i come across it so often, where people genuinely cannot imagine the world being better, and they can’t even point to fictional examples because such a huge chunk of western media is geared towards dystopia.

i think it’s so vital to expend more energy on what you want & how you can make that happen, rather than focusing on what you don’t want & feeling despair if you can’t always prevent it.

make utopian art & help people imagine what you’re imagining! grow your own food & share excess with your neighbours! start up a clothes swap that you hope can one day expand to an entire free shop!

actions like this can have huge positive impacts on a community, and you might end up inspiring more people to take action too 🌱

it’s well worth identifying what plant it is exactly & whether it’s native or not, just to be sure. a lot of native plants can have vigorous growth & spread because that’s exactly the habitat & climate it’s adapted to.

but if it’s not native & is spreading, it sounds like it’ll be a hell of a job to remove. i don’t envy you if that’s the case, best of luck!

if those thorn bushes are native plants, then why not let them grow?

i just let the place grow wild without input from me, beyond what i & my dogs walk over. the grass/clover/purple deadnettle/buttercups/etc stay shorter in high-traffic areas, then the low-traffic areas tend to fill up with bigger wild plants like docks, thistles, nettles etc.

butterflies, bees, and other insects seem to love the thistles when they start flowering, and it’s so nice to see pollinators fluttering & buzzing around that it’s worth the occasional thorn/nettle sting when i’m not watching where i’m going! not to mention the blackberry harvest from the briars in the autumn.

it’s best to stay on her good side, imo. she might tunnel out & have moomin’s planning permission revoked via more threats to smash glasses 🤭

it might be! i’m not sure if a camel’s back legs allow for splooting, but a lot of animals sploot to cool down / regulate temperature, so it’d be p useful!

the r slur really can’t be reclaimed, because the people most impacted by that slur are unable to participate in these conversations.

nah, this one’s just resting. baby camels have their first wobbly steps almost right after being born, like horses!

an excellent loaf, may he always enjoy & admire his new surroundings whenever he is magically transported there! 🙂‍↕️🙌

the flowers being taller than her! her clambering up the big steps! you go, little my, intimidate them into giving planning permission 🥹🙌

gross, there should definitely be a rule against stealing people’s work & reposting it without credit so no one can find or support the artists 😮‍💨

amazing, thank you! 🙌

i’m assuming these are so closely cropped because you’ve cut out the title & artist attribution, hence the request to repost them uncropped.

can these be reposted with attributions to their artist(s)?

these days, people want to be sure whether what they’re looking at was actually made by a human or not

i hope it didn’t come across as harsh! really both problems 1 & 2 that you’ve outlined are the same things that everyone is dealing with. a lot of systems of oppression like patriarchy, european colonialism, capitalism, ableism, etc push people into isolation by design, & then tell people to heal from that in isolation, rather than in community.

(i suspect it’s designed that way to make people feel that these are individual problems & not collective problems, because if we realise that we’re all suffering from the same systems of oppression, we might do something to end those systems!)

we humans are a social species, and we’ve lived & learned & healed in community with one another for hundreds of thousands of years. just being open & communicating with the friends you already have about those issues is a great first step, then seeking out hobby groups etc is a way that you might expand your social circle beyond other men.

for the dating side of things, dating apps can be great, because boundaries are lot clearer there (over what is a date, what people are looking for etc) & that way, you can avoid the potential messiness of dating within your friend group.

tl;dr: i don’t think the formality of classes/training would be needed for this, but talking to your friends about this & going out of your way to make friends with mixed company would help a lot. (also, gathering with your friends, new & old, to dismantle the systems of oppression that are causing all these problems will solve things for future generations too 😎)

in my opinion, no. an artist’s worldview informs their art, so things like racism/misogyny/ableism etc etc seep into the works they create. consuming media like that uncritically can be harmful by reinforcing biases, conscious or unconscious.

there’s also the more direct harm that can be done by financially supporting certain artists. jk rowling, for example, is funnelling any wealth she gets from the harry potter franchise into funding anti-trans organisations.

in my experience, people who want to separate art from the artist just want to continue uncritically consuming everything, without feeling guilt over the harm they could be doing by “voting with their dollar”.

i’d advise going in with the expectation of his anxiety never getting better. of course in the best case scenario, he wouldn’t be anxious at all after settling into his new home & with your dog whom he gets along with, but there’s also the possibility of him having some lifelong behavioural issues from that anxiety.

if you’re prepared for the possibility of that, and can handle a dog who can pull strongly on a lead, i don’t see why you couldn’t give him his forever home!

and a beautiful robin at that! 🫶

the centralised big websites all seem intent on shoving gen ai into everything, which is far worse for the environment & climate than using smaller self-hosted networks that don’t use gen ai.

things could be re-assessed & done differently post-capitalism, but we’ve got to get to that stage first!

this was behind a paywall if i refused cookies, so i just want to add in an archived link as well: https://archive.is/riGOX

If men are facing a loneliness epidemic, they could learn to be friends with one another, enjoy one anothers’ company, and open up to one another about being lonely etc, instead of expecting women to train them.

I cant train men on how women want to be treated, and I wouldnt even want to tell men how women should be treated seeing as im not a woman.

Women want to be treated as equals to men, to be paid the same as men are, to be promoted in jobs as often as men are, and to be represented in government and media as much as men are. This is absolutely something that men can and should tell other men about.