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This advertisement for UseGoodBooks.com is fantastic art. Pure and stellar animation, with themes and narration clearly inspired by the great writer Hunter S. Thompson. By far one of the best videos I’ve seen in a long time.

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I have this overwhelming feeling I need to rethink my life. But I don’t know what needs to change

Ridiculously exhausting day. At school from 10am to 8pm. My legs are aching from sitting in class for so long. Having hours of homework awaiting me, and a 9am quiz tomorrow plus a 3 hour chemistry lab. I want to die.

Anonymous: A mi me gusta su cara....tu comprendes espanol? Todos los dias yo hablo en espanol..

Lo siento por la respuesta tarde! Tambien, no hablo mucho espanol. Comprendo un poco, pero no puedo hablar con fluidez. Gracias para tu cumplimiento!

Made by the same people who created that last video I reblogged.

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thearcticlemon:

evolutional:

oh my fucking god this is so true

Is it ok to present that to my principal anonimously?

“why is homework legal”
“it’s basically slavery”

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?

Insensitive and belittling comparison to the literal ENSLAVEMENT of human beings in forced manual and socioeconomic roles for their ENTIRE LIVES as objects to be owned and sorted into a subhuman class according to predetermined and uncontrollable hereditary and aesthetic qualities ASIDE,

Homework is sometimes assigned in excess, for sure, but it provides a necessary purpose. School work, such as homework and class presentations, are part of training for the real world. You think you’ll get a free pass on all work in the real world because you cite a hangup or psychological issue? Forget that shit. Seriously, forget it, it provides a destructive psychological crutch that impedes your recovery and self-actualization as a happy and functioning individual.

The real world is structured as a meritocracy, and if you don’t possess basic skills like literacy, critical thinking, and aptitude at public speaking, then guess what?

You want some actual beneficial change for people with anxiety and depression related to school? Sure, let’s deal with the actual roots of the problems at hand:

school bullying,
peer pressure,
treatment of grades as a measure of inherent worth rather than mastery of utilitarian skills,
internalized stigmas about psychological disorders,
and of course the lack of education about said disorders that gives forth these stigmas.

But DON’T blame this on homework—at least not on the principle of homework. In execution, school work has deviated from its philosophic core, but that would only worsen with the elimination of said homework.

I’ll be damned before I agree to a school system that doesn’t provide some work or training for kids so they can be ready for the workplace. Not only does that fuck over society, it fucks over the students. What kind of moral being would be comfortable with thrusting our children into the working world without giving them the proper opportunities to develop skills to work and thus feed and clothe themselves?

Psychological disorders or hangups are why we have private and public opportunities available to people for treatment and therapy. And guess what? Those therapists became competent and got their jobs by getting educated. The best therapists are those which have found an ideal job according to the skills they developed and rewarded for their talents in the societal meritocracy. And sub-par therapists are the result of a failed meritocracy, which is an inevitability of a world without school work to educate and train students.

And social anxiety about public speaking? Sorry, that’s pretty universal. Elimination of public speaking for the socially anxious means elimination of public speaking for nearly everyone. It’s a fear everyone in a civilized society should conquer eventually—and if not conquer, then learn to cope with when necessary. (I am a strong proponent of this system, as through exposure to this fear, I was able to progress from a hyperventilating, nauseous wreck to a calm, competent speaker in a variety of social and public situations.)

There are mechanisms in place to deal with serious cases of anxiety, and any roadblocks to recovery are not the fault of this construct of homework as much as the reasons listed in the bullet points above. So don’t channel blame unjustly or adopt anti-intellectualism and ignorance as a balm for your stresses; it only worsen your situation and impede the functioning of society in the long run.

(Source: mysecretinspiration, via sagefishery)

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Is Community A Postmodern Masterpiece? | Idea Channel

liberalsarecool:

#steubenville

That’s not as much judicial favoritism in favor of rapists as it is the procedural nature of sentencing minors. You have to consider that before throwing around such weighty cynical rhetoric.

Minors are generally given more clemency because it is assumed (rightfully, most of the time) youths have less control and awareness of the consequences of their actions—and that isolating young people in prison systems during such a developmentally-vital stage of their social/moral development has much more negative long-term consequences than it would for adults. Just as you wouldn’t want a kid put away for 10 years for drug possession, you get situations in which kids who commit more unsavory crimes are also granted some mercy.

I will not defend the surprisingly light sentence the Steubenville rapists were given, but you can’t compare their case to that of other popular ‘martyrs’ of popular culture like Internet activists. You’re dealing with two separate realms of policy here.

And If you agree with the philosophy behind the policy of granting minors more clemency than fully-socialized adults, then you also have to accept that this policy applies to people who commit crimes like rape. I will not defend the morality of the Steubenville rapists, but to have truly consistent justice in society, you have to admit that as youths will less socialization and moral awareness than adults, they are deserving of more clemency than adults.

(via sagefishery)

33,141 notes

Lars and the Real Girl is probably my favorite movie now. I can’t believe I haven’t watched it before. That was so beautiful.

personal

Expounding on previous post

Aditya: Your status, could you elaborate pls
Aleko: Well, take George Carlin for example
he's a comedian that was exceedingly popular in like the 90s, if you didn't know
I think he's still around, or maybe he recently passed, I dunno
but he held the view that environmentalism was inherently egotistical
because it assumed nature gave a damn about what humans did
and he thought we didn't have as big of an effect on earth as we liked to believe
and he had the valid point that we won't likely destroy the rock that we call 'earth', but he didn't understand that life is governed by a very fragile balance of nutrients and climate cycles and ecological interactions and more
which are held in a balance that presupposes an absence of significant human interference
we are advancing far faster than anything 'nature' could have prepared for
and true, we may not destroy all life
but we will, and currently are, erasing hundreds of millions of years of evolution and biological diversity.
If we presuppose there is some meaning to life, then what we are doing is tantamount to nihilistic annihilation
or if you don't believe there is meaning to non-human life, then we are certainly still destroying many of the biological and non-living aspects that allow humans to live happily
societies are established on nature's foundations, to be sure; but we are taking a sledgehammer and knocking down those foundations
and fuck me if nature isn't humbling and powerful, but we're hurting and altering it enough to pose a serious risk to how it is structured to support our own existence
so my status is noting how, while the oceans and mountains strike me as awe-inspiring and humbling, they are aspects of a natural system that we are inadvertently guiding to an unsatisfactory end
I mean, by fishing alone we have already killed off over 70% of the ocean's edible fish
and we're just getting started.
It's a hard truth to face that our actions have such effects on things we thought unmovable, like the endless oceans of our planet, but to be in the right side of the moral spectrum we have to acknowledge this truth nonetheless.

Sometimes I feel like people’s humility when faced with the might of nature is a defense mechanism to help them deny the truth that the human race is one of the most significant forces of nature seen in the era of complex life, and ignore the responsibility that comes with that fact.

Today I saw a rat casually stroll across the courtyard and into Wellman Hall, apparently to attend an afternoon class.

Affirmative action has gone too far this time.