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prettieinpink · 7 months

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SELF VALIDATION

First things first, if you validate your existence on externalities, you will never truly be happy. While it’s important to have values and to act on them, it shouldn’t be your main source of happiness.

E.g. parent validation, academic validation, and male validation. So, here are some tips to validate yourself.

VALUE YOUR OPINION. You should have the ability to make decisions and identify yourself solely on your opinion. Trust, giving people that ability to shape your decisions and curate your identity, allows them to dictate your worth.

SELF LOVE OVER OTHERS. Ensure you are doing everything in your power to treat yourself lovingly. Even if it means sacrificing a few things in life. E.g. going to sleep early instead of cramming for a test.

BE RESILIENT. When I say that, I don’t mean ‘don't let anything affect you’ but rather, build yourself up to the point that when someone/something knocks you down, you can bounce back easily.

BECOME SELF AWARE. Know your strengths, and weaknesses, and be mindful of the truth. Be genuine when it comes to this because self-awareness helps us with becoming more in touch with our inner selves.

AVOID NEGATIVE SELF TALK. This can cause us to rely on others to hear good things about ourselves. Instead, say affirmations in the mirror.

STOP PEOPLE PLEASING. There’s a difference between genuinely being nice, and being a doormat. You shouldn’t have to bend over backwards for others, and they give absolutely nothing back. Invest that time and effort into yourself.

SOMEONE’S GAIN IS NOT YOUR LOSS. This is a mindset shift that will change the game. You have to stop seeing successful, wealthy, pretty or intelligent people as threatening your skills or talents. There is enough success for everyone.

DETACH FROM OTHERS. Friends, family, males, etc. Stop letting how other people treat you, dictate your mood for the rest of the day. The only factor your mood should depend on is you. What you do, say, and act is the only factor.

KNOCK OTHERS FROM YOUR PEDESTAL. The only person that should be on top of your pedestal, is you. By doing this, you create an inferiority complex for someone else and give them superiority.

OTHER’S OPINIONS ARE MOMENTARY. They will always move on with their day and see what needs to be done. They do not care about you as much as you think. So, do not even try to give them the time of day.

BUILD BOUNDARIES. With others and yourself. Both are equally important because you value yourself enough not to do something you’ll regret.

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questionableroyalty · 7 days

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I keep seeing artwork of Falin and Marcille where Falin is super oblivious to Marcille's affections or the concept of lesbianism itself and you guys could not have it more backwards. Falin's the one who initiated the handholding while they were bathing together, Falin's the one who wanted to introduce Marcille to her family cause she's just so amazing. Falin's autistic but she isn't in anyway ignorant of romance.

Marcille is a super conservative woman who probably hasn't fully internalised the fact that she can be attracted to other women, she looks at Falin and thinks "Yeah i love her as a friend! I treat her like a little sister cause she's so young compared to me!" and then her breath hitches in expectation when they get too close in the bath and she starts freaking out when she sees Falin expose her breasts and she just doesn't think about it.

If either of them were unaware it would be Marcille out of that conservative comphet mindset of "it's normal to be find women attractive, everyone does, it doesn't mean you're gay or anything" while Falin was treated as an outsider in her village and magic school from day one for being abnormal and would completely roll with her feelings of wanting to rail her girltwink elf friend.

#farcille #dungeon meshi

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farfaras · 1 year

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Part 2.

What if Eddie moved on from thinking Steve and Nancy should get back together when Jonathan came back and saw how they’re actually destined to be together even tho they still have shit to figure out.

I know it’s a popular hc that Eddie and Robin clock each other immediately BUT I still think that as two queer kids in a small backwards town they’re more worried about no one finding out about them so they wouldn’t notice someone else. So worried about themselves that they (like straight people) also fall into the mindset of ‘everyone is straight until proven otherwise’.

What’s the result of this? Eddie seeing how close Robin and Steve are and thinking there must be something there. And because Steve is a little more affectionate than Robin, now Eddie thinks he’s pining after her.

“Why aren’t you and Robin together?”

“It’s not like that. She’s my best friend.”

“I don’t buy it.”

So now Steve has to put up with Eddie constantly going on about how Steve should just ask her out already, what’s he waiting for, she probably likes him back.

It bothers Steve to no end. He wished society had advanced enough to realize that men and women can be platonic friends without having to explain themselves.

A nightmare.

And Steve would never out Robin, so telling him the truth wasn’t an option. And he really wasn’t interested in dating anyone right now, so that was out of the question. What could he do to get Eddie to understand that him and Robin would never happen?

Then he remembered. It seemed so distant but Steve actually tried to tell Robin he liked her once. It was kinda embarrassing to think about now, specially because he saw Robin as nothing more than a friend now. He couldn’t even remember what having a crush on her ever felt like. And maybe he never even had one, shitty friends and shitty parents maybe warped his perception and then he couldn’t see the difference between platonic and romantic feelings. Well, that was for another day. He could tell the difference now. He thinks.

He could just tell Eddie about that moment in starcourt. He would just leave out the part about Robin having absolutely bad taste in girls. Foolproof. Eddie would leave it alone now.

“What? She just rejected you and then you decided to become her best friend?” He looked surprised, like the idea was impossible to understand.

“And I don’t regret it. She’s the best friend I’ve ever had.”

“You’re crazy.” Steve didn’t expect that.

“What do you mean?”

Eddie looked at him and his expression was hard to read. “You’re telling me that after being rejected you didn’t need time away? Just jumped to being a platonic friend? Despite your feelings?” He scoffed. “I could never do that.”

“It wasn’t that hard.”

“Now I know you’re lying. You still like her?”

Steve really tried to convince Eddie that he didn’t like Robin anymore. But no matter what he would say he didn’t believe him.

So Steve gave up.

Now he goes along with it. It’s easier. It stopped Eddie from trying to set them up or whatever.

Except it didn’t.

Now Eddie came up with the absolute great idea of making her jealous. Which was so so ridiculous Steve had to hold back laughter. He didn’t mention how much Robin had heard about past dates. This was beginning to amuse him just a little bit.

“How would I even do that?” Steve asked, curious as to what Eddie would come up with.

“You know? Let me think about this.” He made a show of putting his hand on his chin, contemplating. “Show up at work with some marks on you neck. You know, see how she reacts to that knowledge.” Steve knows how Robin reacts to that. Before Vecna, on his endless quest to find ‘the one’ (what a waste) he had some hookups. One time he went into work with one or two hickeys on his neck. Robin wouldn’t even bat her eyes, just would ask ‘who was it now?’ and then ask if he would see her again. The answer was no. Eddie didn’t know this.

“Yeah well, I really don’t feel like going on a date and hooking up with someone just to use it to bait a reaction. Seems kinda cruel to the other person.” Steve thinks that should be enough to shut this idea down.

“Huh. Maybe you’re better than me because I didn’t even think about that.”

Steve doesn’t reply, just snorts. And he thinks that’s gonna be the end of it. There’s nothing else Eddie can really do or come up with. Right?

Wrong.

“I could do it.” Did Steve hear that right? Huh?

“What?” Steve asked.

“Give you a hickey. It’s no big deal, really.”

If you asked Steve why he said yes. Man, he wouldn’t be able to tell you. He really doesn’t know! It’s like someone possessed him and he was moving his mouth, but it wasn’t him. Maybe it was because he couldn’t come up with a reason not to do it fast enough that would convince Eddie.

They were both sitting on the couch so Eddie just leaned in and started on a spot on the left side of his neck. Steve’s hand instinctively moved to the back of Eddie’s head. One wouldn’t think so based on its appearance but Eddie’s hair was surprisingly soft.

Suddenly there were teeth scraping his neck. Steve let out a noise that he hadn’t heard before. He accidentally pulled a little on Eddie’s hair, he was gonna apologize but Eddie didn’t seem to mind, he just hummed.

“Did you just bite me?”

Eddie pulled back and sneered. “Sorry. I let my impulsive thoughts win.” What does that even mean?

Steve was gonna ask if that did it but then Eddie moved to his lap, straddling him. “What are you doing?”

“Getting the other side?” Makes sense? Honestly his mind was getting a little mushy and was only focusing on Eddie’s weight on him. When Eddie leaned in again, Steve’s hands traveled to rest on his hips. Eddie’s on his shoulders to have leverage, his hips hovering now.

Steve tipped his head back to give him a little more space. With more space Eddie seemed to be satisfied with that spot and moved lower, however this next one was sensitive to Steve, he’s always known that. He was gonna say so but he couldn’t, Eddie was already on it. He let out a breathy sound and gripped Eddie’s hips tighter making him slam back on his lap. He thinks Eddie moaned, he’s not sure tho. “Sorry.” He muttered.

He didn’t think he’d enjoy this.

He did.

Maybe he should put a stop to it.

He hasn’t so far.

It went on a little longer. Some hands wandering. Some sounds uttered. Minds getting floaty.

He knew it was coming to an end when Eddie started leaving kisses to soothe the spots, he trailed until he got to his ear. Which he actually licked. It was probably to make a joke but it only made Steve shiver.

“I think you’re done.” Eddie said. He hesitated a second before climbing off his lap.

Steve knew he looked winded. Eddie tried to look casual but he’s known him for a while and could see that it was feigned casualness.

“Uh. Good.” Lame. Steve is lame.

Mike Wheeler was right because Steve Harrington is lame.

How is he gonna explain this to Robin?

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the-s1lly-corner · 2 months

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Various HH characters x autistic!reader

Prize 1/5 for @coldsushisworld ! I hope you enjoy!

This post includes: charlie, vaggie, alastor, Lucifer, adam, and lute

CHARLIE

Honestly I can see Charlie herself being somewhere on the spectrum! So she can relate to you in some way when you're having some struggles. Shes so so accommodating when it comes to your needs, quite literally bending over backwards to make sure the hotel is a safe space for you. Theres likely a sensory room somewhere in the hotel, where you (or really anyone!) Can go to unwind and just vibe. Protective of you, as she is with everyone else she cares about. You.. may have to get her to cool it if things get a little too heated. Warm and smells like apple pie, and I dont know about you guys but that's possibly one of the most pleasing and calming combos

VAGGIE

Very quick to shut things down if someone tries to get on your case for your needs for whatever reason, same goes for anyone who does it without intending to be harmful/doing it unknowingly. Shes your guard dog, and shes going to make sure you're safe mentally and physically. Likely stands trying to choose between different fidgets to pack for an outing trying to determine which one might come more in handy. Packs both. Actually she definitely has a pack somewhere for you that has a bunch of items to carry on you to help you out (water, headphones, ect ect). Despite that she does think you're capable and will step back if her worries cause her to overstep and make you feel bad. Vaggie does tend to have trouble gauging how much effort and feeling into things

ALASTOR

In the nicest way possible, he does not care. Obviously he doesn't care in the "I dont care that you're ND and I'm not going to avoid doing things that trigger you", it's a "I dont care because it is what it is", and besides hes got manners! Sometimes the static ambience around him can be comforting, like white noise.. sometimes he hums or softly plays music if you need something to focus on during an overwhelming moment. However if it makes things worse it's getting cut the second you say something. You're the only person allowed into his radio tower, if you need an escape

LUCIFER

As stated above I headcanon that Charlie is somewhere in the spectrum so he already has an idea of what to do to make things easier and more welcoming for you! Thankfully his home isnt too chaotic and he doesnt usually switch up his routine so if routines mean a lot for you Lucifer is your man! Puts his crafting skills to good use and makes you personalized fidget toys! He loves talking to you but if you need him to be quiet for a while he'll be understanding and work quietly on his ducks. Similarly to his daughter he doesnt let anyone try to make you feel bad for trying to tend to your needs. Though hes less of a pushover/holds his temper a little easier than charlie, but hes still quick to shut anything down

ADAM

In the beginning he can be a little.... how does one say this nicely? Not the best.. hes not at all educated so you're probably going to have to sit him down and find a way to get him to listen. Hes a little misguided when it comes to helping you moving forward but there is a new added effort in there. Takes you away from environments that are too overwhelming for you, or tells everyone to shut the hell up.. which might make things worse thanks to his shouting. He's got the spirit but his methods are not the best. His wings are soft and as long as you dont pluck anything out, he let's you run your fingers through his feathers. Would get sucked into those sensory and/or asmr videos with you

LUTE

I can see her being on the spectrum too tbh but I dont think shes aware, so anytime you try to bring up the possibility of her being ND she kind of just dismisses it. "Everyone does that," mindset. While she doesnt totally understand all of your habits and needs, she still does her best to make sure you're satisfied. She can be callous with others, often causing conflict to those who choose not to listen to an exterminator.. though to heavens citizens what status to exterminators have..? Shrugs. Shes a little.. tense? Harsh? No harsh sounds mean. Shes not used to being tender for someone else, so this is all a learning process for her.. its going to take a while before she grows accustomed to you autism or not.. but shes trying, because she does love you even if shes not used to these feelings!

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yuurei20 · 8 months

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Hi! I've seen some posts going around about Epel's accent and Vil correcting him. From what I gathered Epel has a pretty farmland accent that can be basically indecipherable so Vil being hard on him for it is both 'this is kind of casual' and 'i have no idea what you're saying' but could still be kind of elitist/classist. But I see some people saying Vil is just correcting Epel because he's swearing a lot?

Thank you so much for this question! Reading through just the EN adaptation of Book 5, I think I can understand why people might be annoyed by Vil’s wording: in English, he says outright that Epel should “speak properly,” as if his natural dialect is somehow improper and objectively “wrong.”

But his original line is closer to, “Speak more politely”! (The translations in these images are just more literal rewordings of the original dialogue, not meant to be corrections or improvements over EN’s localization)

I think the game was aware of the risk it was taking by having Vil give such an order, which is why it has Epel immediately jump to that assumption himself, so that Vil can explain it is not Epel’s hometown pride he has an issue with, but rather the outdated mindset that comes with it.

While softened on EN, Epel is quite misogynistic in the original game. He also repeats the same insult three times, possibly as an example of his limited vocabulary, which is another of Vil’s projects.

While Epel does say that Vil has told him not to use the accent specifically, Vil explains that he just wants him to consider the time, place and occasion for it.

Question: But then why does Vil order him to drop the accent entirely if the only problem is that he’s speaking rudely? Surely he can just speak politely while keeping his accent?

Answer: There is another layer to this that is more difficult to explain in English, but I shall try!

The Japanese language has multiple verb forms that change depending upon who you’re talking to at the time. “Meshiagaru,” “taberu” and “kuu” are three different ways to say “eat,” for example, depending on how polite you want to be.

In the beach scene (and anywhere we get his Harveston dialect), Epel immediately shifts into casual/impolite verb forms.

I searched for the most formal interaction involving characters speaking in the Harveston dialect that I could find (where the mayor is apologizing to Marja), and even there, the character was using casual/informal verb forms.

So that is what Vil is actually getting at: he wants Epel to use polite speech around his senpai and teachers, but Epel’s original dialect might just not adhere to that system.

The Harveston dialect clearly has its own ways to denote politeness, which must make sense when you’re there, but outside of Harveston what is a harmless and natural way of speaking becomes offensive from the perspective of everyone else (when Marja adapts her speaking patterns so that the visiting NRC students can understand her, she uses polite forms).

Not able to have a student from his dorm obliviously insulting everyone around him through his verb forms, Vil bans Epel’s accent entirely, presumably so that Epel can grow more accustomed to interacting with people from other countries and then learn to judge for himself the times, places and occasions outside of Harveston where that degree of informality is appropriate :>

(Omake: I conferred with an American friend who told me it sounds like this is the opposite of how things are in the US, where sometimes it is assumed that people from more rural communities use more polite speech (using "sir" and ma'am") than people in cities, so they visit cities and are surprised by forms are expression that are considered rude where they come from. This is the same, but backwards! Epel is going from a laidback rural village to a more populated location where polite speech is expected of everyone, and is experiencing culture shock as a result.)

#anon #twisted wonderland #Epel Felmier #Vil Schoenheit

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liseytopia · 5 months

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───★

summary: you're terrified of snakes. your girlfriend, lucy gray, is not. in fact, she loves them.. and tries to make you love them too.

pairing: lucy gray baird x fem!reader

contents: fluff, scared r and comforting lucy gray!!

warnings: fear of snakes

an: THIS ONE IS FOR YOU @littleacrxbat !! MERRY CHRISTMAS

wc: 632

───★

𝐬𝐧𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬.

- 𝘭𝘶𝘤𝘺 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘺 𝘣𝘢𝘪𝘳𝘥

oh, how lucy gray loved snakes. she thought they were beautiful little things, adorable and harmless pieces of nature. you tried to have the same mindset about them as her, but.. well, you couldn't. to you, snakes were treacherous and definitely harmful. lucy gray tried to warm you up to them, tried to show you their true beauty, but you could never pull yourself to hold one or even be comfortable around one.

you were with the covey, out by the lake and playing around. swimming and splashing, this was one of your favorite things to do in district twelve. you ran out to the dock and did a flip off the edge, making a huge splash and covering everyone with water. you and lucy gray laughed and she pulled you through the water to be close to her, kissing your lips with a smile still on hers. "we'll be right back!" she yelled to the rest of the covey, taking your hand and pulling you out of the water with her when she saw you looked a little tired.

the both of you found a spot on the beach, right in front of the forest. you sat down next to lucy gray and rested your head on her shoulder, closing your eyes. she hummed a little song for you, making you smile, and continued to stroke your hair with her soft and delicate fingers. the sun shone down perfectly on the two of you, its rays warming you from the outside.

you would have fallen asleep right then and there, if it weren't for when lucy gray stopped stroking your hair and turned around. she giggled. "aww, look at you, little thing? c'mere." you opened your eyes slowly to see your girlfriend holding a snake wrapped between her fingers and spiraling around her wrist. suddenly you weren't so tired anymore. you jolted backwards and your eyes widened. lucy gray's smile dropped and she tilted her head to the side. "hey, darling, it's okay. it's just a little snake," she tried to affirm you. your voice was shaky but you still spoke, "you know how i don't like snakes.." she scooted a little closer to you. "oh, please. it won't hurt you, sweet girl. just take it easy." you swallowed hard, looking away as to think for a moment. "i.. don't know. just don't get it near me, okay?" you pleaded. she neglected your statement, saying "will you at least touch it? you don't need to worry about anything, love. it's not dangerous."

you sighed and squeezed your eyes shut, reaching your hand out to touch it. you felt lucy gray's hand guide your own to the scaled creature and winced at the feeling of it at your fingertips. suddenly you weren't so sure about this. "i-- i don't wanna do this anymore. you have fun with the snake," you said. lucy gray pouted at you and brought the snake to her other arm, the one facing away from you, for your comfort. she leaned in and kissed you on the cheek. "maybe another time," she whispered, "you're brave, i know it."

you decided you would hold a snake if it were for lucy gray. you decided that you would probably do anything if it was for her. "i'll do it tomorrow. promise," you told her, looking at her with those eyes that said you really meant it. "no rush, beautiful. i love you either way," she told you in a genuine voice, letting the snake slither back into the forest and taking her arm to wrap around you and pull you into her. you rested your head on her shoulder and she kissed the top of your head. you whispered "love you too," before falling asleep on her, taking a nap.

───★

ʚ © this subject is copyright to liseytopia. : do not copy, translate, or steal my writing. ɞ

#: lisey's fics!#lucy gray baird #lucy gray #lucy gray x reader #lucy gray baird x reader #lucy gray fluff #lucy gray baird fluff

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gatorbites-imagines · 2 years

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Kinktober day 17

Jason voorhees + dry humping

Im gonna try and catch up on kinktober, can’t promise they’ll all be done in October, but I will finish this list at some point. No beta read, we die like Jason’s victims.

Kinktober list

The underbrush crunched under your boot as you ran through the forest, your heavy boots doing nothing to silence the sound of your feet as they stomped through the leaves and plant life. Behind you, you could hear the sound of a person hot on your tail, their steps louder than your own and if you listened closely, you could hear them panting.

Had it been anyone else you would have started truly running for your life, but as you knew it was only Jason, you kept it at a manageable pace, knowing he wouldn’t truly kill or hurt you. This had all been Jason’s idea, after you got together, he seemed to finally discover his libido and how he always got excited when hunting other people. He really wanted to hunt you through the woods like you were one of his victims, though without all the traps. Just him and his machete.

Of course, he hadn’t outright asked you immediately when he got the idea. He actually avoided it as much as possible, to the point where he would avoid you after hunting whoever his last victim was because he didn’t want you to see his half hard erection, or notice how he was panting a little deeper than normal.

But one day you noticed, it was late at night and Jason must have assumed you had gone to sleep when he returned to your shared cabin. He was cleaning off his machete when you came up behind him and wrapped your arms around his waist, the large man almost flipping around and chopping your head off in surprise. When he realized it was you though, he shrunk in on himself somewhat, especially when you started running your hands up and down his thighs. That was when you realized he was hard, and after some prodding got it out of him what had caused it.

So here you were, running through the woods in some heavy boots, baggy denim pants, some t-shirt you didn’t care for and one of the jackets Jason had brought back from one of his victims. When you felt Jason near you and the tips of his fingers brush against your back you sped up, a breathless laugh escaping you as you left him in the dust. You knew from how Jason started storming after you that it had served its purpose and made him even more excited.

When you neared a large boulder, you tried to turn and go in another direction, but the strong powerful hands of your boyfriend grabbed onto your jacket and wrenched you back. You let out a yell of fake fear as he grabbed you, looking over your shoulder and trying to appear truly terrified as you struggled out of your jacket, stumbling over your feet as you slipped free and left the fabric in Jason’s iron grip.

You also used this time to look at Jason and smirked internally at his appearance. To everyone else he would look the same, but you could tell he was really affected by this. What skin was visible was shiny with sweat and his chest and shoulders rose and lowered as he panted, his breath creating small clouds in the cold night air.

Turning to continue to run, you only got maybe 20 meters before your foot was caught in a root that was sticking up, sending you crashing to the ground. You flipped around to see Jason standing right over you, machete gripped tightly in his fist as he seemed to step out of the mindset of a killer and tilt his head, asking in his own way if you were okay. Giving a small nod of reassurance that yes you were fine, you kept up your role of victim and tried to crawl backwards when your foot was free.

Your upper back hit the trunk of a tree and you were stuck, gulping the spit that gathered in your mouth as Jason slowly walked towards you, his slow sure gait sending a shiver of excitement up your spin. A gasp left you as Jason picked you up by the shirt and slammed you back into the tree, crowding around you and forcing his way between your legs causing you to hook them around his hips.

Jason stabbed the machete into trunk of the tree and pushed himself closer to you, his panting audible through the hockey mask as he stared down at you. You moaned as his hips met yours, your lengths rubbing against one another, the shaky groan leaving Jason telling you he was just as affected. The role of victim and killer seemed to have been thrown into the wind as Jason stared grinding his hips into yours, his head falling onto your shoulders as he panted and groaned.

You threw your arms around his neck and pulled him closer, trying to grind back against his movements. He grabbed your hips in his strong hands and held you in place, his movements going from grinding to rough humping, the denim of your pants digging roughly against your crotch and making you whimper. You cursed to yourself as he pressed you further into the tree, his powerful hips humping against yours with what appeared to be no difficulty or strain.

You could feel how hard he was through his pants as his large length humped against your own, the noises he released sounding almost animalistic as he panted and growled, spit dripping from behind his mask and onto your shoulder as his hands dug bruises into your hips. You could tell he was about to cum as his movements grew more jagged and rough, the noise that leaves him sounding like a wounded animal as you feel warmth spread over the front of his pants and seeping into your own. He keeps moving his hips, humping into your own until you cum, your head smacking into the tree behind you as you throw your head back at the orgasm, the feeling ripping through you all the way down to your toes that curl in your boots.

The two of you stand there pressed up one another and panting, trying to catch your breaths as Jason’s hips move in small twitchy moves, overstimulation making you both sensitive to the smallest movement. Leaning down you press a kiss to whatever part of his head you can reach and rest against him, trying to calm down your heartbeat. When Jason seems to have caught his breath he took a step back, still holding you against him as he starts making his way back to your cabin, his walk slightly awkward as he wasn’t used to walking around after doing something like this.

#male reader #slasher #jason voorhees #slasher imagine #slasher headcanon #slasher x male reader #slasher x reader #jason voorhees imagine #jason voorhees headcanon #jason voorhees x male reader #jason voorhees x reader

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nonbinarydeity · 2 years

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The "fixed reality" state/ victim mindset and how to surpass it

Since my god state experience, I have realized that the way that we think is entirely backwards, and I'd like to help as many people as possible fix their mindset. The purpose of this post is to explain the fixed reality state, also known as the victim mindset, and how to surpass that state.

What is a state? A state is just a state of mind. Easy enough right? The fixed reality state is a state of mind where you believe that reality is fixed/ set in stone. This is the state that we are taught to be in, we believe that we are controlled by the events that happen to us and we are formed by our experiences. This is for our own safety, the mind would not be able to handle knowing that we create reality when we are younger, and so it develops a view of reality that states that we are at the mercy of reality.

What it feels like to be in this state:

You believe that you're lying to yourself when you say your affirmations

You believe that certain things are true and certain things are untrue, and that nothing can change that

You believe that things happen TO you

You believe you have to work hard to get what you want

You believe that society is set in stone and will always be the same (in your lifetime, at least)

You believe that time exists

Etc.

We have all been in this mindset, we all know what it feels like, and we all have to learn to surpass this way of thinking to fully realize our potential.

The way to surpass this mindset is to fully allow yourself to realize that everything comes from you. When I say fully allow, I mean don't think of it on a surface level. Don't just say it as an affirmation and be done with it! Really THINK about the idea that everything is you and your thoughts pushed out onto reality.

The 4D, or imagination, is 100% as real to our experience as the 3D reality that we are in right now, and in fact, it is the key to creating our entire reality. All you have to do to manifest is believe/ assume that you will get what you want. You can do this in many ways, but once you KNOW that it's yours, once you won't be surprised if you get it, THAT'S when it'll come to you (consistently anyways, I'm sure you don't have to be in this state to manifest things, but I'm talking about fully realizing that you can manifest everything).

What this state feels like (to me):

I know that I will receive my desires

I know that I create reality as a whole

I am not worried about the 3D AT ALL

I know that nothing is set in stone and everything can change instantly

I know that things happen BECAUSE of me

I don't feel the need to affirm, all I need to do is decide I have something, and then it is mine in my mind

I know it is easy and simple to get what I want

I believe that time is a construct and that it flows through and around me, but it does not define me

I can fully change my mind Instantly. It's so strange to feel my brain changing the way it thinks but it's fast and easy now!

I'm sure this state feels a little different for everyone, and that's okay! We are all our own little universes, after all, and we all think differently about different things, for sure!

I definitely hope this helps to explain it more for everyone!!

#law of assumption #master manifestor #law of attraction #living in the end #manifestation #manifest #manifesting #self concept affirmations #loassumption #loa

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lemememeringue · 1 year

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last night I was talking w my sister abt how I approach each new relationship w the mindset that I have to be the best person they've ever known so that when I leave their standards are so high they cannot go backwards, thus forcing them to keep finding better and better people to have in their lives . and while this is an odd way to say "I want to treat people well because everyone deserves kindness", I rly do enjoy the doofenshmirtz evil scheme vibes

#mine #this isn't abt romance btw I am holding my friends' standards at gunpoint and making them climb a ladder

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fuckmyskywalker · 10 months

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🏹 " "You'd better be quiet or everyone's going to know what a naughty little slut you are."

For Anakin 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾

— CW: 18+, smut! Anakin is mean. He is kind of toxic and he is such a bastard in this one sorry, I was in a mood for mean!Anakin. PiV, dirty talk, choking, (kind of?) exhibitionism. Minors DNI 🫶🏻🔪

– A/N: Hope you like it Anon ;).

Crawling back to his touch is always a bad thing, but it feels so good it drowns all the guilt and remorse. Anakin knows your body like the back of his hand, biting, kissing and thrusting in all the right places.

His love is addictive, as much as it is toxic. His tongue knows the patterns below your ear all the way to your chest that make you moan and buckle your hips, asking him for more, begging him to stay one more night, which always ends up being ten more nights. Anakin is a drug, a drug with tanned skin and blue eyes, a drug no one warned you about.

The meditation room used to be your sanctuary. A place to hide from the exterior, from the cruel world that threatened your sanity— Until Anakin managed to corrupt the only good thing you had left. It was one of his favorite places to bend you over and take you, claim you as his property and use your weak mind as a form to boost his ego and narcissistic self esteem. Why? Because it had all the privacy he needed to break you down and see the pieces he loved to pick up, build, and break again.

His hand kept your face against the soft meditation mattresses, while the other guided his hard length between your wet folds, slowly sliding it inside you. Anakin groans quietly, panting and smirking wickedly, completely aware of the effect he has on you; Always giving you just enough to keep you coming for more.

"Good girl, I like you more when you don't put up a fight" Anakin whispers, caressing your lower back with his flesh hand, sending electric waves straight to your core. He is so sweet when he wants to. "So pretty... see? This is what you were made for, to please me, to be mine."

His hips pull back, keeping a steady pace. Normally he is rough and relentless, but apparently today he was feeling generous. "Say it."

Anakin, just like he was outside the bedroom, is extremely talkative, he never fucking keeps his mouth shut. He doesn't know the meaning of the word: Silence.

"Say what?" You ask breathlessly, closing your eyes and arching your back, your own hips pressing backwards to meet his thrusts.

"Say you are mine." Anakin says as if you were stupid, rolling his eyes. "Don't act fool, we are having a nice moment."

"Are we?" You snap back, acting like you weren't rutting for him.

Your lack of cooperation infuriates him, he's so generous to give you the fuck of your life and that's how you pay him? With a different mindset, he removes his hand from your head to wrap it around the nape of your neck. Without warning, without consideration, without any self restraint, Anakin chokes you as he relentlessly pounds you, forcing your ass in the air by sneaking his arm around your stomach. The duality of a man: Anakin can either praise you or break you. Either way, you end up with a world-shattering orgasm.

The position looks and feels uncomfortable. Your body, flexible enough thanks to years of training, is having a hard time keeping up with this type of treatment. There's no doubt your back will be sore the next day, and the next one, and on and on, until he manages to trap you again and have his way with you.

On the bright side, the position allows him to hit that perfect spot effortlessly, over and over until you no longer feel the pain, only the pleasure. His large cock has the illusion to be reaching your intestines, rearranging them and bullying your poor, swollen pussy to its shape, length and girth.

Your moans increase in volume, to the point that you are almost screaming, and sure, the meditation rooms are constructed especially to muffle noise from the outside, from the inside... it may not be as effective. Your sweet, loud voice bounces against the tall, cream walls just like the soft suple flesh of your ass bounces against Anakin's thighs, smearing all the mixed slick between your bodies. The wet slapping is music to Anakin's ears, but it's similar to a fork against a plate for you; it is a constant reminder that Anakin ruined you, he ruined sex for you because no one will ever make you feel like this, no one will ever be able to fill you up just like Anakin makerdamned Skywalker does.

He seems to notice how much you are enjoying it, but as much as he prefers to make you scream until your throat is raw and worn, he knows outsiders might not be as fond— Plus, despite not having a committed relationship with you, Anakin feels entitlement over you.

And, if we are being honest, you belong to him as much as he belongs to you.

Bending over you, with his animalistic grin and manly groans, he hotly says against your sweaty face, with his hand still squeezing your neck so tight but not too tight that your vision begins to blur. "You'd better be quiet or everyone's going to know what a naughty little slut you are."

Perhaps he is being too harsh on you, but that has always been your dynamic, right? A part of him feels guilty, a hint of remorse for treating you this way, you are such a beautiful, wonderful strong person, so why can't he give you that?

As quick as the thought comes, it goes. The clenching of your sopping cunt around him washes the guilt away. You love it, you could've said no, and yet you didn't. You try to shake your head as a reply, but it hurts to even move your shoulders so you just mewl pathetically as a response, drawing a smile on Anakin's lips.

His release comes without a warning, just like it always does. He fills you up just right and the overflowing feeling is hot, warm and it brings you that world-shattering orgasm I mentioned before. And maybe Anakin has grown a soft spot for you after long nights of fucking, but he continues pushing his body to a brink of overstimulation so he can make you come.

You do, you reach that desired point so quickly it completely crashes your brain and turns it into mush. Anakin shows some vulnerability and moans softly as he strokes your hip with his hand, the touch feels intimate, almost lovingly.

But of course it doesn't last long.

The second Anakin slides his softening dick out of you with a wet sound, you fall over the mattress with a quiet huff. Breathlessly, you manage to stare at him from below, panting and unable to mutter a single word. He stands up, picking up his cloak from the floor throwing it to you, before walking away of the meditation room.

"Clean yourself up, you can keep the cloak."

#𓆩ꨄ︎𓆪 anya writes!#anakin skywalker #anakin skywalker x reader #star wars #anakin x reader #anakin skywalker smut #anakin smut #anakin #anakin skywalker imagine #anakin skywalker x reader smut #anakin skywalker x female reader #anakin skywalker one shot #anakin skywalker drabble #anakin skywalker prompt #anakin skywalker x you #anakin skywalker fanfiction #mean!anakin #mean!anakin skywalker

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turbulentscrawl · 5 months

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Teehee hello hello!

Can I request Norton Campbell with an s/o (preferably male but gender neutral is fine too) born from nobility that acts like the opposite of him. They've been through so much in life, almost at par with his or probably worse. And yet they still care about the others, putting everyone else first before them. They are also a little too reckless, often doing body blocks from the hunter. They know how people can be cruel but they're still generous and thoughtful, although knowing when to stop and prevent themselves from being trampled over.

This is the first request I ever received here!

Just to be totally transparent, this one took so long to fill because I honestly don’t like the noble/wealthy reader x Norton dynamic. (As I’ve said several times before, he hates the rich. And being “the exception” to hatred/bias is neither a safe nor a healthy relationship.) I’m still willing to accept requests for it…but the time I spend filling them will be far between, and frankly they won’t be the sweetest things you’ve ever read.

“So what the fuck was that supposed to be?” Norton asks as he approaches you in the infirmary. You look at him quizzically, and it’s a welcome distraction from Emily’s aching efforts to remove the spikes lodged in your back.

“What do you mean?” you ask.

“Don’t,” Norton snaps, though a bit more quietly after a pointed look from Emily. “Don’t play dumb. I’m talking about your reckless behavior in that match. In ALL the matches. We already had a win. We were at. The. Gate. And you went back? Against the fastest Hunters possible, no less.” To be more precise, you, Norton, and Emma were at the gate. Three of your four-man team.

“I wasn’t going to leave Jose like that,” you explain, recalling how he’d struggled against the restraints of the rocket chair. People’s desperation in those moments always made your heart bleed. Jose didn’t want to die anymore than you or anyone else did. Regardless of the method.

“So you thought it was smart to go marching back out to try and collect him,” Norton says. Emily is trying very hard to look like she isn’t taking in any of your conversation. One of those spikes finally comes out, and you hiss at the sting. Emily applies a disinfectant, and presses hard on your back to staunch the flow of blood. Norton somehow scowls more at your pained expression, and you have to remind yourself it was mostly out of concern.

“I did collect him,” you correct through pain-clenched teeth.

“And nearly got yourself chaired in the process. Then what? We’d still have a three-man win, plus the injuries to attend to.”

“But I didn’t, and now we’ve a four-man win,” you express softly. Norton throws his hands in the air, looking about ready to toss the infirmary. You have to remind yourself, too, about all he’s been through. By himself. That the selfish mindsets he has are born of strategy and survival, and not empathy.

Norton pauses in his pacing and looks at Emily. She finishes applying the bandage to the wound she’d opened, saying, “Don’t take too long. I still have to dig out all the little broken pieces.” You almost tell her not to worry, that they’ll be gone and healed tomorrow, but suspect she runs this infirmary to keep her own skills sharp as much as for everyone’s comfort. When the door was shut, Norton dragged a chair in front of your bed and sat down, straddling it backwards.

“You have to stop assuming you’ll be able to accomplish every good deed your head conjures up,” he says, cutting to the point. You’ve had this conversation many times before, and it always hurts when he brings it up again.

“I can’t, Norton,” you say. “You know I can’t.”

“You can,” he insists. “If I can get over my distaste of you being rich, if I can work with people I don’t like, keep the hunters off them in the middle of matches, then you can stop trying to play knight-in-shining-armor. Everyone here knows what we’re in for and that sacrifices have to be made sometimes. Yeah, sometimes your little plans work out for you. Today it did. But your plans have gone ass-up sometimes, too, and it costs us. A draw is not a win, okay? And at the end of the day, we’re all still hoping for some kind of reward for these wins. So if we have a win already, take it. I already hate you gambling your own safety, but it’s more than that too.”

“I can’t just accept that,” you finally say to him after a long, thinking pause. “This place…is so awful. If we don’t try to look out for one another, we’ve got nothing. When I see the others hurt, or scared…I can’t just leave them to think they’re suffering that alone. And it’s not like I just let everyone walk all over me.” Norton grunts a bit and stands from his seat. He’s clearly annoyed, but he ruffles your hair a bit in spite of that. A sign that he just needs time to calm down.

“Looking out for people doesn’t just mean bleeding for them,” he says, turning to leave the room. “I’ll send the doc back in. Rest up, see you at dinner.”

He shuts the door behind himself, leaving you in a quiet, white room, with no solution in sight to this repeat disagreement.

#idv x reader #identity v #norton campbell x reader #idv prospector #turbulentscrawl #not a bad ending #but def not a happy ending

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gorgeouslypink · 1 year

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I was watching Clueless for the billionth time and I was thinking about Cher's character arc and how she overcomes her biggest flaw, being clueless. I'm just going to give a quick summary for people who haven't watched before I start talking about loa/the void state.

So Cher is like the prettiest, richest girl in school that everyone loves and she knows this and she loves it. People (mostly Josh but probably other people too) have told her that she's clueless and vain, but she kind of just ignores them and continues living her best life.

That is until it literally blows up in her face.

So what does Cher do? Yes she's upset and distraught over it but then she picks herself up and decides she's going to change.

And then she actually sticks to that. She's seen volunteering and removing her judgemental biases towards people and just working to become a better person.

So why am I talking about this and how does this correlate to the void?

1. You need to change your mindset! I always think it's so funny when people don't want to work on/change their mindset and think their life is somehow going to magically change. Mindset is a big part of manifestation and even outside of loa, changing one's mindset is how people work towards solving problem. I can promise you, go look at almost every book, movie, etc where a character succeeds and they'll have undergone some mindset change. Forget fiction, look at any successful figure in real life and you'll see that they talk about either manifeststion or at the very least, the importance of mindset. Changing your mindset to align with your goals is so important and easy and I don't understand why loa girls of all people don't see that!

2. Persistence is so important! Cher had a pretty solid reputation in being popular and pretty, but that also applied for her reputation of being clueless and vain and that's not going to change overnight, both with her own mindset and people's perceptions. I'm sure Cher would have loved to just tap into the state of being kind and fair but she probably didn't read Edward Art, but does that mean she just gave up? No, she persisted everyday in trying to be kinder and fair and actively did things to push outside her noraml comfort zone and as her 3d changed, her 4d followed suit. The same thing applies to the void. Right now, you probably haven't entered the void, but that's okay. Spend everyday fixing your mindset so that you belive in the void and in your own power to enter it, do things to actively work towards it (refer to my SATS post or just any method that is compatible with you) , and just know that your 4d will follow suit soon. This is literally the law.

3. Don't go backwards. I think if most of us were in Cher's position, we would have probably just gotten over being sad and just went back to being a popular, pretty, clueless girl, but Cher acknowledges her fault and works to overcome it. The thing about the void is most people don't have a positive 3d to return to, but they still return to it instead of trying to overcome their faults, whether it be due to laziness or lack of motivation. Don't let that happen! Acknowledge your faults, make a plan to overcome it, and then overcome it. Stay strong and motivated and I know you will live your dream life soon.

Good luck everyone 💗

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ryin-silverfish · 17 days

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Hello ryin! I saw in a recent post of yours that you dislike the "class warfare" reading of the Havoc in Heaven arc in JTTW and would honestly love to hear more about your thoughts on that! Your takes have been really interesting.

Thank you!

My biggest problem with the "class warfare" reading is, first and foremost, what it has been historically used for.

Like, after the Havoc in Heaven opera and movie came out, the propagandists absolutely ate it up; SWK was associated with Mao Zedong and used to promote Mao's personality cult, and soon after, the White Bone Spirit story would be interpreted as this fable for the Sino-Soviet split.

Whereas Havoc in Heaven was intended and viewed as a metaphor and love letter to the victory of Chinese revolution, the White Bone Spirit story was interpreted in the context of the horrific fuck-up that is the Great Leap Forward, where the party were starting to doubt its leadership, and the path to the future seemed an uncertain and arduous one——much like the pilgrimage.

So, in the new twist on the "class warfare" narrative, Tripitaka and Pigsy became the poster-boy for "party members who were easily captivated by revisionist ideas" and needed to see how wrong they were, the WBS became the personification of Khruschev, imperialism, capitalism, revisionism...you name it, and SWK the Mao expy who could do no wrong yet was unfairly blamed by everyone.

Came the Cultural Revolution era, SWK would then become a sort of hero and role model for the Red Guards, smashing down all that was considered archaic and backwards, tearing down older authority figures and perceived "class enemies" alike, all the while emboldened by Mao's saying that "To rebel is justified" (造反有理).

Yeah, no, fuck that shit.

Terrible historical baggages aside, it is also a reading that reeks of presentism, and Lin Geng, a renowned professor of literature, had done a thorough takedown of the "SWK as peasant rebel" idea in his 西游记漫话.

Namely, it neither fits the circumstances of Havoc in Heaven, nor SWK's backstory and motivation. He's not rebelling because his monkeys are oppressed by the Celestial Realm, he's doing it because he feels personally slighted.

His mindset is also not that of a traditional peasant; compare and contrast that with Zhu Bajie, whom the author argues is very much peasant-coded in terms of his obsession with going back to Gao Laozhuang, his rake, and his comedic ignorance that stems from urban stereotypes of rural farmers.

To paraphrase Lin Geng, "Not all rebellions and rebel narratives in Chinese history are peasant ones, and we shouldn't just cry 'peasant rebellion metaphor!' the moment we saw a rebellion in fiction."

Lastly and more personally? This reading also tends to remove SWK's depth as a character. The representation of the Mind can be both heroic and flawed, capable of great feats and fuck-ups alike, but the representation of The Revolution has to be heroic and his opponents, whether celestial or demonic, must be evil oppressors and political boogeymen.

Like, the demons in the novel are representations of the mental obstacles a person will face on the path to Enlightenment, but they are also capable of being funny and very human characters, and not all of them wanted to eat Tripitaka.

The Celestial Realm is a satire of the imperial bureaucracy, sure, but the novel is also a product of its time and cannot magically promote 20th century ideas of revolutions and political reforms 500 years before they were a thing. Besides, SWK can still get help from them on the Journey and their relationship is more complicated than "oppressed rebel and oppressors".

And that's exactly why I dislike the "class warfare" reading: it creates a simplistic opposition of good and evil, and tries to squeeze the work into a narrow political framework that is neither nuanced nor accurate.

#journey to the west #xiyouji #jttw #chinese history #chinese literature #sun wukong #JTTWR has a pdf on his website about JTTW and PRC mythology-making #Lin Geng's book doesn't have a translation but can be found on WeChat read #Transforming Monkey also has a chapter that talks specifically about SWK's transformation into a revolutionary hero

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reasonsforhope · 1 year

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"If I wanted to convince you of the reality of human progress, of the fact that we as a species have advanced materially, morally, and politically over our time on this planet, I could quote you chapter and verse from a thick stack of development statistics.

I could tell you that a little more than 200 years ago, nearly half of all children born died before they reached their 15th birthday, and that today it’s less than 5 percent globally. I could tell you that in pre-industrial times, starvation was a constant specter and life expectancy was in the 30s at best. [Note: This is average life expectancy, old people did still exist in olden times] I could tell you that at the dawn of the 19th century, barely more than one person in 10 was literate, while today that ratio has been nearly reversed. I could tell you that today is, on average, the best time to be alive in human history.

But that doesn’t mean you’ll be convinced.

In one 2017 Pew poll, a plurality of Americans — people who, perhaps more than anywhere else, are heirs to the benefits of centuries of material and political progress — reported that life was better 50 years ago than it is today. A 2015 survey of thousands of adults in nine rich countries found that 10 percent or fewer believed that the world was getting better. On the internet, a strange nostalgia persists for the supposedly better times before industrialization, when ordinary people supposedly worked less and life was allegedly simpler and healthier. (They didn’t and it wasn’t.)

Looking backward, we imagine a halcyon past that never was; looking forward, it seems to many as if, in the words of young environmental activist Greta Thunberg, “the world is getting more and more grim every day.”

So it’s boom times for doom times. But the apocalyptic mindset that has gripped so many of us not only understates how far we’ve come, but how much further we can still go. The real story of progress today is its remarkable expansion to the rest of the world in recent decades. In 1950, life expectancy in Africa was just 40; today, it’s past 62. Meanwhile more than 1 billion people have moved out of extreme poverty since 1990 alone.

But there’s more to do — much more. That hundreds of millions of people still go without the benefit of electricity or live in states still racked by violence and injustice isn’t so much an indictment of progress as it is an indication that there is still more low-hanging fruit to harvest.

The world hasn’t become a better place for nearly everyone who lives on it because we wished it so. The astounding economic and technological progress made over the past 200 years has been the result of deliberate policies, a drive to invent and innovate, one advance building upon another. And as our material condition improved, so, for the most part, did our morals and politics — not as a side effect, but as a direct consequence. It’s simply easier to be good when the world isn’t zero-sum.

Which isn’t to say that the record of progress is one of unending wins. For every problem it solved — the lack of usable energy in the pre-fossil fuel days, for instance — it often created a new one, like climate change. But just as a primary way climate change is being addressed is through innovation that has drastically reduced the price of clean energy, so progress tends to be the best route to solving the problems that progress itself can create.

The biggest danger we face today, if we care about actually making the future a more perfect place, isn’t that industrial civilization will choke on its own exhaust or that democracy will crumble or that AI will rise up and overthrow us all. It’s that we will cease believing in the one force that raised humanity out of tens of thousands of years of general misery: the very idea of progress.

Changing Humanity's "Normal" Forever

Progress may be about where we’re going, but it’s impossible to understand without returning to where we’ve been. So let’s take a trip back to the foreign country that was the early years of the 19th century.

In 1820, according to data compiled by the historian Michail Moatsos, about three-quarters of the world’s population earned so little that they could not afford even a tiny living space, some heat and, hopefully, enough food to stave off malnutrition.

It was a state that we would now call “extreme poverty,” except that for most people back then, it wasn’t extreme — it was simply life.

What matters here for the story of progress isn’t the fact that the overwhelming majority of humankind lived in destitution. It’s that this was the norm, and had been the norm since essentially… forever. Poverty, illiteracy, premature death — these weren’t problems, as we would come to define them in our time. They were simply the background reality of being human, as largely unchangeable as birth and death itself...

Between 10,000 BCE and 1700, the average global population growth rate was just 0.04 percent per year. And that wasn’t because human beings weren’t having babies. They were simply dying, in great numbers: at birth, giving birth, in childhood from now-preventable diseases, and in young adulthood from now-preventable wars and violence.

It was only with the progress of industrialization that we broke out of [this long cycle], producing enough food to feed the mounting billions, enough scientific breakthroughs to conquer old killers like smallpox and the measles, and enough political advances to dwindle violent death.

Between 1800 and today, our numbers grew from around 1 billion to 8 billion. And that 8 billion aren’t just healthier, richer, and better educated. On average, they can expect to live more than twice as long. The writer Steven Johnson has called this achievement humanity’s “extra life” — but that extra isn’t just the decades that have been added to our lifespans. It’s the extra people that have been added to our numbers. I’m probably one of them, and you probably are too...

The progress we’ve earned has hardly been uninterrupted or perfectly distributed... [But] once we could prove in practice that the lot of humanity didn’t have to be hand-to-mouth existence, we could see that progress could continue to expand.

Current Progress "Flows Overwhelmingly" to the Developing World

The long twentieth century came late to the Global South, but it did get there. Between 1960 and today, India and China, together home to nearly one in every three people alive today, have seen life expectancy rise from 45 to 70 and 33 to 78, respectively. Per-capita GDP over those years rose some 2,600 percent for India and an astounding 13,400 percent for China, with the latter lifting an estimated 800 million people out of extreme poverty.

In the poorer countries of sub-Saharan Africa, progress has been slower and later, but shouldn’t be underestimated. When we see the drastic decline in child mortality — which has fallen since 1990 from 18.1 percent of all children in that region to 7.4 percent in 2021 — or the more than 20 million measles deaths that have been prevented since 2000 in Africa alone, this is progress continuing to happen now, with the benefits overwhelmingly flowing to the poorest among us.

Vanishing Autocracies

In 1800, according to Our World in Data, zero — none, nada, zip — people lived in what we would now classify as a liberal democracy. Just 22 million people — about 2 percent of the global population — lived in what the site classifies as “electoral autocracies,” meaning that what democracy they had was limited, and limited to a subset of the population.

One hundred years later, things weren’t much better — there were actual liberal democracies, but fewer than 1 percent of the world’s population lived in them...

Today just 2 billion people live in countries that are classified as closed autocracies — relatively few legal rights, no real electoral democracy — and most of them are in China...

Expanding Human Rights

All you have to do is roll the clock back a few decades to see the way that rights, on the whole, have been extended wider and wider: to LGBTQ citizens, to people of color, to women. The fundamental fact is that as much as the technological and economic world of 2023 would be unrecognizable to people in 1800, the same is true of the political world.

Nor can you disentangle that political progress from material progress. Take the gradual but definitive emancipation of women. That has been a hard-fought, ongoing battle, chiefly waged by women who saw the inherent unfairness of a male-dominated society.

But it was aided by the invention of labor-saving technologies in the home like washing machines and refrigerators that primarily gave time back to women and made it easier for them to move into the workforce.

These are all examples of the expansion of the circle of moral concern — the enlargement of who and what is considered worthy of respect and rights, from the foundation of the family or tribe all the way to humans around the world (and increasingly non-human animals as well). And it can’t be separated from the hard fact of material progress.

Leaving a Zero-Sum World Behind

The pre-industrial world was a zero-sum one... In a zero-sum world, you advance only at the expense of others, by taking from a set stock, not by adding, which is why wars of conquest between great powers were so common hundreds of years ago, or why homicide between neighbors was so much more frequent in the pre-industrial era.

We have obviously not eradicated violence, including by the state itself. But a society that can produce more of what it needs and wants is one that will be less inclined to fight over what it has, either with its neighbors or with itself. It’s not that the humans of 2023 are necessarily better, more moral, than their ancestors 200 or more years ago. It’s that war and violence cease to make economic sense...

Doomerism, at its heart, may be that exhaustion made manifest.

But just as we need continued advances in clean tech or biosecurity to protect ourselves from some of the existential threats we’ve inadvertently created, so do we need continued progress to address the problems that have been with us always: of want, of freedom, even of mortality. Nothing can dispel the terminal exhaustion that seems endemic in 2023 better than the idea that there is so much more left to do to lift millions out of poverty and misery while protecting the future — which is possible, thanks to the path of the progress we’ve made.

And we’ll know we’re successful if our descendants can one day look back on the present with the same mix of sympathy and relief with which we should look back on our past. How, they’ll wonder, did they ever live like that?"

-via Vox, 3/20/23

Note: I would seriously recommend reading the whole article--because as long as this post is, this is only about half of it! The article contains a lot more information about the hows and whys of human progress, and it also definitely made me cry the first time I read it.

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