mouseyfox

[mouseyfox]

I’m not naming names because I’m not trying to start anything but I’m seeing several mutuals claiming they always knew Gaiman was a bad egg and it was so obvious, as though they didn’t make me stand in line with them to get his signature and kept their signed copies of his books on a special shelf akin to a shrine.

And like, listen, you don’t need to pretend.

This isn’t the devil’s sacrament. You’re not tainted by association. You’re not morally bad for not immediately knowing when someone is being charming and persuasive to hide something they don’t want you to know.

Abusers don’t just groom their victims. They groom their witnesses too. You were never supposed to know something was wrong because it was intentionally hidden. It’s okay you didn’t know. You don’t need to act like you never liked him or his work. You don’t need to pretend. But you do need to stop being shitty to other people who also didn’t know because it reeks of victim blaming.

“Well I knew, so how come others didn’t?”

His victims were fans. Are you blaming them for not knowing?

Christ alive, I hope not.

[mouseyfox]

thriftbooks better world books half-price books wonder book pangobooks libgen archive.org ubuweb kanopy (library card required; free) tubi pluto tv

storygraph

abebooks, book depository, and goodreads are all owned my amazon.

[mouseyfox]

Pokemon Gameboy Advance Artwork made by MiwiArt

[mouseyfox]

I couldn't have said it better myself.

[mouseyfox]

"The shift from the Afro-Caribbean zombie to the U.S. zombie is clear: in Caribbean folklore, people are scared of becoming zombies, whereas in U.S. narratives people are scared of zombies. This shift is significant because it maps the movement from the zombie as victim (Caribbean) to the zombie as an aggressive and terrifying monster who consumes human flesh (U.S.). In Haitian folklore, for instance, zombies do not physically threaten people; rather, the threat comes from the voduon practice whereby the sorcerer (master) subjugates the individual by robbing the victim of free will, language and cognition. The zombie is enslaved."

— Justin D. Edwards, "Mapping Tropical Gothic in the Americas" in Tropical Gothic in Literature and Culture.

Follow Diary of a Philosopher for more quotes!

[mouseyfox]

Urgent Appeal for a Hearing Aid for My S Mother

To the good and philanthropists around the world🍉🙏

I am writing to you today as the son of a mother who has endured unimaginable suffering. My name is Youssef, and I am seeking your support to help my mother, who lost her hearing in her right ear as a result of the brutal siege and airstrikes in Gaza. The war has taken so much from her, but the loss of her hearing has been one of the most devastating consequences.

My mother, once full of life and able to communicate freely, now faces the daily struggle of isolation and silence. A hearing aid is her only chance of regaining some semblance of normalcy, but the cost of such a device ranges from $1500 to $2000 — an amount that is beyond our financial means due to the ongoing hardships we are enduring.

I am humbly reaching out to you, knowing that you are people of compassion and kindness, to help us provide this essential aid for my mother. Your generous support will not only restore her ability to hear but also allow her to regain a sense of connection to the world around her.

Every contribution, no matter how small, will have a profound impact on improving her life and giving her back her dignity. We trust in your generosity and hope that you will answer our call, as you have always done for those in need.

May Allah bless you all with health, peace, and prosperity.

✅️Vetted by @gazavetters, my number verified on the list is ( #251 )✅️

https://chuffed.org/project/119367-help-save-josephs-family-from-war-and-famine

[mouseyfox]

I want to step away from the art-vs-artist side of the Gaiman issue for a bit, and talk about, well, the rest of it. Because those emotions you're feeling would be the same without the art; the art just adds another layer.

Source: I worked with a guy who turned out to be heavily involved in an international, multi-state sex-slavery/trafficking ring.

He was really nice.

Yeah.

It hits like a dumptruck of shit. You don't feel stable in your world anymore. How could someone you interacted with, liked, also be a truly horrible person? How could your judgement be that bad? How can real people, not stylized cartoon bogeymen, be actually doing this shit?

You have to sit with the fact that you couldn't, or probably couldn't, have known. You should have no guilt as part of this horror — but guilt is almost certainly part of that mess you're feeling, because our brains do this associative thing, and somehow "I liked [the version of] the guy [that I knew]", or his creations, becomes "I made a horrible mistake and should feel guilty."

You didn't, loves, you didn't.

We're human, and we can only go by the information we have. And the information we have is only the smallest glimpse into someone else's life.

I didn't work closely with the guy I knew at work, but we chatted. He wasn't just nice; he was one of the only people outside my tiny department who seemed genuinely nice in a workplace that was rapidly becoming incredibly toxic. He loaned me a bike trainer. Occasionally he'd see me at the bus stop and give me a lift home.

Yup. I was a young woman in my twenties and rode in this guy's car. More than once.

When I tell this story that part usually makes people gasp. "You must feel so scared about what could have happened to you!" "You're so lucky nothing happened!"

No, that's not how it worked. I was never in danger. This guy targeted Korean women with little-to-no English who were coerced and powerless. A white, fluent, US citizen coworker wasn't a potential victim. I got to be a person, not prey.

Y'know that little warning bell that goes off, when you're around someone who might be a danger to you? That animal sense that says "Something is off here, watch out"?

Yeah, that doesn't ping if the preferred prey isn't around.

That's what rattled me the most about this. I liked to think of myself as willing to stand up for people with less power than me. I worked with Japanese exchange students in college and put myself bodily between them and creeps, and I sure as hell got that little alarm when some asian-schoolgirl fetishist schmoozed on them. But we were all there.

I had to learn that the alarm won't go off when the hunter isn't hunting. That it's not the solid indicator I might've thought it was. That sometimes this is what the privilege of not being prey does; it completely masks your ability to detect the horrors that are going on.

A lot of people point out that 'people like that' have amazing charisma and ability to lie and manipulate, and that's true. Anyone who's gotten away with this shit for decades is going to be way smoother than the pathetic little hangers-on I dealt with in university. But it's not just that. I seriously, deeply believe that he saw me as a person, and he did not extend personhood to his victims. We didn't have a fake coworker relationship. We had a real one. And just like I don't know the ins-and-outs of most of my coworkers lives, I had no idea that what he did on his down time was perpetrate horrors.

I know this is getting off the topic, but it's so very important. Especially as a message to cis guys: please understand that you won't recognize a creep the way you might think you will. If you're not the preferred prey, the hind-brain alarm won't go off. You have to listen to victims, not your gut feeling that the person seems perfectly nice and normal. It doesn't mean there's never a false accusation, but face the fact that it's usually real, and you don't have enough information to say otherwise.

So, yeah. It fucking sucks. Writing about this twists my insides into tense knots, and it was almost a decade ago. I was never in danger. No one I knew was hurt!

Just countless, powerless women, horrifically abused by someone who was nice to me.

You don't trust your own judgement quite the same way, after. And as utterly shitty as it is, as twisted up and unstead-in-the-world as I felt the day I found out — I don't actually think that's a bad thing.

I think we all need to question our own judgement. It makes us better people.

I don't see villains around every corner just because I knew one, once. But I do own the fact that I can't know, really know, about anyone except those closest to me. They have their own full lives. They'll go from the pinnacles of kindness to the depths of depravity — and I won't know.

It's not a failing. It's just being human. Something to remember before you slap labels on people, before you condemn them or idolize them. Think about how much you can't know, and how flawed our judgement always is.

Grieve for victims, and the feeling of betrayal. But maybe let yourself off the hook, and be a bit slower to skewer others on it.

[mouseyfox]

if you hired a galapagos finch as a linecook it would perfectly evolve a beak to optimally smoke cigarettes behind the dumpsters

[mouseyfox]

A story:

[mouseyfox]

If you're trans and you don't have a passport, get one. right now. not in a month, not in a week, get started on it today.

[mouseyfox]

Make the most of the next two months

Get all your vaccines

Travel while we have a functioning DOT

Read and buy books on feminism, anti-racism, pro-lgbt

Attend drag shows

Don't skip any of your classes

Read and buy history books

Find your out-of-state networks

Learn to carry cash

Get birth control solutions

Support the Biden/Harris administration

Postpone large purchases and save money

Be careful of what you say online, like un-ambiguous attacks against the incoming administration, especially in spaces that contain your full name or personal information

Feel free to add on.

[mouseyfox]

TRANS PEOPLE, DROP YOUR MUTUAL AID LINKS HERE.

CIS PEOPLE? DONATE AND SHARE.

And cis folk? ZERO excuses from the lot of you this time. None of us have patience and that fucker used a THIRD of his ad campaign targeting us. If you aren't supporting trans people directly, you need to rethink following me. Clear?

And anyone questioning if they're trans enough to add theirs? If you're questioning if you're trans enough, you're trans as fuck. Post it.

[mouseyfox]

Vyxander's fashion sense can be summed up as "his favourite Sonic character is Shadow the Hedgehog-"

Since I've been on an outfit rampage, I thought Vyx (my tiefling/earth genasi sorcerer- or nephilim/talos kineticist in Pf2e) also needed some new attire. And so, here we are- The techwear brainrot is real. He'd be a bit shy to admit it, but he gets his clothes custom-made by his uncle, who runs a business about enchanted clothing which is what one needs when your tail is on fire

[mouseyfox]

[mouseyfox]

Companion 3/7 Lace Harding!

[mouseyfox]

Now that you've answered the poll, may I please direct your attention to Abood and his Gofundme campaign and their story:

"Hello, my name is Andy. I live in Ohio, but I am organizing this fundraiser for Abood and his wife who are stuck in Gaza. They're hoping to gain enough money to evacuate to Egypt.

Here are his words:

"Hello, I am Abood from Gaza. I am 25 years old. I got married 5 months ago. This means that I got married during war.

"I studied accounting, graduated with a high average, and worked in a chain of clothing stores that my father owned

"My wife and I now live inside a small tent in an area that is not safe, but we have no other choice. We live in extreme heat that cannot be tolerated by humans, and the presence of insects and pollution also affects my wife's health. Her health is deteriorating and I cannot provider her with the necessary care because of everything. We live with our only hope of survival, to travel, but the cost of leaving Gaza is very expensive. To be able to leave costs one person more than $8,000, and this is an insane number.

"That is why I ask you to help and save the lives of me and my wife from death."

Proof they are vetted here.

Here is their campaign:

[mouseyfox]

my god you're fucked: the lady at the help desk just went to ask someone else for help with your issue and everyone's got a confused look on