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debasement

[ID: Two-panel comic.

Panel 1: Two cleanly drawn stick people, one green and one grayscale, are saying words.

Green: "I am an unintuitive trans metaphor!"

Grayscale: "Being transgender is bad!"

Green: "You are incorrect!"

Grayscale: "My opinion is unchanged."

Green: "I am aware."

Panel 2: The two cleanly drawn stick people are shown to be standing on a crudely drawn table, while a crudely drawn green stick person is pointing at them.

Real Green: "No I don't look or sound like that. This is really weird who made these?"

Fake Green: "You are transphobic."

Fake Grayscale: "Yes."

Fake Green: "That is bad."

Fake Grayscale: "No."

End ID.]

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An altercation erupts at a high-level meeting of a Russia-dominated economic union

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Wish I had some huge contrarian takes on the ancient historians but I don't really. Their reputation is usually close enough to accurate. Thucydides really is more perceptive and talented than his successors. Plutarch really does favor moralizing at the expense of historical accuracy. And so on.

I do think that some historians are overrated as historians just because they're our best source for a given time. Diodorus Siculus and Livy are a good comparison here. They both wrote massive comprehensive histories built on the works of others with little original research of their own. In terms of quality, their writing is good when they have good sources to epitomize but otherwise not so much. Maybe Livy is somewhat more talented than Diodorus but I don't think it's by a massive amount. But Livy is our main surviving source for the first half millennium of Roman history while much of what survives of Diodorus is duplicated elsewhere. So Livy gets talked about much more (understandable) and praised more too (also understandable but ultimately a little unfair).

There's a tendency when talking about pre-modern writers to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they knew what they were doing, which is probably a healthy attitude for a historian to take but also I do think that the median surviving ancient historian was mediocre at their job, and not just grading on an unfair modern curve. Older assessments of historians tend to be a bit more frank in their assessments, but in more recent decades translators like to rediscover and rehabilitate these guys. Again, not always a bad instinct, but it's something you have to adjust for as a reader.

But even so, generally the historians that get talked about the most are also the ones you should be reading. Even if they aren't always as skilled as claimed, they're still *essential*, which is ultimately the more important thing.

The one work that really doesn't get talked about enough is Diodorus Siculus Books 16-20 about Philip II, Alexander, and the civil wars after Alexander's death. It's such an exciting time and such a fun read!

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My spouse and I are both disabled, queer, and native. We have been struggling and are in desperate need of help. We need to pay for January rent, our phone, electric, and cable bills, and our car payment. We need $3000

www.paypal.me/jnwampler

V: KajiW

C: $kajiw

0/$3000

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Is 1,000 notes too much for a donation post?

Should I make a new one?

Calli always made them, I have always been too ashamed to ask but I can't make them come all the way to the Internet Cafe.

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Help a Homeless Transgender Woman Raise $300 to Buy a Trailer to Live in and Restart Her Life

Sunday, December 22nd 2014

I am a homeless transgender woman living in Slab City, California, a squatter town in the Sonora Desert.

I have lived here for 5 years with the project of building up our community and trying to organize us under the values of autonomy and collective independence.

Recently I have gone through some hard times and lost nearly everything I have built in that time, including my home. I need help to build myself back up and start my project to rebuild our community.

Please help me raise $300 to afford a trailer to live in and use as the starting point of a new community camp.

Cash App: $ThistleDD

Venmo: @ThistleDD

I appreciate everyone's help in donating to get me back on my feet. Thank you!

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I was able to sign the lease yesterday and slept in such a nice warm place. Thank you so much All that's left is $647 to get tumor removal surgery! December 30th is the latest but I can have it done sooner as they have openings through the week. I have been dealing with a multitude of sicknesses while also being homeless amid rain and snow. I am also trying to get my son back that is staying with my social pop I was coming back home. worker due to me now being homeless. Food was gotten, thank you! I'm doing tarot and @scarsofbeauty is doing art comissions on their page. I also edit papers & resumes! please share to help a disabled afro-indigenous queer person escape get surgery so that they can live and get their son and pets back.

$427 left to get tumor removal surgery!! spending christmas alone w/o my son this year so literally anything helps, please keep sharing!

pp: teariche@gmail.com

ca: $kendyhoney (also have Ko-fi)

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watching children successfully and compassionately self-mediate conflict and wondering if it's possible to pinpoint where exactly it all goes wrong for us

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Me, starting a video that says it's going to explain how Victorian poorhouses fucked up the concept of charity forever: ok, show me what you've got

Video: it starts with the ideas of the Christian philosopher --

Me: DON'T SAY IT DON'T FUCKING SAY IT

Video: -- John Calvin

Me:

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nimble, a border collie-papillon mix, wins the 12” class in the 2024 masters agility championship. the first time a mixed breed has won at westminster ever.

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literally insane to me how you can shove military propaganda in a show for actual preschoolers and that's considered fine but god forbid you find it weird or sad or else someone will pen a whole article discrediting the horrors millions are going through because having dog soldiers in the cartoon for 3 year olds is more important

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