Tbh I think that we just need to acknowledge that there isn’t just some strict binary between “slur” and “not a slur,” like not all words are either slurs 100% of the time or completely safe to use.
I think a lot of the time, whether a word is a slur or not is contextual. Like, who is using this word, and why are they using it? What are they referring to?
Is “cunt” a slur when hurled at female politicians? Usually! Is it a slur when it’s used in erotica because the word “vagina” feels too technical to be sexy? I wouldn’t say so.
“Queer” is a slur when it’s being used by a group of high school football players beating up a GNC kid behind the gym. That doesn’t mean it’s automatically a slur in a college classroom when you’re discussing history.
“Bitch” can be a slur when a guy says it to a woman who turns him down at a bar. It’s not a slur when my friend goes “B I T C H !!!” in excitement when we’re talking about fanfic ideas.
Someone talking about how “The Jews” control the banks is probably using it as a slur. Someone casually referring to their roommate as a Jew just as a factual observation, isn’t necessarily using it as a slur.
And like, this is gonna vary, and people are going to have their emotional reactions to certain terms. That kid who got beat up might be made uncomfortable by the word “queer” even within that college setting. A woman might not like conversations where the word “bitch” is thrown around neutrally.
And that’s fine, that’s understandable, but that doesn’t actually mean that the word in question is always a slur (which goes back to the whole idea that being triggered by something means it’s always inherently bad, which is just an impractical way to conceptualize triggers in general.)
Plus there’s regional differences between what’s a slur and how severe it is.
Like Americans see “cunt” as a very severe, very misogynistic word. Whereas a lot of flavours of british people use it in the same way we do “bastard” and “fucker”, and even endearingly sometimes towards friends. It doesn’t have the same shock value to a lot of people here, you’ll hear someone call their mate “a bit of a daft cunt” on the bus and if you’re under 50 and not very middle class, it barely registers.
The regional differences thing is exactly why I find “but i’m nonUSian and only assholes use the q slur here!” incredibly weird.
Okay, but I’m not telling you to be an asshole. I’m telling you that a USian who posts about “queer rights” isn’t necessarily an asshole, so don’t ride them like one.
This might be the most reasonable post I’ve seen on this topic to date.
fuck yes, let 2018 be the year of rational, mature discourse
Today my seven year old cousin said, in reference to the subject of pirates:
“It’s one of my distant likes. I still really like it when it comes up.”
And I just had to record it somewhere because I think it’s such a wise and simple way of expressing an important concept. Sometimes I feel like I’m neglecting an interest if I don’t do anything about it for a long period of time, like I can’t really say I like it if I don’t keep it up, but no, it’s just… it’s a distant like. That’s its own thing now.
She gets philosophical when in fancy dress, apparently.
“bless your heart” is NOT a sign of goodwill that person wants you dead and buried, preferably while they watch from the comfort of their porch rockers
bless your heart is literally the shadiest, most condescending thing a southerner can say
Reading this while stoned af is really fucking me up rn
“Think you’re not old enough to register to vote? If you’re 17 and will be 18 by Election Day, chances are you can. Check out our chart below that details when you are eligible to register or preregister in your state, and when you can start voting!”
The info’s all at the site, in table format, but here it is on your dash as a list. The 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, all alphabetized.
Alabama: you may register to vote if you are 18 by the next election, including primaries.
Alaska: you may register to vote within 90 days of your 18th birthday. You must be 18 to vote.
Arizona: you may register to vote if you are 18 by the next General Election.
Arkansas: you may register to vote if you are 18 by the next election, including primaries.
California: you may pre-register to vote if you are 16.
Colorado: you may pre-register to vote if you are 16.
Connecticut: you may register to vote if you are 18 by the next General Election. Registered 17 year-olds who will be 18 by the general election can vote in primaries.
Delaware: you may pre-register to vote if you are 16. Registered 17 year-olds who will be 18 by the general election can vote in primaries.
Florida: you may pre-register to vote if you are 16.
Georgia: you may register to vote within 6 months of your 18th birthday. You must be 18 to vote.
Hawaii: you may register to vote if you are 18 by the next election, including primaries.
Idaho: you may register to vote if you are 18 by the next election, including primaries.
Illinois: you may register to vote if you are 18 by the next General Election. Registered 17 year-olds who will be 18 by the general election can vote in primaries.
Indiana: you may register to vote if you are 18 by the next General Election.
Iowa: you may register to vote within 6 months of your 18th birthday. You must be 18 to vote.
Kansas: you may register to vote if you are 18 by the next election, including primaries.
Kentucky: you may register to vote if you are 18 by the next election, including primaries. Registered 17 year-olds who will be 18 by the general election can vote in primaries.
Louisiana: you may pre-register to vote if you are 16.
Maine: you may register to vote if you are 18 by the next General Election. Registered 17 year-olds who will be 18 by the general election can vote in primaries.
Maryland: you may pre-register to vote if you are 16. Registered 17 year-olds who will be 18 by the general election can vote in primaries.
Massachusetts: you may pre-register to vote if you are 16.
Michigan: you may register to vote within 6 months of your 18th birthday. You must be 18 to vote.
Minnesota: you may register to vote if you are 18 by the next election, including primaries.
Mississippi: you may register to vote if you are 18 by the next election, including primaries. Registered 17 year-olds who will be 18 by the general election can vote in primaries.
Missouri: you may register to vote within 6 months of your 18th birthday. You must be 18 to vote.
Montana: you may register to vote if you are 18 by the next election, including primaries.
Nebraska: you may register to vote if you are 18 by the next General Election. Registered 17 year-olds who will be 18 by the general election can vote in primaries.
Nevada: you may register to vote if you are 18 by the next election, including primaries.
New Hampshire: you may register to vote if you are 18 by the next election, including primaries.
New Jersey: you may register to vote if you are 18 by the next General Election.
New Mexico: you may register to vote if you are 18 by the next General Election. Registered 17 year-olds who will be 18 by the general election can vote in primaries.
New York: you may register to vote if you are 18 by the next General Election.
North Carolina: you may pre-register to vote if you are 16. Registered 17 year-olds who will be 18 by the general election can vote in primaries.
North Dakota: does not have voter registration. You must be 18 to vote.
Ohio: you may register to vote if you are 18 by the next General Election. Registered 17 year-olds who will be 18 by the general election can vote in primaries.
Oklahoma: you may register to vote if you are 18 by the next election, including primaries.
Oregon: you may pre-register to vote if you are 16.
Pennsylvania: you may register to vote if you are 18 by the next election, including primaries.
Puerto Rico: you may register to vote if you are 18 by the next General Election.
Rhode Island: you may pre-register to vote if you are 16.
South Carolina: you may register to vote if you are 18 by the next election, including primaries. Registered 17 year-olds who will be 18 by the general election can vote in primaries.
South Dakota: you may register to vote if you are 18 by the next election, including primaries.
Tennessee: you may register to vote if you are 18 by the next election, including primaries.
Texas: you may register to vote within 2 months of your 18th birthday. You must be 18 to vote.
Utah: you may pre-register to vote if you are 16.
Vermont: you may register to vote if you are 18 by the next General Election. Registered 17 year-olds who will be 18 by the general election can vote in primaries.
Virginia: you may register to vote if you are 18 by the next General Election. Registered 17 year-olds who will be 18 by the general election can vote in primaries.
Washington: you may register to vote if you are 18 by the next election, including primaries.
Washington D.C.: you may register to vote if you are 18 by the next General Election.
West Virginia: you may register to vote if you are 18 by the next General Election. Registered 17 year-olds who will be 18 by the general election can vote in primaries.
Wisconsin: you may register to vote if you are 18 by the next election, including primaries.
Wyoming: you may register to vote if you are 18 by the next election, including primaries.
experiment goal: to determine whether smarties are an effective tea sweetener
hypothesis: smarties will sweeten the tea, but also introduce unwelcome flavor profiles due to their flavoring
procedure: procured one cup (≈12 fl oz) of Barry’s Tea Gold Blend black tea, hot. added 2/3 of a single roll of smarties candy (10 candies). wait for candies to dissolve, then stir well. tea will be sampled after stirring concludes.
addendum: control group was used. control sample consisted of one cup of the same type of tea, sweetened with white sugar. results will depend on the relative tastes of the control and smarties tea
results: smarties tea was significantly more bitter and less sweet than sugar tea. additionally, the smarties failed to dissolve in the expected manner, and when stirred, ended up breaking down into particulates that refused to dissolve.
conclusions: because of the chemical/structural makeup of smarties, they do not function well as an ad hoc tea sweetener because of their reluctance to break down. it may be the case that crushed smarties would work better, but this experiment was intended to study how normal, uncrushed smarties would work as a sweetener
Playing anything after playing assassin’s creed for a month: why the fUCK can’t I climb this
assassin’s creed was the first video game I ever played, and I finished the first game in a weekend more or less without pause. then I went to work on Monday and, being totally unfamiliar with the Tetris effect, was extremely taken aback by the immediate impulse to reach my teller station by vaulting over the counter. I mean, I didn’t even question it at first. I made it maybe two long purposeful steps forward before my brain caught up and I spent the rest of the day doubting my own actions.
One time I played so much Bioshock at the weekend that on my walk to uni the next day I saw a vaguely rectangular bit of trash out the corner of my eye and automatically thought “better pick up that first aid kit”
When fallout 4 came out, I played so much of it that when I saw a pile of wood near my house, I tried to scrap it and was perplexed as to why it wasn’t selectable.
after playing the sims i mistakenly thought i was alive and had feelings
#bullshit nobody feels alive after playing the sims
I binged Breath of the Wild for like a week at my parents’ house, and when I came home and looked out of my apartment window, I saw a tower lit up in orange, and immediately thought “oh shit i forgot one. gotta go climb it.”
I can’t even remember what game I was binge-playing at the time, but I went out to my front yard on a super foggy day and deadass stood there for a good minute waiting for the rest of the world to render
After too much Overwatch I really wanted to hit a fire extinguisher I saw.
there’s nothing quite like being confused when you can’t slip past someone invisibly after a month solid of crysis
Time's Vengeance 