What Is The Largest Animal You Think You Could Take In A Fight?? (my Flatmate Said He'd Take A Fish Out

What is the largest animal you think you could take in a fight?? (my flatmate said he'd take a fish out of water but I'm not sure that counts...)

So fun fact about me: I’m 5’0, meaning that my height is gonna decide this way more than my strength lol

As an owner of 2 cats, I’m gonna say the largest animal I could take would be a moderately sized housecat. Yes, I think very highly of myself 💀

I recently encountered someone defending the Jedi not freeing Shmi with the argument that “well the type of slavery in Star Wars wasn’t actually that bad” and I think my brain exploded a little bit

this is kind of a fascinating pattern, but in my experience, these arguments almost always end here. the person in the defensive position pulls up weirder and weirder reality-defying pieces of logic. i remember responding to someone's post once because they had made the argument that qui-gon would have started a space international incident if he had just killed watto and taken shmi, and no one, anywhere, had seemingly pointed out the obvious; why? on what basis, exactly, can you assume that would happen? who cares about watto and who is going to start a war with the republic because the jedi happened to off him?

it's a bad argument, with little to support it. most arguments about this subject default to something like that, and i kind of stopped talking about them because there's not really anywhere to go. if they define for themselves that slavery is magically fine in star wars, then we're not really participating in the same reality, are we? we aren't using the same touchstones for how to define the reality we live in, and therefore we really don't gain much by debating. two parallel lines don't intersect. if anyone seriously finds themselves saying, "well, slavery isn't that bad," for any reason they've obviously made a bad argument, because it highlights a misunderstanding of what slavery is fundamentally. the condition of slavery just is evil. it doesn't matter how nicely you think those slaves were treated, owning people as if they were property is just evil, like if they have to call it, "slavery," it is evil and will be evil no matter what you say.

at least, that's how it is for me; how i feel about these concepts may become (justifiably) more abstract because i'm discussing something fictional and therefore it didn't happen to a real person, but i don't change my innate understanding of these concepts from reality to fiction. i'm sure other people do, and that's fine, i guess, it just means we're really not going to agree on much of what's going on in the saga, because we don't even agree on the fundamentals of its reality. "slavery isn't that bad in star wars because it's star wars," is fine, i guess, more power to you, but not everyone sees much value in thinking that way. i really personally don't, but i don't speak for everyone. i have to confess to these arguments making me feel kind of hopeless in a way.

it's just all i think in my brain is - okay, so we as a human race can't get behind the idea that slavery is evil even when it's not real, and we don't have to change anything about our lives to deal with the ramifications of slavery, because it's actually sci-fi slavery for the space wizards, we can't even agree slavery is fundamentally evil then? it's too hard even then, when there is nothing you have to change about your life, your mind, your habits to accommodate that being true? even here we can't let slavery be actually evil? it's still too scary to think that our beloved institutions, our governments, our leaders, might passively watch slavery fester because it benefits them, we can't handle thinking about that even when it doesn't affect our lives in any way whatsoever? when you can escape by turning off the star wars marathon? what will we do when we go outside?

which i recognize on some level is me being unfair, i actually don't know what other people are thinking and where they're coming from, and, "why people say the things that they do," is a fascinating question but it's not something any one person can be definitively right about. it's me projecting the hopelessness i feel about the world outwards. but that's why i don't do this so much anymore. i overthink it and then it just leads to a strange despair, which is a really overinvolved reaction to someone's opinions on a george lucas production

And last one! What is a piece of art, any type of art, that has spoken to you in the last month??

There’s a song called “Blood Filled Tears” by Maisy Kay. I didn’t discover it in the last month, so I hope it still counts, but I’ve been listening to it basically every week for several years at this point. It articulates my trauma in a way that I have never been able to do on my own, and it’s been really helpful in my healing journey - plus the song is an absolute banger in and of itself!

Thanks so much for these asks, and again, I’m sorry I didn’t see them until now! This was so much fun <3

You know what, I actually have more to say on this:

It’s natural to feel upset, angry, and sacred regarding all the terrible things happening all over the world right now. In fact, those feelings are vitally important to have, to prevent yourself from becoming numb and desensitized to tragedy. But if all you ever feel is upset, angry, and scared, and if all you can ever think about is The Bad Stuff, and if you truly want humanity to go extinct because you believe that humans are inherently evil, and if you genuinely believe that society will collapse in the near future… that’s not a natural response to current events. That’s depression, and it’s caused by a chemical imbalance in your brain, not by current events.

If you’re struggling with doomerism of this degree, I would urge you to seek professional help, if it’s within your means. But if you’re unable to do so, I have a few suggestions based on some things that helped me escape the trap of nihilism:

Opening Up: Confide in a loved one who you trust to support you about how you’re feeling, and do not spare them a single gory detail. This is also a good resource on alternatives to therapy.

The News: Schedule one day a week where you don’t look at any source of news about current events, from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to sleep. I promise you are not a bad person if you aren’t 100% tuned in to every single issue all of the time.

Online Spaces: Leave every single group/forum that doomer-posts, even the ones you have friends in because your mental health comes first. Block tags—yes, even the ones that you think would make you a horrible person for blocking—and people liberally, and unsubscribe from downer YouTube channels, no matter how informative they are. Join groups/forums with an explicit focus on positivity. This is a great list of positive subreddits. Join online communities centered around aspects of your life that are inherently positive, such as a hobby, a fandom you love, or niche scientific topic that fascinates you. Avoid online communities centered around aspects of your life that are NOT inherently positive, such as illnesses/disabilities and political beliefs.

Distraction: It’s a cliche piece of advice, but learning a new skill is a great way to ground yourself in the present and focus on what you can control. Pick up a new hobby, or learn a new language, or reorganize your entire bedroom, or any other simple activity that takes place entirely offline.

Community: It’s another cliche, but getting involved in your local community really does help ground yourself. If you’re in school/university, join a low-commitment club with a flexible schedule. If you’re not in school/university, get a membership ship to your local library. See if they have a book club you can join, or if you can volunteer there, or simply go to mingle with the other patrons in your free time.

Nature: Spend some time away from urbanized areas. It doesn’t need to be a full-hiking trail—you could go the lake at your local park, or literally just wander through a patch of forest on the side of the road.

If you can rediscover your love for this planet and the people on it, you will find that it’s worth fighting for. And if you join the fight, we’ll be one step closer to wining.

Anyway, not-so-friendly reminder that nihilism/doomerism/accelerationism is a conspiracy theory meant to keep people complacent and docile in the event of an authoritarian regime, and the online Left really needs to start shunning these groups with the same vehemence that we shun radfem/terf groups.

The biggest threat to systemic evil is hope, and this nonsense “the world will never get better, so why bother trying to make it better” ideology literally exists to serve those systems. The doomerism movement is pro-capitalist, pro-fascist, pro-authoritarianism, etc. because they accept these systems as inherent to the nature of humanity, unable to be changed… which is exactly what the fascists running the system want. After all, why resist the rise of evil if evil is always inevitable? Why fight to make the world a better place if the world is just going to end soon anyway? Why not just stand aside and let the authoritarians do their thing? It doesn’t even matter anyway, right?

The point is, the Left is far too tolerant of doomerism, and it’s driving me insane.

Which would you prefer, exploring space or exploring the ocean??

Space, 100 percent! Another fun fact about me: one of my parents is an astrophysicist, so I grew up surrounded by cool space facts. I feel like there would be something so special about drifting through the stars, away from all the conflict and suffering of Earth, and I wish I could expedience that in my lifetime.

Also the ocean is fucking terrifying lol

Anyway, not-so-friendly reminder that nihilism/doomerism/accelerationism is a conspiracy theory meant to keep people complacent and docile in the event of an authoritarian regime, and the online Left really needs to start shunning these groups with the same vehemence that we shun radfem/terf groups.

The biggest threat to systemic evil is hope, and this nonsense “the world will never get better, so why bother trying to make it better” ideology literally exists to serve those systems. The doomerism movement is pro-capitalist, pro-fascist, pro-authoritarianism, etc. because they accept these systems as inherent to the nature of humanity, unable to be changed… which is exactly what the fascists running the system want. After all, why resist the rise of evil if evil is always inevitable? Why fight to make the world a better place if the world is just going to end soon anyway? Why not just stand aside and let the authoritarians do their thing? It doesn’t even matter anyway, right?

The point is, the Left is far too tolerant of doomerism, and it’s driving me insane.