sad that tumblr keeps stepping on an easily avoidable series of rakes. i really liked having one fucking social media platform that i mostly liked using and wasn’t responsible for operating. having your day job also be the Last Website Standing doesn’t feel great

i will never, in my entire life, understand how masking fell out of favor "after" the pandemic--which I put in quotes because, really, the pandemic isn't over, millions are still dying, long COVID is a prevailing disability among young adults, and immunocompromised people remain at risk, perhaps greater now than ever.

the 2004 SARS outbreak made masking effectively a social norm in East Asia and other impacted regions, particularly during the winter and other infectious seasons. you go on public transit? mask. you go to comiket? mask. sure, not everyone masks all the time, but masking has been normal abroad for a pretty long time now, especially when feeling ill.

when COVID hit i genuinely thought that moment was going to happen in the US. regardless of what happened with COVID, i thought, this is our mask moment, this is when wearing a mask during peak seasons for the spread of respiratory disease becomes socially normal.

instead, the second it stopped being a requirement, masks became seen as some oppressive force. planes, public transit, grocery stores, whatever, if it's not required, people aren't masking. and why the fuck is that? we unlocked a socially acceptable cheat code for entirely avoiding social perception at the fuckin costco and y'all don't want that for some reason???? it genuinely makes no sense.

because here's the thing--for the vast majority of people, masking is comically easy. maybe causes some ear strain, whatever. the vast majority of people do not have to worry about glasses fog, or oxygen intake issues, or material allergies, or any other barriers to masking. even someone like me, for whom masking can actually be a pain in the ass because of glasses, i've figured out ways to make it work fine, whether it's nose clips or just buying a better mask with a better seal.

the science has told us time and time again that masking genuinely helps reduce the risk of respiratory illness. masking, and vaccines, reduce the risk of infection or reinfection, and masks in particular lower the viral load taken in during an infectious event. a lower viral load means reduced duration of illness and reduced long COVID risk. and it's so easy! and yet we just... fuck it, i want the fucking stewardess to be able to see my face at all times, who cares, time to cough on the subway.

like. how. how is masking such a sticking point for people. literally just do it. and not "until the pandemic is over," but every single winter, every single uptick in the spread of respiratory illness. just mask. it's better for you and your fellow humans, and frankly there are very few compelling reasons not to.

As someone who has been masking every time I go anywhere for the last 5 years, yeah, it makes me feel extremely crazy that no one else seems to care at all about protecting themselves or others. We have a choice every day between illness and the mildest of inconvenience and by and large society has chosen illness

Before someone is tempted to be purposefully obtuse at them (please don't), let's remember that while plenty of non-white people also don't mask anymore, the "take off your mask" messaging/minimizing/outright lying about the ongoing dangers of COVID was and still is primarily driven by organizations striving to uphold whiteness as an institution and we are not just talking about rightwingers here because plenty of centrist, liberal, and leftist institutions have done this too.

it's increasingly becoming my opinion that spending quality time outdoors is important for your health. that's your ecosystem. your environment is an extension of your own body. as humanity gets increasingly interested and trapped in its own constructions you have to reorient yourself with what's real.

It’s also super fun to learn about the organisms that live outside! I like using iNaturalist to share my findings but you also can do it without posting anywhere, just get a field guide and/or comprehensive dichotomous key for your area and have fun discovering that even just the weeds that grow around your area alone have really incredible diversity

Logged in to itch and happened to get reminded that my game has had 2500 downloads and $9 revenue in the past three years

Shout-out once again to the ttrpg guy here who said my $1 game was overpriced. Step on a nail, asshole.

If you bought the Bundle for Racial Justice in 2020 you already own my game and about a thousand others.