#and i hate the government

[blooky8]

my mood rn

[mzminola]

Every time I see news of crowds agitating against Israel outside a synagogue, or museum, or Jewish day school full of children, or restaurant, or educational event, and so on in the US, every time my thought is why the fuck aren't you holding this 'protest' at city hall? Or your state legislature? Or your federal reps' offices?

A random Jewish institution in the United States has absolutely zero power to affect the decisions made by Israel's parliament or military. You're not "raising awareness" or "drawing attention to the issue" because the general public of the US is already at least somewhat aware thanks to the news, and Jewish people are in fact one of the groups in the US to be the most fucking aware of what's going on.

If you are upset by US military aid going to Israel, you need to convince your federal representatives to change that. Those reps do not base US military foreign aid policy on random US citizens harassing other US citizens.

If you want the US to provide more civilian relief in the form of food, medicine, or helping refugees come here, you need to convince reps at every level. Can your city partner with a refugee organization to arrange housing? Can your governor arrange scholarships or exchange programs to state universities? Can the feds channel more funds to Doctors Without Borders?

Do a write and call-in campaign. Hold your protest at legislatures. File a petition. Do something to directly express your desires to the elected officials who have a direct say in policy.

We've held protests at city halls and state legislatures and federal buildings for centuries. Why aren't you doing so for this issue?

Why are you macing people attending synagogue? They have no more power over elected officials' choices than you do.

Why are you screaming at schoolchildren? They have less power over elected officials' choices than you do.

Why are you blocking entrance to a museum? Hold a fundraiser to build your own, if you want to educate people so badly!

I know the antisemites don't actually care about US military & foreign aid policy. I know the racists are simply reveling in an excuse to whip up a mob to attack Jews. It's obvious.

But if you really, truly want to help the people of Gaza, you need to stop being part of that hateful mob, and organize your own, real political actions that directly engages with your elected representatives.

[dandylion-s]

My mom is leaving in a few hours and even though I'm an adult and I've known about it for weeks it just hurts hurts hurts

[verytiredbeaver]

When you tell the children of the future about the election in 2024, always have this image in your mind lol

[cometrose]

trump may be a lying felon and biden a foot away from death but my fellow americans don’t forget to vote for your senators and representatives they’re important!!!

[lecoindecachou]

In a conversation on Reddit about a Jewish grandmother being assaulted in France for wearing a Star of David, someone kept asking me whether what's been happening everywhere really counted as a rise in antisemitism or if this could be seen as a 'reward' of Israel's actions, like. Wtf are you talking about. I mean, I know what they were talking about, they were saying all this antisemitism wouldn't be happening rn if Israel just... disappeared from the map I guess, but also WTF ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT. Do you also think random American Muslims deserved to be assaulted after 9/11 or do you reserve that line of thinking for Jewish folks?

[jettison-my-gift]

Ok I’m fully for Scottish independence. Fuck the Tories. Fuck the English. Free the Scots. And give trans people the respect we deserve.

[just-your-average-cryptid]

most of us have heard of the red car game. you’re on a road trip, you’re bored, you start looking for red cars to do something.

and then they’re everywhere. you notice them nearly every few minutes.

there aren’t suddenly more red cars now, of course. you were seeing them already, but you weren’t noticing. you weren’t looking.

I am noticing things.

there is a plant I notice everywhere now, a small bushy plant in suburbs, along streets, by shops on the highways. dwarf umbrella bush is what the internet tells me when I look for it’s name. I did this because I wanted to know why,

every time I ever saw it, every place,

it was always dying. always the leaves turning yellow, the branches small and scraggly. inside out - nitrogen deficiency. their soil drained.

I am noticing how many of these landscaping plants are yellowing, how small and sickly they look in just a few years. I am noticing how often the grass outside the house is replaced when it once again turns brown and dry, how the type never changes and the cycle starts again. I am noticing how the unmowed, unkempt spaces on lakesides and roadsides look more alive than this. how the preserve I grew up next to was miles of “messy” unmanicured nature and the ground was covered in leaves instead of grass and there was life.

I am noticing the birds that come by the lake. there was a flash of blue wings and red chest - eastern bluebird, male, relatively common. I had never seen one before. there is a family of ducks that appear every spring; i cannot say if it’s successive generations or different ducks, but I can always look forward to ducklings. there are little brown birds with white heads whose names I do not know - are they some kind of piper? why don’t I already know?

why is it so hard to learn about my native plants (accurately, that is)? why are so many gardening sites littered with people who think a plants value is based on how pretty or useful it is to them, who think a tree shedding leaves is “messy”?

why is knowing about the world we live in so… odd? why is it a hobby and not vital knowledge? I learned about polar equations. I taught myself about mycorrhizal networks and species of insects.

(did you know there are shiny green bees? a special species of wasp pollinating figs? that white flowers bloom at night for moths? do you know? have you looked?)

I cannot look at a lawn and see life anymore. it is a wasteland, devoid of life, dying slowly itself. everywhere is grass, grass, doused in water that runs over into storm drains, soaked in fertilizer and pesticides and a hundred other poisons and sending one clear message:

this is a place of death. life is not welcome here.

I do not think I could live in a city. too loud, yes, too busy, yes, too many people, yes, but the plants would bother me. a tree allotted only a convenient square, surrounded by dead stone and metal.

a forest cleared for this, for burning asphalt streets and racing cars and shops whose bathrooms are “for paying customers only”.

this is a place of death. life is not welcome here.

and now I am noticing.

[creaturecomplications]

So, I don't know if this has been said or not but here goes I guess. Do any other indigenous people start getting real nervous when they see a bunch of white people flocking towards particular causes? Because even as someone who can pass as white, I start getting a bit twitchy about it. In particular, I'm talking about how many white people on both the left AND right have rallied behind blatantly antisemitic ideals as a result of the conflict in Gaza and have, as a result, either heavily implied or outright stated that these ideals line up with an idea they have that indigenous identities have a time limit for how long you can say your people come from somewhere while not living there REGARDLESS of whether or not it was outside forces displacing them rather then it being of their own accord. REAL fucking convenient there, I'd say, ESPECIALLY when it was colonization done by white nations that resulted in the death and displacement of MILLIONS of indigenous peoples across the planet, not JUST in the US. I think native peoples across the globe should start getting cautious REAL quick if they haven't already about that. I've been trying not to say too much about all of this since I'm not Jewish OR Palestinian and I don't want to detract from them and their voices and suffering OR spread misinformation, but I feel like this needs to be openly acknowledged in some way so maybe a few of us will be at least marginally prepared when they turn these tactics on us, because if we're being honest, the Jewish people are the global guinea pigs to see how easily governments can sell these ideas to the people about other groups that they find annoying and distasteful in some capacity(read refuses to trust in people and entities that have already abused them). Please keep this in mind as all this continues and try not to fall down the antisemitic rabbit holes on either side of you can. Support both your Palestinian AND Jewish neighbors during this time so they know they are safe with you, and know peace for BOTH peoples SHOULD be the end goal. So far @prismatic-bell has been my main resource to educate myself when I'm on here, so please check them out if you're interested, and stay safe everyone!

[aspiringwarriorlibrarian]

Qimir: The Jedi are oppressing me by not letting me use my power freely.

Sol: You were "using your power freely" by murdering people.

Qimir: .....I fail to see the issue here.

[arlh0e]

Just a reminder that it took them less than 5 minutes to kill and detain the shooter at the trump rally yesterday.

But somehow it took 77 minutes to kill the shooter at Robb elementary, resulting in 21 deaths, 19 of which were children who had barely reached double digits.

[smytherines]

you tried girl

[amyrlinegwene]

My youngest sister favs <3

I feel like I don't really see people talking about how many parallels Egwene and Moiraine have in the books so here is my venn diagram. Feel free to add any more parallels from the books

[charlesoberonn]

Why does Hollywood refuse to adapt Doctor Doom faithfully?

[uncanny-tranny]

"ooh, you can't take government assistance because..."

Buddy, you already paid those taxes - you're already contributing to the funding of government assistance by paying them, you're entitled to that assistance not only because it has already been paid for, but also because you're a person who deserves to live. Shaming yourself or others for taking assistance is nonsensical hyperindividualism that will only make your life worse in the short and long-terms. Take that money, use those programs. Apply for them, and don't be ashamed for some bullshit reason like "oh I just don't deserve to live" that is attached to taking that help

[artisticdysfunction]

when will people realize. when will people fucking realize that there's more to fucking RAMCOA than the satanic panic bullshit.

cults count as RAMCOA.

trafficking humans of any kind is RAMCOA.

gangs and cartels can absolutely inflict RAMCOA.

there is so much more to RAMCOA then the youtube video essays about the satanic panic. RAMCOA is a spectrum of experiences. it's not some mythical shit you only see in gratuitous horror movies. it's real and it happens every fucking day.