The problem with asking an American “how would you like it if I did that to you” about a lot of relatively small to medium faux pas that we tend to do is that because of cultural differences yes we would like that finally you’re speaking our language

The problem with asking an American “how would you like it if I did that to you” about a lot of relatively small to medium faux pas that we tend to do is that because of cultural differences yes we would like that finally you’re speaking our language

It’s like that post where someone was comparing Americans who learn Japanese through anime to a hypothetical Japanese guy who learned English through SpongeBob and realizing that Americans would love that guy. Because yes we would. I would like to meet this man and I am often sad that I cannot.

Another thing I think is the thing where people from some countries like the UK or New Zealand will purposefully try to avoid talking about their own accomplishments because they’ll be socially punished if they do so. Then they get annoyed by Americans bragging about stuff we’ve done. But then they find out if they also brag to us as retaliation or something we love that. Yay! You did a thing! :D

The thing about Americans is that even when we’re trying hard to be polite we love doing funny voices, we love weird people, we love hyping up our friends, and we like smiling to indicate friendliness. And in some cultures that makes us frankly quite terrifying and/or annoying. I am personally quite tame and quiet by American standards but in some cultures that still makes me an absolute menace.

*taking notes for science fiction* Perhaps instead of Space Australians, humans could be Space Americans...

It wimdy

"He's an outlaw loose and runnin'," came the whisper from each lip / "And he's here to do some business with a big iron on his hip"

I can’t stop thinking about this asshole of a spaceship and its very special secunit

every friend of mine except one has turned out to be some flavor of aspec

am i contagious or are we just magnets?

Magnets, I think. My friend group both online and irl is disproportionately aspec

Seeing a lot of posts like "umm why does everyone love bees and hate wasps, bees are bastards and they sting you why are they the only insect anyone actually cares about, why does everyone hate wasps when they're the same as bees"

Well you see, everyone ALSO used to hate bees. Like. You guys are just too young to remember when everyone who wasn't an apiarist or a gardener or an ecologist was militantly aggressive towards bees Because They Sting You. People would burn their hives and kill them all when they were found, not call a bee guy to relocate them, they'd stomp bees in the clover if they saw them. They actively hunted down and destroyed hives.

The reason "everyone loves bees" isnt an arbitrary whimsical choice because they're cuter than wasps. It's because bee lovers made a HUGE effort to encourage people to see bees as valuable pollinators and friendly little guys that just want to defend their hive. They taught people to see bees as cute and fluffy! There were awareness campaigns about the value of bees, there were advertisements, there were little documentaries and articles teaching people how to readjust their views on bees so that the hatred of them didn't cause complete ecological and agricultural collapse.

Bee lovers used to be in the exact same position that everyone who loves other insects is - you say that you like this creature and everyone in a 10km radius comes crawling over to tell you all the ways they personally would kill them.

The fact that it's so common now for people to think bees are cute fun little guys doing an important job is a fucking monumental victory and it was hard won, and it's as recent as in the last 20 years. When I was a kid in the 90s, everyone hated bees except ecologists and bug guys.

If you want this for wasps too (which i also want) you gotta put the work in to change people's perceptions.

when you're so overwhelmingly happy that you physically have no way of dealing with it so you start stimming like a buffoon

actually furthermore the phrasing “you’re gonna miss this” is a much better way to express the sentiment often behind the “these are the best days of your life.” The latter comes with the implication that if you’re not happy now it’ll only get worse. The former instead implies that if you’re unhappy in the moment there is still reason to appreciate the good things about it you will miss later, to take the good with the bad, and have gratitude in place of discontentment.

Some 'Murderbot and the humans it cares about' random collection

I fear a fresh wave of the plague

Update from twitter

i want to explain to people- the lower bit is accurate you probably pay way more in taxes/rent then a medieval peasants well as have less time off of work

Every so often when browsing AirBNB in Europe you'll get a listing from someone who clearly speaks English but has an especially whimsical grasp on the language.

I am a peace-loving people too, my prospective hosts. I do not seek after 10pm loudliving.

Murderbot, with a hacked governor module, about to leap into mortal danger to protect a group of people who didn't ask for its help and don't even like it that much: damn I can't believe I'm being forced to protect my clients :/

Has anyone noticed that translating poetry is not easy

It's kind of like if you were in unrequited love with the crossword puzzle

If someone ever tells you a certain song is important to them you should turn it up and lay on your bed and close your eyes and really listen to it even if its 10 minutes long because at the end you will know that person much better I think

My love for this post is unbelievable.