sorry for the long post, but i won’t hide it under read more, you’ll have to see this, boo hoo.
@ rich educated students living in europe or america, studying “russian culture” in their universities and wishing you lived here, or Woke ppl thinking all russians support their government’s actions and do nothing to stop them,
i cannot believe how lucky, privileged and naive yall are.
protests against retirement pension age reforms took place all over russia yesterday. they were unsanctioned, because in russia you’re supposed to apply for the authorities to let you host a protest; otherwise everyone is arrested and beaten up. which is what happened yesterday. these people were out on the streets protesting the recent change in retirement age (it was moved forward, thus making the chance of the government just keeping your money if you die before reaching the retirement age, which happens very often here as russians in general don’t have a long life span thanks to atrocious medical care system and the lack of resources)
stats: more than a 1000 people arrested, including old people, teenagers and children; people beaten up, some of them wounded or with broken limbs, some old people requiring urgent medical care; most of community organisers and opposition leaders detained before the start of the protests. (https://tvrain.ru/news/ovd_info-471172/)
all for a peaceful protest. some of these people knew what to expect, because this is how most of protests end here. some didn’t, and were old and frail, or young, and just wanted to express their discontent. they were treated violently, ruthlessly and cruelly. this is what my country is today.
i am enraged. i am grieving. i HATE that the rest of the world doesn’t care, that the west make all russian developments about themselves and the western media only reports russian news connected to the american elections. i hate that no one ever mentions or notices the suffering of the people, the people arrested and jailed for nothing, the people tortured to death in prisons, oleg sentsov’s hunger strike going on for over 100 days and counting, the murdered journalists, the unbelievably widespread and obvious corruption, the spread of religious propaganda in all civil affairs including education and medicine. nothing changes, nothing ever will. i hate this.
and this post won’t get more than like, 15 notes, most of them likes from my fellow russians. people i know in europe tell me to my fucking face that they consider putin’s regime “strong and powerful”, american commies post memes about stalin and lecture ME, A CRIMEAN TATAR, on how the soviet union was beneficial for the people. i can’t express the kind of despair i feel every day.
picture sources 1, 2, также фотограф: давид френкель, tvrain channel
All true. Peaceful protests are treated the same way here in Belarus. I remember
our teachers threatening to expell us if we are caught even walking through the neighbourhood where the demonstration would take place. And yeah, many people lost their jobs and were expelled out of colleges for things like that.
If anyone tries to tell you that Shakespeare is stuffy or boring or highbrow, just remember that the word “nothing” was used in Elizabethan era slang as a euphemism for “vagina”.
Shakespeare has a play called “Much Ado About Nothing”, which you could basically read in modern slang as “Freaking Out Over Pussy”. And that’s pretty much exactly what happens in the play.
It’s also a pun with a third meaning. There’s the sex sense of much ado about “nothing”, there’s the obvious sense that people today see, and then there’s the fact that in Shakespeare’s day, “nothing” was pronounced pretty much the same as “noting”, which was a term used for gossip. So, “Flamewar Over Rumors” works as a title interpretation, too.
The reason we call Shakespeare a genius is that he can make a pussy joke in the same exact words he uses to make biting social commentary about letting unverified gossip take over the discourse.
Hey, hey, hey, you’re forgetting the fourth thing, that noting (again, pronounced note-ing) was a pun on music NOTES and that’s why there’s a shitload of singing and dancing and puns about singing and dancing because Much Ado About Noting is basically Freaking Out Over Pussy The Musical: Gossip Making a Mountain out of a Molehill.
So a tiny story: on Black Friday a few weeks ago I went to Gamestop to buy my brother a game for Christmas, and I noticed this older man was watching me like a hawk. He was loitering around the front of the store without really buying anything, and every time I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye he was looking at me. I went to look at the PS4 games, and he was looking at something right behind me. I checked out the Nintendo games, and he was looking at them too. I was the only woman in the store, by the way.
By the time I got in line to pay he was loitering at the front of the store again, and I just had that feeling that he was going to try and take the game I just bought, or steal my purse, as soon as I left the store. OR, he was going to try and follow me home. And I know I don’t have to explain that terror to any woman reading this, but all I could think was that I’m in this Gamestop alone with at least twenty other men and something is about to happen. I’m beginning to freak out, to the point where I’ve just pulled my pepper spray out of my purse and into the pocket of my coat.
So there I am, next in line to pay, and there is this GIGANTIC dudebro right behind me, and I say gigantic as a 6 foot tall woman. He says, “Ma’am? Don’t be offended, but would it be alright if I walked you to your car?” and I was like “Are you serious?” and he was like “There are some weird guys in here right now. Have you noticed that guy watching you?” and then I showed the dudebro the pepper spray in my pocket and he was like “Right on. Would you still let me walk you to your car?” and I said yes.
So I paid, and waited while HE paid, and he walked me to my car. And just as I was getting in, the weird guy who’d been loitering came out of the store, saw me and my dudebro, and turned around and walked away in the opposite direction.
In short: men who recognize that women are unsafe in dark alleys, college campuses, grocery stores, gas stations and retail stores and do something about it are the kind of quality men that this world needs more of.
Teenage alcoholism is so important to recognise. It is not healthy to be getting absolutely wasted a few times a week and sometimes young adults become alcoholic without realising it. If you are unable to have a fun time without drinking or you feel like you need to drink when others are in an overwhelming way then consider getting help.
No really. Get help. It starts with parties, and then it’s “lol im just sad all the time” and before you know it everything is awful and you’re spiralling out of control. Don’t get sucked in and don’t let tumblr Depression Culture make you think it’s normal.
Literally though this is SO ignored, even that book “The Knowledge” which is supposed to be all about how to accelerate the reboot process if civilisation collapses,
the entire subject of clothing production
from fibre sources to weaving
is given less than six pages (of 288),
and pretty much all it has to say (less than a page) on the vital matter of spinning is “did u kno spinning wheels are a thing; Da Vinci invented the spinning flyer and it’s really cool it’s so cool and Da Vinci is cool; you can make rope”
Like ok buddy, good luck with that.
Spinning wheels have a lot of parts and break easily,
and spinning
on a wheel is actually a specialist skill that has to be learned & practiced, so even if you do miraculously find one laying around in full working order after the apocalypse, good luck figuring out how to use and maintain it.
Good luck figuring out which whorls and bobbins to use and when and why. Good luck figuring out how to
adjust the band
or lace the flyer to control tension and gauge. Good luck with your shitty unset, unplied, uneven
yarn that you can’t even use because you ignored knitting and crochet. Good luck weaving your unset, unblocked handspun. Good luck with your weak, shitty rope. Sure glad you used that pagespace to tell us how the spinning flyer was one of the few of Da Vinci’s inventions that were implemented during his lifetime, instead of explaining how to set & block spun fibre to make it usable. That’ll keep you warm.
Godspeed you naked dumbass.
Never forget the episode of Naked & Afraid where the girl knew how to weave grass into a hat and outfit and the man just got horrible sunburns all over his body.
LISTEN the best fucking resource I have EVER gotten (and I got it on accident when my grandma was gonna hand it off to the thrift shop) is Reader’s Digest: Back to Basics. It not only boasts detailed instructions on how to twist yarn and weave on a loom, it covers basically everything else too. Building houses, raising animals and growing vegetables, canning/preservation, various handcrafts, even recreation. Basically everything you’d need to know for long-term survival, which is something a LOT of people overlook.
Overdressed & Underappreciated 