Imperfection

Katniss describes the process as leaving her raw, vulnerable, a plucked bird ready for roasting. It's an interesting visual, what with her mockingjay wedding dress, her role as the girl on fire and a symbol for the rebellion, and of course the outcome of the war. But that's neither here nor there of course.

This passage used to make me genuinely sad as a 13 year old. Again she describes herself as plucked, raw. What's a bird without its wings?

People have taken to calling Katniss a "I'm not like other girls" main character. She repeatedly talks about how freakish the Capitol residents look, how Snow's puffy lips are unsettling, how she dreads being left to her prep team's whims and having yet another aspect of her agency taken away from her. It goes to show how reading comprehension is in the gutter these days. Collins' intent with writing the Capitol as she did couldn't have been more obvious. This is a YA series, of course the social critique is on the nose. Katniss was a traumatized child even before the games, starved and poor, responsible for the survival of her family. Of course these foolish beauty routines seem outlandish to her as an outsider, and that's because they are, people have just grown accustomed to them.

The first time I felt the need to shave my legs was the night of my high school graduation party and by the time I was done with one leg I knew it wasn't worth it. It felt wrong and it still does.

I hope young girls today have stories that depict body hair as a normal, human thing to have. I hope they know this expensive quest to remove all human aspects and render one's body as that of a wax doll isn't worth it.

I thought I could never care for anyone again, until I met you.

Lasers have a lot of uses! Measuring things, heating things, cutting things, entertaining cats, particle physics. Lasers are pretty cool. Very versatile, very useful, potential to be very powerful.

Someone shows up one day and says "I have developed a never before seen technology! I call it a Death Star."

And it's a 3.4mW laser. Well no, we haven't seen this exact size of laser much since that's not really standard, but that's a bit of a misnomer, and I wouldn't call it new -

"HOLY SHIT GUYS! This Death Star is so entertaining! My cat loves it and it has such a nice color!" The Death Star becomes a viral novelty, and is mildly entertaining, as laser pointers often are.

Somehow, seemingly overnight, this leads to mania. "Lets stick lasers in EVERYTHING! The public loves them!"

More companies make 3.4mW lasers to jump on the bandwagon. Everyone that makes anything vaguely mechanical starts sticking lasers into their designs.

Everyone is calling them Death Stars. Any time there is a "Death Star innovation", it is just that they made a bigger laser.

Ford's next truck comes out and it has "Death Star integrated headlights", where they have just stuck giant lasers in place of their previously functional headlights.

An electric toothbrush is now "Powered by Death Stars" and shoots a laser at the tooth its cleaning. You think that maybe this could have actual applications as a sanitizing device if you're being generous, but when you actually look at the product, its laser has no purpose but to point at the tooth and drain the battery.

Mechanical products across the board get noticeably worse as everyone starts stuffing lasers in places where lasers have no right to be.

The lamp business gets in on it. "Here's a Death Star powered lamp!" These guys haven't even tried to stick a laser in their damn lamps. They've just started calling their light bulbs Death Stars and hoped you bought it before you could tell the difference. You at least appreciate that they haven't ruined their lamp about it.

Death Stars are lauded as the solution to all the world's problems. If it's not working, you should stick a laser in it! That'll fix it, everyone says. Once in a blue moon, it's even true! Weather prediction is really good now. But most things are garbage. Like "Death Star powered washing machines". What the fuck does that even mean?

Meanwhile, since all functioning mechanisms are being replaced with lasers, problems start showing up. All mirrors now cost $1000+ dollars, because the whole supply is being used up to make more lasers. The earth heats up, because everyone's blasting lasers at everything. People keep going blind, on account of all the lasers.

You, in fact, study optical mechanics. You know what a laser is, and how it works, and that it was invented many years before any of this nonsense actually started. People keep asking you about Death Stars, since surely you must know so much about them.

You explain that this is not really what lasers are for, except you have to call them Death Stars now, and that they're causing a lot of harm, so you don't like them much.

"Oh, but they're still such new tech!" they reply. "They'll figure out how to make Death Stars that don't burn your eyes out soon, and then it won't be an issue anymore!"

Somewhere, deep and buried, you remember lasers being used in particle accelerators, or in telescopes, or in laser cutters, or funny cat videos. They are, in fact, still interesting. Still cool.

But by this point they have replaced roads with "Death Star Powered Pathways", which are just laser pointers propped up on tooth picks pointing vaguely through the forests.

And you think you are going mad.

And they are still just FUCKING LASERS.

“The first Gay Pride flag was made in 1978 by a man named Gilbert Baker. He gave a meaning to each color.”

Disclaimer: I don’t know for sure if this technique was done historically, but I’m willing to bet I’m not the first person to have ever tried it and found that it works. Do with that what you will!

You don’t get to arson as a first step. That’s what happens when anger has been building with nowhere to go, when people feel ignored, squeezed, and disposable for way too long. It’s messy, it’s extreme, and it’s definitely not random. It feels like a signal flare.

​

​And to those of you who think you’re safe because you’re ready and wanting to start a family so obviously youre not getting an abortion anyway! So what?? Think again!! Because you can now be charged as a “would be killer” for using pain killers during pregnancy because the same ingredient just HAPPENS to also be found in abortion pills!

They literally used these women as experimental test runs for what they can get away with and they’re getting away with it!!

Justice For Alexia Moore and Adriana Smith

You can't make this shit up. AI bros are outright aligning with the GOP and advertising their product as a way to harm educated, liberal women in the workforce--at a time when right-wing men around the world seek to push women out of the professional sphere and back into the kitchen--but the insufferable squad acts like the Real problem is people who aren't "nuanced uwu" about AI and judge people who outsource their thinking to a chatbot. Give me a fucking break