Après moi, le déluge

And she looked at me and told me not to fall into the trap of “activist guilt.” I couldn’t remember the exact words, but, it was the first time I’d heard the term and it took a weight off my shoulders.

We do what we can. It’s so much better than giving up entirely or not doing anything at all because we can’t do it perfectly. It doesn’t benefit anyone in the end if we just sit around feeling guilty about every little thing in life. I’d just joined tumblr back then (haha, so like, eight or nine years ago at this point?), I was being exposed to way more than I’d ever been before (I was previously just into feminism and animal rights/wildlife conservation/environmentalism since I was a kid), and it was weighing on me.

As long as humans are humans and living flawed lives, many consumed by greed, there will not be anything in this world untouched by evil.

I usually avoid stuff that says it was made in China or other cheap looking knockoffs, out of fear of them being made in sweatshops (now, I know even a lot of big brands use those…), it’s exhausting. Then, I read something about how people who actually lived and worked in those would still buy this cheap stuff and how this shocked the foreigner reporting on it, but they just looked confused like, it’s what they can afford and them avoiding consuming it isn’t going to change the whole system from the ground-up.

… it went on about how “money talks” and choosing where to put your money still feeds the whole capitalist system and is nearly a way of comforting yourself, but you not buying doesn’t mean everyone else isn’t. What needs to be tackled is at a much higher level than any of us can reach.

Of course, I’d still, given the choice, give my money to companies I agree with and I’ll boycott what I know to support awful stuff, but I also feel no superiority over this and know now it’s not as black and white or easy as I thought it was.

This is the same reason that moral purity “you can’t enjoy [x] because it’s Problematic ™” is such nonsense, because nothing is pure. There’s something bad about everything if you dig deep enough. As long as we lived in flawed human societies we’ve got to make the best of what they offer us. If you have the choice and means, please, do support those who do good, but also, don’t beat yourself up over not living up to an unattainable ideal.

No one can. You’ll just make yourself so miserable, you either burn up and stop fighting entirely or you’ll make yourself a non-productive, depressed heap just out of a bleeding heart left unchecked. You can’t make a change to this world if you refuse to engage in it.

I have made a drink for thee!

Eye of toad and scrote of newt,

look at this douchebag.

this is a dumbo octopus. they’ve been found so far in the deep sea around 1000m to 4800m deep, making them some of the deepest living octopi discovered at this point.

there’s 13 species within their genus (Grimpoteuthis), all of which are brilliant. they even come in different colors ( red, white, pink, brown, or clear) like any self respecting fashion conscious species. they are born already being able to fully defend themselves. they never go through the awkward period of being a shitty infant, which instantly makes them better than us.

the fins on it’s head that appear to be pushing it along actually do a much different job. they are used to siphon in water to later push out their ass to propel them. how fucking wicked is that.

these cephalopods are cute as shit and incredibly energy efficient. instead of actively catching prey they float around and shit until food comes to them. then they eat their prey whole. they do all of this without even being able to produce ink. that’s so metal.

despite literally being the best species ever they only have a lifespan of 3 to 5 years. this already short lifespan is being threatened by pollution. y’all have no idea how much this pisses me off. no species, especially dumbo octopi deserve to suffer because of people.

i love them so much.

Seals can deliver a nasty bite, but on land they’re not agile. Dogs are much faster. We’ve had young seals come in to our center with dog-inflicted wounds.

What’s more is that dogs and seals can transmit diseases to each other, furthering the danger to the seal if there’s contact.

This is what Camus meant when he talked about the “absurdity” of life. Recognizing this absurdity should lead us not to despair but to a tragicomic redemption, a softening of the heart, a turning away from judgment and moralizing to joy and gratitude.

“The Plague” isn’t trying to panic us, because panic suggests a response to a dangerous but short-term condition from which we can eventually find safety. But there can never be safety — and that is why, for Camus, we need to love our fellow damned humans and work without hope or despair for the amelioration of suffering. Life is a hospice, never a hospital.

Never. Too many have died for the way they have loved. That needs stop now. 

It is a thin little book.

When I first opened it, I wondered why it was so thin.

Why there wasn’t other books like it.

Other first hand accounts.

I, Pierre Seel, Deported Homosexual: A Memoir of Nazi Terror by Pierre Seel

An Underground Life: Memoirs of a Gay Jew in Nazi Berlin by Gad Beck

The Pink Triangle: The Nazi War Against Homosexuals by Richard Plant

Branded By The Pink Triangle by Ken Setterington