sharks + planes as formerly seen on Twitter

An offline friend asked me to bring fries and tots to a thing (they are practically the only covid-safe people I know offline) and I was immediately convinced that her family hates my cooking and I'm about to be the paper plates and napkins lady. As a result I am overcompensating and making dietary-accommodating tots, splurgy queso, and buying fries because that way no matter why I am being asked I will have my bases covered. (I also plan on trying to bring up the topic in a light-hearted way tomorrow so we can clear the air one way or the other without damaging the friendship.)

This situation is absolutely ludicrous for several reasons which I'm going to write out here because a lot of y'all don't know me super well and also so that I can look back on it if the conversation goes poorly tomorrow and feel better about things, kind of like what mint was talking about above.

reasons why it's ok, actually:
1. everyone has different tastes and it's ok for some people not to like my cooking, especially because
2. lots of people like my cooking, including my loved ones and other friends
3. it might not even be about my cooking (this should probably be highlighted and underlined)
4. even if it is, I've been bringing things not normally in my wheelhouse to accommodate for dietary needs that I was told about but not asked to accommodate (hello, people pleasing!), which might be because said person uses get-togethers as splurge days
5. bringing napkins and paper plates is actually a lot less pressure and can also be cheaper than buying lots of ingredients to make things
6. at the end of the day, even if I do end up being asked to bring plates and napkins, I'm still being invited and they're choosy folks so they still want me around and value my friendship and that's the most important part of all this.

People who think taking a cute character and making it a fucked up monster are the most boring, trite people in the world

You're still fucking alive, breathing and talking

Be fucking happy about something for God's sake

growing up in a christian church, there was always talk of "the end times" and it's kinda wild to see non-religious people act the same way

it doesn't make sense to me to a liberal or progressive or leftist or communist or WHATEVER you want to call yourself and not have hope for the future

it doesn't make sense to me to try and work towards something better while also being a cynical asshole all the time

You think the world is completely terrible? Well one, please talk to someone about that just in case you have a case of medical bad brain (which is fine, a lot of us do) but two, you are wrong???

We feel disempowered and useless because systems are built to put us in that state. Be it electoralism or militarism or good ol' fashioned capitalism. These systems are huge. Way too big for a single person to make real change alone but also too big for any one person to see in it totality. That's why organizing is the key and that can be done by anyone at any time. World bad? Gather the homies and push for change, however small. Unionize your coffee shop, then use that union power to organize more, leverage that power to make even more change and so on. It's not immediate, but it's real material change for everyone that comes after. Planting trees you'll never sit in the shade of, all that jazz. You think the world should be a certain way? Well then like... do something about it.

IN THE MEANTIME the world around you has other people in it. That's what most of our world is. People that have joy and love and understanding and history and culture. We see a couple fascist freaks making the world a little worse and just assume they represent the totality of our existence, ignoring the fact that millions of people feel like you do and also hate the freaks. We have and always will outnumber the freaks and anyone who is so selfishly wrapped up in proving to others that they're the big brained smart boy that's discovered "the world is bad actually but in the way that MY ideology is against" is a weirdo who is not invited to my party