at what point does a man become a man a person a person. i am floating on this rock as any other alien might
150 posts
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THEY WEREN’T FEEDING YOU. THEY WERE FILING YOU DOWN.
A Blacksite Literature™ Invocation
(You didn’t “just now” realize. You always knew. You were just too loyal to act.)
---
Were they helping you?
Or were they hollowing you?
Did their “constructive criticism”
ever actually build anything?
Or was it just
their insecurity in disguise,
masquerading as mentorship?
---
You sat there.
Nodding.
Taking notes.
Biting your tongue while they dressed your spirit in chains
and called it refinement.
> “You’re almost there,” they said.
“But tone it down. Be more likeable. Less intense.”
They were never sharpening you.
They were blunting the blade they feared might cut through their glass castles.
---
And now?
You’re staring at your ceiling again.
Mouth closed. Eyes open.
Playing old conversations on repeat
in the Rolodex of your survival.
You remember their tone.
Their smile.
The way they looked at you like
you were dangerous…
but needed taming.
---
And suddenly—
you realize the answer.
But it’s not sudden, is it?
Your soul always knew.
It screamed during the meeting.
It clenched in your gut after the call.
It twisted your chest after the compliment that felt like a blade.
You ignored it
because you were loyal.
Because you were humble.
Because you wanted to earn what you were born already holding.
---
But now?
Now you know:
> They weren’t elevating you.
They were disarming you.
One word at a time.
---
So pick up your voice.
And speak like a weapon
they’ll never dull again.
> This is not the year you bow.
This is the year you remember who the fuck tried to shrink you — and why.
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at a tribal finance conference listening to a quileute tribal council member talk about how companies have bought every house in forks, wa because it’s a tourist destination so they can’t hire people to work for the tribe
anyway fuck stephenie meyer for profiting so intensely off of racist stereotypes of quilteutes and all native people while never contributing a dime to help them solve the problems she caused!
if you have the ability, you can donate to their move to higher ground fund here: https://mthg.org
gorgeous creatures •-•\
flat fuck friday
Anyway if nothing else matters then I hope people remember that Pope Francis used his last public address to call for a ceasefire in Gaza and call Israel a terrorist state:
"I continue to receive very serious and painful news from Gaza. Unarmed civilians are subjected to bombings and shootings. It is terrorism."
Is there beef with the Holstein cows and you or what was that joke lol
It's kind of wild It's just never come up on this blog before, but I HATE holsteins. Bottom 10 cow breeds for me. I hate how they're so common they account for the majority of milk produced. I hate that they're the "default" cow to the point where some don't even know cattle HAVE other colors. I hate their tiny horns (IF THEY EVEN HAVE THAT. LOSER ASS HORNLESS COW) and their painfully massive udders.
Legit I'm trying so hard to not launch into a No Mouth Must Scream style AM speech-- shoot my hand slipped.
(AM speech about why i dont like holsteins below the cut)
For starters, I have to give a brief lesson on what these terms mean; the "Holstein" is the American strain of the "Frisian" breed. Frisians are an ancient breed from Frisia, in the north of what we now consider the Netherlands. Crosses between the breeds are "Holstein-Frisians."
(There’s even more to this but im keeping it as simple as possible. Also one of my friends is Frisian and she is probably going to kill me for describing it like that.)
Historically, livestock was adapted to the environment they lived in. Frisians were bred by the Frisii people for hundreds of years in extremely grass-rich, lush, flat environments. The "polders" of the northern parts of the Netherlands. They're huge and eat a LOT of food.
Traditional Frisians were developed to produce as much meat and milk from a single individual as possible, without compromising the health of the cattle with constant inbreeding to get quick gains. We are talking about a breed that is over 2000 years old. They had the perfect environment to make The Ultimate Food Cow and by god they did it. I can respect that.
So, take that, drag it across an ocean to a place that does NOT have polders, and add the rapid enshittification of capitalism to it. BAM you've got a fucking holstein.
There is ONE goal for "improving" the holstein. Make More Milk. As long as the black and white milkbag leaks enough, nothing else matters. Health? Fertility? Feed ratio? Ability to not die of infection? WHO CARES. MILK LINE GO UP.
Over 90% of holsteins are inbred to start with, because Milk Line Go Up. To the tune of having an average COI of 8%-- where extreme negative effects (think Hapsburgs) start to crop up around 10%
Holstein bulls are aggressive bastards (many dairy bulls are), so no one wants to keep intact males in their herds, meaning most cows are artificially inseminated
Not being limited by the natural lifespan of a living bull means that the same stud can keep having direct offspring for decades after his death
Toystory the bull had 500,000 calves before he died, and hit over 1 million offspring in 2015. That's ONE animal and to put this in perspective, there are 9 million holsteins in the US.
DON'T WORRY IT GETS WORSE
Not only can 99% of holsteins be traced back to just two bulls-- 99% of male holsteins share one of two exact Y chromosomes with those two bulls.
The gene pool is so small that it's equivalent to about 60 individuals. Warrior Cat allegiances are larger than that. That's barely bigger than modern ThunderClan.
"Massive lack of genetic diversity" does not begin to capture the existential dread of this situation. Mark my words, WATCH, when the Bird Flu finally mutates a strain that rips through a mammalian population, it's gonna be in the USA and it's going to be through our dairy cattle.
This is not prophecy or me laying a curse on the land, this is the natural consequence of basing the stability of US milk production on the equivalent of 9 million clones of two classrooms worth of individuals, and then packing them in close quarters
And we don't have to wait for doomsday for the impacts to be apparent on the cattle themelves
Holstein fertility has also dropped by half since the 1960s when the intensive inbreeding really kicked into high gear
Because their whole body is dedicating all of their resources to milk production, they have a notoriously "bony" frame.
Show judges, however, like this because they think that's a very "feminine" look for a 1600 pound ruminant. Very normal thing to think.
Like. I don't know if i can communicate this to people who don't look at cows a lot (it's not quite as obviously dramatic as a pug skull) but here is a comparison of an "ideal" show holstein and an "unselected" holstein from a herd that's been established as a sort of "control group" for what they looked like back in the 1960s;
The way that the artery on the "modern" cow's belly runs to the udder like a big pink worm freaks me out the most ngl
The udder also bulges out from between the back legs
The show cow is so thin
And then compare these both to a Holstein-Frisian cross who leans more on the Frisian side;
Proper weight, developed legs. Its biggest "problem" is actually just the udder shape-- deep udders, which "hang" low like that, aren't optimal for milk-focused breeds because the higher away from the ground the less chance there is of infection. In that department, the "unselected" holstein clearly outclasses the holstein-frisian.
But it probably won't be surprising to hear that the "show holstein," with its massive, swollen udder, is SUPER prone to infections such as mastitis.
But it is also just more prone to getting sick generally
And, to keep up with these insane demands, holsteins need a TON of food. You aren't going to just turn these things out into a pasture and be done with it. Even its ancestor the Frisian needed premium Dutch polder grass to be such a good cow-- crank that up to 11 with these Monuments to Humanity's Hubrice
The Texas Longhorn developed in semi-feral conditions and can eat a bush to become the best thing in a 10 mile radius. The Scottish Highland was iron-forged in upland moors with a steady diet of turf and rain.
Meanwhile if a Holstein has less than 5 homemade meals a day without poland spring bottled water it will die to death.
And the WORST part? You have to use these if you want to make money in dairy farming. It's WAAY too expensive to just run a suboptimal farm. Their milk isn't great, but they sure do make a lot of it.
...so Holsteins and Holstein-Frisians (and other "super efficient" breeds) have absolutely decimated heritage cattle. The American Milking Devon is a deep reddish brown with gorgeous horns and low maintenance; rare. Randall Linebacks are painted with lines of white speckles down the back and can be used for any purpose; critically endangered. The Niata was a pug-faced cow who could fight jaguars; extinct.
And THAT'S what makes me hate them most of all. I LOVE cows, but whenever I see a reference to one, it's a holstein. It's always boring black and white splotches with big pink udders. They're practically synonymous with "cow" when their homogeniety is actually hiding much cooler breeds from you.
Did you know cows can be tiger-striped?
And that England has its own type of longhorn?
Or that cow horns can twist upwards like an antelope?
And that they can have REALLY LONG ears?
And that they can be blue?
And that's not even getting into some of the cows that have gotten a small crumb of attention lately, such as Highlands, Ankole-Watusi, and Texas Longhorns. There's so many cool cows out there! And they're all really different from holsteins! MOST of them are also a lot healthier and produce tastier milk and meat!
TL;DR yeah i don't like holsteins and I like sniping at them. For reasons both legit and petty.
hey ao3 can you like give the extra $38k you made from this month’s funds drive to charity
anyway just a reminder for the myth lovers out there
king arthur was welsh. merlin was welsh. camelot was in wales. the lady and the lake she pops out of; welsh. excalibur; magic inanimate welsh object. etc.
on the way to see family, i drive past a lake that in which is welsh legend, is the last resting place of excalibur.
i’m just saying in my experience a lot of these legends had been so anglo-fied in the past and it’s like, all this cool shit is celtic welsh legend.
How do they keep making later and later stages of late-capitalism
Displayed on the Old North Church in Boston, MA on April 18, 2025, the 250th anniversary of Paul Revere’s ride.
Photo source: silencedogoodboston, the group behind this idea
The “That’s immoral you shouldn’t write that, we need to get that taken down” discourse on tiktok right now is PISSING ME OFFF
Wdym you want censorship for a literal ARCHIVE are you fucking stupid
Ao3 was literally founded to preserve works that were largely getting taken down due to censorship
Censorship is the opposite of what Archive of Our Own stands for
The TAGS and WARNINGS are there for a REASON. Use them and stop complaining
The universal rule—don’t like, don’t read
It’s THAT simple
now is the time to freely share knowledge. Meet up with your friends and start saving as much information as you can. Download it. Make sure you have copies available offline.
Aome scholars suspect that we will never reach the level of gender and sex awareness that was shared in the books burned by Nazis. Imagine how much worse it will be when the internet itself is a tool of state.
the easiest way to rewrite history is to burn the evidence of there being anything different.
Make no mistake: Trump’s attack on the American mind — on education, science, libraries, and museums — is an attack on the capacity of Americans for self-government.
It is coming from the oligarchs of the techno-state who believe democracy is inefficient and want to replace it with an authoritarian regime replete with technologies they control.
Be warned.
Do you get it now? Without due process, everyone is at risk. How are you going to prove your citizenship otherwise?
"Antifa cats exist"
Seen in Ankara, Turkey
His name is Merwil Gutiérrez, and the US government kidnapped him.
For the writers struggling to rid themselves of the classic ‘said’. Some are repeated in different categories since they fit multiple ones (but those are counted once so it adds up to 100 new words).
1. Neutral Tags
Straightforward and unobtrusive dialogue tags:
Added, Replied, Stated, Remarked, Responded, Observed, Acknowledged, Commented, Noted, Voiced, Expressed, Shared, Answered, Mentioned, Declared.
2. Questioning Tags
Curious, interrogative dialogue tags:
Asked, Queried, Wondered, Probed, Inquired, Requested, Pondered, Demanded, Challenged, Interjected, Investigated, Countered, Snapped, Pleaded, Insisted.
3. Emotive Tags
Emotional dialogue tags:
Exclaimed, Shouted, Sobbed, Whispered, Cried, Hissed, Gasped, Laughed, Screamed, Stammered, Wailed, Murmured, Snarled, Choked, Barked.
4. Descriptive Tags
Insightful, tonal dialogue tags:
Muttered, Mumbled, Yelled, Uttered, Roared, Bellowed, Drawled, Spoke, Shrieked, Boomed, Snapped, Groaned, Rasped, Purred, Croaked.
5. Action-Oriented Tags
Movement-based dialogue tags:
Announced, Admitted, Interrupted, Joked, Suggested, Offered, Explained, Repeated, Advised, Warned, Agreed, Confirmed, Ordered, Reassured, Stated.
6. Conflict Tags
Argumentative, defiant dialogue tags:
Argued, Snapped, Retorted, Rebuked, Disputed, Objected, Contested, Barked, Protested, Countered, Growled, Scoffed, Sneered, Challenged, Huffed.
7. Agreement Tags
Understanding, compliant dialogue tags:
Agreed, Assented, Nodded, Confirmed, Replied, Conceded, Acknowledged, Accepted, Affirmed, Yielded, Supported, Echoed, Consented, Promised, Concurred.
8. Disagreement Tags
Resistant, defiant dialogue tags:
Denied, Disagreed, Refused, Argued, Contradicted, Insisted, Protested, Objected, Rejected, Declined, Countered, Challenged, Snubbed, Dismissed, Rebuked.
9. Confused Tags
Hesitant, uncertain dialogue tags:
Stammered, Hesitated, Fumbled, Babbled, Mumbled, Faltered, Stumbled, Wondered, Pondered, Stuttered, Blurted, Doubted, Confessed, Vacillated.
10. Surprise Tags
Shock-inducing dialogue tags:
Gasped, Stunned, Exclaimed, Blurted, Wondered, Staggered, Marvelled, Breathed, Recoiled, Jumped, Yelped, Shrieked, Stammered.
Note: everyone is entitled to their own opinion. No I am NOT telling people to abandon said and use these. Yes I understand that said is often good enough, but sometimes you WANT to draw attention to how the character is speaking. If you think adding an action/movement to your dialogue is 'good enough' hate to break it to you but that ruins immersion much more than a casual 'mumbled'. And for the last time: this is just a resource list, CALM DOWN. Hope that covers all the annoyingly redundant replies :)
Check out the rest of Quillology with Haya; a blog dedicated to writing and publishing tips for authors!
Instagram Tiktok
we had this at my school but my mother had already given me the talk and the school was in conservative bumfuck no where
so i was like "pls dont make me do this when im probs more educated than they are on it"
I remember during puberty talk in 6th grade they handed out permission slips for parents to sign if they didn’t want their kids getting sex ed and like five students ended up having to wait in the library while the rest of us learned about puberty and health stuff.
Afterwards during lunch recess almost everyone in class spent our time telling those five kids what we learned and showing them our handouts.
it sucks you in and spits you out a shell of the morals and ethics you once were
Hey.
Hey, look me in the eyes.
*grabs you by the collar like I’m gonna give you a 1930’s mob style shakedown*
I get that you hunger for content. I get that it was a fun/interesting/horrifying time that brought you entertainment.
The fun times of Pre-Ban TikTok are gone.
TikTok is already trying to glaze him as “the savior of the app”, meaning he more than likely has them in his pocket now.
This means:
• A constant stream of propaganda.
• An erasure of pro-queer/POC/marginalized content.
• A monitoring of your content for collection by the fascist pigs in the government.
• Censoring of ANY form of Mutual Aid and praxis that isn’t sucking off the New Regime.
And many more consequences.
So please, DO NOT USE TIKTOK.
Hey.
Hey, look me in the eyes.
*grabs you by the collar like I’m gonna give you a 1930’s mob style shakedown*
I get that you hunger for content. I get that it was a fun/interesting/horrifying time that brought you entertainment.
The fun times of Pre-Ban TikTok are gone.
TikTok is already trying to glaze him as “the savior of the app”, meaning he more than likely has them in his pocket now.
This means:
• A constant stream of propaganda.
• An erasure of pro-queer/POC/marginalized content.
• A monitoring of your content for collection by the fascist pigs in the government.
• Censoring of ANY form of Mutual Aid and praxis that isn’t sucking off the New Regime.
And many more consequences.
So please, DO NOT USE TIKTOK.
extremely cool article you should read if you haven’t already
hey when you make posts, i just want you to know, thou/thee/thy/thine/ye are like he/you(object)/your/yours/you(subject) okay? "thou art wearing shoes," "i will wear shoes for thee," okay?
you say thine if the next word starts with a vowel and thy if the next word starts with a consonant and they both mean "your" so "thine own shoes," "thy shoes," okay?
and ye means you and refers to the subject of a sentence, "ye members of the brotherhood of shoes," okay? you need this information to create better knight yaoi. i'm personally more interested in nun yuri but we are a community
i hate it when people are writing a long ass thing and start a parenthetical aside and forget to close parentheses it makes me feel like i cant escape from the sentence
I know most people don't care about anything unless it has to do with the U.S. but can we please start talking about the Canadian election.
Please don't vote for Poilievre. He's basically the Canadian Trump and plans to put in place laws that harm trans youth, and lots of other shit.
Please vote istg this is the only way anything will get better. Poilievre has been kissing millionaires and billionaires asses. He'll make life even harder, and he loves Trump.
Reblogs are appreciated, especially if you aren't Canadian.
This post is about Canada, do not derail or say that "it's worse in America." Canadians are very scared, we deserve to talk about our issues without Americans talking over us.
Not pertinent to anything in particular but I do think it's kinda weird that we keep depicting cavemen in media crawling around on all fours covered in dirt with tangled, matted hair, speaking in broken, cobbled-together toddler language when like.
They were us.
Like literally genetically they were US, just like. A while ago.
Like
Would you trust a TV caveman with a baby? Probably not
A real life caveman though??? I think they'd be at least okay at it
Couldn’t get over “the ancient Egyptian site of Philadelphia” so I looked up the origin of the name of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to see if it was developed independently or named after that Ptolemic Egyptian city, because “the city of brotherly love” didn’t seems like a particularly Egyptian or Ptolemaic value but who knows
Anyway it was a secret third thing: Philadelphia PA was named after a Hellenic Turkish city.
The Turkish city of Philadelphia was named after the king Attalus II Philadelphus, who according to ancient historians earned the title Philadelphus “he who loves his brother” because of his loyalty to his older brother the king during his reign. Attalus II was the army commander under his brother’s reign and he rejected his army’s proposal to stage a coup and make him king, and when his brother was reported dead in foreign battle, Attalus II married his brother’s widow Stratonice and ascended to the throne—and when it turned out his brother was alive, Attalus divorced Stratonice and ceded the throne to his brother again without a challenge.
For his loyalty he earned the title Philadelphus which he carried on after his brother died and he became king.
Philadelphia in Egypt was named after a completely different guy, pharaoh Ptolemy II Philadelphus, and, well,
Imperial passport of Kublai Khan “I am the emissary of the Khan. If you defy me, you die.” 1240 A.D. [886x960]
literally one of my biggest hatreds is the fact that we made up borders. Like i could travel the world and do anything i want but no...
because some people needed to feel like they have control of other people
borders between countries aren't real btw we just made them up. there's no such thing as an "immigrant" we're all just people moving around on the same planet that we've always moved around on
borders between countries aren't real btw we just made them up. there's no such thing as an "immigrant" we're all just people moving around on the same planet that we've always moved around on