Latest Posts by normalcy-is-boredom - Page 2

Israel’s military campaign in Gaza seen as among the most destructive in history, experts say

AP News

Israel's military campaign in Gaza seen as among the most destructive in history, experts say

After 11 weeks of war in Gaza, the Israeli military campaign against Hamas now sits among the deadliest and most destructive in history, exp

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military campaign in Gaza, experts say, now sits among the deadliest and most destructive in history. In just over two months, the offensive has wreaked more destruction than the razing of Syria’s Aleppo between 2012 and 2016, Ukraine’s Mariupol or, proportionally, the Allied bombing of Germany in World War II. It has killed more civilians than the U.S.-led coalition did in its three-year campaign against the Islamic State group. The Israeli military has said little about what kinds of bombs and artillery it is using in Gaza. But from blast fragments found on-site and analyses of strike footage, experts are confident that the vast majority of bombs dropped on the besieged enclave are U.S.-made. They say the weapons include 2,000-pound (900-kilogram) “bunker-busters” that have killed hundreds in densely populated areas.

Sometimes i feel like younger queer kids are getting a bit to bold with openly talking to people they don’t know In The Context Of:

More than once i have had a younger/same age queer person come up to me in public settings and say something about “finding other gays” or clearly clocking me as nonbinary and I’m like :)))))))) hey buddy I’m here with my conservative parents can you fucking not out me :))))))))

Just say you like my outfit or hair and move on, fuck even tell me you like my shoelaces. Don’t call me gay and limp your wrist at me when you don’t even know me? Especially when there’s a bunch of ppl around?

you know i don’t think we often talk about how difficult it actually is to suddenly realize that a belief you thought was good and moral and correct was actually really fucking toxic. how you have to look at something and go ‘oh shit, oh i fucked up. oh this is going to take probably years at minimum to deprogram from my brain because of all the little ways this shit pervaded the rest of my beliefs’

so. to all the people picking up all the pieces of a recently shattered world-view and trying to figure out what is safe to keep and what has to be thrown away and started over

to all the people having to relearn how to even listen to other people

to all the people putting in the work to do better while struggling with the guilt that comes from finding out you were the asshole

i’m proud of y’all.

it’s hard to admit being wrong and even harder to change in the aftermath. just keep doing the best you can and just know that the effort is appreciated. everyone can change. everyone can do better. keep fighting.

psst. hey

people who are legal adults who want their tubes tied or top surgery etc etc should be able to do so full stop.

"oh but what if they regret it for the rest of their lives"

okay. so what.

Adults make decisions about our lives, that's what being an adult is. We may decide to get a face tattoo, or quit a promising job, or join the army, or move to another country.

That's practically all we do as adults. We make decisions that effect the rest of our life, and then we live, or sometimes die, accordingly. Maybe i'll spend the rest of my life regretting telling my influential boss he doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground, but, as an adult, that's the kind of life decision i am allowed to make for myself. And after all, it might be the best thing i ever did. It's my life, and i get to do all the fucking around and all the finding out i want to.

surgical transition, or sterilization, or whatever... is exactly the same. If you aren't going to let a legally adult person decide for themself about that stuff, then you can't let them get a tattoo or move to Florida either

easiest explanation i have for pronouns that "don't make sense" (neopronouns, he/him lesbians, etc) is that a person's pronouns are basically just a nickname we use for that person so we don't have to constantly say their name when talking about them. a person's pronouns also tend to have an association tied to them, which is usually an indication of their gender. that said, much like how your nickname can mean whatever you want it to mean, your pronouns can mean whatever you want them to mean. and, with enough practice, if you can remember that someone has a nickname, you can also probably remember their pronouns too (no matter what they are)

Keep in mind please, all these journalists in gaza and Palestinians who communicate what's happening in Gaza are communicating in English for a reason, accessibility. Us arab speaking and arabs and people in the Mena region understand all of it, know all of it, grew up with all of it unfolding, we know... They need you to know, they are speaking your language and accessible language for you to hear and share. It's easy to communicate through numbers and dehumanising reporting but storytelling and reporting is important and appealing to you through your language is another privilege you have yet to acknowledge.

You know what breaks my heart more than anything? Palestinian children are trying to describe the atrocities they're witnessing using English instead of their native tongue to try and get their message heard globally. Palestinian children are also describing the scenes in Gaza while sounding like grown ups and not children because they've witnessed too much at such a young age. These children were deprived of their childhood. Their circumstances forced them to mature and be able to talk about watching their loved ones die. They are literally trying to speak a second language to try and call world leaders to stop killing them and their loved ones. World leaders cannot even utter the word "ceasefire" while a Palestinian child had to explain on camera that she recognized her friend's body only by her coat because her friend's body was beheaded in the bombings.

It's not a conflict; it's ethnic cleansing.

It's not a conflict; it's colonialism.

And if you're somehow convinced that any of this is about religion or antisemitism, I recommend you read this.

yknow ever since people realized tumblr isnt dead and have decided to flock here from twitter and tiktok ive seen a huge influx of people in fandom spaces who dont reblog anything. at all.

like, i used to have an art blog with 340 followers. not a ton but not a small amount either given how this website works with creators. and in my experience back then even the ones who only left likes still reblogged other things or at least posted their own stuff. literally the only empty blogs were clearly bots.

but on this New art blog, i've had so many people with fandom-specific headers and icons with actual usernames as urls and some kind of title or description, but have. Nothing. no posts. all they do is like things. and it's always public, too. their following list and their likes list.

and honestly all it makes me think is that these people are New and also don't know how tumblr works. how likes don't give exposure. not even in a "oh, i know it doesn't give exposure, but i'm still going to reblog anyways" way, but in a genuine honest to god straight up doesn't realize tumblr likes don't work like twitter's.

PLEASE please if you're from tiktok or twitter or whatever please reblog people's art both fandom and original if you like it!! and maybe actually pad out your blog's content in some way so people won't potentially see you as a bot and block you.

REBLOG ARTIST'S WORK. THIS IS THE ONLY WAY THEY GET ANY ATTENTION ON THIS WEBSITE OH MY GOD. PLEASE. I BEG of you

those who are too scared to choose a side keep recycling lines like "children are off limits" and "protect children" as if we don't all agree but

i'm here to tell you that in the span of one week, israel had murdered 700 palestinian children (this number is only expected to keep rising)

israel had cut water off every child in gaza which exceed 1000000 in number

cut electricity and fuel off hospitals that care for children and infants

it has rendered tens of thousands of children homeless

families are rationing water portions

children are writing their names on the palm of their hands so that they would be identified when the shelling happens and they're pulled from under the rubble

the situation in gaza can only be described as catastrophic

but sure go ahead and wish ~peace on both nations~ you fucking detached weirdos

this is a hardly controversial take, but let’s clear something up. if your advocacy for autistic people goes something like “well you see, not all of us have intellectual/physical disabilities, not all of us have low-/no-empathy, not all of us have violent meltdowns, not all of have impulse control issues, not all of us hurt ourselves,” or however you want to continue it, and your sentence does not end with “but those who do still deserve the same fucking rights as we do,” you are not interested in autistic advocacy. every single one of us deserves safety, to be surrounded by people who love them and care for them, to have all their needs met, to have their dignity preserved, to be afforded privacy. that is not open for negotiation. no matter what we do, we do not become less human because of it.

Some sources about the British gay slang of Polari:

“How gay men used to speak - A short film in Polari”

“A brief history of Polari: the curious after-life of the dead language for gay men”

“Polari: The code language gay men used to survive”

“Polari, a vibrant language born out of prejudice”

The Polari Bible

Glossary of Polari terms with additional readings (books, magazines, films)

CDC finally fuckin' recommended the new COVID boosters for everyone in the US. letting my american followers who don't check the news know because i've been turned away for wanting to get an extra booster & now won't be anymore & it's Lovely. most americans are not going to get these and are going to grumble about them, which sucks as far as spread goes - but DOES mean u can schedule with ur local pharmacy sooner rather than later. please do so. ur immunocompromised friends and ur own body will thank u.

💉 HRT ANNOUNCEMENT 💉

YOU NEED TO ASPIRATE BEFORE INJECTING.

I’ve known many individuals who were never told by medical professionals to aspirate, which is unacceptable on behalf of endocrinology. This is an extremely important step because if you accidentally inject into a vein, you can literally die.

“I’ve never aspirated and I’ve been fine” until you’re not.  “My doctor never told me to aspirate” because trans healthcare has yet to be standardized and is a work in progress. “The area I inject in has little to no blood vessels” but there are so many people who don’t know which areas are safest and it’s better to be safe than sorry.

How To Aspirate: Stick yourself with the needle and then draw back on the syringe. If your syringe fills with blood, you need to reposition your needle. If it doesn’t fill with blood, you’re safe to inject there.

Signs that you’ve injected into a vein: — Stroke — Shortness of breath — Coughing — Chest and/or abdominal pain — Low Oxygen — Blood clots — Slurred speech — Headache — Swelling — Tenderness

Literally just aspirate because it takes 2 seconds and can save your life.

Please share this post so that this practice becomes more common!

reblog to make ur blog smell like crispy autumn air, graveyards, carved pumpkin guts, moon water, and a damp cave full of bats 

We’re winning.

Like can we summon this m

I don’t think welfare fraud is a problem period I genuinely don’t. I don’t care when it happens and it means nothing to me. I’m glad. As if the government doesn’t steal from you every day lmao… I don’t give a damn

ChatGPT is running out of money because they haven't actually figured out how to make money with the plagiarism engine they created.

Like to charge, reblog to cast.

one of the biggest man-made environmental disaster in decades!

the Kakhovka HPP is completely destroyed and can’t be restored.

water continues to flood Kherson, Nova Kakhovka and other cities and towns, taking lives and destroying Ukrainian ecology;

over 200,000 residents of surrounding settlements lost access to drinking water;

there is a threat of nuclear disaster due to possible cooling issues at the temporarily occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant;

over 150 tons of machine oil have contaminated the Dnipro River. there is risk of a further 300+ tons leaking;

river water drifts russian mines, they detonate in the flooding zones.

regardless, thousands of animals, both wild and domestic, affected by this flooding. Ukrainians save everyone they can find. the search for animals and people continues for the second day.

the scale of this terrorist act is difficult to predict. it threatens hundreds of thousands of lives — flooding will continue for at least another 4 days.

please do not be indifferent, spread information, reliable information from the Ukrainians who are experiencing this catastrophe in real time. do not believe russian propaganda, support Ukraine and Ukrainians in our battle for life!

You know, it occurs to me that the known internet phenomenon of Reddit “am I the asshole?” posts having completely misleading headers is actually a really great example of a far less known but far more common practice of extreme journalistic spin in cases where there are large monetary incentives to diminish the story in question.

Like, if you see a Reddit post titled “Am I the asshole for buying my wife a new dress?”, the post is pretty much always something totally deranged like: “I (48) really dislike the way my wife (20) dresses, because I think it’s too revealing and makes her look slutty, which was fine when we started dating five years ago, but it makes me feel like she’s going to cheat on me now that we’re married. I’ve politely asked her to get new clothes multiple times, and every time she refused because she said she liked her clothes, and didn’t want to waste money buying new ones. Yesterday I couldn’t take it anymore so I threw out a bunch of her old dresses and bought her a new one that was more modest looking. She started crying because one of the dresses I threw out had been left to her by her mom who died when she was a teen, but I couldn’t have known that it had sentimental value. She said that I should have asked, but obviously if I asked she’d have just told me not to throw out any of her clothes, including the ones that weren’t sentimental. Also, the more modest dress I bought was pretty expensive, and she never thanked me for it. Am I the asshole here, or is she being unreasonable?”

Similarly, whenever you see a headline like “Woman Wins Millions From McDonald’s Because Her Hot Coffee Was Too Hot”, if you dig a bit, you’ll almost always quickly find out that what actually happened was: A 79-year-old ordered coffee which, unbeknownst to her, was being served extremely dangerously hot, because McDonald’s was trying to have coffee that stayed warm over a long commute without spending any extra money on cups with better insulation. The coffee spilled on the old woman’s lap, giving her severe third degree burns over a huge portion of her body, including her genitals. She got to a hospital and they managed to save her life with skin grafting, but she became disabled from the accident, and her genitals and thighs were permanently disfigured. She tried to settle with McDonald’s for her medical costs, and McDonald’s refused to cover any portion of her medical expenses at all, and so she sued. At trial, the jury discovered that this same exact thing had happened seven hundred times before, and McDonald’s had still decided not to change their policy because paying out individual suits was cheaper than moderately reducing their coffee profits. As a result, the jury awarded punitive damages designed to penalize McDonald’s two days worth of their coffee profits, in addition to the woman’s medical costs.

I think it’s largely the same phenomenon, but I know a lot of people who are familiar with the first case, but don’t know to look for the second. If you see some totally outrageous “how could a person ever sue over this stupid thing?” case, you should immediately be incredibly suspicious that that’s all that actually happened, because a lot of the time, it absolutely isn’t. The people who have the most incentive to make their opponent look not only wrong, but completely crazy for having any sort of grievance at all, are often the actually unreasonable ones. 

Anyway this is all to say that if I see ANY of y’all automatically siding with McDonald’s over the recent case where 4-year-old girl was severely burned by their chicken nuggets because “hurr durr dumb kid didn’t know that chicken nuggets were hot, people sue over anything lol”, I will grab that McBoot you’re licking and shove it all the way up your McFuckingAss.

I got this comment on a story from my Other AO3 Account this morning.

(Info redacted because I prefer keeping these accounts separate but no one follows me on the side blog I have for that account.)

The story was posted almost a year ago and is relatively “popular” by my average statistics even though it has tropes and themes that are big turnoffs for a lot of people (hence separate accounts). This popularity is undoubtedly because it’s a Marvel Loki story and that fandom is massive.

So there is obviously an algorithm or a bot scrubbing ao3 statistics and leaving this comment on fics that meet a certain metric with the main character of the fic inserted into the comment.

I had a little time to kill this morning so I decided to investigate further. And y’all this is so predatory. Come on this journey with me. It made me mad. It may make you mad.

First, if you go to Webnovel’s website, you HAVE to choose between male lead or female lead stories before you can go any further. WTF?

And that’s weird, but this gets so much worse. This is basically a pay-to-read site that has different subscription models. Which… okay BUT! The authors don’t get paid! Look at that comment again. They’re promising a supportive and nurturing community, but zero monetary compensation. It’s basically, “post your stuff here so we can get paid and you can get… nice vibes?” I mean look at this Orwellian writing:

Using the phrase “pay-to-read model” in the same sentence as “qualitative changes in lifestyles for authors” deliberately makes you think that you can get paid and maybe even make a living on this website. But that’s not actually what it says and authors will not receive one red cent.

Oh but wait, the worst is still to come. In case this breaks containment (which I kind of hope it does) this is where I mention that I’m a lawyer in the US.

I don’t do intellectual property or copyright law but I do read and write contracts for a living. So I went to look at their terms of service. It was fun!

Highlights the first, in which Webnovel gets a license to do basically whatever they want with content you post on their site. This is how they get to be paid for people reading authors’ writing without paying them anything.

Highlights the second, in which Webnovel takes no responsibility for illegally profiting off of fan fic. This all says that the writer is 100% responsible for everything the writer posts (even though only Webnovel is making money from it).

Highlights the third which say that by posting, the author is representing that they have the legal right to use and to let Webnovel use the content according to these terms. So if a writer posts fan fiction and Webnovel makes money from people reading the fan fiction, and the House of the Mouse catches wise, these sections say that that’s ALL on the writer.

So that’s a little skeevy to start off with but the thing that is seriously shitty and made me make this post was that these assholes are coming to ao3. They are actively recruiting people in comments on their fan fiction. And they are saying they are big fans of the character you’re writing about and that they share your interests.

They are recruiting fan fiction writers and giving every impression that you can make money from posting fan fiction on their site and hiding the fact that you absolutely cannot but they can make money off of you while you try, deep in their terms of service which no one but a lawyer who writes fan fic and has some time to kill will read.

I see posts on here regularly from people who don’t understand how this stuff works, don’t understand that they (and others) can not legally make a financial profit from fan fiction. And there are tons of people who will not take the time to dig into the details.

Don’t deal with these bastards. Fuck Webnovel.

I HAVE WAITED ALL YEAR TO POST THIS