Rat Shrine
https://slimedaughter.com/games/twine/shrine/
This isn’t mine. But it’s a good thing. Perhaps of use to you, if you are reading this.
Digital display.
grickle14
So happy to have these heavily requested images finally available as prints at gricklemart.com! Each one is 8x10 in size and signed by yours truly! Celebrate October with some joyful Nosferatu fellows on your walls! https://gricklemart.com/vampire-3-pack/
Opalized 80 million years old Ammonite measuring 2 ft. in diameter, discovered near Alberta, Canada
Fascinating watching this website contort around the idea of reaching out to and converting far right leaning individuals as if the same 3-4 stances aren't having a do-si-do while all being able to coexist
It's like
Outreach to radicalized individuals needs to happen, because without it their numbers just grow
But also
Outreach is time consuming and difficult, not guaranteed to work, and put you or people around you in danger by putting you on a radicalized persons radar
But also
We know that compassionate, prolonged outreach is remarkably effective. We also know emotional appeals are astronomically more likely to change someone's mind than factual ones when it comes to core beliefs
But also
most deradicalization works when someone who is close to the individual puts in the work to shift their perspective.
But also
You do not need to do this yourself/no one is obligated to do this thing that is difficult and dangerous and there is a ton of organizing work and also outreach work in our own political circle that needs doing and you should utilize your resources how you see fit
But also
You do not need to be nice to or coddle people who have done material harm
But also
Outright hostility only serves to reinforce the us vs. them mentality and makes it harder to deprogram people
But also
focusing on trying to win over radicalized individuals can't come at the expense of work to help victims/our community/those marginalized/etc.
But also
People who are deradicalized need a community to reintegrate to or what's the point.
But also
You don't have to welcome someone who's done harm into your community.
But also
Sometimes your desire to not allow someone who has reformed reintegrate into a community has less to do with harm reduction and more to do with punishing them for previous wrongdoing
But also
You never owe forgiveness to anyone who has harmed you.
But also
Outreach to radicalized individuals needs to happen, because without it their numbers just grow.
Just ad infinitum. Just a never ending ouroboros of "You're an idiot for how you engage with this famously thorny issue".
Just pick one of the bullet points above and work at it, and if someone else wants to work at one of the other ones, we're all trying to make things better. Maybe be less snarky and self righteous.
I did find another sex shop story in my mind vault! Get ready for the most embarrassed I ever got at work.
When I first started my manager was this really cool guy and he set a matter-of-fact no nonsense tone to working there that I emulated. So as part of my training he brought me to a display case full of glass toys.
These are stunning solid glass pieces that just so happen to be shaped into gentle curves. Honestly several were abstract and beautiful enough to be displayed on a mantelpiece. They can be used with any kind of lube, they’re easy to sterilize and overall they’re excellent sex toys.
But I, like every other person, am the culmination of my lived experience. Glass breaks. I know this to be true, I’ve dropped glasses and plates and the fear of glass breaking was all I could see looking into that display.
My manager was well aware. He calmly informed me that I was looking at triple fired borosilicate and he pulled one out and banged it on the counter with all his might making me jump ten feet in the air. But there was the glass toy, triumphant and unscathed in his hand, after leaving a new dent on the counter. Forget sex, these things were viable murder weapons.
Over the years I worked there I did the exact same demo he did hundreds of times, smacking the solid glass onto the unyielding counter and showing off how sturdy the glass was. “Theres nothing your vagina can do to harm this,” I’d assure people.
So one day I had a group of three ladies looking at them, tittering nervously to each other. I assured them that these were extremely safe and they smiled skeptically.
“Really,” I said, pulling out an example, “our bodies are soft and wet, we have no way of damaging these.” I lifted it and brought it down onto the counter like I had a thousand times before. Like I’d seen countless times from my coworkers.
Except this time. The toy decided it must give up its grip on the mortal coil. It rebelled against its treatment of smacking the counter with a display of explosive protest. It shattered.
The women screamed and flinched back as I stood frozen in absolute perplexity as my mind tried to make sense of what had just happened. The toy had broken in huge safety glass sized chunks, leaving me a nub in my grip while it’s former glory lay in pieces all around me.
I looked back up at the ladies, speechless. They all broke into hysterical laughter. “Your face!” They gasped while clutching each other to stay on their feet.
“I- I’ve done this demo hundreds of times- it’s- it’s never broken!”
They crowed even harder as I sweeped up the mess, still in disbelief and horror at what I’d done. “Well. I at least know your bodies can’t provide that much force to a toy… I can’t believe this, it’s never broken before.” I babbled on in embarrassment to their obvious disbelief.
They looked back at me with the certainty of three women who will never in their life trust a glass toy not to shatter inside their bodies after watching the worlds most explosive demo.
I love this story because it is a hilarious and fantastic demonstration of a concept I must routinely explain to people when they hire me to do inspections: Objects don't heal.
This isn't a slight to anyone, it's just that I run into this constantly and it is so so important to remember, when it's involves things that are not the power of a vaginal spasm versus triple fired borosilicate sex toys.
Like whenever someone says "this was built to last"
Yes - true, but, it does not heal. If you do not inspect and maintain said thing (e.g., an I-beam clamp), one day the exact same force you have applied to it for the past X years will cause it to fail.
Sometimes in spectacular (read: catastrophic) fashion. Other times in mildly annoying ways.
People - remember this story. Remember how funny it is because no one got hurt [besides OP's pride] and how novel due to the setting, and remember the lesson: Objects don't heal.
OP I truly appreciate your recollection. Even if the reason the toy broke was because of the *exact* *precise* angle of force applied that one time, it may still stick in someone's mind that they need to inspect their hardware / software (or call someone in to inspect it).
this is why discourse needs to start with listening and learning, why online discourse is often so terrible, and why we see people falling prey to terf pipelines.
if you see things you instinctively disagree with, it’s SO important to understand why you disagree.
because when you explore the why, you will sometimes find that in your efforts to find the words to describe your discomfort, that you were right to disagree because someone who is more educated on the subject matter has articulated the why in a way that helps you understand that discomfort.
but you will also sometimes find that someone who is more educated on the subject can explain why your disagreement is actually an internalized bias that you had a blind spot to and weren’t aware of it until it was laid out for you in a certain way.
by nature of the internet, you will see a lot of things you both agree with and disagree with. and it’s incredibly easy to create an unintentional echo chamber where you only see things that support what you already know and believe. when something that is foreign to your current understanding of the world enters your perception, it is a shock to see. and that shock can often lead to an instinctive response of defending what you already know. this is how we get bad faith discourse.
not enough people are willing to examine their discomfort and create potential learning opportunities for themselves because they are too comfortable in their understanding of the world. but it is crucial to occasionally step outside of your comfort zone in order to continue to grow as a person.
if you see something by you don’t understand it is worth taking the effort to dig into it and take the time to understand why. do research, ask someone you trust. actively seek education constantly. we all need to constantly be learning in order to better ourselves because that’s the only way that we can make the world a better place for all of us.
My favourite QRT from that first tweet:
ALT