new hobby: editing anti-wasp memes to be pro-wasp. spreading my waspaganda
I wanted to add an extra fun fact to that last meme of “I pollinate, make honey, and generally am a nice guy” which is that Wasps also pollinate AND make honey AND are generally a nice guy :)
Thats right. Not only are they important pollinators to many many plants, but Paperwasps (Polistes annularis) actually make honey as well. Theyre a lot harder to access than honeybees, but it is edible by humans if you ever want to crack open a nest to give it a go. There are several other species of wasps globally that also make honey as well!
Also, to be taxanomically pedantic, bees actually arewasps. They are a branch off of the wasp superfamily Apoidea and are considered “vegetarian wasps”.
This is the second post I’ve seen about how how hymenopterans are “actually wasps”. I really need to clear this up as a bee scientist because it is so so incorrect.
Bees are NOT wasps, ants are NOT wasps.
Wasps are not a monophyletic group, they are a paraphyletic grouping, so I think this is why so many people are getting confused. I can go into a long explanation as to why, but for now don’t post if you’re not 100% sure!
we shouldn’t trust historians to teach us history because they are people with biases. instead we should learn from instagram influencers, who would never lie to us.
I spoke with Angeline Chew Longshore from The Mauimama about my article, “Using sociology to think critically about Coronavirus COVID-19 studies.” We talked about how I was motivated to write about the sociology of science because I saw so many people struggling to make sense of the pandemic. We discussed how national cultures are impacting responses to the virus, why precarious employment in healthcare is causing high rates of infection, and how we can better check whether the information we hear is credible.
The pandemic is scary, and so much conflicting advice can be difficult to sort through. A quick way in which we can make sense of what we think we hear in news and social media is to ask four questions:
Why do I think this is true?
Where did I get this information?
Whose interest does it serve?
Does this maintain the status quo?
If something seems too neat, or convenient, or only helps a narrow group in power, it is best we dig deeper into the theories, methods and conclusions. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
the other day a guy made an off hand comment about johnny depp’s ex “trying to take his money in court” which was quite strange since he’s the one who is suing her rn and i told him that and he was completely incredulous. I also told him that she was an actress of her own (he didn’t know) and probably didn’t need to be “taking his money” and that this wasn’t a divorce settlement but a defamation case, since she had already accused him of domestic abuse, at which point he got real quiet and pensive. and that’s the thing with this case and media in general, most people aren’t insanely dedicated misogynists who know all the background and are trying to be as evil as possible to this woman, but people who hear these comments and memes and jokes here and there and pick up on them and their general message and create a narrative in their head. and the thing is the jokes and memes are meant to create a specific narrative and it’s working. we are living thru the era with the biggest capacity for spreading misinformation, propaganda, and planting ideas onto people’s heads in a way that makes them think they came up with it on their own, and people know it and are taking advantage of it. this is isn’t accidental
“If you’re not an expert but you think you’ve destroyed the entire foundation of a vast scientific edifice with 10 minutes of Googling, you might want to consider the possibility that you could be wrong.”
Okay someone asked me earlier “Hey CT, you study the occult for a living, off the top of your head, what’s the most popular form of the occult in today’s world?”
Pseudo-nutrition. Bar none. A massive amount of the fad dieting world goes beyond simple misinformation and ignorance and full on into a systemized non-scientific theory of anatomy and nutrition that 100% qualifies as magic. If you replace the term “toxins” with “evil ghosts” half of these blogs would sound like sumerian curse tablets.
i cant imagine anything less interesting, less rebellious, less revolutionary and less counterculture than being like “im not feminine, therefore im not a woman”, “im not masculine, therefore im not a man”, “im androgynous, therefore im a third gender” … gen z are tripping thinking this is any different than my grandma saying that men need to be manly and women need to be feminine… like its so BORING… so conservative… this is literally conservativism with weird extra steps… why not normalize androgyny by not fuckin commenting on it and having it not affect ur life in any way, no demands abt pronouns and no weird labels, just existing and being yourself confidently and proudly… no brains no swag this is lame i hate it so so much
That’s not what being nonbinary is. Even in a world with no gender roles, where gender non-conforming folk were completely normal and expected, I’d still be nonbinary. I’d still get gender dysphoria from people using the wrong pronouns and terms for me.
Female-presenting feminine afab & male-presenting masculine amab nonbinary people are proof of this fucking concept, but y'all would rather stick ur head in the sand and say “nonbinary is just gnc! nonbinary is just being androgynous!”
Being nonbinary is based on gender dysphoria, incongruence and euphoria and I’m tired of people saying otherwise.
How would you get gender dysphoria in a world that has no gender roles? The entire reason dysphoria exists is because gender roles and socialization exist. Women get dysphoria when they struggle to fit into society’s expectations, same for men. It doesn’t mean they’re actually the opposite sex or have the wrong brain, it’s because they dislike having to fit into arbitrary standards that change over time and across cultures. There’s nothing natural about gender, there was then people wouldn’t have to be constantly reminded to fit into them. If gender is natural than no one would ever get dysphoria.
It’s not proof of your concept, it just shows the term non-binary has no meaning to anyone but the person using it. How is a gender conforming woman/man breaking gender roles or expectations by simply just calling themselves nb? To everyone with eyes we just see them as men and women.
If your definition of being non-binary is that you feel discomfort with the expectations and socialization you receive at birth, then most people would be nb. It’s a useless label that doesn’t actually change anything about the world or how you exist in it.
@trannyopinionrants’ definition of nonbinary is not “[feeling] discomfort with the expectations and socialisation you receive at birth”. You’re just repeating the misapprehension of what being trans means that they were addressing.
just waiting for the day people decide to stop being transphobic, lesbophobic, and biphobic all in one fell swoop.
if you believe “bi/pan lesbians” are actually genuinely a thing and not a term popularized by a TERF who wanted to separate lesbians who date trans women from the term lesbian, unfollow me, block me, get the fuck off this blog.
you’re ripping the only word lesbians have to describe their exclusive attraction to women and non-binary sapphic people, you’re ripping decades of activism dealt out by the bisexual community to be seen as a whole and independent identity and not a “pathological behavior” like doctors used to push. you are undoing years of work, blood, sweat, and tears.
This is transphobic misinformation.
Bi/pan lesbians have been “a thing” since lesbian identity was first adopted over a century ago, being part of—and creating!—lesbian community and culture alongside mono lesbians.
They predate TERFs by decades, and TERFs are ideologically opposed to them. TERFs claim that bi lesbians are not lesbians of any kind, “just bisexual”, just like they claim trans-inclusive lesbians aren’t lesbians. Opposition to bi lesbians is popularised by TERFs, who want to separate them from lesbianism in exactly the same way that they want to separate trans lesbians and trans-inclusive lesbians from lesbianism. (The idea that TERFs only target trans women is pernicious.) The arguments in favour of exclusionism are similar in both cases, which TERFs use (and have admitted to using) to their advantage.
The only “work, blood, sweat, and tears” those who continue to respect bi lesbians are undoing is that of harmful exclusion.
bi lesbians is a terf term used to attack lesbians who date trans women.
it’s transphobic, lesbphobic, and biphobic wrapped up into one. There is no good faith argument to support the use of this term.
You can lean towards one or the other but that doesn’t make you any less bi.
Further more yes you can still ID as butch/femme.
We good now?
This isn’t true, but transphobic misinformation that exploits genuine transphobia to harm lesbians.
Bi lesbians—as in lesbians attracted both to (cis, trans, binary, nonbinary) women and to others—have been part of lesbian community since the identity was first adopted. Even explicit bi-and-lesbian identity is older than TERFs.
Meanwhile, TERFs and their predecessors—lesbian separatists, “political lesbians”, etc.—are responsible for mainstream arguments to exclude bi lesbians from their own (lesbian) community and culture. TERFs are ideologically opposed to bi lesbians, and claim that trans-inclusive lesbians are bi ONLY; they do not consider them to be lesbians of any kind, “just bisexual”.
this shit is locked behind a $100 - $500 paywall, and it’s patented so no one can make an open-source version
torpedoread should be available as a free, bionic reading chrome extension soon, and beeline reader uses a different gradient technique thats free on iOS and only costs $2 a month on other platforms
please use those instead, don’t support paywalled accessibility
This isn’t locked behind a paywall, though. It says right there on the website that the converter is free, and using the API is free for up to 500 requests per day.
Some red flags I’ve seen when reading posts here on Tumblr have been really common. Some posts are rather suspicious. I’m not saying all of these beings are bad or fake, but there’s a higher chance for these types of beings to be kinnies and not actual otherkin. I don’t know someone elses identity and I don’t claim to either. These are just some common misrepresentations I’ve seen flying around everywhere…
1. Kinning, kins, and being a kinnie for fun. Otherkin and therian isn’t a choice. It is not a trend, a fashion style, a fetish, or any of that nonsense. Not petplay, not pet regression… oh hunny no. It’s an identity, not a hobby. It is not a coping mechanism either, same thing as having fun or escaping reality. Otherkin is reality. You might want to look into the “furry fandom” or other fandoms if you think it is for fun.
2. Choosing a kintype / theriotype. This is simply not possible. Just because you think lions are badass or raccoons are cute and quirky, doesn’t mean you get to pick it yourself and pretend to be one. It is an identity, not a choice.
3. Kintype / theriotype appearance and separate beings. There is a difference between “this is my theriotype” and “Oh this pic looks like me.” You don’t get to customize what your theriotype looks like. Sorry, but no, you aren’t a pure white wolf fox cat hybrid with four wings and neon blue eyes with magical powers named Luna. Kintype don’t have names. It is you! You can have a nickname like anyone else, but not your kintype. Your kintype is a general species, not an individual who’s separate from yourself!!
Oh goodness, I’ve gotten carried away ranting but these are some of the biggest things that bother me. There’s many more things that are misrepresentitive, like “kin is just quadrobics” or “I’m an angry animal who wants to kill every human ever” or “kin is just extreme furries” which is all false for many reasons… but that’s for another day. Let me rest before I handle those ones next.
Propaganda doesn’t mean “incorrect information”. Propaganda means information disseminated w the intent to shape ones worldview.
More often than not - especially with capitalist propaganda - that is more easily done by telling some truths & leaving out half of the story to make its targets seem irrational or uniquely evil, than it is by making up straight-up lies.
Propaganda is also not only contained to the right. Especially in an era where everyone has blogs we all participate in disseminating information, we all pick and choose what information we share and what information we choose to ignore. There’s an element of personal responsibility in that. It’s worth being conscious of your own part in the spreading of misinformation and half truths, and whether certain posts or articles appeal to you because they are furthering your own worldview while leaving out important details.
thinking about Mads Mikkelsen is how he was part of a communist youth gang in Denmark. he talks about it in this interview (which is in Danish) and how he once threw a rock at Bill Gates. icon
okay, I initially made this post to point out how easily fake news spreads on tumblr— for the record, Mads Mikkelsen was NEVER in a communist youth gang and did not throw a rock at Bill Gates (at least to my knowledge), and also the literal link leads to pleaselearntofactcheck.org— and guys. guys you fell for it
guys PLEASE stop reblogging this without the additional info added
I have discovered there is a small subset of people who do not believe the virus has ever been isolated, therefore it does not exist. They will link you to random sites that claim no one has ever isolated purified COVID-19. They will also discredit electron microscope experiments that showed the COVID-19 virus in infected tissue, because to them that is not proof, because they did not isolate the virus from the infected tissue.
Figure from Liu et al., 2020. Cryo-electron microscope images of a purified clinical isolate of the COVID-19 virus.
So how do you change their mind? Honestly, I don’t think they will change their mind. They will not trust any of the science you would use to justify electron microscope photos of COVID-19. They do not trust PCR, genome sequencing, or any genetic assay. So why bother responding to them? For me, it’s to prevent others from falling for their misinformation. This virus has done so much damage, denying its existence is plain ignorance at this point.
After the success of the Blaze feature, we have now decided to add a brand new feature: Freeze! Do you have a post that keeps getting notes against your wishes? Was deleting it not enough? Or, do you not want to delete it, but you wish people would, for the love of all that is holy, stop fucking reblogging it? Well, Tumblr Freeze is perfect for you!
For a one-time payment of $20, you can lock down a post completely. Nobody else will be able to reblog, like, or reply to your post! This is reversible, but we have a strict no refund policy.
Additionally, if you want a post instantly deleted from every single blog that has reblogged it, you can use Tumblr Evaporate! Since our code does not easily allow for this, and we have to do all of the deletion by hand, the price for Tumblr Evaporate goes up at a rate of $100 per 1,000 reblogs.
I hope these features make Tumblr a happier and safer place for all of you! Also, fuck you!
I came across this painting and couldn’t look away from it. Rene Magritte’s Not to Be Reproduced encourages us to look longer for a very important reason. It shows a man with his back to the viewer, standing in front of a mirror. On the ledge we see a copy of Edgar Allan Poe’s(my inspiration for Poetry) only novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordan Pimm of Nantucket. We cant help ourselves but to see a rather odd visual. Instead of man’s face being reflected as we would expect, the mirror shows the back of his head, while the book is reflected back in the mirror correctly. This obscurity strikes on the main theme of our ever changing perception. We assume what the mirror will reflect but we are denied the answer we expect. This theme becomes more prominent in today’s world where misinformation mends our perception by appealing to emotions and other storytelling measures. We take things at their face value(first impression is not the last impression for f**k sake) without ever questioning and interrogating things in the first place. The significance of Edgar’s book is that most of his work also deals with the perception of reality. Without getting too philosophical about nature of truth and falsehood, we like to think that our viewpoints about the world are backed up by the facts which we acquire through our timelines and newsfeed. Another major theme present in the painting maybe that of our own identity. The man looks with care into the mirror and wonders who he really might be. We lose our identity in this world where regulation of behaviour and pseudo interaction has become quite the norm. We are always hungry for praise, attention and worried about opposition and in this way lose much of our originality in thinking. We don’t have a secure hold on our values and judgements. This technique of hiding faces, is used by Magritte in many of his paintings like The Lovers, Son of Man and the Great War. This technique evokes confusion, unease and curiosity. Therefor i think, we should use these ordinary moments in our ordinary lives by cleaning up our conflicting inner selves.
