I. Love this. 

Love it.

Oh my god

yes.

This is it, I found it, the funniest post on this entire godsforsaken website

I will never get over how brilliant this comic is. The artist could have just drawn a single image in response, but instead we have this masterpiece. The world doesn’t deserve @iguanamouth.

doing folklore studies on spooky shit is a bit contradictory to my background

I'm like "well this popular haunting story can't be true because if you cross-reference birth and death records from the BlahBlah County Archives with their digitized property records, no little girls died of a FireMurderDrowningPlague in the house between 1880 and 1920"

or "there's no evidence of this supposedly ~traditional~ belief about times for ghost sightings to happen until the 1960s, and that was in published fiction"

or "come on now, that device is just a motion detector and you've got it set up in an abandoned building crammed with hard-to-see flying insects, at midnight, with minimal lights on"

and you might think I'm a skeptic! I get that! makes sense given how I talk about these things!

but joke's on you I'm actually just the most obnoxiously research-oriented hardcore believer there ever was

It's easy to be a gullible believer, just gobbling up stories of the supernatural no questions asked. It's serious commitment to belive in spooky shit but require a high standard of evidence for it. In fact, the latter makes you crave spooky shit being real so much worse than the former.

i think a lot of liberals need to confront the fact that they don’t actually believe everyone should have basic human rights. a homeless person could call me every slur under the sun and i would still want them to have housing, food, etc. the belief that everyone is entitled to basic human rights should not hinge on whether you “like” someone or not. at that point the entire ideology crumbles.

I believe the issue here is that a lot of people have already thought about this situation and fully accept it

Because this doesn't seem to me to be about "like" or not. This seems like a "paradox of tolerance" situation. Your hypothetical homeless man doesn't seem like someone who would treat others right if he was given the hand up. After all, if you have to wait for their behavior to get physical then you could be dead before you can react to them

living up to the bio i see.

ANYWAY. you’re exemplifying my point. i don’t give a fuck what someone else’s beliefs are when it comes to Basic Human Rights. that’s why they’re called Basic Human Rights. because they are inherent (or should be). they do not hinge on someone’s behavior. they do not hinge on whether someone is “deserving” or not. see the funny part is, if every human being knew they would be guaranteed housing, food, water, clothes, and hygiene products/facilities every single day, the world would be a much less hateful place, because these things could not be used to make us turn on one another. people would also be less likely to feed into hateful rhetoric if they weren’t constantly looking for someone to blame for their struggles

The worst, most loathsome human being on earth still deserves shelter, food, medical care, education, etc.

Like I understand the urge to help- I like helping people. It makes me feel good.

But what I have learned, as a white person, as a person perceived to be cis, as person brought up in middle class, as a person whose disability is invisible- I cannot assume that I know the best way to help someone that is not in the same boat as me.

So when friends are in despair, I try not to rush into helper mode, knowing that not everyone's needs are the same.

Instead, I have been teaching myself to ask first.

"How can I help?"

Sometimes 'help' is positive words. Sometimes 'help' is listening to them rant. Sometimes 'help' is giving someone a ride to the food bank. Sometimes 'help' is buying someone grocery basics.

But you have to ask, or allow them space to ask for help. If you just assume you know what's best for someone, it comes off as condescending. I am learning that my privilege comes with some power, and that it has blind spots. And that my desire to help puts me in a place to listen, rather than decide.

art by @stickwithfinn

If you live in the US, NBC posts their nightly national news broadcast on YouTube for free. If you wanna stay broadly informed but get overwhelmed by reading the news they have all major news of the day and have a good news segment at the end.

Just double checked and the pbs news hour also livestreams their nightly broadcast.

News channels generally private their full broadcast after a day or two so you’ll likely only be able to watch today or yesterday’s news but that’s the most relevant stuff anyways.

I dropped a jar of activated charcoal earlier today resulting in a face full of fine black dust that bomfed up around me in a comical fashion like a cartoon character getting covered in dust when they snap shut a dusty tome.

Which is fine, whatever. Cleaned it up. No real harm done.

Unfortunately, the brain fog means I keep forgetting this happened and almost have a heart attack every time I blow my nose.

I do art modeling and anytime the students use charcoal to draw me (often) I end up blowing black sludge out of my nose for a day afterwards and they aren’t within five feet of me at any given time. I can only imagine the stuff coming out of your sinuses today Joy 😅

The good news is the odor I was trying to get rid of is gone.

Bad news is I can’t tell if it’s because my sinuses look like I’ve been down the mines 😂

It’s difficult to tell what is and isn’t cultural appropriation to some people I think. There’s things I don’t wear which I’d like to wear that people from said culture have said anybody can wear this that I don’t wear because I’ve seen how people on the internet react to the fact I have dream catchers in my room

I buy dream catchers from native and/or local artists when I can (and native artists tend to have cooler designs than the mass manufactured ones anyways) and it’s a product that local native people want you to buy from them but a lot of people don’t know that so they’re like uh why are you doing a cultural appropriation

I could be wrong but I don’t think I’m doing a cultural appropriation if the people in the culture that made it told me hey buy this thing from us and hang it up in your house

Yes! Thank you! Legit Dream Catcher appreciation~! I have one tucked away somewhere, saved my life as a kid. Legit only thing that helped the nightmares I was prone to. It's a small wonky oval and nice turquoise dyed leather strips and lil beads in the webbing. Couple of lil brown feathers dangling. Love it.

(My mom was 100% the type to Find The Shop Run By Actual Native Americans for stuff like that so I trust that's where she got it.)

If you think the stuff is cool go find the Source and see if they are happily selling some, buy it from them directly. Just don't be a dick and it's all good.

A Captain’s Love

tim drake is a rare case where every wild, out-of-context thing you hear about him gets even wilder with context

made up a fake uncle to avoid getting adopted? first he had to steal his dead dad's will and change it to include the name of his fake uncle, then he forged an entire legal paper trail to fool even batman, and finally hired an out-of-luck actor to play the uncle and had brainstorm sessions with him about his character backstory. judging from his surprised reaction when bruce offered to adopt him, he probably did this to avoid being put into foster care and didnt even consider that bruce might want to adopt him (even though he already adopted three orphans before him) (and then bruce learned about this and gave him more freedom and crimefighting gear so tim could like him)

snuck into gotham during no man's land? he did this twice, first by himself to meet his girlfriend in the hospital while she was giving birth (he snuck into the ER as a nurse), then with his young justice friends who thought he was having daddy issues with batman and wanted to help (this was before he was adopted by bruce) (they also picked up an atlantean tourist on the way who wanted to sightsee gotham)

blew up several of the league of assassins' secret bases? before that he spent days working with them as a member to gain their trust (this was when he robbed that art museum) and all the while they were holding his dad's coworker's daughter who came to search for tim and learned about his secret life as an assassin before she learned he was robin (and then somehow fell in love with him)

becomes evil batman who kills in the future? not only that, he also convinces his friends to be evil with him and then takes control of half the country right after he kills every rogue in gotham and also his aunt. tim fought this version of himself at least three times, and each time swore that he would never become gun batman (he still becomes gun batman)

used his own legal last name as a hero name? he didnt even come up with the idea for that, he met an alternate earth version of himself (also evil) who was using that name and thought "oh that's a good name" and stole it for himself. he didnt bother to check if other drake's identity was public before he started using it. then he got pulled aside and told off personally by batman for using such a dumb name and that's why he's not called drake anymore

insulted jason to his face while he was trying to kill him? did this multiple times and even kicked jason in the nuts once (not while they were fighting, just as payback) (he's jason's favorite brother now)

and then anything that happened with young justice doesnt need any context because it's exactly as weird as it sounds. yes, he did save the fate of a planet by playing baseball with his friends. yes, they did invade an entire sovereign nation to rescue their one friend's parents who had turned into babies. yes, they did see santa claus die in a fiery explosion

young justice also blew up Mt. Rushmore, broke into a government facility to break out their friend, and helped out space bounty hunter Lobo when he was turned into a teenager and then later ran around with his teenage clone

Just watched the banned Moon Girl episode.

>the episode addresses the topic of trans kids in sports >the entire episode is about how bigots will always move the goalpost, and playing by their rules is pointless >the solution is not to play their game and break the rules >it also states that trans people should never feel like a burden >the character Brooklyn is explicitly stated to be trans >there is also an explicitly nonbinary character >multiple mentions of pride and depictions of pride flags, trans flags and progress flags

I'm not at all surprised this didn't get past the censors but I'm so mad that it didn't, because this could've been something really special, and the fact it was canned after being fully finished is downright painful. This episode was wonderful and I'm grateful to all the people who worked on it, and angry that their hard work was wasted. Disney did not deserve you.

Here's a link, as long as Disney doesn't take it down

didney did take it down, grab a copy here

https://mega.nz/file/dqMj0bDA#e4M97hSQNbJFn-pH_9_cfh_6ckE0f15XmOvvh08WMu0

Here is a skill that many of us are going to need for survival: how to tell if someone is offering to let you lie.

The tip-off phrase is "If [circumstance] was true, then we/I could do [helpful thing.]" This is not a guarantee that the person is offering, but it should tell you "I am being informed of a way to improve things."

Your confirmation phrase is "What documentation would that require?" This is essentially asking them "if people come asking me to prove this, will I be able to? Or will they not come at all?"

The answer you are hoping for with the confirmation phrase is "Just tell me if it's true, and I'll put it on the form." Note that this is not a direct instruction to lie, because they can't tell you that.

If they didn't mean to extend an offer to lie or this is a situation where they can't, then they'll list off something like your paystubs or your birth certificate. Your response back in that case is "Thanks, I'll tell my friends who qualify." This clears you of any concerns that you may have been considering lying.

The more complex answer is when they answer by giving you a form on the spot. Your job, in this case, is to scan the form and see if what they are asking you can be meaningfully verified by an official source.

Things that can be verified by an official source include, but are not limited to, your age, legal sex, income, veteran status, and place of residence. It's not generally a good idea to lie about these on official documents.

Be smart, and be practical. Do what you need to in order to stay alive, and keep an ear out for the people offering to help you do so.

im having trouble understanding this in the abstract, could someone give an example of a hypothetical situation this would apply to?

"This medication is covered for FREE if you are quitting smoking. Are you working on quitting?"

*me, thinking about how I quit smoking in 2018 and it is now the year of our lord 2024* "Oh yeah, still working very hard. You know how those cravings can hit."

*please note, how I omitted the truth in the example. I didn't ANNOUNCE it been 6 years SINCE I ALREADY QUIT. I said that I was working hard because cravings are still a thing (6 years later not said out loud). The fact I haven't have a SINGLE one in 4 years [I was Weak during lockdown but could not finish a cig anymore] is irrelevant. The doctor asking me was *nudge nudge wink wink* pointing out that labeling my cig use as "not quite quit yet" would cut some costs on medications.

Sometimes the 'lies' you are being an opportunity to nod along for are just ommissions of truth. Like- still being an active smoker for easier access to other treatments or random pains being worse than YOU personally find them. "If X is true, Y could be an option for you" is a way to allow you to snip off details to make X TECHNICALLY true. They are asking you to be a VAGUE fuck- not a pedantic one. For BOTH of y'all's plausible deniability.

"So these symptoms prevent you from doing [X, Y, Z] activities?"

Even if YOU think you are mildly inconvenienced at best, 'OH YEAH- the generalized fatigue/nagging pain/light headed feeling just makes it so hard to [whatever activity you just find more choresome in those circumstances]!'

I have also had it happen at random coffee shops. Or vape shops.

"How much cash do you have on you? Conveniently this is on sale RIGHT NOW for you for 5 dollars less than that IF it happens to be your birthday. It's your birthday... RIGHT??????"

Is the exact same concept. "You have a coupon right?" "And you saw the BOGO deal and remembered to mention it, RIGHT? Cuz mentioning it before I complete the transaction will make these BOGO..."

My doctor and I wanted me to get a new medical device that would be a big improvement over the one I had.

The device manufacturer was obviously invested in my getting one, since that's how they make money, so they have people whose job is to work with insurance to get it covered.

My insurance was obviously not invested in my getting one if my current device was still functioning sufficiently, because they'd have to pay that money.

During an initial call with the device manufacturer, they asked if there were any issues with my current device, because that would dramatically increase the odds of insurance deciding to cover it (so that I wouldn't have to pay $8k out of pocket or put off switching for a few years). They gave examples: is it cracked? does it lose charge faster than it used to? is the screen too dim?

She was offering me the opportunity and enough information to give a reply that would get results.

As it happened, some of those examples were true for me, though not to an extent that I would have thought to report them. Because of that, I didn't think to ask OP's confirmation phrase about what documentation would be required to prove it, but as it turns out, all I had to do was tell her so she could put it on the form—no one would be inspecting my device to confirm or anything like that.

My insurance approved it, I didn't pay anything, and that aspect of my health and routine health maintenance improved significantly.

My sincere appreciation to that lady and everyone else out there pulling Mr. Incredibles to help people out.

I work in a pharmacy and I've done something similar before.

One kid had a rescue inhaler from when they got sick a year ago and had barely touched it. Now the other kid is sick.

"Oh, of course it is illegal for me to tell you to use medication prescribed for one patient for someone else. However, if you were to go to a doctor, it is very likely they would prescribe this exact same medication at that same dose for the kid who is sick now."

I open up with "I am legally prohibited from telling you what you are asking me to tell you." However, I give enough information to heavily imply that the thing they want to do is totally safe and reasonable and even if they went to a doctor, they'd only be given the same thing they already have.

Only once has someone missed my point. I felt bad for them, but I had already repeated myself like 3 times stressing different parts of the statement to try and get my point across so there wasn't much more I could do at that point.

"The worst thing to happen to Jason was his death" WRONG. The worst thing to happen to Jason was being written almost exclusively by Scott Lobdell for a decade straight.

a comic about fix-it fanfics

just overheard my wife spelling something on the phone and i shit you not saying the words “E as in Eeyore” i am on my hands and knees wailing screaming crying pleading and begging people to learn the NATO phonetic alphabet

like the reason this exists is because none of the words sound like each other, which means that even with a terrible signal both parties should be able to clearly understand the words being spelled

i am dead serious that i believe this should be taught in school