the cure to self-sabotage is to anchor yourself to the universal truth that you are worth it. you are worth the effort. you are worth the difficulty, you are worth the time, you are worth the consideration. there is never a point in your life, in time itself, that you are not worth it. return to this truth when you feel yourself slipping. do not let it go.
I just saw an acquaintance use “👖🛝” in place of the word genocide and. like. at what point are we going to decide that this kind of self-censorship is too degrading to abide anymore.
“grape” “sui-slide” “the panini” I feel like I’m surrounded by Rugrats who overheard the grown ups talking about the news.
This is mean, but when I’m in a safe context to do so, I love pretending I don’t understand what they mean and forcing them to explain in plain language.
It’s not mean. You are so normal. If someone uses these terms when speaking to me directly I’m going to end up on the news.
I call this collection of screenshots “idiots of /r/whatsthatbook”.
And finally, my go-to example for Tiktokese/ridiculous unnecessary self-censoring:
to be clear virtue signaling is bad when you only care about the signal and not the virtue. if someone advertised themself as a person who cares about protecting kittens from the torment nexus for the social benefit of appearing like a caring person, but doesn’t actually do anything to protect kittens from the torment nexus or even actively assists in feeding kittens to the torment nexus, that is bad. but if a person says “I want to protect kittens from the torment nexus” and actually does do that then that’s not bad. it’s not “virtue signaling” if they actually practice that virtue and it’s a good virtue to practice. why in the world would you get mad at people for being nice and being open about being nice.
There’s this guy in town who owns this little house, and a while back he rescued a street dog that was going to get put down. Turned out she was pregnant.
Problem is, he has mental health & drug issues and couldn’t afford to get them all spayed & neutered, so now there are 6 grown bitches with 15 puppies total, and they’ve dug under his fence in multiple places but he can’t afford to fix it so they go roaming all around town. (When I say can’t afford it, I mean his house is currently running on a generator because he can’t afford his electric bill.) He’s also a day laborer so he cannot take multiple full days off work to take them to the vet an hour away. He’s in a really rough spot.
He’s not a bad person. He’s just overwhelmed.
And this little conservative town with 6 churches for 300 people, have they tried to help their neighbor? Have they adopted the puppies he’s been trying to give away? Have they offered resources?
NOPE! All they wanna do is talk shit about him and complain about the dogs but never lift a finger of their own. And they come to his house to yell at him and cuss him out about the dogs, which does not exactly engender in him a cooperative attitude, as you might imagine.
So after a while of this going on, my mom gets fed up with all the NIMBY bullshit and starts talking to the guy, because she’s done animal rescue for 20-odd years and has Connections. He’s resistant at first, but when he realizes she’s not being an asshole to him on account of his addiction or the dogs, he decides to let her help.
She gets to work organizing and networking. Finds a non-profit that will cover vaccinations, spay/neuter, and flea treatments for all the dogs. Talks the next-door neighbor into paying for materials to fix the fence, since this guy can do the work of it himself. Gets him in touch with another non-profit that will adopt out the adult dogs.
Less than 2 weeks after she decided to do something, all puppies have been to the vet, 10 puppies and 4 adult dogs have been adopted out, and the second non-profit is coming by next week to pick up the remaining 7 dogs to ship them out for adoption.
I’ve learned a lot of things from my mom—some good, some bad—but I think the most important positive message she lives as an example of is this: sometimes, when something needs done and no one else is willing, you gotta stand up and say “I’ll do it.”
The most mind-blowing revelation I received on this lesson happened to me when I was in college.
I was driving along a mountain road with a person I kinda knew in the passenger seat (like a roommate of a roommate or something). The road was very narrow, very twisty-turny, steep cliffs on both sides. I came around a blind curve to see a huge tree branch in the road. I managed to swerve just in time to avoid it, and also not veer the car into the sheer cliff face going up on the left, or of the sheer cliff face going down on the right.
“That’s so dangerous. Someone should move that.” I said.
“You’re someone.” said my passenger.
I very slowly pressed the brakes, my car slowly rolling to a stop as what he’d said started to sink in to my brain.
It had never occurred to be before, in all my life, that I could be the “someone” who could fix the thing. Not ever.
It was dangerous to stop here. If another car came, they could easily hit me, as it was a blind curve. We talked about it, decided it was worth the risk to possibly save a life, and we quickly ran to the branch and moved it to the side as best we could, then hurried back to the car.
It changed my life. After that, every time I have the thought “Someone should _____”, I now hear that voice. I’m ‘someone’. Now I evaluate whether I’m able to do something about a situation- that doesn’t mean I always can! Sometimes I truly don’t have the energy, knowledge, or time or money to fix something. But I should at least think about doing it myself- consider that I could, and weigh the options, which I never did before that moment.
i’m going to spare you all from having to read the repulsive garbage matt walsh spewed to garner this reply, but god damn if this isn’t a precision orbital strike
No no no, see, a puppet obtains power at the expense of agency, a doll obtains meaning at the expense of agency, and a plushie obtains unconditional love at the expense of agency. The thing currently mauling you was already powerful and self-actualized when I brought it under my sway, so when you beg me to ‘call off my puppet’ you should really be saying plushie instead. Try again, m'kay?
art history will be like “this is the most revolutionary painting of its time!” and you will look at it and is just a normal painting of a lady sitting under a tree and then an art historian will explain “this is the first time a painting ever used this specific shade of blue which challenged all understood conventions of how to depict light and launched a movement known as auzureism, and also the lady is looking at a sparrow which in its time it was a sign of fierce sexual liberation and it was considered scandalous” and then you find out the painter was expelled from the academy of art of stockholm because of the painting and that the king of sweeden paid three thousand marcs (equivallent to ten million dollars now a days) to have the painting in his room and the painting still looks like a generic painting of a lady under a tree
“eeerm can transmascs under this posts shut up… this one is for the girlies…” i forgot that my entire life of suffering as a woman got erased actually the moment i put he him in my bio sorry
your friend brett in 2003: “hey guys! ready for a deathmatch round in blood gulch?”
you and your two other friends who found a glowing crystal in the back of your house that gave you a prophetic glimpse into the future where the three of you live successful lives but only if brett dies following a series of finely-connected events that begin with him winning a round of deathmatch on blood gulch: “yeah brett you’re on”
