Kind of sucks that i am not living in an ivy-covered cottage in the pacific northwest, drinking mint tea with honey,, riding my bike into town for the groceries and spending my day writing novels on a mossy tree stump with a cool breeze making the pine needles go sssssshhhhhh,,,,,,,
Can I watch a great film knowing the actresses in it were terrorized and mistreated the entire time? Can I watch a football game knowing that the players are getting brain injuries right before my eyes? Can I listen to my favorite albums anymore knowing that the singers were all beating their wives in between studio sessions? Can I eat at the new fancy taco place knowing when the building that used to be there got bulldozed eight families got kicked out of their homes so they could be replaced with condos and a chain restaurant? Can I wear the affordable clothes I bought downtown that were probably assembled in a sweatshop with child labor? Can I eat quinoa?
Can I eat this burger? Can I drink this bottled water? Can I buy a car and drive to work because I’m sick of taking an hour each way on the subway? Whose bones do I stand on? Whose bones am I standing on right now?
On one hand, it’s a privilege to be able to choose to acknowledge these horrors or not–we’re going to acknowledge that privilege. On the other hand, I once attended a lecture by the explorerer-conservationist Jacques-Yves Cousteau’s daughter and son and they had a lot of opinions about what we could do to help the environment and the ocean and I talked about how in my country, we have to drink bottled water, because it’s a desert and there’s only salt water all around, but we’re contributing to pollution and all of these things…
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.
While cleaning out my room I found a paper that my therapist gave me some time ago to deal with obsessive and intrusive thoughts. Sorry the paper is a little crinkled and stained, but I figured I’d post it in hopes that it will help someone like it helped me.
Here it is again with text for anyone who can’t see the picture
That thought isn’t helpful right now.
Now is not the time to think about it. I can think about it later.
This is irrational. I’m going to let it go.
I won’t argue with an irrational thought.
This is not an emergency. I can slow down and think clearly about what I need.
This feels threatening and urgent, but it really isn’t.
I don’t have to be perfect to be OK.
I don’t have to figure out this question. The best thing to do is just drop it.
It’s OK to make mistakes.
I already know from my past experiences that these fears are irrational.
I have to take risks in order to be free. I’m willing to take this risk.
It’s OK that I just had that thought/image, and it doesn’t mean anything. I don’t have to pay attention to it.
I’m ready to move on now.
I can handle being wrong.
I don’t have to suffer like this. I deserve to feel comfortable.
That’s not my responsibility.
That’s not my problem.
I’ve done the best I can.
It’s good practice to let go of this worry. I want to practice.
When Anyone says it’s not possible to keep big cities clean I’m just show them this. Japan is one of the most densely populated countries don’t gimme that bs
there’s a lot fo shit about Japan that’s not cool, but goddamn they do the environmentally conscious thing well.
I love that socialists simultaneously are anti-work, but also want all things required for living provided for.
It’s almost as if the vast majority of work today serves the needs of capital instead of our own and is geared towards producing profit instead of anything useful
It’s amazing how there is a generation of people who hate Stan Lee for ???
The man, even in his early years denounced racism as a special type of evil that can’t be defeated with a bullet.
Marvel was the first mainstream comic to show a gay marriage.
And the accusations of him sexually harassing a nurse were false. and proven to be false.
The man has denounced racism and promoted tolerance and diversity for years, much more than what most people who age would have ever dared consider. Hell, he created Black Panther, the first black comic hero.
But all because the man didn’t want to make Peter Parker black and bisexual he obviously is a racist and homophobe… Despite…
Luke Cage
Falcon
Storm
Spider Girl (Corazon)
Miles Morales
Moonstar
Karma
Black Panther
Shuri
Kimura
Lady Deathstrike
Echo
Jubilee
Monet St. Croix
Hulkling
America Chavez
Northstar and hosting the first gay marriage depicted in mainstream comics IN 1992 WAY BEFORE GAY MARRIAGE WAS EVEN LEGALIZED
Valkyrie
Wiccian and many others…
But y’all asses over here fucking ignoring the shit out of them like the only thing Stan Lee and Marvel ever made was Spiderman and Peter Parker all because the man doesn’t think that you should redefine established or preexisting characters. Why?
Because he believed in creating NEW characters, new characters who had their OWN personalities, who had their OWN stories, who had their OWN fans
He wanted to make new things, not redefine what already exists. He wanted to make NEW characters and stories that people could connect to. NEW characters who could stand on their own as opposed to just being “This character but now xyz.”
He wanted characters who had their own life and vibrancy to them.
Yet y’all asses fucking mad he didn’t make Peter Parker black while you ignoring the fuck out of Miles Morales. Yet y’all asses are mad he didn’t make Peter Parker bi or gay while ignoring the fact that the Marvel comic version of Deadpool and Loki are both bisexual.
Y’all fucking ignoring the POC and LGBT+ characters that exist in the Marvel universe all because you wanna be like ~~uwu 20gayteen~~
Until y’all asses start recognizing POC and LGBT+ characters THAT ALREADY EXIST you don’t get to say shit about anything else being gay.
DON’T SIT THERE AND IGNORE CANON LGBT AND POC CHARACTERS AND THEN ACT LIKE STAN LEE WAS A RACIST OR HOMOPHOBIC BIGOT
Fucking exactly. Fucks who hate just to hate and purposely ignore facts piss me the fuck off. If you do that shit fuck you.
Thank you for this. I’ve been really distressed about the discourse saying he was racist/homophobic/sexually harassed people, and I haven’t had the energy to do more of my own research, so I appreciate someone with a broader knowledge sharing this information.
Big Gay Dracula Does a Shitpost 