Reblogged the-bot-marg0t
Reblogged hikineet-trash
I don't know how people came to think that "the banality of evil" means "evil people are people too".
That's also true but it's not what the banality of evil means.
The term was coined by Hannah Arendt in her report on the trial of Adolf Eichmann, the architect of the "final solution" in the Holocaust.
It describes the way in which the Nazis at large and Eichmann in particular have turned the horrendous act of mass murder into just another job, disconnecting themselves morally and emotionally from their actions.
Before the death camps and gas chambers, Nazi soldiers simply shot Jews into mass graves by the hundreds of thousands. It was a lot cheaper and faster, but it caused great psychological distress for the murderers who pulled the trigger.
The leadership's solution was a massively upscaled version of the "gas vans" they used to mass murder hundreds of thousands of Germans with disabilities and mental health issues.
Shooting bound civilians in point blank range over and over is something you can't just pretend you're not doing or is no big deal. But if you're just the guy who sorts people into groups. Or just the guy that funnels them into a room. Or just the guy who opens a cannister on the roof. It's much easier to distance yourself from what you know is happening.
The same principle applies to much lesser evils, like soldiers operating drones from a distance, or insurance workers denying coverage for life-saving treatment.
#the problem is turning unthinkable horrors into unthinking mundanities
@briwhosaysni well put!
And you're absolutely right that the Trump Regime wanting deportations to be "Amazon Prime for human beings" is a horrifying current example of this.
Reblogged 50-slugs-in-a-trench-coat
I remember when I first found out the truth about “Somali pirates” I got chills because of how horrific the truth was and how insanely creepily well the media had twisted the situation. Every single fucking article making it seem like these “pirates” were just after money or something holding innocent people hostage and I never gave it a second thought, why would I? There was no indication that people were trying to legitimately fight off disgusting imperialism that left nuclear waste in their waters, that over 300 people have died from radiation sickness, that Europeans have been stealing Somalia’s seafood because they overfished their own waters and the indigenous fisherman are starving and so these “pirates” emerged to deal with those stealing their country’s natural resources. The truth is enough to make anyone sick to their stomachs.
thebicker
This is a great article about the truth about Somali pirates, in case anyone wants a source.
prev ^
300 people died of radiation, at least. I do think this is a bit excused.
Reblogged hikineet-trash
That is the wettest sounding bat I've ever heard. :')
Just an FYI, Australia does, in fact have the disease rabies. It’s just caused by Australian bat lyssavirus instead of Rabies lyssavirus. But the disease is the same.
People have died of rabies in Australia due to ABLV caused by bats.
Do. Not. Touch. Bats. (Unless it is your job)
Reblogged hikineet-trash
All this discourse over who does "painting with light"
Hiroshi Nagai's paintings need sunglasses to look at.
They look like how it feels to walk across a parking lot on a 98° summer day without a speck of shade in sight.
They look like heaven but also like you'd burn your bare feet on the ground.
Even when you can see shade you know it's not enough and the minute you step out you'll be burnt to a crisp like a vampire.
And it's BEAUTIFUL
Reblogged hikineet-trash
you ever get tired of living but in a non-suicidal way
like everything is bad everywhere and no one has money and im tired of this cycle
i tried to explain how i was feeling like this to my drug counselor and she was like "yeah that still sounds kinda suicidal" and i could not figure out how to explain that i don't wanna die, i just like. am so so so tired of the way life is for me and all my friends and family. i'm tired of living like this but i'm gonna keep doing it bc i guess there's no other choice
I don't wanna die, I wanna go lay on a warm field under the sun and watch the clouds go by. How is this hard to understand?
I just want to spend a few days in the dim twilight between sleep and waking, but specifically the dim twilight of a Saturday morning in April.
Burnout. The word is burnout, but not because of an unusual state of overwork or an overly demanding position, but because the bare minimum being demanded is beyond capacity.
How is it that Tumblr consistently puts the posts that talk about what I am feeling at the top of my feed every. single. time?
oh, tumblr, we're really in it now
#I don't want to die I want to be alive #life is full of joys and I want to experience all of them #but everything is always getting in my fucking way!!!! I don't want to die I want that to change #I don't know how thats so hard for some people to understand
@approximately20eggs hope it's ok to post these tags because yeah. yes. yeah.
Reblogged memoriesofgelmorra
If a girl feels uncomfortable hanging out with you alone, and you get so offended by that, it makes you angry, she probably made the right choice.
mallamun-socialjustice
I know I’ve reblogged this recently but still so spot the fuck on.
In general if a dude gets angry by you declining an invitation you made the right choice to say no
If they get angry when you say “no” to hanging out with them, what else are they going to get angry about you saying “no” to?
^^ Slight side note: When I was online dating I used to do what so many of us do; set up a safety check with a friend. I used to be really slick about it; take a restroom break or quietly/subtle check and answer a text. Then I realized what a good marker it was to check if I wanted to actually be on this date at all. So at whatever time check in was supposed to be, I would pull out my phone and say “sorry, I just have to let my friend know I’m good”. If someone was vaguely offended, I might stay depending on the convo we had after. If someone was SUPER offended, I said “this is exactly why. Thanks for meeting me, I’ve got to go.” This happened three times I can remember and the first time my voice was shaking so bad as I said it because, you know. You never know what their response is going to be and he was so aggressively angry I was ending the date “over that”.
The person I ended up with? “Ah, yay-I’m-not-murdered check. Good plan.” Then when my phone was buzzing later (because we ended up on a five hour date on a Monday night) he goes “you should probably let them know you’re still alive. Do you have to go?”
*No woman I was ever on a date with was mad about this. Not one.
This is just like testing the breaks before driving an unfamiliar car guys, and you do NOT drive a car with no breaks. If they can’t handle “no,” it’s not safe for you to say, “yes,” and you need to gtfo of there so you don’t get run over.
Also, OP I love your url, it is perfect for this post.
Reblogged memoriesofgelmorra
So my Mom is of a generation that tends to get written off as transphobic, right? She's not just a boomer, she's at the beginning of the boomers, born in the late forties. One day—it happened to be trans day of visibility—she said to me, "You know, I don't understand trans people."
"Mm, sometimes me neither, but I don't have to understand it to respect their choices," I say, or something to that effect.
She nods, and then asks why that author person is so upset about the whole thing. So I try to explain TERFs and their beliefs about trans women.
Mom's instant reaction: "Nope. No predator goes to that kind of work."
And sometimes I go back to that. Because it's very simple, isn't it? You don't have to try to figure out what a woman or a man is, you don't have to explain gender, you just have to understand (a) it's their business so long as they're not hurting people, and (b) no predator goes to that kind of work.
Useful starting place sometimes.
Reblogged mostlysignssomeportents
ACT UP, 1990
[image description: a black and white photo of a crowd at a protest. In the forefront, a Black man holds up a cardboard coffin that says on the side, "We're here, we're queer, we hate the fucking president!" There is a skull with triangles in its eye sockets and on its forehead on the front side of the coffin, and "Action Now" written on the top with an upside-down triangle. There are many signs held up in the background; one says "Republicans kill me."]
Reblogged hikineet-trash
It is really important to me that all of you learn about Al Bean, astronaut on Apollo 12 and the fourth man to walk on the moon, who after 20 years in the US Navy and 18 years with NASA during which he spent 69 days in space and more than 10 hours doing EVAs on the moon , retired to become a painter.
He is my favorite astronaut for any number of reasons, but he’s also one of my favorite visual artists.
Like, look at this stuff????
It’s all so expressive and textured and colorful! He literally painted his own experience on the moon! And that's just really fucking cool to me!
Just look at this! This is one of my absolute favorite emotions of all time. Is Anyone Out There? is like the ultimate reaction image. Any time I have an existential crisis, this is how I picture myself.
And then there's this one:
The Fantasy
For all of the six Apollo missions to land on the moon, there was no spare time. Every second of their time on the surface was budgeted to perfection: sleeping, eating, putting on the suits, entering and exiting the LEM, rock collection, setting up longterm experiments to transmit data back to Earth, everything. These timetables usually got screwed over by something, but for the most part the astronauts stuck to them.
The crew of Apollo 12 (Pete Conrad, Al Bean, and Dick Gordon) had other plans. Conrad and Bean had snuck a small camera with a timer into the LEM to take a couple pictures together on the moon throughout the mission. They had hidden the key for the timer in one of the rock collection bags, with the idea being to grab the key soon after landing, take some fun photos here and there, and then sneak the camera back to Earth to develop them. They had practiced where they would hide the key and how to get it out from under the collected rocks back on Earth dozens of times.
But when they got to the moon, the key was nowhere to be found. Al Bean spent precious time digging through the collection bags before he called it off. The camera had been pushing their luck anyways, he couldn't afford to spend anymore time not on the mission objectives. Conrad and Bean continued the mission as per the NASA plan while Dick Gordon orbited overhead.
Fast forward to the very end of the mission. Bean and Conrad are doing last checks of the LEM before they enter for the last time and depart from the moon. As Bean is stowing one of the collection bags, the camera key falls out. The unofficially planned photo time has come and gone, and he tosses the key over his shoulder to rest forever on the surface of the moon.
This painting, The Fantasy, is that moment. There have never been three people on the moon at the same time, there was never an unofficial photo shoot on the moon, this picture could never have happened.
"The most experienced astronaut was designated commander, in charge of all aspects of the mission, including flying the lunar module. Prudent thinking suggested that the next-most-experienced crew member be assigned to take care of the command module, since it was our only way back home. Pete had flown two Gemini flights, the second with Dick as his crewmate. This left the least experienced - me - to accompany the commander on the lunar surface.
"I was the rookie. I had not flown at all; yet I got the prize assignment. But not once during the three years of training which preceded our mission did Dick say that it wasn't fair and that he wished he could walk on the moon, too. I do not have his unwavering discipline or strength of character.
"We often fantasized about Dick's joining us on the moon but we never found a way. In my paintings, though, I can have it my way. Now, at last, our best friend has come the last sixty miles." - Al Bean, about The Fantasy.
There’s also Alexei Leonov, writer and artist and first person to conduct a spacewalk!
You can't forget this, the first art made in space.
March 1965, Alexei Leonov made this drawing only moments after narrowly surviving the very first space walk.
Reblogged softness-and-shattering
it isn’t meant to make sense. it is meant to be a dog whistle.
Reblogged rebloggingistheenemy
Last time I was at this antique mall I posted a cookie jar they had and laughed at its off brand cookie monster. Today I'm there and:
Hes THE ITEM?!
Reblogged 50-slugs-in-a-trench-coat
Reblogged cpt-paracord
Can't express how stress free being open minded is.
Some lesbians use he/him? Oh cool.
Some people have people inside their head and sometimes it's fictional chars? Sick your brains like a pirate ship they're all working to run.
Some people like being treated like a pet dog? Bark bark bro.
Being fat isn't unhealthy but a perfectly normal type of body to have? Kinda beautiful how different we can all be.
Something doesn't make any fucking sense? Cool an opportunity to learn. And even if I can't figure it out it's cool we still have mysteries today.
It's just... idk man. People are weird. Being a person is weird. Society is weird. The universe is weird. Rather than having to "normalize" everything, just accept that some people are weird. So are you. Nothing is normal. the rules are all made up. I once saw a Klingon pushing a baby stroller down the street in toronto. The world is a weird place, man. Just roll with it.
