Malificandy - Salt, Spite, & Everything Slight

“The opposition is nearing single digits at this point and establishment and moderate Republicans are proving just how meaningless those two descriptors have always been when applied to them. They are proving that the GOP ethos is absolutely clear: party—the MAGA party—over country. The assumption is that Jordan is promising them something, and that he will be able to deliver that something better than anyone else could. Yes, the same Jordan that former Speaker John Boehner called a “legislative terrorist.” The same Jordan who tried to overturn the 2020 election. The one who was on the phone with Donald Trump the morning of Jan. 6, 2021—mere hours before the MAGA mob attacked the Capitol, invaded their chamber, and threatened every member of Congress’s health and lives.”

—

‘Moderate’ House Republicans folding like cheap tents for insurrectionist Jordan’s speaker bid

There is no such thing as a “moderate” Republican.

I apologise for having a nuanced opinion on the Internet, but "The destruction of a vast network that many creators rely on to reach their audience is heartbreaking" and "Watching the multibillion-dollar impulsive purchase of an entitled man-child crash and burn within days of getting his hands on it is objectively funny" are two statements that can and should co-exist

I think I’ve finally reached my “no more fucks to give” era. I used to be willing to engage in good faith, or at least try to reason with the anti-Zionist crowd into being slightly less horrible towards Jews, but they have stuck their heads so far up Hitler and Stalin’s asses that I can’t be bothered anymore.

So yeah, I’m done. Get fucked, you asshats. Am Yisrael Chai 🖕🏻

K.A. Applegate's letter to fans re: the ending the Animorphs series

Dear Animorphs Readers:

Quite a number of people seem to be annoyed by the final chapter in the Animorphs story. There are a lot of complaints that I let Rachel die. That I let Visser Three/One live. That Cassie and Jake broke up. That Tobias seems to have been reduced to unexpressed grief. That there was no grand, final fight-to-end-all-fights. That there was no happy celebration. And everyone is mad about the cliffhanger ending.

So I thought I’d respond.

Animorphs was always a war story. Wars don’t end happily. Not ever. Often relationships that were central during war, dissolve during peace. Some people who were brave and fearless in war are unable to handle peace, feel disconnected and confused. Other times people in war make the move to peace very easily. Always people die in wars. And always people are left shattered by the loss of loved ones.

That’s what happens, so that’s what I wrote. Jake and Cassie were in love during the war, and end up going their seperate ways afterward. Jake, who was so brave and capable during the war is adrift during the peace. Marco and Ax, on the other hand, move easily past the war and even manage to use their experience to good effect. Rachel dies, and Tobias will never get over it. That doesn’t by any means cover everything that happens in a war, but it’s a start.

Here’s what doesn’t happen in war: there are no wondrous, climactic battles that leave the good guys standing tall and the bad guys lying in the dirt. Life isn’t a World Wrestling Federation Smackdown. Even the people who win a war, who survive and come out the other side with the conviction that they have done something brave and necessary, don’t do a lot of celebrating. There’s very little chanting of ‘we’re number one’ among people who’ve personally experienced war.

I’m just a writer, and my main goal was always to entertain. But I’ve never let Animorphs turn into just another painless video game version of war, and I wasn’t going to do it at the end. I’ve spent 60 books telling a strange, fanciful war story, sometimes very seriously, sometimes more tongue-in-cheek. I’ve written a lot of action and a lot of humor and a lot of sheer nonsense. But I have also, again and again, challenged readers to think about what they were reading. To think about the right and wrong, not just the who-beat-who. And to tell you the truth I’m a little shocked that so many readers seemed to believe I’d wrap it all up with a lot of high-fiving and backslapping. Wars very often end, sad to say, just as ours did: with a nearly seamless transition to another war.

So, you don’t like the way our little fictional war came out? You don’t like Rachel dead and Tobias shattered and Jake guilt-ridden? You don’t like that one war simply led to another? Fine. Pretty soon you’ll all be of voting age, and of draft age. So when someone proposes a war, remember that even the most necessary wars, even the rare wars where the lines of good and evil are clear and clean, end with a lot of people dead, a lot of people crippled, and a lot of orphans, widows and grieving parents.

If you’re mad at me because that’s what you have to take away from Animorphs, too bad. I couldn’t have written it any other way and remained true to the respect I have always felt for Animorphs readers.

K.A. Applegate

A kid’s book series that didn’t coddle it’s readers just because they were children? How awesome is that? I think this series did an even better job than Harry Potter at showing how horrible and horrifying war is. Harry Potter still gave us that happy “everyone is married and has a family” epilogue, and we rarely (if ever) saw the characters truly dealing with nightmares or PTSD like symptoms from what they’d experienced. Animorphs showed readers how horrifying war is from the start - book 1 has Jake suffering through nightmares because of what he’d seen. Animorphs doesn’t give readers the easy “all of x group are evil” way out. The series starts off allowing readers to think Andalites = good and Yeerks = bad, but then goes on to fully pull the rug out from underneath us when we learn how Andalites treat disabled members of their society, and how horrible it is for Yeerks when they don’t have a host. Nothing about the war is comfortable for either the readers or the main characters.

This series ran from 1996-2001, and the characters are 13 when the war starts, and 16 when it ends. Each book is between 150 and 200 pages long, and even though there are a butt ton of books, I think everyone who enjoys YA/childrens lit should give them a shot. Though if you do, beware extreme 90s-ness. Many plot lines and jokes are extremely reliant on the time in which the books take place, so the sooner you get “if they’d had a cell phone, this wouldn’t even be a thing” out of your head, the better. Like, one of the books’ plot is that the CEO of the AOL equivalent is being targeted, and that would allow the alien invading force to control the entire internet. So yea, it’s very of it’s era. But still excellent!

Well done ireland

nyc dyke march literally put out a statement being like "people have been asking if jews are welcome at dyke march, the answer is yes, and we do not actively support antisemitism" and then 30 minutes later took it down and posted an apology message for the "harm" they caused with that statement and made sure to clarify that it was posted by like a rogue operative without the approval of the full board

You're such a hypocrite it is truly infuriating. You want people to condemn Hamas attacks on hospitals and kindergartens but your countries attacks on churches, hospitals, ambulances and refugee camps are ok?

Either both of them are bad or both of them are alright.

The way you start this ask makes it clear that you're incapable of hearing me out, so this reply isn't for you. It's for anyone else who might be confused.

Here's the timeline of events:

Oct 7: Over 3,000 terrorists break into Israel and rape, maim, kill and abduct over 1,400 civilians. Among their crimes, these terrorists kill paramedics in their ambulances, and shoot the tires of said ambulances so they can't be used to save lives.

Medical staff and tools targeting isn't widely condemned, nor reported by major news outlets. No outraged posts on Tumblr.

Oct 8: Barzilai hospital takes a direct hit from a Palestinian rocket fired from Gaza.

Hospital targeting isn't widely condemned, nor reported by major news outlets. No outraged posts on Tumblr.

Oct 11: Barzilai hospital takes a second and third direct hit from Palestinian rockets fired from Gaza.

Repeated hospital targeting isn't widely condemned, nor reported by major news outlets. No outraged posts on Tumblr.

Oct 17: Hamas reports an explosion at al Ahli hospital in Gaza, claims 500 people killed, and blames Israel instantly (even though it would be impossible to determine a number of fatalities that high within just 10 minutes of the explosion taking place, or to verify responsibility within that time frame).

Worldwide condemnations of Israel, every major news outlet adds this false Hamas report to their breaking news headlines and push notifications, and Tumblr fills with posts about Israel committing war crimes immediately.

But that very night, it turned out that the rocket was fired by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a terrorist organization. The rocket malfunctioned and hit the al Ahli hospital instead of Israel, and the next day it turned out the hospital wasn't even hit, it was the parking lot, the damage caused didn't fit an Israeli airstrike, and the damage also didn't fit a casualty figure of 500 people. In the following days, every independent check (including from institutes hostile to Israel) confirmed it was a PIJ rocket, not an Israeli airstrike.

No PIJ condemnations, nor reports by any major news outlets. Posts on Tumblr either ignore PIJ's culpability, or continue to insist that Israel is to blame, despite NO credible sources saying definitively so.

I know where the hypocrisy lies.

But the hypocrisy doesn't end there. Because what Israel and Hamas are doing with their own medical facilities is different.

Israel DOES NOT use its ambulances to hide soldiers and to transport weapons. It doesn't place its headquarters under the Barzilai hospital. There are no Israeli fighter jets being launched from its courtyard. That's why the Barzilai hospital maintains its protected status as a forbidden target during fighting. Because it is used strictly for civilian purposes.

In contrast, Hamas placed its headquarters under the Shifa hospital in Gaza. It has used ambulances to transport its armed terrorists. It's done so, because they KNOW that Israel normally doesn't strike medical facilities. Hamas terrorists have said so themselves. Here are two vids, the first about the use of hospitals by Hamas units, the second about the use of ambulances, and in both cases the reason given is that Hamas knows Israel wouldn't strike there:

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

Coping 101 - a masterpost of down to earth resources

This post doesn’t contain links to many professional resources - it’s a list of coping tips from people who are mentally ill/disabled themselves and who all decided to share what has worked for them here on tumblr. In the last 7 months I have been sharing content created for and by mentally ill/disabled people on this blog - and to celebrate reaching 5000 followers, I have decided to collect all the best coping tips I’ve come across in one easily accessible place. Enjoy!

Managing emotions:

Letting go of emotional suffering via mindfulness.

DBT strengthening statements

Handling negative emotions

The “emotions are signals” method

The “mindfully recognizing emotions” method

Healthy perspectives on emotions

The “emotions are like hiccups” method

The “healthy outlets” method

Managing anxiety:

Coping statements for anxiety.

Breathing exercise gif

Breathing exercise gif 2

Things to remember when having an anxiety attack

The “just show up” method

The “panicky friend” method

Grounding techniques 

The “I can survive the next 10 seconds” method

The “distract your brain” method

The “you will be able to cope” method

Managing depression:

7 depression tips and why they work

Depression tips

21 tips to keeping your shit together when you’re depressed

Managing executive dysfunction:

The “might as well” method.

The “one step access” method.

Why self-discipline isn’t always the answer. 

The “use whatever works” method.

The “taking care of someone else” method.

The “june-bugging” method.

Tricks for pushing through executive dysfunction

The “do several things at once” method

The “accept your limits” methods

The “turn it into a game” method

The “anything worth doing is worth doing poorly” method

The “tricking your brain” method

The “untangling the spaghetti” method.

The “smaller steps” method

The “emergency cleaning” method

The “letting go of should” method.

The “my body is an animal I need to care about” method

The “fork theory” method

The “remove the barriers” method

The “half-ass things” method

Managing negative thinking:

Challenging cognitive distortions.

Finding alternative thoughts.

Challenging negative thoughts

How to get over past mistakes

Toxic positivity vs hope and validation

How to improve your self-esteem

Negative and positive cognitions

The “self neutrality” method

The “separate your negative qualities from your identity” method

Self talk to help end obsessions

Ten forms of twisted thinking + ten ways to untwist your thinking

Managing self care:

How to practice balanced self care.

Why hands-on hobbies are important

Ways to self-soothe

A list of mental illness workbooks 

Ways to start feeling again

How to get back on track after a breakdown

How to self-soothe and treat yourself

Types of healthy coping skills

The “parenting yourself” method

An interactive self care guide

The “don’t ignore your needs” method

Online self care

Making the most of therapy

Free worksheets for people who can’t access therapy

The “add good things to your life” method

Showering for spoonies

The “do what you can” method

The “it isn’t a waste of time just because it won’t cure you” method.

Self care cheat sheet

The “create something” method

Managing school:

Studying with anxiety and depression

Studying with mental illness

Coping with dissociation in school

Managing exam periods when you’re mentally ill

The “done is better than none” method

How to survive college

Managing urges to harm yourself:

What to do to when you’re suicidal

Questions to ask before giving up

Alternatives to self harm

Coping with suicidal thoughts