I'm going to begin phasing off my social media as I am routinely finding I am not in a good place and that access to these platforms is having a strongly negative effect on my mental health. Hopefully forever. Those who I want to hear from I already have their DMs.

“The world is better with you in it!” Well sure but what the fuck do I get out of it? Everyone is so goddamn obsessed with having me around—and everyone is really invested in making sure I know I’m not their problem.

my inner child to me for the last 2 years.

I mean... I could take this back to Aristotle...

who's studying how the process of industrialization has marginalized neurodivergent people by shifting the social paradigm to be as interchangeable as possible to fit demands for labour? links?

Wellness Industrial Complex tells us that if we need to ask for help, we do not deserve it.

What do I have to lose?

Just makes me sad because we're all out here, where the time and energy that our artistic compulsions need are owed first to self-care and/or putting food on the table. This kind of battle against internet mob culture is pushing us away from art.

A friend of mine had been screaming over another artist copying their poses and content, but into their own style. My friend doesn't want to be confrontational, because fans will accuse them of being territorial—because their fanbase isn't as large as the copycat.

Sorry, bros... your passtime isn't relevant enough to really deserve a conspiracy theory. Just normal industrial exploitation. The only agenda is greed, or a handful of developers who would rather be underpaid and overworked to tell stories for which they are passionate.

What I took out of this is that I think it's funny that "Gamers" feel like chosen artistic medium of escapism is important to the progression of cultural identity in the slightest.

I like video games... But I don't go to video games expecting that any of them will hold any lasting relevance.

I find myself putting my phone on airplane mode just to control when I get notifications. Is that normal?

User @backintimeag: The text “Kirsten will be happy when ICE gets the fuck out of Minnesota” over a picture of 1850s immigrant and Minnesota-dwelling doll character Kirsten Larson in the snow.

In case anyone was wondering how it’s going over on American Girl doll Instagram

Honestly I think I would prefer to live in a matriarchy.

I don't really think that would make everything automatically perfect, like there would still be conflict and injustice in different ways; I also think we would need to rely on a little less cognitive dissonance to make it through the day.

The net-net is that we have this thing called 'industry.' And it needs it's machines (us) to behave in certain ways, and uses whatever tool it has in its disposable to have us reject our human nature in lieu of accepting what industry needs us to be as "normal."

Gender/sex is involved somewhat?

But I do see an indirect discourse (not to say it doesn't happen more directly elsewhere) which points at the idea that independence and strength is highly exploitable in turn, but industrially.

Part of the problem is these vestiges of patriarchy where there is a mindset in a dominant masculinized population that sees ANY kind of sensitivity as an opportunity to be relationally exploited. We talk about how bad that is—and it is really really bad.

If equality is the goal, why else is there so much discourse about equal opportunities for strength, rather than equal opportunities for all expressions of individuality?

Industrialism has used patriarchy to weaponize and dismiss sensitivity as feminine weakness, I feel. But I'm not sure.

Patriarchy is good for industry because it generates a 50% of the population that has internalized that their only role in the world is to provide income, not for a family, but for an oligarch who uses the traditional family as a bargaining chip.

Part of me wonders if, as due to internalized industrialism, that the objective of gender equality is to push all gender expressions into that masculine independence. We're all told we are weak, and that we need to be better, and stronger. And that it is wrong and weak to need to rely on others.

Yes, we tend to over-focus on male suicide when we serially dismiss queer suicide in a 'they gotta realize life isn't fair, and that they chose this' mentality.

But also consider the immense pressure put on men to be emotionless, and independent.

Where is a place for people who just want to be sensitive and feel the world? Industrialism has convinced us that none of us 'deserve' to be taken care of, until we demonstrate we can take care of ourselves.

To the point where not only we do not acknowledge the fact that some people seek immense value in being the emotional (or financial) rock in a relationship, but that we label these behaviours as toxic, controlling, and financially abusive?

This is certainly the case for me, but I don't wonder about others. Do we self-isolate, and lock ourselves together with the angst of lifelong unmet emotional needs because we are so over-conditioned to be strongly independent?

Which led to me articulating something in my mind—that Wellness is the Millennial dowry. We want to be relational, but I think many of us dis-entitle ourselves to feeling like we deserve to be loved, because we have an incredibly dubious relationship with what we are entitled to at all.

I have a friend for whom I have harboured some incredibly strong feelings... Yet with me in an extraordinarily messy mental health situation... I don't feel comfortable being open about this because I don't have any emotional stability to offer. I am deeply afraid of people seeing me as a burden.

a meme with two hands holding words : "the deep desire to be creative" vs "the inherent need to recover my energy from surviving reality"

I feel seen

This is such a lame ad... I mean... there's a 0-Effort photographer. Was this shot on a phone?

I dunno who she is, but she's giving us nothing.

And—I swear to god—is that just a clear plastic solo cup? Did no one wanna head to a thrift store or just buy an actual crystal glass as a prop?

Where was this tagline when Michelle Obama was out and about?

Can heaven be crowded? It is eternal, and also perfect. If something is crowded, it cannot be perfect. If something is eternal, then all those who have gone to heaven will be there. Heaven cannot be perfect if it is crowded. Erica, this is theologically nonsense.