really fucking boils my cabbages when the right is completely correct that something is a problem in society they’re just hyperbolically stupid about why.
eg falling birth rates are not a problem because something something the future of the white race and they’re a sign that modern women aren’t sufficiently interested in staying home and making babies. they are however a problem because a society with no economic safety net is not prepared to manage a demographic shift toward having more retired people than working people and they’re a sign that millions of adults in 2026 do not feel financially stable enough to add to their families
“At my old job in public education, my office mate invented the concept of the 8 Weeks of Doom. This was defined as the period between New Year’s and Spring Break where it was dark and gray, there were few holidays, and everyone’s seasonal depression hit an all-time high. To combat the 8 Weeks of Doom, she started a tradition of making me a Doom Calendar, which is an advent calendar but for fighting the Doom. She’d include small fidgets, snacks, stickers, and fun tea, which I’d open whenever the Doom felt very high on a particular day. Eventually this turned into a standing tradition of us making each other Doom Calendars, and the concept spread to our whole department. We would eventually just start our department meetings checking in about how everyone was managing the Doom, and did anyone want to open a Doom Calendar door for a quick pick me up? Even though we’re not longer office mates, I still exchange a Doom Calendar with this friend every year anyway. It really does help with the Doom!”
I adore this for the same reason I like winter celebrations/special days: humans realizing they can act to change their perception of reality. The longest dark, the coldest time of the year, can be dressed up as a party with lights and shiny things, or firecrackers and dancing wearing a lion costume. We can clean and make music and loud noises and give each other nice things and if we all do it very hard, together, maybe we won’t be so cold and sad.
Addressing the issue of water pollution, the artists collected samples from 100 locations across Taiwan, first freezing the liquids and then preserving their creations in resin.
The Citrus Scale is a classic way to label the sexual explicitness of your fanfiction work.
Nowadays, it is more common to simply see the tag ‘smut’, but if you want to be a little more discreet while still specifying the level of explicitness, you can use the citrus scale. The most commonly used fruits on the scale are lime and lemon.
Lime indicates the presence of sexual content, which is more implied, involving make-out sessions and groping, but not direct intercourse. Often, the scene ends with a fade-to-black moment when intercourse begins, so it is implied without going into detail.
Lemon is more explicit. You can expect graphic details in a lemon story.
So there is a bit of a difference between a 'lime’ and a 'lemon’ story. However, there are some other fruits on the scale which I haven’t come across that often.
There’s orange, which doesn’t even imply intercourse, but rather light intimacy, such as kissing and cuddling.
The last one is grapefruit. I really haven’t seen this that often, so don’t quote me on it, but in my experience, grapefruit signals an even smuttier lemon story to come.
Have you used the citrus scale before? Tell me which fruits you know!
Do you know how weird it feels to casually make future plushie plans and feel like I’m thriving with my art career while ICE is threatening to go door to door for “immigrants” and “criminals” (visibly brown people) and I have to carry proof I’m American with me every time I go out? I say this specifically here because I know it’s a majority white American website. Like I already thought of who I would call and go stay with if I were to be deported lol. I’ve soothed myself with “maybe it wouldn’t be so bad as long as I don’t get shot at or disappear”. And it’s just annoying because my white peers do not have shit like this weighing on their mind, they can choose to just fucking draw
I cannot emphasize how much I’m literally a US citizen who speaks good english (with an accent, but it’s something) and these are the thoughts I’m having. Imagine how it feels when you’re actually an immigrant and you can barely parse what the masked trigger-happy asshole with a gun is screaming at you.
I’m an Indigenous person who gets mistaken for Hispanic on a daily basis because Indigenous x Italian= olive complexion, dark hair/eyes and features that aren’t purely Eurocentric
When ICE came into my job I was terrified. I felt like I was going to be sick. I work with primarily immigrants (non Hispanic, but still) and our company policy is to answer their questions but try not to let them in the back rooms without a warrant. I’m a manager. I had to be the one to handle it.
I was sweating the whole time. I had forgotten my ID in my wallet, which I left at home because my mom was watching my child, so in case she needed to get anything. I had no proof I was a citizen. They kept asking me questions about myself, and my one coworker with an “ethnic” name. The woman kept looking me up and down. My name is a European name originally but has become very common in the Hispanic community (think Mary or Angel ((though yes I know Angel is for boys/men)) ).
I’m certain that the main, maybe only, reason they didn’t ask for my ID (that I again didn’t have) or arrest me is because she commented on my first name. I told her it was a family name, just like my French middle name. She repeated my very common, very White, middle name. I confirmed it. She visibly relaxed before chatting for a moment. Then the left.
When they finally left, I sat in the back and cried. I had been thinking I was about to never see my family again that entire time. I was just at work.
I’m trying to create art and live my life. My writing/art career is finally starting to pick up, and despite being a citizen, being born here, being on my fucking ancestral land, I’m in a constant fear that ICE will take me.
They’ve done it to other Indigenous women who they hold for weeks or “lose”.
