wiggles, etc

"Why are you gay?"

This was a trans man, Pepe Julian Onziema, in Uganda fighting for his rights to be legally recognized as a man. Do you think he, being asked if he's gay, has privilege under the patriarchy he's living in?

People actively abusing and shutting out human beings because of a title some politician decided he didn't like and so now a full fucking PERCENT of mankind is somehow in the wrong for EXISTING.

These people aren't thinking for themselves. They're following a trend. And they're too fucking stupid to even know why. They think harming people is somehow the same as protecting people and meanwhile that politician is curled up in his bed out of breath and sweaty over the fact that people think he's the special-est boy and follow his dumb ideas all the way to someone's grave.

Welcome to the

LEARN ABOUT EACH OTHER CHALLENGE

Pick a random country (that you've never been to!)

Go to your favourite search engine and look it up!

We're doing things old style

then tell me something you just learned about that country!

I got

Argentina

I learned that while the most popular sport in

Argentina is Football, the national sport is actually

PATO

COOL!

I suggest

YOU

go look up

Argentina

Don't get me wrong- everyone should read new books. There's so many incredible pieces of fiction in the world, and I'll recommend my favorites day and night.

But Percy Jackson and Discworld and Earthsea and Broken Earth and Singing Hills and Murderbot and Teixcalaan and Wayfarers simply will not make you feel the way Harry Potter made you feel when you were 13.

Because you aren't 13 any more.

You will not find the Fandom community that wraps around you and helps mold you into the person you will become like Harry Potter did when you were 13.

Because you aren't 13 any more, and you never will be again.

And it sucks that Harry Potter is irreparably tainted. It sucks that all the things Harry Potter meant to you has been taken from you, and you cannot get them back. It sucks. Be angry about it. Be sad. Be disappointed and betrayed.

And, honestly if you really go back to HP, you'll find it isn't actually all that good. Youll find that it carries a lot of assumed bias and mean spirited callousness and British classism. Plot holes and lazy status quo reinforcement and haphazard world building.

Not even Harry Potter NOW can be to you what Harry Potter was to you THEN.

And if you spend the rest of your life reading new books because you want to find the book that will be what Harry Potter was to you when you were 13, you will spend your life being disappointed.

So.

Read new books. Read new books to find new experiences, new thoughts, new feelings. You won't find a replacement. You won't find a book to be what Harry Potter used to be to you.

But you could find Discworld, and Murderbot, and Singing Hills, and Wayfarers , and Broken Earth, and Teixcalaan, and Earthsea *right now.*

"Ah shucks the creator sucks"

THIS post is aimed at people who *understand* why continued engagement within the HP fandom is fucked up, but are struggling with the loss of that fandom as a hobby and community space, and the frustration I have seen some people experience when the common popular book recommendations fail to deliver on being a "replacement".

This post also address my own growing discomfort at trying to provide that specific kind of book recommendation, because it can feel disingenuous to tell an adult who loved HP in 2007 that they should try reading Percy Jackson or Animorphs or Warrior Cats or Deltora Quest in 2025 and knowing that while those suggestions capture a lot of the same genre characteristics as HP, they aren't really great suggestions for a 30 year old, but knowing that more appropriate book recommendations are often so unlike HP as to not really appeal to someone specifically looking for an HP "replacement."

"In The Name of Revolution"

"my name is pattie gonia and i'm backpacking 100 miles in drag to try to raise $1,000,000 for 8 outdoor nonprofits. here goes nothing."

Post by @ pattiegonia.