INTJ* Confessions

hibiscus

idk who needs to hear this today but you don't have to marry a man if you don't want to

this is not just about potential lesbians or bi women btw. straight women also do not have to marry a man. you can be with a man without getting married. you can stay single. you can do what my ostensibly straight mom did and form a long-term platonic partnership with a woman. if the idea of being married to a man seems scary or makes you uncomfortable you simply never have to do it!

True wish fulfillment of fantasy rpgs was free/affordable healthcare all along

Reading about murder to avoid committing murder 🩷🫶🏼✨🌟

Work requirements are meant as cuts to Medicaid. They make it harder for disabled people to get the services we need to survive. 

We can stop this - meet with your elected officials and tell them #HandsOff Medicaid! We can show you how: https://autisticadvocacy.org/2025/01/tell-your-legislators-protect-medicaid/

China really did hit us with a cultural revolution by doing literally nothing. Seeing regular people from two geopolitical rivals do something as unprecedented as simply talk to each other is one of the few things giving me hope right now.

it sucks to realize just how many people outside of the USA really genuinely do believe the propaganda that this country spreads. like it affects more than just us- non USAmericans genuinely believe that everyone here is well off, that we all have the freedom to do whatever we want, that we all have the ability to choose what jobs we get, that we all have the ability to make as much money as we want if we just try hard enough.

but it is amazing to see people finally waking up and understanding that is is all propaganda to get people to move here and work until they die. i always felt like Chinese and USAmerican citizens have a lot to bond over. i'm glad we're finally bridging the cap and just TALKING to one another. this is seriously a good thing. we need to keep this up. uniting Chinese and USAmerican citizens over the unique but heinous struggles we face and educating one another on what actually goes on in each others' countries can help spark a revolution.

Republicans deliberately use coded language to trick people to vote for them and radicalize their group. Many don't even realize they're radicalized or what they're saying is even racist. This is why they think the Left is "over reacting" because the either know they're using coded language and don't care, or they don't know anything at all.

Back in 2013, I posted a Welcome to Night Vale fic and someone commented, “I’m autistic and I see myself a lot in the way you write Carlos. Did you intend for him to autistic?”

And I was like “I’m flattered you think so! No, he’s not intended to be autistic, but I’m glad you can see yourself in him.”

Now twelve years later I spent some time this evening trying to track down that comment to give a very belated clarification. Whoever you were stranger, hey. I only said no because I based Carlos heavily on me, and since I wasn’t autistic, Carlos wouldn’t be either. Well. I’ve learned some stuff in the intervening decade that strongly support your literary analysis.

[Image ID: Bluesky post from Joseph Fink (@/ planetOfFinks.bksy...) reading: It took many years of people saying that Carlos, a character whose traits are mostly based on me, was "autistic coded" to Realize Some Things /End ID]

My therapist (who knows my gender and is not an asshole!) Recently recommended me a JK Rowling book, and was VERY surprised when I said that I wasn't comfortable giving money to someone who wanted me gone.

We had a conversation where I explained that Rowling was very vocal against the trans community and used a lot of her wealth to bail out transphobes and fund anti-trans agendas, and they just said, "I hadn't heard about that- I just thought she was passionate about the female experience."

That's what they do, though. They say things that sound fine and normal and maybe even good on the surface to an uneducated third party and it kinda holds up until you start asking questions.

"Protect women and children!" Is a rly that any decent person can get behind. What nobody seems to do on their own is ask, "protect women and children from who?" And, "from what?", and, "Is that fear realistic?" And, "has that actually happened to any degree worth considering as a systemic issue?"

I remember seeing a post or video about a teacher who was being praised for making his students think. The example was when he pushed back about a student calling JK a transphobe, asking why he thought that, and the kid couldn’t give any examples, just saying it was something they’d heard.

And while on the surface this seems like an okay exercise—because there ARE people who have been hassled or unjustifiably smeared—the teacher didn’t dive deeper with the student to find out the veracity of the claim. This teacher was being praised for “making students question things” but without teaching them HOW to investigate these claims the lesson falls flat. All I can imagine is this kid going back to his friends and saying the whole thing is fake.

This applies to a lot of things, not just J. K. Rowling, where people don’t know the background context and overlook clear dog whistles or patterns of behavior. And if you try to explain it they either tune out or end up not believing you because you come off like a conspiracy theorist.

My therapist (who knows my gender and is not an asshole!) Recently recommended me a JK Rowling book, and was VERY surprised when I said that I wasn't comfortable giving money to someone who wanted me gone.

We had a conversation where I explained that Rowling was very vocal against the trans community and used a lot of her wealth to bail out transphobes and fund anti-trans agendas, and they just said, "I hadn't heard about that- I just thought she was passionate about the female experience."

That's what they do, though. They say things that sound fine and normal and maybe even good on the surface to an uneducated third party and it kinda holds up until you start asking questions.

"Protect women and children!" Is a rly that any decent person can get behind. What nobody seems to do on their own is ask, "protect women and children from who?" And, "from what?", and, "Is that fear realistic?" And, "has that actually happened to any degree worth considering as a systemic issue?"

therapist: so, how have you been coping with your anxiety lately?

Me, nervously: Well… I’ve been trying to treat myself like a nervous cat…

therapist, stifling a goodnatured laugh: Oh? can you explain that to me?

Me: Well… if you have a nervous cat, the first thing you do is make sure their environment is safe and remove stressors… and you make sure they have enough food and water and places to hide… and you provide some enrichment in case they need to work out energy…

Therapist: And how are you applying that to yourself?

Me: Um. If I feel anxious, I’ll see if I need to back out of any sites or conversations, enforce my boundaries… check my environment for flashing lights or painful noises… make sure I’m hydrated and have eaten… and work on a hobby

Therapist: those are all excellent things! You’re a nervous cat and you need care and kindness!

This high school drumline’s incredible performance included only drumstick

Impressive

My thoughts as I watched:

“Heh, that’s cute.”

“Okay, that’s cool.”

“Dude.”

*reblogs*

Old art :))

another writing pet peeve that I'm noticing more and more is, voice.

So... the words you pick, express more than just their meaning? I've noticed more and more in books published a kind of wooden? overly formal tone, a lot of words to impress your SAT tutor.

Particularly in first person the words you pick the way your character speaks and thinks and the words in which they do that, tell us the readers things about them. Are they smart are they good at school, bad at school, not articulate, etc you can tell me a character likes poetry without ever mentioning that they read it by how they express themselves.

and oh btw if you have two characters in dueling narrative, I should get a distinct difference between them, two different people shouldn't be written just the same way, how they talk and think should be different.