A trainwreck beauty queen

This is a very confident accusation built on a misunderstanding on how any of this is monetised.

This blog does not generate any ad revenue. Tumblr does not pay me for political writing and views on my videos here do not earn me anything. For the videos that can earn money based on views - Only TikTok, YouTube and Instagram count.

When I mark something as an Ad on Tumblr, that's me being transparent that a studio, publisher, or creator agency has sent me a key to play the game, or the video has the potential to earn money based on its performance elsewhere. I usually link those other platforms and explicitly say watching there is a way to support me financially.

Yes, some people support me voluntarily through Ko-Fi. Some subscribe to me on Twitch and I'm genuinely grateful for that support. But I also work full time - AyeforScotland is not my livelihood, and I'm certainly not making enough from it for political oppression to be some financial necessity.

Turning that into "It is in your financial best interest for that oppression to continue" is an extraordinary leap.

By this logic, journalists covering wars secretly want them to continue, foodbank workers want people to remain hungry, and climate campaigners are financially invested in the planet getting hotter.

I've been arguing for the same political outcomes since long before there was any earnings from being 'AyeforScotland'. My desired endpoint has always been the same: I would quite like the things I complain about to stop happening.

And then I went to the USAmerican Midwest

Rains frequently, but the worst is like standing under a bathroom shower. Genuinely inhospitable rainstorms are uncommon.

Along the coast, it's pretty easy in most areas to walk to at least one store, or else there's usually a bus or shuttle available. There are sidewalks and bike lanes everywhere.

It's a temperate boreal rainforest, so while there are many freshwater lakes and rivers, they're usually pretty cold. The biggest danger is typically getting caught in a strong current, and the most dangerous animals in swimming distance are on land.

Earthquakes happen almost every day, but the vast majority go unnoticed. Buildings are designed to withstand bigger seismic activity, so unless it's a 5 or higher it just kind of feels like having low blood sugar for a second. There are no tornados

Rural Illinois, USA:

One minute it's sunny, then ten minutes later that distant smudge on the horizon has swallowed the entire sky in black clouds and the water is coming down like waterfall and you literally CANNOT SEE. Then there's a crash like cymbals and you need to get indoors because the thunder and lightening are on TOP of you

No sidewalks until you are in the smack dab center of town, which is a three hour walk or twenty minute drive from wherever you are.

There aren't many natural bodies of water other than small ponds and creeks, and because the environment is so much warmer, those are filled with snapping turtles that can grow bigger than a nine year old child and water snakes that are incredibly venomous. These are paired with leeches and mosquitos for that sweet umami flavor.

usually it's just like

me: okay so

me: what if wei wuxian came back as qin su and all of a sudden wangji and xichen were BOTH trying to sneak around carp tower to have covert assignations with their significant other

them: omg

me: except they look FUCKING IDENTICAL in the dark so A-Yao is like "er-ge (๑•᎑•๑)" and wangji is like "wei ying??" and that's how everyone's shit gets blown wide open

them: this is huaisang's fault somehow

sometimes it's also just kicking an open question to the group like "hey do we ever hear anything else about the personal disciples Wen Ning had? I feel like that gets mentioned once and then everyone forgets about it" or "WHAT is the word for when (blah blah blah)"

and then you start to write the fic where poor Lan Qiren is at his wits end because he has three nephews, one who is definitely autistic and won't eat food if it's salted, one of which won't make a decision if he can avoid it and one of which is a chaos gremlin

1805 Woman's dress (by unknown maker, American)

cotton plain weave (mull) embroidered with cotton