Did You Know You Can Just Not? Some People In My Life Need To Learn How To Don’t

please it took me 20 min because i was 3 floors away and there were many trans men in line

why do queer people walk so fast? necessity. evolution. do you know how far it is to the gender neutral restroom

Holy shit I love this did you ever use it at a comp

Below is a speech that i wrote this year during my last year of highschool debate league. I never got to use it, and it never got finished (was going to add quotes and sources i liked related to the subject) but i’m rather proud of what i have left here.

Close your eyes. What is behind your eyelids? Is it pitch black? Do you see the specks of light flickering through the thin layer of skin? Do the colorful squiggles leftover from the light dance just outside of your peripheral vision?

Or is it more like TV static? Black and white speckles that move perpetually, maybe?

Can you feel your pulse in your eyelids? The rush of blood through those tiny vessels, hm? Are your eyes moving? Can’t you stop them? Hold them still? Do they drift ever so slightly when you try to keep them still, or do they jump around dramatically, chasing those shapes away from your peripheral vision? When you breathe do your lungs fill up from the bottom first or top first? Did the pulsing in your eyelids quicken when you just tried to check? Did you start breathing slower to make the pulsing slow down?

Now open your eyes again. That probably feels a bit better, right? Not focusing on the blood rushing through those tiny vessels in your eyelids. Can you still feel it when you blink, though? Have you blinked? Are you blinking enough? Aren’t your eyes feeling a bit dry? Maybe a bit itchy? Are you sure you’re blinking enough? Is thinking about this making you want to blink? Or maybe you’ve already forced it a few times, just to make sure you’re blinking enough.

Maybe this little trick works on you. Maybe it doesn’t. It’s a well known internet joke, to say something like “manual breathing” or “manual blinking” to try and make you self aware of your naturally subconscious bodily functions. It works on me, and most of the time, it works on those I know when I want to bother them.

What I was attempting to do here, all those questions, and little statements about how you should feel, was a systematic attempt to manipulate your beliefs about how you felt, your actions regarding your breathing and blinking, and your attitude. Make you annoyed or uncomfortable.

on a completely unrelated note, let’s talk a bit about propaganda.

the definition of propaganda is “a set of strategies used to persuade people to believe something or support a cause.” OR, “a systematic attempt to manipulate people's beliefs, actions, or attitudes.”.

okay, maybe it wasn’t exactly unrelated.

“You are not immune to propaganda.”

I’m sure you’ve heard this quote- or something similar- at least once.

Now I don’t know about you, but I definitely know a few people who think that’s false. Who think they ARE immune to propaganda. Who think they’re smart enough to avoid the manipulator.

The thing about that is it’s not about how smart you are. It has nothing to do with intelligence. People are malleable. People are not hard to influence. Maybe you went to the grocery store and saw the store brand next to a name brand, and decided to pick the name brand because it MUST be better than the basic… right?

Or maybe you weren’t going to buy it at ALL until a coupon for it came in the mail… so it must be worth it!

Now obviously this type of small everyday “manipulation” is not comparable to propaganda. But, you have almost definitely fallen for it, or something similar.

And that’s just the simple stuff.

Propaganda is specifically designed to make you feel strongly about something.

To make you angry, or scared, or sad.

So when -and I DO mean when- you fall for it, it won’t make you want to do something as simple as buy something pricier at the grocery store.

Back in the day, propaganda catered towards the young men- no, the young BOYS of our society told them that if they didn’t join the army to fight for their country, then they weren’t really men.

You are not immune to propaganda.

You are not immune to simple manipulation.

You are not immune.

You can be influenced.

If my beginning statements made you at all uncomfortable, made you think about the pulse in your eyelids or how often you were blinking or how slow you were breathing, then you are not immune.

During a pandemic, what is something you do to avoid catching the illness?

You be weary. You know who around you is sick, and who around you is safe. You watch your surroundings, and keep extra clean.

You stay cautious.

You are not immune to propaganda, just as you are not immune to the sickness of a pandemic.

Be weary. Be cautious.

Know what is happening around you. Pay attention to the spoken word and what’s written around you. Pay attention and recognize that those in power are not shy to use propaganda. Don’t be so easily influenced.

By the way, have you blinked in a while?

can you draw my oc??

her name is Jordan Valentine but goes by jay, and yeah she’s really cool

if not that’s fine lol

YES I CAN RIGHT AWAY!!!!!!

what do you mean elon musk did a nazi salute on live tv at the united states presidential inauguration twice and is now erasing the evidence off the internet by replacing the footage with the crowd cheering instead?

would be a shame if people reblogged this, wouldn’t it?

Hey just remember it could be a snow day tomorrow and also you can always make yourself cookies at 11 pm like I do

on the verge of tears rn and idk why

fascinated by how "dislocate" seems to be a word used almost exclusively to refer to the misalignment of bodies, or parts of the body, from their proper place. it's distinctly anatomical. you don't say "i dislocated my keys" for instance, even though that's technically a correct and coherent sentence.

i have a cool outfit on today anyone wanna see ??

Feral

for some fuxking reason i thought it would be amazing if i put peppermints on a cutting board and just smashed them as hard as possible with a meat smasher thing whatever and . there is peppermint . everywhere 😧

reblog this if you want a LONG (or short) anonymous message saying what they think of you.

pleaaase?

WAIT I WANT THAT

on the verge of tears rn and idk why