bittersweet Harmony

my brother and his friends in this field trip group were truly great kids. but they were not above run of the mill teenage boy shenanigans. it’s the end of senior year, you and all your buddies are at the amusement park, you’re naturally going to want to act like a complete moron

there was one kid in the group who was especially prone to goofing around. committed to the bit, some may say. my mom knew that if nonsense was going to break out, he’d likely be at the center of it

so she goes up to this kid at the very start of the trip and says “hey, i’m kinda worried about this chaperoning thing. this might be a lot to ask, but can you help me keep an eye on everyone? you wouldn’t have to do anything big, just be an extra set of eyes for me.”

friends, this kid proceeded to run their field trip group like the fucking us marines. everyone is at the meet up spots at the designated time. everyone waits in line for the rides like a bunch of boy scouts. the second the horseplay gets too out of hand, this kid is getting it back under control

it’s incredible how differently people act based on the expectations you set. instead of going to this kid and saying “hey, i know you’re trouble, so i’ve got my eye on you,” my mom went “hey, i know you have influence in your peer group, so i think you can help me.”

The concept of marriage in American society is a legal construct, not a religious one.

This sentiment is, as always, disability/mental health friendly and if bodily maintenance is something you struggle with or cannot do on your own there is no moral failure there. We live in a world designed to prevent us from caring for ourselves and that system targets and fails you more than most. Doing the best with what you can and are able to do is always better than nothing.

This sentiment is, as always, very much meant for trans women. This sentiment is not a knock on HRT or surgery — that is a form of legitimate body maintenance. The point here is that you do not have to participate in capitalist femininity to be a "real woman" or to be feminine. You do not need a million products to be a woman. You do not need to be skinny to be a woman. You do not need to starve yourself to be a woman. Structural misogyny will try and pressure you into these things for gender validation and you do not need it. You do not need to validate your womanhood with patriarchal capitalism.

the way fandoms are desperate to make all aroace characters romance and sex favorable but then dont do anything remotely similar to any other identity is astounding. hmm i wonder why

we're looking to create an AI policy, and when we were talking about this, my boss (older millennial) was genuinely shocked to hear that younger people do not (seem) to view AI positively (a la the recent commencement speakers being booed)

please rb for larger sample size!

Question 1/3

Thank you for helping with this data collection. Please rb for as big a sample as possible!