In light of The Situation happening right now in the USA, I highly recommend retreating from social media as much as possible and immersing in real life to clean out the gunk of social media type activism
Try as best as you can to track down some old retired folks who have been doing the activism thing for decades. And just old retired folks who care about anything, anything at all.
This crap with labeling the generations and talking like "boomers" are this way and "gen Z" is that way, it's silly to the point of being dangerous.
Younger generations in USA kind of reject the whole thing about respecting and valuing your elders but the truth is, all different kinds of cultures have these values and they're right. Elders have more knowledge and understanding than you can ever find written down anywhere.
And they WANT and NEED young people to connect with them. Elders are suffering more from our society of isolation than anybody else. And they are energized and invigorated by having young people to share their knowledge, information, and stories with.
So often I have been in a room of people majority over 65, wondering where all the "politically aware" gen Z are. And the answer is, they're on social media, arguing with strangers and stressing themselves out, while the "boomers" are getting shit done.
Social media isolates young activists from the most experienced and knowledgeable of all. And it's a dangerous trap for people of all ages who feel lonely and afraid. Either radicalizing them into hateful ideology and cult-style groups, or convincing them of apathy and pointlessness.
go outside, find the elders that know everything, get shit done. This is my advice
Honestly, some fanfics seriously need "AU" or "ooc" markings, because some writers try to write about these characters, but in reality, it can be at best slightly, and at worst, very different from the original character, which, frankly, is often upsetting. And I understand that some writers can simply misunderstand/misinterpret these characters, but this is also a problem that would not exist if they wrote "AU/ooc" :(
And no negativity, I know a lot of writers do try and I do appreciate writers as much as any other artist (especially, as a writer and an artist myself), because it's a hard job and it takes creativity and skill (which you gain over time, all writers started somewhere and that's okay), but it's still bad writing if you're treating and selling these characters as "canon", but they're either very different or nothing like canon at all.
This is especially a problem for me when it comes from experienced writers and it's really sad that you see something that's well written and the conveyance of the characters' emotions, the characterization and writing, and the plot are great, but the fit with these specific characters is partially/completely zero and you're like "damn, I think they got this wrong". And again, this problem can be avoided by labeling it as "AU/ooc", especially if the writer likes their interpretation of the character more than the canon one. There's nothing wrong with liking a character's version better, you just have to accept that it's non-canon, that's all.
this is ultimately a personal preference but for me fanfiction hinges on correctly nailing the character's voice and mannerisms. When I say "they would not fucking say that" it's often not about the situation that's happening; it's about little tics and preferences and above all, diction. I'm not typically huge on AUs but I can be swayed if you nail the voice. and I am personally absolutely SHIT at writing plot, there's a reason my fic is pretty much entirely one-shots of emotional conversations, but you know what I can do is match a voice. and if you can do that as well I am along for the ride and if you can do that AND write plot you are a fucking genius and if you can't do that I'm clicking out of your fic the second people start talking.
Winter on the Seine, Lavacourt (1880) by Claude Monet
Swords are arguably the most popular fantasy weapon, but why is that?
Patreon - everything else
Omg there’s Morse Code in the music of this one!
I needed this drag. Let’s change guys and not look back
Monument valley & cores by qing ying
If anyone in the US is interested in how we're coping with Trump overseas, today one of my colleagues who specialises in European policy just emailed me with the opener of 'Hi Hannah, hope you're doing well despite Trump'. So there's that.
(NO, PHILIPPE. NO, I AM NOT DOING WELL DESPITE TRUMP.)
Meet the IDW
I've said this before but Why do people position "themes and analysis" and "shipping" as mutually exclusive opposites. maybe I find two characters thematically interesting and want them to analytically fuck about it.