i think you can recognize that the usage of ai by students of all grades and all around the world to cheat through their assignments is not a personal moral failing but just yet another symptom of the mechanistic if not, at this point, basically dehumanized processes of our education systems which are nowadays almost solely focused on demanding production from students and churning out degrees required for jobs while ignoring any tangible verification of their actual knowledge, intellectual development and critical thinking skills, much less their mental health, while also pointing out that using ai to write your essay isn't a power move to cheat a flawed system, it is behaving exactly as the system designed, it is cheating yourself by giving up your ability to speak, think for and challenge yourself and bowing your head to powers who will only benefit from not being questioned, and the only reason text genai is so widespread right now is because it was born on the perfect breeding ground that is anti intellectualism
on the subject of body positivity, you don't HAVE to like your body in the traditional sense. body positivity isn't limited to just "beauty" or "attractiveness". you can like your body because you think it looks funny. that's what I do
i love you visible brushstrokes. i love you glue warped scrapbook pages. i love you awkward poems. i love you junk journal with faded receipts. i love you poorly composed journal layout. I love you unintentionally blurry photographs. i love you asymmetrical beading. i love you curling freeform crochet. i love you fingerprints on pottery. i love you reused materials. i love you improvised instruments. i love you mistakes. i love you bravery to make it anyway. i love you creativity that hasn't been wiped clean of every drop of humanity and sanitized and commodified.
thinking about the time my local garden centre put signs up that said "propagation piracy is a crime" and explained that "propagation piracy" is when you pick up a leaf or a twig that's fallen on the floor and take it home and grow a plant from it. I came home and mocked this because it's obviously extremely pathetic and stupid, and my ex got salty and said they were right and I was just like. you literally call yourself a communist and you are defending the right of corporations to protect their hypothetical future profits by classifying it as a crime to pick up a leaf
now that trump has tiktok, twitter, facebook and insta in his pocket, get ready for a massive wave of internet censorship. one of trump's greatest weapons has always been misinformation; it's going to become harder and harder to spread facts and criticism going forward. posts that aren't made invisible will be magically ignored by the algorithm. dissidents will have their accounts deleted and voices erased.
this is a suppression tactic. this is another stage of fascism.
"what if a dangerous man pretends to be trans to-" what if we actually dealt with the underlying causes of dangerous men. what if predators faced real consequences more often. what if you stopped using trans women as a proxy for your grievances with liberal feminism's individualist denial of the need to fight systemic issues.
what if you stopped assigning blame for patriarchy's evils to one of its more vulnerable victim groups.
So like... people have broached the idea of pride flags having dragons on them like heraldry, which is of course correct and just, but like... they shouldn't ALL have dragons, right? Or at least not the same dragon. Each flag should have its own heraldic beast, ideally one that relates to the orientation the flag represents.
Which begs the question of which heraldic beasts would best suit each color of the rainbow, as it were. I think the iconic four legged, two winged dragon makes sense for the main pride/rainbow flag, since dragons are often posited as, like, the pinnacle of monsters, and so feel best suited to be the one that encompasses the whole spectrum, but I'm kind of paralyzed by the options presented to pick out ones for the others.
every time you see a headline like this
I want you to remember these ones
Sorry to join the tumblr americans that are posting about elections, but I'm tired of seeing people acting like it's the end of the world or some shit because orange man is elected.
Here's a secret: Voting doesn't mean shit. Should you vote? Absolutely, but American culture ensures that the average American is severely un-educated about politics. Most Americans are completely loyal to a specific party. They're politically raised to be sheep.
Your vote matters, yes, but it also matters so little to the cultural zeitgeist. Unless something is done about the average American's political awareness, votes will always be dominated by sheep.
Presidential elections never had to be a "pick between two poisons," our culture simply convinced us that there are no other options and trying to change anything is useless. Sheep.
Now all I see are Americans wallowing in their despair. Waaahh there's nothing that can be done woe is me. Y'all really invested all of your hope in a vote that has such miniscule power because you're falling for the sheep mentality politicians want you to have.
Do you know what the common American citizen can do that's more powerful than voting? You can be an active participant in city council/town hall meetings. You can find out when they happen on your town's website. They are recorded so you can listen to one even if you missed it. Can't show up in person? These meetings are streamed. You can participate in the safety of your own home.
Send mail to the mayor. Speak about the problems you face that are local to where you live. If you have the priviledge being able to speak to townsfolk, bring it up in conversation if they seem comfortable. "Did you see the city council meeting?". Even if you never say anything or send mail to city council meetings, simply being aware is better than the average American.
Being aware puts pressure on your city. Being a person that speaks out about problems locally. This is where the common citizen holds the most power. I'm 100% certain my town would never have attempted to make bike lane and sidewalk plans if the townspeople didn't semi-regularly show up and complain about it every single meeting. We have a huge housing crisis and a bunch of homeless people that 10 people at town meetings constantly speak up for. What if there were more?
And another thing, do you call or mail your Senators and Representatives about any issues? Were you one of the many Americans completely silent about things like the Affordable Connectivity Program dying out? While similar to the miniscule power of voting, this does put at least a little bit of social pressure on those in political standing. Yes, many calls and mail are discarded, but they have to receive them. It gets recorded for data.
Again, the average American participates extremely little and it's not even just because they don't want to. It's because they don't even know they can. The Tumblr populace does not represent the average American in the slightest, in fact, I see people encourage calling Senators and Reps on here fairly often, but maybe do the same about city/town meetings. Push against the cultural zeitgeist of sheep mentality or nothing will change. Stop wallowing in your despair and maybe use that strong emotion towards something that matters even more; doing something about it.
and my personal favorite:
i love getting validation as a lefty but also learning about new fun ways it continues to suck