT #And ends up going to PSU the same year as one Neil Josten #AFTG AU #I have so many stupid scenes in my head for it

[chamerionwrites]

See I honestly do find the prequels-era Jedi an interesting (and at times painfully recognizable) portrait of institutional violence in that...they aren't cackling villains. They're mostly sympathetic well-intentioned individuals who via a combo of traditionalist inertia, ideological blinders, proximity to power, a dash of plain old arrogance and a liberal seasoning of end-justifies-the-means compromise end up being at best indifferent to and at worst deeply complicit in some pretty heinous injustice. I don't even think this is a completely against-the-grain reading on my part. At the end of the day it's a pretty mild critique, but it's hard to argue that the PT is entirely uncritical of the Jedi imo.

Unfortunately the narrative is never interested in really sinking its teeth into that. And even more unfortunately, a chunk of the fandom will clutch its pearls in horrified outrage if anybody else is interested in sinking their teeth into that

#i recognize that isn't lucas' reading but (1) the author is dead (2) his is not the sole creative vision at work in those films #and (3) george ''i'm a methodist buddhist benevolent dictatorship is the best form of govt ewoks are my vietnam metaphor'' lucas #says some brain-breakingly stupid shit and i'm under no obligation to accept his takes as gospel #anyway. i don't think you have to hate or lack sympathy for the characters to think that as presented in the pt #the jedi order is sort of a fucked up institution within (and doing the bidding of and dedicated to perpetuating) a deeply fucked up system #fundamentally it's a story about structural failure!!! #the good intentions are what make that failure tragic #star wars #aggressive negotiations #my posts