uncomfortably cold and paranoid

below, are four drawings of a very fluffy creature with different presentations of strabismus. they're each labelled "hypotropia (eye points downward)," "exotropia (eye points outward)," "hypertropia (eye points upward," and "esotropia (eye points inward)."

the last has an arrow, with text reading "i looked like this when i was born!"

bottom text: it's not a quirky character design, it's a real disability!

it does not mean someone is clumsy, "stupid," or autistic

(ableist depictions of autistic and/or otherwise intellectually disabled people often have strabismus. why do you think this is?)

strabismus can occur from birth, later in life due to separate visual impairments, or because of physical trauma or strokes. it can cause permanent vision issues.

i'm partially blind in one eye!

when you design a character, think about if the traits you give them exist on real people! they often do!

what do you want your art to say about disabled people?

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/04/us/politics/platner-maine-senate-girlfriends-relationships.html?unlocked_article_code=1.nlA.Bsm5.vZGAKLQzqR0k&smid=nytcore-android-share

And separately!

First, when I showed it to him, he said, "Wow."

🏵️ Ceramic hummingbird hawk-moth sculpture 🏵️

People will call literally anything a cult.

The LDS church is a high-control, high-control group that explicitly punishes apostasy. They also participate in mainstream society and regularly send members to places that are wildly out of the church's immediate control. They're far less controlling than other groups such as JWs, the Amish, and Mennonites.

If we’re talking about Early LDS, absolutely and unambiguously, not just a cult but a racist, violent, & destructive one (though this cannot be allowed as a deflection of similar racist & religious violence by Christian settlers in the same and earlier periods).

A lot of the most culty doctrines have since been rejected. Sometimes this is genuine progress, but the belief system doesn’t allow for official condemnation of former presidents, so sometimes it’s equally a whitewash.

Regardless of whether official LDS is currently “a cult”, offshoots like FLDS are. LDS gets some credit for distancing themselves from FLDS as heretical, but it’s limited by the fact their path was paved by the historical LDS’s actions & doctrines, and all the ingredients for FLDS’s cultiness were there.

But yes, at the same time, the control is significantly less extreme than something like Scientology. You can get fairly well-adjusted Mormons like Brandon Sanderson or Dan McClellan, and in McClellan’s case I know I’ve heard him acknowledge historical inaccuracies in LDS narratives about the founders, and progress scholarship that doesn’t necessarily align with LDS doctrine, while still being in good standing with the community & church as far as I know. They seem like genuine and wonderful people.

I do think the church still retains culty elements that go beyond walking the line to tipping back into it, but it can be & sometimes is overstated in a way I believe is unhelpful and could even be dangerous and harmful to Mormons who are just going about their lives.