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So, I decided to make this easier on myself, and use an already existing framework--the Creative Commons licenses. My terms for derivative works of my fanworks are the same as presented in this license:
Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
If you want to make sure I'm okay with something not explicitly allowed by that license, you will need to ask me first. I'll decide that sort of stuff on a case-by-case basis. But all the stuff allowed by that license is fine for you to do without asking me first.
Since these are fanworks we're talking about, you should keep in mind that copyrights of the original works these are based on still apply, of course.
Also, while I do not require this, I hope you'll point out any derivative works you make to me! I've been delighted by any fic or art based on my work that I've seen thus far, but even if I didn't personally like a work, I wouldn't begrudge an author making it. Because it's impossible to anticipate all possible derivative works that could be created from my own, I will say that such works do not have my automatic endorsement, but I allow them and I might even promo ones that I personally enjoy!
Yes, Another
Jul. 17th, 2025 07:22 pmMe: I did a task!
Also me: And now you have to do another one.
Me again: Gasp! Not another!
Also me: And now you have to do another one.
Me again: Gasp! Not another!
An Expectation of Disbelief
Jul. 7th, 2025 11:58 pmI always find it surprising when someone has an expectation of being believed, because I usually expect that I won't be believed. I argue for the things that are important to me because they are important to me, not out of any expectation that people will be persuaded by anything I say. Which is why I often won't even bother to argue something unless it seems really important.
I really dislike the term social distancing because it implies an inherent social hit with following a basic pandemic safety measure, and not only does that not have to be a problem with thoughtful implementation of such measures, but also following such safety measures helps disabled people among others to be less socially isolated. Thus not exerting the effort to physically distance oneself in appropriate ways contributes to socially distancing and isolating disabled people, among others, while simultaneously encouraging people to use the excuse that observing these safety measures inherently socially isolates them. This is not to say that making the implementation of such safety measures compatible with one‘s social life is necessarily always effortless, but that not observing such safety measures should be seen as the agent of social isolation of disabled people that it undeniably is.
Which is to say, that if you want to have a party or host an event, you should be making the effort to mask and/or host an outdoor event and/or stand a few extra feet away from people and/or have a remote attendance option, and asking others to do the same.
Which is to say, that if you want to have a party or host an event, you should be making the effort to mask and/or host an outdoor event and/or stand a few extra feet away from people and/or have a remote attendance option, and asking others to do the same.
Interlocking Oppressions
Jun. 28th, 2025 03:52 pmI think it's vital to emphasize the directional nature of oppression because otherwise the actual dynamics of who is being harmed and how much by it gets lost in a vague individualist 'everyone suffers from oppression' sentiment.
But I also think it's important to see how forms of oppression interlock. Even if this were not omnipresent, solidarity would still be vital, but the fact that it is consistently interlocking like this only increases its importance.
But I also think it's important to see how forms of oppression interlock. Even if this were not omnipresent, solidarity would still be vital, but the fact that it is consistently interlocking like this only increases its importance.
Baking Soda Warning
Jun. 27th, 2025 01:38 amIf anyone ever tells you to use baking soda to clean out something with a bunch of nooks and crannies that you can't easily flush out with water, they wish you nothing but evil.
Brought to you by my experience years ago of attempting to clean out a refrigerator with baking soda (but anything else with little nooks and crannies that you can't just flush with water will be equally bad). Keep the baking soda for things like your bathtub or your pots and pans. Otherwise your cleaning material is just replacing one type of grime with another.
Brought to you by my experience years ago of attempting to clean out a refrigerator with baking soda (but anything else with little nooks and crannies that you can't just flush with water will be equally bad). Keep the baking soda for things like your bathtub or your pots and pans. Otherwise your cleaning material is just replacing one type of grime with another.
Emotion Avoidance
Jun. 22nd, 2025 02:59 amI have a great reluctance towards being too overt about expressing any emotion. I think sometimes this is entirely justified, but I also think this messes with my ability to socialize with others. I don't really know how other people see me externally, though. I just know that internally, it often feels easier to talk to people if I try to avoid highlighting my feelings about things too much.
Schedule: Busy, Task: Worry
Jun. 19th, 2025 09:45 pmMe: I would like to be more efficient at doing things.
My brain: Okay! For the next two hours, I will worry about how I am not doing enough. You will not be able to do anything else in this time.
Me: ...
My brain: Okay! For the next two hours, I will worry about how I am not doing enough. You will not be able to do anything else in this time.
Me: ...
If Only There Were Two of Me
Jun. 13th, 2025 03:01 amI wish there were two of me because then one me could devote all their time to doing all the offline stuff I do and the other could devote their entire time to Being on the Internet and Posting.
I want to be more effective in my activism, but there's definitely a sense I have that effectiveness in one area seems to invariably come at the cost of effectiveness in other areas, and that it is very, very difficult to strike the right balance. And maybe striking the right balance is not even possible, and we are always tasked with choosing between things that are unbalanced and unsatisfactory, because we live in an inherently unbalanced world.
To give an example, I have had to learn to be a less uncompromising person in order to be a social person, because to be too uncompromising is to isolate oneself, thus making it impossible to coordinate one's actions with others.
At the same time, I have observed ample demonstrations of the cost of compromising with one's ethics for this purpose, where one compromises and compromises with others to be more socially connected and thus more effective, but by doing this, effectively compromises themselves out of any worthwhile ethics, thus making themselves less effective in accomplishing their goals.
Thus their actions cannot effectively bring about any worthwhile goal, because they either no longer hold any worthwhile ethics, or believe that their willingness to compromise will convince others to adopt their more worthwhile stances. When rather, a willingness to compromise, a willingness to wait, can be used to compromise away those ethics, to forestall them, forever.
And I do not bring this up merely to express negativity for the sake of it, but because this is something I think is important to think about, because perhaps through that thought we can identify ways to avoid some of the pitfalls in these thorny choices.
To give an example, I have had to learn to be a less uncompromising person in order to be a social person, because to be too uncompromising is to isolate oneself, thus making it impossible to coordinate one's actions with others.
At the same time, I have observed ample demonstrations of the cost of compromising with one's ethics for this purpose, where one compromises and compromises with others to be more socially connected and thus more effective, but by doing this, effectively compromises themselves out of any worthwhile ethics, thus making themselves less effective in accomplishing their goals.
Thus their actions cannot effectively bring about any worthwhile goal, because they either no longer hold any worthwhile ethics, or believe that their willingness to compromise will convince others to adopt their more worthwhile stances. When rather, a willingness to compromise, a willingness to wait, can be used to compromise away those ethics, to forestall them, forever.
And I do not bring this up merely to express negativity for the sake of it, but because this is something I think is important to think about, because perhaps through that thought we can identify ways to avoid some of the pitfalls in these thorny choices.
On Positive Change
May. 25th, 2025 01:00 amI think all significant positive change requires two things: imagination and practicality. A person with only the former can imagine the world they want, but lacks the ability to bring it about. A person with only the latter can make the best of their lot in life, but has mentally foreclosed the ability to change that lot in life no matter how bad things get. A person with both can imagine the world they want and work on mapping out the path to reach it.
Which is to say, I think it is critically important for us to strive to develop both of these traits in ourselves.
Which is to say, I think it is critically important for us to strive to develop both of these traits in ourselves.
The Politics of Entertainment
May. 22nd, 2025 04:16 pmA lot of mainstream TV and movies specifically promote "Western" values and especially the values of the United States government as inherently superior to all others. Specifically, this media promotes capitalism, imperialism, and colonialism regardless of whether it's geared towards liberal or conservative consumption. In short, a lot of media is simply sugarcoated propaganda. This is especially true of children's media, and why "it's just a children's cartoon" is not a valid argument for a piece of media not containing embedded political values. Quite the opposite, actually. The whole point of children's media containing such values is to help ensure the absorbsion and adoption of those values by the future generation. The point is to get to them early, so these values become their default.
Now, the people involved in creating this propaganda are not necessarily aware that that is what they are doing. Indeed, many of these people may consider themselves apolitical or even countercultural. But their awareness of their place in the machine is unnecessary for the machine's usage of them. The machine functions in a way such as to elevate those most useful to it while suppressing the rest.
Some examples:
Star Wars - The depiction of the Ewoks employs a number of incredibly racist tropes, including depicting them as cannibals and them accepting C3P0 as a god. The colonialist aspect of the core worlds in the prequels like Coruscant is purposely obscured by making the Separatist government headed by Sith puppets and relegating things like the genocide of the Geonosians to a relative footnote outside the movies.
Star Trek, especially modern Star Trek - While Star Trek has always had implicit militaristic undertones (considering their supposedly peaceful mission of exploration they sure are involved in a lot of wars and their ships are sure decked out to the teeth in weapons), the last seasons of Picard and Discovery especially doubled down on this. Also Picard has a white saviorism arc involving the romulans that it never even bothers to resolve.
Avatar: The Last Airbender - contrast the narrative choice to depict the oppressed Jet and Hama as incredibly evil and, in Hama's case, irreedeemable, to the narrative's treatment of Zuko and Iroh. The narrative never treats Iroh as an actual villain, and Zuko is not only given a redemption arc, but becomes ruler of the Fire Nation at the end of the story.
Avatar - the white savior fantasy in space. The white savior fantasy is inherently colonialist.
Legend of Korra - basically doubles down on the colonialist and imperialist apologism of its predecessor. Also adds a copaganda angle.
Now, the people involved in creating this propaganda are not necessarily aware that that is what they are doing. Indeed, many of these people may consider themselves apolitical or even countercultural. But their awareness of their place in the machine is unnecessary for the machine's usage of them. The machine functions in a way such as to elevate those most useful to it while suppressing the rest.
Some examples:
Star Wars - The depiction of the Ewoks employs a number of incredibly racist tropes, including depicting them as cannibals and them accepting C3P0 as a god. The colonialist aspect of the core worlds in the prequels like Coruscant is purposely obscured by making the Separatist government headed by Sith puppets and relegating things like the genocide of the Geonosians to a relative footnote outside the movies.
Star Trek, especially modern Star Trek - While Star Trek has always had implicit militaristic undertones (considering their supposedly peaceful mission of exploration they sure are involved in a lot of wars and their ships are sure decked out to the teeth in weapons), the last seasons of Picard and Discovery especially doubled down on this. Also Picard has a white saviorism arc involving the romulans that it never even bothers to resolve.
Avatar: The Last Airbender - contrast the narrative choice to depict the oppressed Jet and Hama as incredibly evil and, in Hama's case, irreedeemable, to the narrative's treatment of Zuko and Iroh. The narrative never treats Iroh as an actual villain, and Zuko is not only given a redemption arc, but becomes ruler of the Fire Nation at the end of the story.
Avatar - the white savior fantasy in space. The white savior fantasy is inherently colonialist.
Legend of Korra - basically doubles down on the colonialist and imperialist apologism of its predecessor. Also adds a copaganda angle.
Interpretation in Reality and Fiction
May. 20th, 2025 05:13 pmI think a key difference between reality and fiction is the role interpretation plays in our understanding of them. Because while both reality and fiction must be interpreted in an ethical sense, in fiction the question of what is and what has happened also becomes an element of interpretation, and takes on an ethical dimension that isn't inherently present in reality itself.
With both, our interpretation of ethical implications plays a key role in our understanding them. And while I am not a ethical relativist in the sense of viewing all ethical stances as equally valid, I am one in the sense of acknowledging that ethics is meaningless outside of the context of the minds of thinking and feeling beings and only gains meaning by existing inside the minds of those beings. It is something that exists purely because we believe in it, purely because we want it to exist, and what is viewed as ethical is relative to the mind doing the viewing.
In contrast, the events that transpire in the real world exist regardless of our wishes and thus the mere fact of their occurrence does not endow them with any particular ethical dimension, good or bad--it is instead our ethical evaluations that endow them with that ethical status. The real world exists outside of our wants, desires, and goals, and its nature is thus not relative to those internal motivations.
This is why everything that happens to a character in a fictional work can be analyzed within an ethical framework, including tragic accidents and unexpected fortune. This is why I don't think watsonian analysis is inadequate for analyzing the ethical implications of a work. This doesn't mean I don't think it has its place--it is part of the act of interpretation that occurs when immersing ourselves in a fictional world. As a fanfic writer, I find watsonian analysis essential to constructing a narrative within an existing story. But I think it inherently falls short once it tries to grapple with the ethical implications of that fictional world to those of us in the real world. Because watsonian analysis treats the fictional world as if it were real, as if it can have events that exist outside of intent. But no events in fiction can exist outside of the intent of either the author or the reader. Furthermore, we cannot treat the desires and wishes of the characters in the story as existing separately from the intent of the author and reader.
I think this is an important distinction that must be grappled with when analyzing fiction as opposed to reality.
With both, our interpretation of ethical implications plays a key role in our understanding them. And while I am not a ethical relativist in the sense of viewing all ethical stances as equally valid, I am one in the sense of acknowledging that ethics is meaningless outside of the context of the minds of thinking and feeling beings and only gains meaning by existing inside the minds of those beings. It is something that exists purely because we believe in it, purely because we want it to exist, and what is viewed as ethical is relative to the mind doing the viewing.
In contrast, the events that transpire in the real world exist regardless of our wishes and thus the mere fact of their occurrence does not endow them with any particular ethical dimension, good or bad--it is instead our ethical evaluations that endow them with that ethical status. The real world exists outside of our wants, desires, and goals, and its nature is thus not relative to those internal motivations.
This is why everything that happens to a character in a fictional work can be analyzed within an ethical framework, including tragic accidents and unexpected fortune. This is why I don't think watsonian analysis is inadequate for analyzing the ethical implications of a work. This doesn't mean I don't think it has its place--it is part of the act of interpretation that occurs when immersing ourselves in a fictional world. As a fanfic writer, I find watsonian analysis essential to constructing a narrative within an existing story. But I think it inherently falls short once it tries to grapple with the ethical implications of that fictional world to those of us in the real world. Because watsonian analysis treats the fictional world as if it were real, as if it can have events that exist outside of intent. But no events in fiction can exist outside of the intent of either the author or the reader. Furthermore, we cannot treat the desires and wishes of the characters in the story as existing separately from the intent of the author and reader.
I think this is an important distinction that must be grappled with when analyzing fiction as opposed to reality.
[REDACTED]
May. 17th, 2025 01:17 amOne of the problems I consistently encounter when socializing is that I simply am unwilling to explain myself because that would almost invariably entail revealing more about myself than I am willing to.
Though I can't help but doubt that it would matter even if I did. Plenty of people tell their life story online and aren't treated any better for it despite far more difficult or dire circumstances than my own. I've seen that as instructive: sympathy is less important to the social order than superiority. So perhaps my issue is more illusory than it appears. Would things go any better for me if I was more open? The evidence indicates not.
And yet, at the same time, I feel my lack of openness does somehow alienate me from others beyond the already rampant disconnection and derision people typically seem to have towards each other.
It's a problem I see no satisfactory answer to.
Though I can't help but doubt that it would matter even if I did. Plenty of people tell their life story online and aren't treated any better for it despite far more difficult or dire circumstances than my own. I've seen that as instructive: sympathy is less important to the social order than superiority. So perhaps my issue is more illusory than it appears. Would things go any better for me if I was more open? The evidence indicates not.
And yet, at the same time, I feel my lack of openness does somehow alienate me from others beyond the already rampant disconnection and derision people typically seem to have towards each other.
It's a problem I see no satisfactory answer to.
Help Ayah's Family Buy Flour
May. 9th, 2025 01:17 pmAdapted from my Tumblr reblog here:
Mar 17, 2025
(Updated Mar 21, 2025)
CURRENT STATUS: €2,914/€50,000
This campaign has been vetted by 90-ghost and vetted by association as seen here as their relative is vetted by el-shab-hussein and #166 on the verified fundraiser list.
The bio links to the GoFundMe here:
---
May 9, 2025
The brutal blockade of Gaza has caused flour prices to skyrocket to €1,400 a kilo. Please help Ayah's family buy flour by donating, or by reblogging if you can't donate.
CURRENT STATUS: €3,437/€50,000
FLOUR FUNDS: €20/€1,400
One thing about social media that has really changed my outlook on life is how it's made me so much more aware that I'm not the only person who feels x or does y. That sure, I'm the only person that has the exact combination of traits I have, but any one trait? Not just a me thing. And it's been really helpful to me to learn about other people's experiences that I resonate with. It's really helped me better understand why I have some of the difficulties that I do.
Earl Grey Stained Glass Floral Cookies Vegan Gluten Free
I can't say how these taste, as I've never tried them, but they look amazing, and they're both vegan and gluten free, so I'm...making a note of them.
I can't say how these taste, as I've never tried them, but they look amazing, and they're both vegan and gluten free, so I'm...making a note of them.
Fiddlehead Ferns
May. 2nd, 2025 02:34 amTried fiddlehead ferns for the first time tonight and thought they were tasty. I ate them after blanching them as instructed.
Got a little carried away though and ate all of them. Maybe next time I'll have enough restraint to save them for a dish.
Got a little carried away though and ate all of them. Maybe next time I'll have enough restraint to save them for a dish.
How India’s Hindu Nationalists Are Weaponizing History Against Muslims
India used to be a secular democracy, but its current leader, Narendra Modi of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), advances a radically different vision. Modi wants India to become a Hindu nation, in which India’s religious minorities (about 20% of the population) are second-class citizens and Muslims especially (about 14% of Indians) are compelled to accept increasing majoritarian violence. Indeed, stories of terrorizing Indian Muslims have become depressingly common in Modi’s India, with human rights groups documenting rising violence with each passing year. International groups, such as Freedom House and V-Dem, consider India only “partly free” and an “electoral autocracy” owing to the sharp decline of human and civil rights.
The BJP has always considered Muslims to be less Indian than Hindus. The political party was formed in 1980 as an offshoot of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), an all-male paramilitary organization founded in 1925 and modeled on Italian fascist groups such as Mussolini’s Blackshirts. Both the BJP and RSS view India as a nation for Hindus, by Hindus, and seek to coalesce and mobilize a Hindu identity that historically was porous and varied.
Early Hindu nationalist leaders endorsed violence against Indian Muslims. For example, in December 1938—mere weeks after Kristallnacht—the Hindu nationalist leader V. D. Savarkar declared that Muslims who oppose Hindu interests “will have to play the part of German-Jews.” The RSS’s second leader, M. S. Golwalkar, proclaimed that Germany’s “purging the country of the semitic Race - the Jews” is “a good lesson for us in Hindusthan to learn and profit by.” Such genocidal calls remain current today. In 2021, a Hindu nationalist leader urged his followers to be prepared to kill millions of Indian Muslims. Watchdog groups, including Genocide Watch and Early Warning (a project of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum), caution that signs of genocide are already manifest in India.
Modi is a lifelong member of the RSS. Before he became India’s Prime Minister in 2014, he was Chief Minister of Gujarat, a state which, during his watch in 2002, saw India’s worst communal riots since partition—leaving at least 1,000 people dead, most of them Muslim. This earned him international rebuke, including a 2005 U.S. travel ban, and notoriety at home as an anti-Muslim strongman. That reputation helped propel Modi and the BJP to victory in India’s 2014 general election. After five years of rising Hindu nationalist violence against Indian Muslims, Modi led the BJP to another election win in 2019. Although many Indians—including many Hindus—oppose the BJP, it currently enjoys unprecedented power to reshape India.
A Wish For A Home Not on Loan
Apr. 28th, 2025 08:17 pmI wish having my own home was a realistic dream. I hate having to pay someone for my continued existence within a shelter.
