I’m here to challenge myself and to see whether I can shape-shift in an environment that’s actually quite daunting, but which I think would be nice to shine a light into. The destination of any interesting drama is that you shine a light into a place that not many people know about.
apparently one whale years ago was observed doing this for hours and now more and more whales in the area are seen copying it so we think it’s a whole new behavior and it seems to be a response to shrinking food sources.
Instead of expending any energy actively hunting, the whale just holds its mouth open wherever fish are being hunted by birds. To escape the birds, the fish try to hide in the whale’s mouth because it’s a darker area that looks like shelter.
…They’re turning into giant, sea-mammal pitcher plants.
What is interesting is there is a heron (black heron) that hunts via similar methods (using shade as bait for fish). I do not think it is a learned behavior for them though. Paralel evolution is buck wild. You can reach similar outcomes through wildly different evolutionary methods and paths. Eg - in whales it is their big brains at work - with herons it is instictual - and with pitcher plants it is automatic.
Yeah little creatures love to hide so a number of predators have taken advantage of that and what’s EXTRA fucked up is that another example includes a starfish:
Abusers are really good at is making you feel like your anger is worse than their abuse.
This is so important. Many survivors have spent months or years not being allowed to express anger or being made to feel ashamed for experiencing anger.
So if you know a survivor, and you tell them that they “can’t” or “shouldn’t” be angry, that will almost certainly be triggering, and it’s really cruel.
Telling survivors that they need to “get past” their anger or to “be the bigger person” or “holding onto anger is like holding onto a hot coal” or “anger is like drinking poison and expecting someone else to die” or that “healing is only possible with forgiveness” or that “forgiveness will set you free,” or that “being angry means the abuser still has control,” or that experiencing anger makes the survivor as bad as the abuser, or whatever else– that’s culturally imposed abuse apologism and if you want to be an ally, you need to unlearn resorting to those platitudes when trying to comfort survivors.
It’s okay to experience anger. It’s literally the natural reaction to boundary violation, and when someone’s boundaries have been repeatedly violated and broken down for years, it’s important for a person’s health to be able to experience and express that anger. It honestly really is.
