bug with a big ass

Ditto can't read. They have no idea what this is.

if you're on instagram get off that thing and go outside

if you're on tumblr hold fast and keep scrolling soldier

baking with my mama

made me really happy so i drew them....

also "all billionaires are like this" I am fully aware that Bill Gates is infamously a creepy and unpleasant individual but he also has spent most of the last couple of decades earnestly trying to get rid of malaria. having that amount of money is a huge structural failure and, again, he is infamously a terrible guy to be around, but it didn't turn him into a neonazi. this is not a 1:1 correlation. we really have to accept this when considering how best to dismantle billionaire influence from society. there are actually quite important differences between elon and, like, warren buffett

yes, a lot of rich people are really weird and out of touch and either ignorant of or hyperaware of their power in a way that makes them evil, but if that was not also the case for non-rich people, kamala would have won indiana

#didn’t he also try to capitalize off of privatizing the distribution of the Covid vaccine?#I admit he’s better because he’s trying to like get rid of his money as he gets older#but that’s a whole lot of capital to control

Sweetheart this is a literal right-wing conspiracy theory that you are repeating. He said in a press conference that a $10 billion investment in vaccines gives a general return on investment in economic and social benefits of about $200 billion, or 1-20. This does not mean "Bill Gates personally makes 20x his initial investment in vaccine distribution markets," it means "the global economic benefits of providing free vaccines outweigh the costs, which is why he encourages vaccine distribution"

If your principled anticapitalism is repeating r/insanepeoplefacebook talking points, it is not a good strand of principled anticapitalism!

I really resent the way that the Overton window has shifted for online privacy, so that I sound like a hysteric when I say that I don’t want Facebook and Google to know everything about my life.

‘I don’t mind Facebook showing me pretty dresses.’

Cool! That’s the absolute least of what they do, though! They’ve experimented on inducing depression in their users! They actively interfere with elections! And they spy on everyone – not just their users, but all internet users. And they’re capable of working out who non-users are based on information their users feed them! Pardon me for thinking that’s not okay!

‘Advertisers don’t listen into your phone as much as everyone thinks.’

Cool! But they do fucking do it! And the amount I would like them to listen in on my conversations is none! I would like none spying! Zero tracking of my internet activity! Especially by companies who want to sell me shit!

Remember how in the 80s, ad companies would listen in to your private conversations in your house, and then send different catalogues to your mailbox as a result? No! Because they didn’t, and couldn’t. And people would have – quite rightly – considered that a massive invasion of privacy.

Remember how in the 90s, ad companies opened and read all of your personal mail, making copies to keep on microfiche, before allowing the re-sealed envelopes to reach your house? Because they didn’t, but it’s what Google does with your email! So they can serve you ‘more relevant ads’ in your inbox!

Why am I the outrageous radical for thinking that I should be able to at least partly control my own data? My own likes and dislikes? I’m not even proposing leaving the internet entirely! I didn’t even stop using Facebook because they’re shitlords, but because using it made me miserable. And I’m considering switching from Gmail to something else like Protonmail. I already use Firefox, and have an add-on installed that reduces Facebook’s ability to track me from site to site.

Why am I so strange for wanting to return to an internet where the people who serve me ads can’t name my age, postcode, eye colour, purchasing history, dietary preferences, and half-dozen closest friends without having to try to do it?

love that we live in a time where "hey, maybe a scenario that the tinfoil hat conspiracy theorists of yore imagined, where you were constantly being spied on and that data was used to adjust your environment to influence your political leanings and state of mind is.... not good?" is a weird opinion

go into your mobile app settings. look into the special permissions every app has, including the most innocuous ones. why does google calendar need microphone permissions? why does the google camera app need permission to connect, alter, and toggle your wifi and bluetooth switches? pull your spyware out by its roots and replace what you can with open-source alternatives. a bit of learning is required, but that knowledge is liberating and it will last you forever.

in the 1590s, straight up “fausting” it. and by “it”, haha, well. let’s just say. my bargain.

tired: language instruction should focus on vocabulary and examples that are or will be relevant to students’ everyday lives

wired: students should focus on changing their everyday lives so that vocabulary and examples become relevant. if Duolingo is teaching you “Je vais à la gare” you’d better hurry over to the station as fast as you can

common misconception! Thomas Crapper didn't invent the flush toilet. it was actually patented by Alexander Cumming. what Crapper invented was the floating ballcock.

dude i just looked up that cumming toilet crapper ballcock thing they were talking about, that's true. that's like 100 percent- everything they said was true. the ballcock is real and it was patented by crapper, it's the ball inside the toilet that floats with the water

Guess who just decided to fact check this post and found out that yes, the information above is correct…

I was discussing the incident mentioned later in this piece with my wife yesterday and I saw another post by someone earlier doing something mentioned in here and I'm finally going to say something about it.

There is a serious problem in leftist spaces, especially online, especially on Tumblr, when it comes to language.

The way people are expected to speak just to even enter these spaces is incredibly complex, to the point of being outright hostile to those who haven’t already spent time in them. And it’s not just newcomers; people who have important things to say, people speaking from lived experiences, people who don’t have English as a first language but still deserve to be heard, are constantly talked down to or even pushed out entirely for not using the "right" words.

This gets even worse when you factor in how often new terms are coined in English, and then people are shamed for not immediately knowing or using them.

I saw someone reblog their own post saying something like, "I know for a fact more than half of y’all didn’t understand a fucking word I said here."

And honestly? That stuck with me, because yeah, I’ve felt that before. Not because I don’t value critical thinking! because I absolutely do! I just made a post on that too! but because so many of these posts are written in a way that makes them Functionally Inaccessible to anyone who doesn’t already have the right background knowledge. And at a certain point, if you actually want your words to have an impact, if you actually want to create meaningful change, then you’re going to have to accept some things:

2. People will not always know the exact terminology you personally prefer they use when engaging in discourse.

3. Dismissing or attacking people for how they say something, instead of engaging with what they’re saying, is actively harmful.

And more than that, if you genuinely want people to understand and engage with the things you’re talking about, especially people who don’t speak English as a first language, especially people without access to higher education, especially people who don’t even know where to begin when it comes to self-education (because yes, that is a skill that has to be taught) then you are going to have to be the one to adjust sometimes. You are going to have to let people say things imperfectly. You are going to have to take a step back and engage with the message rather than just the words being used to express it.

One of the experiences that made me realize that I, as a non-native English speaker, was not welcome in Tumblr leftist spaces was when I spoke about real-life oppression I had experienced. I left one word out of my post, a word which honestly, was not even important when talking about an incident that had Happened To Me, not theory, not hypotheticals or any what-ifs of oppression, a story, a story about something that happened to me.

And because of that, people sat in a Discord server, picking apart my words, accusing me of awful things, and then came into my askbox throwing jargon and buzzwords I’d never even heard before, then got mad at me for being frustrated that this was happening.

Think about that. People who are directly impacted by oppression are being pushed out of spaces meant to discuss it because the way they speak doesn’t conform to certain expectations. That is not justice. That is not solidarity. That is not progress.

There is a fundamental disconnect here between theory and praxis. Ironically so many of you do not know what praxis is, because most of you engage with a lot of theory, and not a lot of praxis, you use the word praxis a lot, but, ironically, you have no idea what it means.

{to put my money where my mouth is, it means Doing Something, in the simplest possible terms}

In theory, leftist spaces should be accessible. They should be places where people can speak openly about their experiences, learn from each other, and work toward meaningful change. But in practice? There’s a gatekeeping of language so intense that many people, particularly those who are marginalized in ways beyond just their political beliefs, are outright excluded.

And this is something I need people to sit with: The assumption that the "right" language is easy to learn, or that anyone who doesn’t use it is being willfully ignorant, is an inherently privileged stance. Knowing where to find information, how to process it, and how to integrate new terminology into your vocabulary is a skill that is largely tied to education. Having the time to engage with leftist literature and theory, to stay up-to-date on every new term that gets introduced, is also a privilege. And the fact that so many people refuse to acknowledge this, that they expect perfect articulation from everyone, regardless of background, and punish those who don’t measure up, is a huge problem.

Worse still, the same people who act as gatekeepers of this language often fail to communicate their ideas in a way that is accessible at all.

This doesn’t mean that complex ideas should never be discussed. It doesn’t mean that people shouldn’t strive for accuracy in their language. But it does mean that if your goal is to educate, if your goal is to spread awareness, if your goal is to help people understand and join the movement, if your goal is to engage with fellow oppressed people, then you have a responsibility to meet people where they are. You have a responsibility to make your language understandable.

Because if people can’t even process what you’re saying, then what’s the fucking point?

And before anyone says, "Well, people should put in the effort to learn!" Let me make something very clear: They do.

People who are new to leftist spaces, or who are coming in from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds, are often trying their best to engage. They are listening, they are learning, they are processing. But if the response to every mistake, every slightly off phrasing, every unfamiliarity with a new term, is immediate hostility,

or even if it's just 'hey I see you're sharing a personal moment, but can you change your language to make me, personally, more comfortable with you discussing your oppression?' then you’re not teaching.

You’re just making sure only the people who already think and speak exactly like you get to stay in the room.

Your language, your terminology, your theory? none of it means anything if you can’t make it accessible to the people who actually need it. And it means nothing if you use it to Exclude rather than Include.

I was explaining online why it’s ridiculous to think that men who want to assault women in public toilets would fake being trans instead of just walking in. And a stranger joined in to say that I was exactly right AND the “transsexuals” are usually not interested in women anyway, so of course we should all leave them alone to pee.

If I told this well-meaning person off for using outdated terms, they would probably stop speaking out against bathroom bills! Using that term in 2025 suggests that this person doesn’t spend much time in trans-positive spaces online. They’re doing something hard. They spoke out in support of trans rights, in a public forum where their friends could see, using arguments that have a good chance of showing bigots that their fear isn’t sensible. Saying “actually, you’re hurting people by saying we should get to be safe with the Wrong Words” would be robbing ourselves of an awesome ally.

Some trans people actually prefer "transsexual", and it's entirely possible that the commentor was familiar with trans people, but the ones they know use that term. It's also still used as a medical term in much of the world. It's not like they said tr**** or another slur. Calling transsexual "outdated" is an example of the linguistic gatekeeping the original post is talking about.

It's so weird to me when people are like 'but that will cost the government money!' So what? They're the government, they're supposed to be spending money. What, you want them to take your tax dollars and then do nothing with it? Lock it all up in a big government vault and just look at it? Why are you so scared of giving a third grader lunch or a homeless person a house.

happy biblically accurate friday again garfie baby to those who celebrate

smol claims court. im suing you for one hecking doggo

guy types out a rage filled response on the internet. but before posting it goes on a long walk to calm down. during his walk he gains a new appreciation for life and his role in it. he comes home, rereads his pending response, and clicks post.

'do you think you're superior for not using AI in your work' thank you for asking! yes i do

Put baby in pelican mouth poster. For you