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It confuses me how normalized it is to be so anti human. The fact that two countries voted no to food being a human right. The fact so many people are against universal healthcare. The fact that it’s normal to believe some people don’t deserve housing because they’re poor, addicts, mentally ill, or any combination of the above. I find it so hard to comprehend that humans who have experienced hunger, thirst, cold, and illness would wish these things upon others, or at the very least not care. It frustrates me beyond belief.

These are the exact values we’re taught as children, to believe all humans are equal in worth and needs, and yet at some point you’re expected to grow out of that illusion. You’re expected to accept that this is what life’s like, that the world is unfair, and attempting to fix it makes you weak and childish.

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observations

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Help Israa evacuate when Rafah crossing reopens!!

I've written posts for my friend Israa @nasseer220 before, and she once again needs our help to evacuate as soon as possible when the border opens. Israa is a mother to two young children, her son Nasser, and her daughter Enaam. Enaam was born during the genocide and contracted hepatitis, which caused her to need urgent surgery to save her life. With her youngest in delicate health, Israa needs to be able to evacuate as soon as she can, and also seek medical treatment, not only for Enaam, but for her entire family.

Israa's father recently passed away because he had a stroke while also battling cancer, and she was unable to pay for his care. Please, this time, don't abandon her, and share and donate so she can save her young children.

Israa's old fundraiser is vetted by association here, and she had to start from scratch after her previous fundraisers organizer closed the fundraiser. Her fundraiser is moving very slowly, the last donation was 7 hours ago and the one before that was from FIVE DAYS AGO.

Share!! Donate!! Please, do not forget Israa again!!

Tagging under the cut, sorry for tagging so much, as always respond to this post if you do not want to be tagged.

@socalgal @wellwaterhysteria @rhubarbspring

@bulliness @vampiricvenus @imjustheretotrytohelp

@nbblacksheep @afro-elf @iregularlyevadetaxes

@ladiablesse @kyra45-helping-others @2bu

@omegaversereloaded @capricornpropaganda @hoodhinata

@paparoach @guldaastan @boobieteriat

@commissions4aid-international @a-shade-of-blue @c-u-c-koo-4-40k

@murderbot @musicfren @wearywoes

@heritageposts @dirhwangdaseul @papenathys

@cfo-of-antifa @shesnake @akajustmerry

@neechees @paper-mario-wiki @idontmindifuforgetme

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Help Ammar's family 🍉

A year has passed since the October 7 war, the Gaza Strip war. In this war, Ammar Hammad was born in harsh conditions. He was 3 months old and could not breastfeed from his mother because she suffers from asthma in the lungs and no milk comes down in her udder. There is a report from Nasser Hospital about this. Ammar needs about 10 packs of milk to help him live in these conditions, in addition to diapers and his special clothes. In addition, Ammar's son suffers from a complete tear in the cruciate ligament and cannot work. Therefore, Ammar needs your help to stay alive.

Your donation is part of saving our lives from death. I hope you donate 20$

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bhm - need help paying off medical bill

happy black history month! please consider helping out a black + trans disabled guy pay off an overdue bill?

i'm sorry to ask for assistance again so soon, but i was hit with a bill where i need to pay at least $50 (and maybe more, unsure at this time) for a test i recently took and was uninformed about paying for it until this afternoon.

i have bust sketch comms open + resales/offers on my toyhouse 

paidpale

cashedapp

vendmoe

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Today was the date for surgery on my foot so I could walk, but unfortunately I couldn't do it because I couldn't raise the money!!!!😭

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Traction Has Slowed Down

Hi my loves! So a few days back I made a post for @samah-2 aiming to get a stretch goal sorted. The post ended up going pretty far, but donations have slowed down again. I am making another post on Samah's behalf to keep it going!!!! Samah and her family need all the funds they can get to keep their heads above water and survive post ceasefire so they can decide how they want to move forward. They have been blessed with survival, and now they need the support to continue to survive!!!!

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Something I haven't seen a lot of discussion on in response to the US tariff stupidity, is the reinforcement from both Mark Carney (plausible next Liberal leader) and Pierre Polliwog that Canada needs to increase extraction of natural resources.

As an Indigenous person, all I'm hearing is a huge red flag.

Mark my words, no matter what happens from these tariffs, it will be used as an excuse for Canada to increase its colonial grip. Canadian settlers will sing nationalistic praises about how strong and resilient Canada is, while Indigenous peoples suffer.

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btw yes it is amazing to celebrate drake's ruin and being a hater etc etc but i want everyone to come away from tonight remembering that this is about far far more than one evil man.

everything about this performance was a celebration of the black american culture that drake commodifies. kendrick went on stage in the middle of the country's largest sporting event with trump in attendance and stated, very clearly, that black culture is not going anywhere.

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A Crash Course to Kendrick's Super Bowl Performance, from a Black Woman

Note: this does NOT go in depth into all of the song's lyrics. I don't have time to recount two decades of his discography. This is just a summary of the performance itself.

Let's start with the first visual we get:

UNCLE SAM - most notably recognized from WWII American wartime propaganda, Uncle Sam is the personification of American patriotism and freedom. The term "uncle" is also evocative of Uncle Tom from Uncle Tom's Cabin, an abolitionist book that aided in inciting the Civil War. Uncle is also a very common term (both endearment and derogatory) towards Black men (eg. "unc"). Samuel L Jackson was fantastic.

Uncle Sam also resembles a circus ringleader, notable for my next point:

THE GREAT AMERICAN GAME - no, not Super Bowl. The GAG is us the people being pitted against each other: through late-stage capitalism, through the culture war, through class warfare, through being built of the backs of slaves. We are all players in the GAG because none of us on this site were the oligarchs seated at the inauguration.

This is also seen as Kendrick's stage was a Play Station controller. Not only did it remind of circus rings visually, but it was a game battle stage. The Great American Game is a battle royale of the commoners for the amusement of the rich whites.

Remember the foods / Them color was tin and brown / But now they 100 and blue - For this I'll just say, look what the last election said about lowering the price of eggs... and look at the prices now.

The revolution about to be televised / You picked the right time / But the wrong guy - Election 2024 once more.

THE FLAG DANCERS - yes, the dancers formed the US flag... off of the backs of Black people. Not a single white person in sight, and that's true of the cotton pickers in the fields. Plantations are part of how the US came to economic prominence after being a "backwater" colony. Remember tobacco? Cotton? Our bloodlines do.

The red and blue dancers are also notable for representing the Crips and Bloods, two infamous street gangs. The dance in Not Like Us is the Crip Walk. I recommend researching more on your own time about them, but just know they are a large part of the stereotype of Black people being "ghetto."

TOO LOUD, TOO RECKLESS, TOO GHETTO. Do you really know how to play the game? - This is exactly what Black people, especially Black men, get told all the time. It's why we change our names on resumes if they sound "too Black." It's why we codeswitch in non-Black company. This is especially rich considering how non-Black people love our culture and love to make money off of us, as the latter part of the quote points to. And it's even more profound during the Super Bowl-- the NFL is majority Black players.

STREET LIGHT A CAPELLA -- "thug" stereotype dancers to counteract the a capella connotations, with Uncle Sam then saying that Kendrick figured out "bringing other street guys around being a culture cheat code." Yes, this is a direct hit at Drake (listen to "Not Like Us") but also politically. Look up "model minority". Notably I would point to Candace Owens, or the Miami Venezuelan political group that's been in the news recently, especially as this directly led to Kendrick being surrounded by...

DANCERS IN WHITE -- it's white America. That's... that's the allegory.

NOT LIKE US TEASER -- Kendrick says "Not Like Us" is "their favorite song." -> he means white people specifically here. It comes after he's surrounded by all white dancers, the women around him who are his call and response are also in white (my opinion, they represent the industry). He's saying "Not Like Us" is the favorite of yts because it is about BLACK MEN FIGHTING. This again is reflected in the video game stage and ringleader Uncle Sam.

SZA -- instead of giving what they want, we see SZA. She's one of Drake's exes and Kendrick has always supported her.

ALL THE STARS -- This was in the first Black Panther movie, which I recommend you watch. Rest in Power Chadwick. Notably, this movie was incredibly mainstream as a major Marvel movie, and then we have Uncle Sam say...

"THAT'S WHAT AMERICA WANTS: NICE AND CALM. DON'T MESS THIS UP" -- translation: Marvel (the industry, America, etc.) wanted a safe, semi-pop song because white American likes safe pop songs, not Kendrick's usual heavy rap style about his life as a Black man! Don't mess up what you've got going mainstream for having this "Black rap feud" with Drake, who is an R&B model minority to white people because he's safe.

So what does Kendrick say?

IT'S A CULTURAL DIVIDE / IMMA GET IT ON THE FLOOR -- He was warned not to be political or apologetically Black for this Super Bowl performance, but he is using this big stage opportunity to speak out.

40 ACRES AND A MULE / THIS IS BIGGER THAN THE MUSIC -- 40 acres and a mule are what the freed slaves were promised. Instead, this land went to white sharecroppers. Research Jim Crow laws.

THEY TRIED TO RIG THE GAME / BUT YOU CAN'T FAKE INFLUENCE -- rig the election, rig the industry like with model minority Drake, rig the Great American Game with culture war to distract from active class warfare.

NOT LIKE US -- the only thing I'll mention because it made me holler is Serena Williams crip walking on Drake's metaphorical grave. She's another one of his exes.

TURN THE TV OFF -- exactly like he said! The TV is a distraction, the Super Bowl is a distraction, the mainstream news is often a distraction. Turn it off and get with your people!

GAME OVER — could not see this on my stream but at the end of the performance, the lights in the stadium spelled this out. The world is watching, America…

In conclusion, Kendrick Lamar is a visionary and thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

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Emergency!!

Bashaer’s @bshaeromars-blog father Abdullah has been diagnosed with liver hypertrophy! He has 3 large, growing masses on his liver that need to be removed IMMEDIATELY! His condition is advanced, and he urgently needs an operation to keep it from getting worse! He is already very very sick!

The operation costs $4,000 USD. Please share his household’s GFM and donate if you can!! He does not have much time left, and surgery is his only hope for survival!!

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Today was the date for surgery on my foot so I could walk, but unfortunately I couldn't do it because I couldn't raise the money!!!!😭

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🚨 URGENT: WE NEED YOUR HELP!

Yesterday, our tent was severely damaged and flooded due to heavy rains, and we are still stranded in southern Gaza. We couldn’t move to the north because life there is nearly impossible, with no essential services, and transportation costs are extremely high, making relocation very difficult.

Since the ceasefire ended, we have lost everything:

🏠 Our home has been destroyed.

💼 Our work is gone, and we have no income.

⚠ The situation remains unstable, with ongoing threats of war.

We don’t know what the coming days will bring, but we do know that we cannot survive this alone. Your previous support was a lifeline for our family, and today, we desperately need your help again. Every donation, no matter how small, brings us one step closer to safety.

🙏 Thank you for your kindness and generosity.

“SAVE OUR LIVES – CLICK HERE TO DONATE”

✅ Vetted By @bilal-salah0

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€20,219 / €21,446 raised to pay off his bill as of Feb 9.

€1,227 to go!

Help Mohammed pay his hospital bills

Mohammed (@mohammedalhabil2000) is a Palestinian teen who got surgery on his injured leg in January, but he's still trying to pay off the bill, as well as raise the money to leave Gaza to get more comprehensive treatment on his leg.

@northgazaupdates has been posting about his condition and his fundraiser was vetted by association here.

As of February 6, he has not gotten a donation in 4 days, so I'm making a new post. I'm still offering commissions for donations if you're interested!

€20,149 / €21,446 raised to pay off his bill.

€1,297 to go!

Tagging for reach under the cut. DM me to be added/removed.

@orchidvioletindigo @rhubarbspring @thedigitalbard @zigcarnivorous @jezior0

@emathyst9 @laurapalmerss @mushroomjar @daisywalletchains @magnus-rhymes-with-swagness-blog

@loupgawou @rainy-fog @jedi-valjean @6oys @bezbzns

@redbuddi @bixels @autisticmudkip

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quick life tips that aren't worthy of a whole post

Your to-do lists are menus, not marching orders. I've gotten so much out of doing a weekly brain dump and then just selecting a few things out of it. Like "here are all the things I could do, not I'll pick a few that would improve my life in a meaningful way and a few that I just want to, the rest can chill". Unless you achieve enlightenment, we all die with unfinished business. It's chill. You're not a failure. It's just an option.

Create a capsule menu of shelf stable and long lasting fridge foods for when you don't feel like menu planning. Like a capsule wardrobe. Cooking oil is like your underwear, it's a base necessity. Then 3 sources of protein, 3 sources of fiber, 3 sources of volume. For us, proteins are canned chicken, eggs, and yogurt. Fiber is frozen vegetable mix, chia seeds, and legumes. Volume is rice, frozen bread, or oatmeal. Pick three spice mixes (Taco, Curry, and Cajun for us) and mix and match. Add some fun items like cheese, jam, and a condiment or two. Mix and match, throw something together. You can even roll on a dice table for it.

Morale items aren't pointless or wasteful. I spent entirely too much on coffeemonsterzco stickers recently. Guess who's updated their bullet journal and memory keeping calendar for several weeks now? Me. Guess who's already had it uncover and recontextualize medical issues? Also me. It's not pointless. Get the damn stickers.

Listing three good things everyday/gratitude is not overblown hype. It's not meant to dismiss negative feelings or even make you feel good - it helps you correct for you brain's negativity bias and create cognitive flexibility which in turn improves resilience and decision making. Way too many people get the wrong read on it. It's genuinely helped me lately even through some real unfun shit.

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Homeless pregnant and her family

My friends, pregnancy is difficult even without war.

Imagine being without a home or a job—how would you endure it all?

How can you provide food for the baby inside you when you barely have enough to eat?

How will your child be born without hospitals or medical care?

Please, my friends, stand by me. My family and I need you. 🙏10 euros can make difference

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Today was the date for surgery on my foot so I could walk, but unfortunately I couldn't do it because I couldn't raise the money!!!!😭