The moral purity bit is a feint. It isn’t about moral purity at all. It’s about doing nothing. Moral purity is just a near-perfect excuse for doing nothing.

~Martha Wells, in an interview with SmartBitchesTrashyBooks, regarding the writing of Artificial Condition and how Network Effect is an aroace agender romantic suspense novel.

[quote lightly edited by me for clarity]

I feel like a lot of people, especially fanfic writers, miss the fact that Stephanie's trauma is so much more than an abusive father. Her trauma is not only that her father used to lock her in the closet when she was a child, but also that it most likely happened several times in the presence of her mother who was too scared to help her, or came home after her father had already left and did not hear Stephanie's screams because she was Too high from drugs. Her trauma is not only from Batman telling her to go home, but from him actively isolating her from Tim and Cass, telling them not to go near her. Her trauma is not only from the fact that she became pregnant and had to give up the baby, but also from the fact that the baby's father, who was several years older than her, was not around, and had the courage to show up later and suggest that they get back together. Her trauma is not only that the father of her baby was an asshole, but also that she was probably pushed into this relationship out of complete desperation for love and recognition that she didn't get from anyone she knew, and there was no one around who cared enough and was mature enough to push her away from him. Her trauma is not only that she "died", but also the blame for the gang war that broke out because of her actions, the fact that she was pushed out of her normal life for two years, the physical torture (some of which is heavily implied to be sexual) that caused her "death". Her trauma is not just that no one in Batfam thought she was capable of being a hero, but that no one thought she was capable of anything, including her teachers and the kids at her school, who all judged her by her father. Every adult who might have seen something in her turned out to be either a complete bastard (like her gymnastics coach) or didn't have the time, ability, or desire to become her mentor (like Dinah, Selina, or Helena). Her trauma is so much more than "her dad was a villain" her trauma is that she is a failure of the system, that no one ever cared enough, that her dad affected every part of her life even if he had nothing to do with it.

“Dick has so many connections to other characters. In many ways, even more than Superman or Batman, Nightwing is the soul, the linchpin, of the DCU. He’s well respected by everyone, known to the JLA, the Titans, the Outsiders, Birds of Prey – everyone looks to him for advice, for friendship, for his skills. He’s the natural leader of the DCU.” - Phil Jimenez

~Casually reminds people that Dick Grayson is both The Heart and The Leader of the entire freakin’ DCU and if you don’t think that’s awesome then frankly I don’t even know what to do with you~

Garden Fountain and Waterfall Paintings by Russian/French Artist Alexandra Exter, Dated ca. 1936. Medium is gouache and graphite on heavy, textured white board. Acquired by Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum at the bequest of Simon Lissim.

(Image Links:  1  |  2  |  3  |  4  )

Dick, Jason, and Tim teaching Damian to roast Bruce and baby's first "TAKE ME TO THE ZOO MORE OFTEN, FATHER" attempt is so cute I'm gonna explode.

happy booping! 🐾

Pro Tip: Stock Up On Pregnancy Tests

If you live somewhere abortion access is limited, time is of the essence. And you can buy time by discovering an unwanted pregnancy as early as possible.

If you test proactively, you're still unlikely to discover a pregnancy before 4-5 weeks, which is cutting it close in states with a 6-week ban. Still, no matter how much it sucks, early discovery gives you time to act, to get abortion pills, to figure out the money, to travel if necessary.

TLDR: Buy a box of pregnancy test strips NOW and use them when needed.

To clarify the "morning urine" point - the best time to do a pregnancy test is with the first time you pee after waking up in the morning, as this is the most concentrated urine of the day!

Dick Grayson and Jason Todd solving a case together

i want a world state and global parliament not for bland peace-and-love-on-planet-earth reasons but because i think if all eight billion humans were voting in a worldwide election we would get insane politics out of it. even better if to encourage cross-regional solidarity it's, like, 2000 at-large seats with no threshold.

i'm imagining you have like the world green party and the chinese communist party and the democrats and republicans are there because america is big enough to make that work. and of course the muslim brotherhood. there are fifty tiny communist parties and they all hate each other. like 20% of the parliament is solidly held by the Abolish the World Government party (leader: Nigel Farage). sinn fein has a couple of seats and nobody is sure why.

Hunt's Mesa, Monument Valley by Bousure

experimenting with food is so scary like what if this sucks ass and now i gotta eat it anyway or i'll starve

*places an orange just outside a fairy ring to see what comes out* science is more of an art than a science

*the orange grows legs and skitters away*

Fascinating results *places a banana in the same spot*

*clawed hand reaches out of the ether and drags it into the ring, leaving ragged claw marks in the soil as it disappears, back into the ether from whence it came*

“let’s go to the extreme.” *places a pineapple in the same spot*

Real scientists would keep putting an orange in the same spot to make sure the results are consistent before moving on to other fruits or different spots.

The only valid response to this post.

We’re working up the complexity levels of fruit until we feel there is enough evidence to support the judicious placement of a volunteer twink

You sit down, we haven’t seen what’s happened to the pineapple

This is Tumblr; we’ve ALL seen what happened to the pineapple. O_O

A nice shower and the day can begin...

i just woke up and for a few seconds i thought those were some kind of vegetables being dropped into the sink to rinse off until they kept moving on their own and they still 100% look like weird leafy vegetables

I've been awake for 17 hours and I deadass thought they were vegetables

Video description: a set of parakeets having a shower in a sink, clearly delighted at the water. End description.

Occasionally forget people genuinely think capitalism is thousands of years old

One time I was talking about Robin Hood with some coworkers and one guy was like “he was bad because the people he helped learned to expect handouts” and I wanted to be like… okay can you explain how that flawed capitalist propaganda applies to feudalism

reminder that capitalism was literally invented in the 16th century

That’s an exaggeration. What was invented in the 16th century was mercantilism. Capitalism really dates for the beginning of the nineteenth century, with the rise of industry and cash crops over artisans and merchants. Vulture capitalism, with the notion that companies have no duties other than generating profit, is even younger.

Capitalism is only 200 years old and I have to say, they have not been an impressive 200 years

I think a lot of this comes from the fact that most people don’t know the formal definition of capitalism. We all know the word, we’ve all seen the jokes, but very few people bother to actually define it unless they’re talking about political theory and philosophy, so it’s easy to end up with the impression that Capitalism = Money Can Be Exchanged For Goods And Services.

Capitalism is the economic system where most of the means of production (i.e. everything people need to have to make the stuff that everyone wants) are owned by private individuals or corporations, who then hire people to provide the labor necessary to produce things, with the intent of selling the output at a profit. It’s the difference between “you’re a carpenter and you make a chair and you sell it” and “you’re Richard Q. Richington who owns a chair factory, and you pay people to sell the chairs you paid other people to make and then all the excess money goes back to you.” There have been Richard Q. Richingtons on and off throughout history, but that being the norm for every single industry is a pretty recent development.

An alarming amount of people seem to think capitalism = all trade, and I don’t think that’s a coincidence.

Source

shaped