I think one of my major problems with media that deals heavily in themes of good and evil is that my formative years contained Terry Pratchett’s work which just blew my head clean off and put it back on my shoulders a little more firmly and then told me “there are no heroes, no legends, no miracles, just you. It’s you against the darkness and the metaphorical wolves at the door…better bloody do something about that then, hadn’t we”.
And don’t put your faith in revolutions – they always come around again.
And being good isn’t an innate quality – it’s an action that requires doing good for other people even and especially if you don’t like them, it’s hard work and you don’t want to. Bad impulses, bad thoughts don’t matter if you recognize them for what they are and turn them into positive action.
And the duty of the police should be to protect the people, not the power structure.
And we, as people, make our own gods, our own stories, our own creeds, not the other way around, which means we can change those stories and thus change our world, because nothing is more powerful than a story.
Capitalism has only existed for about 400 years, given its absolute maximum timeline, which is the timeline that includes the Atlantic Slave Trade. Industrial capitalism has only existed for about 150 years. Humanity has existed for more than 100,000 years.
There is no greater historical amnesia then the idea that capitalism has always existed, and yet, this idea is far more pervasive than you would think. This idea is poisonous. It corrodes all potential for change. Don’t let the rich ghouls who control the world erase our collective history. We have been different, we are building something different now, and things will and can be different in the future. Humanity will outlive capitalism, if we have anything to say about it.
I don’t know about you but I’m so sick of that omnipresent association of sports/fitness with weight loss as the ultimate goal.
(PS: I’m not sure how efficient punching people is for building muscle mass but I’m afraid she’s had a lot of opportunities so I guess four pounds is probably realistic?)
I wish… I WISH I could somehow reblog this HARDER and with MORE LOVE. Sorry to put more non-art stuff in my main tumblr here, but goddamn I feel this so hard. I’ve been hitting the gym with the goal of making a good habit, so that when winter comes around and the inevitable S.A.D. creeps back into my life, I’m more likely to get some exercise as a coping mechanism just out of habit. I’m also weightlifting because I want to get strong (like ox, you might say).
I do not care if I lose weight, I’m not keeping track of my pounds, and if I stay chubby but get stronger I will be just as fucking happy. So glad I found this comic, and so glad I found your art Ephi! New watcher ahoy! ❤
ppl saying “well thats just what people do when they have anonymity” when talking about the depravity & violence of 4chan & various other fucked up online cultures is the stanford prison experiment of armchair internet sociologists; no, thats what white men do with anonymity.
@ OP, look. I feel like I ought to offer you something in return for this fucking diamond of a post. my firstborn? an epic poem? my hand in marriage? your own weight in gold? I’m open for discussion here
“The truth is that male religious leaders have had – and still have – an option to interpret holy teachings either to exalt or subjugate women. They have, for their own selfish ends, overwhelmingly chosen the latter.
Their continuing choice provides the foundation or justification for much of the pervasive persecution and abuse of women throughout the world. This is in clear violation not just of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights but also the teachings of Jesus Christ, the Apostle Paul, Moses and the prophets, Muhammad, and founders of other great religions – all of whom have called for proper and equitable treatment of all the children of God. It is time we had the courage to challenge these views and set a new course that demands equal rights for women and men, girls and boys.
At their most repugnant, the belief that women are inferior human beings in the eyes of God gives excuses to the brutal husband who beats his wife, the soldier who rapes a woman, the employer who has a lower pay scale for women employees, or parents who decide to abort a female embryo. It also costs many millions of girls and women control over their own bodies and lives, and continues to deny them fair and equal access to education, health care, employment, and influence within their own communities.
Recently I presented my concerns to a group of fellow leaders known as The Elders, who represent practicing Protestants, Catholics, Muslims, and Hindus. We are no longer active in politics and are free to express our honest opinions. We decided to draw particular attention to the role of religious and traditional leaders in obstructing the campaign for equality and human rights, and promulgated a statement that declares: “the justification of discrimination against women and girls on grounds of religion or tradition, as if it were prescribed by a Higher Authority, is unacceptable.”
I keep seeing this sentiment around and I just have to say: this is the point. This is the point of telling stories. Stories make it personal for people who aren’t personally affected. Stories draw empathy out of people. Stories immerse people in situations they might never otherwise experience, show them the consequences of various actions, make them consider viewpoints they wouldn’t otherwise see as valid.
If you’re mocking people for coming to your side because of stories, you’ve lost them. And you can argue that you didn’t want them anyway, but frankly, with the world in the state it’s in, I’d rather have more allies than fewer. Even if they’re there because they know it’s what Harry Potter would do.
“Stories make it personal for people who aren’t personally affected”
you shouldn’t NEED stories to make it personal to you? you shouldn’t NEED something to affect you PERSONALLY for you to care about it? you don’t need to put some salad dressing on fascism for you to be able to rise against it just because it doesn’t affect you personally? using stories to mirror certain situations is good to explain them for children or young adults with little knowledge of politics, but NOBODY should have to be personally affected by something to be able to feel empathy for them. ESPECIALLY when so many of these stories like harry potter and star wars borrow those struggles from people, strip it down, sprinkle magic on top of it and then hand it back to a bunch of cishet white people so they become palatable.
you shouldn’t need harry potter’s goddamn seal of approval to know fascism is bad. jesus christ. it’ 2017.
It’s fine and well and good to say that people shouldn’t need to be educated. That people should just know. But you are living in a fantasyland if you honestly think that people always DO know. Someone taught you that microaggressions matter, that seemingly small injustices rack up, that obviously large injustices still happen, that those things are injustices in the first place. Maybe it was long enough ago that you don’t remember the teaching, but it happened. I don’t say this assuming you’re in a position of privilege – I don’t know anything about you, but I know that someone showed you there was injustice in the world, somehow.
For people in positions of privilege, often the only way to get them to consider the weight and impact of injustice, the only way to convince them it matters, is through showing them something that matters, personally, to them. Often it’s not even about ‘this is wrong and this is right’, it’s about things like ‘force is sometimes a necessary alternative to pacifism when your life and your people are in danger’. Or ‘fascism isn’t dead and buried forever just because the Allies won the war’. Or ‘it’s not just hair’. Stories are the way in. Stories are how you get people’s attention, how you get people to open up to something they hadn’t considered before. You can’t educate someone who doesn’t believe they need to know what you’re trying to teach them.
It’s 2017 and fascism has taken over most of the major democracies of the world. Don’t assume people don’t need to be taught, that you can neatly split the world into ‘good people who are woke’ and ‘bad people who are deliberately being cruel’. Maybe you can afford to turn your back on potential allies who are ignorant simply because they don’t know any better, but I sure as fuck can’t.
“Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.”
I drew this poster for Jon Acuffand his FINISH book tour. Big thanks to Jon for this collaboration, his book has some great ideas about how to complete creative and life goals.
Love this, but reblogging it specifically for “Get rid of secret rules.” That’s one of the most amazing illustrations—and points—I’ve ever seen.
the weirdest thing about a lot of the common criticisms of millennials i see is that they all seem to boil down to:
you are soft. you believe the world should be kind. you expect people to treat you fairly. you think your needs are important, that you deserve to be listened to, that you shouldn’t be hungry and frightened and in pain.
and people are seriously SO OFFENDED by this. like, how dare you. how dare you believe the world might be a good place, how dare you believe you should be treated well just for existing. life is pain, princess, anyone who tells you different is selling something, now wipe that smile off your face, shut your mouth and go suffer like i did.
and it’s just like… i have a kid. if she grows up expecting better treatment than i experienced as a young woman, i’m doing my job. i know the world isn’t perfect, but random cruelty isn’t something we should just shrug our shoulders and accept, and it’s so fucking weird how angry people get at youngsters who refuse to do just that.
it’s because they want to hurt and take advantage of you with no repercussions
Think big, beyond the fiscal bottom line, to the “triple bottom line.” Taking into account the financial, social, and environmental performance and impact of business will make all the difference.
shealwaysreads 