#and the fact that most people lack even the financial education

[armeleia]

The sample is really skewed... I mean, here's another statistic to juxtapose with that: 44% of Americans say that they wouldn't be able to cover a $1000 emergency expense with their savings. (Bankrate survey, 2023)

But to the people hating on the "how much money you should have by a certain age" article... it's not intended to shame you or say how "rich" you should be by a certain age. They're saying that if you have that much in retirement savings (invested, with the expectation of a certain percentage of annual growth, rather than just sitting in savings), you might be able to retire at like 65 and not run out of money before you die. It's not a class statement, it's math.

The math isn't the problem. The problem is that a lot of people don't make enough to make that math work. :/

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

⭕️👋Hi I’m new, I really like your character analysis, world lore analysis etc,…I think they’re very accurate and provide more insight into the twisted wonderland world,

do you think NRC gets enough funding cause they’ve been losing to RSA for like almost 100 years now and the Magift incident where the recruiter’s and scouts probably didn’t really pay attention to most of the players cause of Malleus .I know they probably get funding and tuition and stuff from affluent parents who care about the quality of education & environment of their children but is that really enough? Is Crowley secret Stressed about funding cause of their losing streak to RSA???

I just wondered what your thoughts were on the matter

Hello and thank you very much ^^ It always warms my heart to hear that people enjoy my more analytical writings!

Now to answer your question, I don’t think NRC is hurting for money. Like, at all.

You did bring up a fair point about NRC’s almost a 100 year loss streak to RSA + the lack of interested Spelldrive/Magical Shift scouts in book 2, but that’s not enough of the big picture. RSA is only one rival magic school out of several. Just because NRC is not doing well against one other school doesn’t mean that NRC is suddenly deemed “lesser”—NRC is still considered a top arcane academy and eclipses other magical institutions like Noble Bell College. In regards to the pro recruiters, I don’t think it has a huge impact?? Sports is only one sector at NRC; they’re still doing relatively well outside of it (such as in academics, extracurriculars, and connections for internships) in the grand scheme of things. Things like not winning VDC and not being noticed by scouts seems to only really impact the career prospects of students who were interested in the entertainment/sports industries; I doubt that this would seriously hurt whatever funding NRC is receiving.

Night Raven College is a private school, so they are most likely receiving money from tuition and not the government. Though tuition is not explicitly mentioned in TWST (at least not that I am aware of), if we assume the average cost for one student to attend a British boarding school—for which NRC is modeled after—that means 25,000 pounds per person, PER YEAR. Let us assume that NRC had only 800 students (this is the rough estimate TWST provides us). That means, from one year’s worth of tuition alone, the school is raking in 20,000,000 pounds or 4,058,310,000 madol. Note that this is just money in, not yet factoring for expenditures, taxes, etc.

The school also receives 10% of Mostro Lounge’s proceeds, and while we cannot put an exact number to that, we do know that most menu items range from 600 to 1500 madol. The lounge must also make significant enough money to pay for its ingredients, nice silverware (something which Azul stresses to give customers a high class experience), and even provide pay to workers (Ruggie would not be doing labor for free and refers to his time at Mostro Lounge as “a job”; see: his Ceremonial Robes vignettes). While this doesn’t make up a large part of NRC’s money, it’s still a nice little bonus to account for.

NRC also has many, MANY wealthy students, including literal celebrities and royalty. In fact, the upper middle class to flat-out rich make up the majority of the main cast (close to like 70-75%). If this is also the case for the regular mob students, then there are many other ways for the school to get huge donations. In the main story alone, two significant donations are mentioned: Kalim's dad gave enough money for NRC to completely renovate Scarabia and the Shroud parents paid for all the damages caused to the school's buildings. Additionally, Crowley says that the Shrouds made "substantial contributions toward expanding [NRC's] facilities."

Please note that this is just donations from current students’ families. Think about potential donations coming from NRC alumni too!!

It should be noted that NRC has the financial power to spend liberally, and no one really says that this will put the school in a touch spot. For example, Crowley literally buys up Sam's entire stock of goods during Ghost Marriage... and if you know anything about Sam, it's that he can magically keep things "IN STOCK NOW!!" Crowley even indicates in one of his voice lines that he is in constant competitions to buy out Sam's stock and has scarcely managed to one-up him--so the fact that Crowley does buy out Sam during an event is meaningful and speaks to how much of the school's money he is throwing to save it. He also tells Sam to bill the school for the cost of the fairy dust in Fairy Gala.

Both times, Crowley complains about how he would rather not spend money, but he does so anyway. This in of itself does NOT prove that NRC is in need of money, this is just proof of Crowley's cheapness. (We see many other examples of this greed and stinginess of his; he guilts Yuu for spending money on them, constantly tries to get free food and souvenirs from his students, and cuts costs for Halloween candy.) If NRC were truly hurting financially though, then they would not be able to throw lavish events or donate back to the community, both of which still happen multiple times. For example, NRC holds a huge Halloween event every year in which they open their campus to outsiders. This event is entirely free and involves a budget large enough for each dorm to create intricate decorations and costumes for 800ish students. There is also enough money to throw a celebration party for the students at the end of it—and let’s remember, NRC has the money to afford five star ghost chefs to regularly cater, serve in the cafeteria, AND teach their Culinary Crucibles/Master Chef courses.

While explaining the nature of the Halloween events, Crewel cites that NRC has survived this long in part due to the "While explaining the nature of the Halloween events, Crewel cites that NRC has survived this long in part due to the "understanding, cooperation, and subsistence of Sage's Island locals." This implies that the immediate community on the island also supports NRC in some ways. Perhaps it isn't financially, but it's clear that NRC still has social capital and a good reputation in spite of its losses to RSA.

In Port Fest, Crowley states that setup, food supplies, and all other expenses will be covered by the school. Half of the proceeds will then be donated to charity and the other half will be granted to the students to celebrate their hard work. Again, would NRC be giving away this money if they really needed it for the institution itself? They're not obligated to give money to the students, yet Crowley easily agreed when Azul asked for an incentive.

And let's not forget the school cultural festival, which was largely open for the public to attend. If they choose to spend on additional things (such as food and drink or VDC tickets, which are a "hot commodity"), that's on the individual. The school itself is hosting the event for free.

Yuu is offered a large sum of money (if the NRC tribe wins VDC)... and Ramshackle renovations (from Crowley) in book 5 in exchange for letting the boys host their training camp in their dorm. Look at how old and run-down Ramshackle is; there is no doubt that such repairs would be pretty expensive—but Crowley doesn't complain about the cost, he's not above bribing someone to make himself and his school look good.

Crowley caring about his reputation isn't new either, it's a pattern. We see him getting upset at NRC's loss in book 5 and lamenting bad publicity/being excited about good publicity in numerous events (Ghost Marriage, Wish Upon a Star, etc.) The school has been under his care for a long time, so naturally he will feel proud and/or slighted whenever NRC is involved.

This leads me to the conclusion that Crowley, the figurehead and headmaster of NRC, and his own personality quirks are being misconstrued as an indication that NRC is in a bad financial spot. His own fixation on triumphing over their rival school, acquiring and maintaining material goods for himself, and wanting positive attention do not reflect the state of the school. Notice how no one but Crowley whines about the financials and how while Crowley still complains about spending money, he has no qualms with spending lavishly himself on school events and holidays. This means NRC has money to spare, but Crowley is just stingy about how those funds are allocated.

[thanatika]

yeah i agree with your point about survival mechanics and i feel the same way about the lack of combat mechanics. "why would an educated city doctor need a weapon" because shit is hitting the fan in every way impossible and pretty much everyone is walking around armed... also why am i supposed to believe the the fact that he's a man of intellect will somehow provide him with food? i don't think anyone is going to be too eager to share food during an outbreak intellectual or not...

+ follow up for the previous ask but actually my favorite quest from the original pathologic is the day 11 bachelor quest that involves shooting down soldiers. i think it really drives the point home about how this random fuckass guy who is supposed to be battling a plague doesn't even have the time to do that anymore because the people in charge are asking completely irrelevant things of him now and he's at a position where he cannot refuse what is being asked of him. like i think it was good storytelling that even as the guy who lowkey wants to deal with the plague and solve its mystery you still have other, more pressing, less interesting and or pleasant tasks to complete

i agree! honestly, i feel this way about the combat mechanics even more than i do about the physical survival (food, health, illness, sleep) mechanics. because sure, i can see how it makes sense for daniil's position of authority to mean that his basic needs are somewhat provided for -- although i don't think it makes more sense than what we got in the original game. i've never seen anyone bring up "isn't it kind of unrealistic that the bachelor isn't given lots of food during a massive food shortage?" as a plothole that needed to be resolved. the townspeople generally don't like him much, and most of the people with power don't either, except for the kains. sure, maybe it's kind of weird that you can go see the kains while broke and on the verge of keeling over from hunger, and they won't do anything to help you, but... the kains are pretty self-centered, and they're so goddamn weird that maybe they forget that you need to eat food to live anyway. and it's half-implied that the powers that be are ultimately giving daniil this role as a convenient way to kill him, so it makes sense that they would put no pressure on the town authorities to keep him alive.

(and honestly, artemy is taken under the olgimsky's auspices as much as the kains take daniil's under theirs! which is to say, selfishly, with ulterior motives that are more important to them than the well-being of their healer, but... the olgimskys are set up as the wealthiest of the 3 families financially, as well as the ones with the most access to food, given their control over the meat industry. so if anything it's "weirder" that artemy isn't more materially provided for, though to be clear i don't think there's an actual plothole there either way.)

but anyway, you could handwave it and say that daniil's position of privilege and authority gives him more perks than he got in the original game, but the amount of fighting you have to do to get through town is... kind of an unavoidable physical reality? like you're given so many sidequests that you often wind up walking around town after dark, and that's when the bandits come out. is the idea that the bandits would be too scared to attack him because he's so important? because that doesn't make a lot of sense to me, and even pathologic 2 establishes that he's seen as a valuable target by the bandits:

and then there's the quests where combat plays a more direct role in the story itself, like getting involved in saving andrey from the firing squad, or killing guards to break artemy out of prison, or the quest where you have to kill var in attempt to stop the arsonists (which i include on the same tier as the other ones because i really like the quest journal entry he has if you complete it where he blames himself for willow's death. it's a good character moment.)

hell, even in pathologic 2 itself, one of the biggest Bachelor Moments is on day 11, when you have that big dramatic convo with him after he killed a soldier for the papers he was delivering. plus one of bad grief's idle dialogues in patho 2 is commentary on the bachelor being "quick on the draw" and that he "already shot someone". like he just straight up is not living a combat-free existence. and overall, combat isn't just a good tool from a mechanical perspective, heightening the stakes and placing pressure on the player (though it is), it's also pretty important for him on a thematic level imo, almost as important as artemy and his "rivers of blood". in patho classic, daniil has this early interaction with the inquisitor:

which, thinking about it from a doylist perspective, was probably the writers' attempt to make it sound more plausible that this random medical researcher from the big city was competent with multiple types of guns. and i appreciate them coming up with that hint of backstory to cover their bases a bit, but with those bases covered, i think the fact that daniil ultimately spends more time shooting people than he does prescribing medicines for them actually does a lot for him thematically? i mean, if his whole thing is that he's this "tempted destroyer", someone who frames his career as a combative battle with death rather than a quest to save people's lives, whose "default" solution is to raze the town with artillery because he's too limited by his rationalist worldview and military upbringing (and bitterness over being manipulated and sabotaged) to come up with a solution that saves the any remaining infected survivors on his own. plus the way that clara frames artemy and daniil as two sides of the same coin in being violent destroyers and killers, who without player intervention will immediately devolve to running around chasing each other down in what's either an insanely dedicated tom and jerry LARP or some really elaborate foreplay. imo, that whole dichotomy (which is pretty core to the game, as the idea of dichotomies are core to it in general) works so much better with the way they're both presented in classic, stalking around with gun/scalpel in hand. hell, not to mention the effect that spending 12 in-game days trying not to starve and getting killed by bandits or guards or worms or soldiers every day would have on the player, and the way it would make them feel about the town and their natural projection of those feelings onto dankovsky, who is a perfectly fitting vessel for them as the avatar actually undergoing those virtual experiences.

ultimately i think they are mainly going this direction out of a desire to do something more creative and original, which is fine... it just seems a bit silly to me that they keep saying "well obviously that doesn't really work for the bachelor's scenario", when, well... even as recently as patho 2 in 2019, they seemed to think it fit his narrative pretty well! i'm also guessing that a lack of combat won't be that bandits are just no longer roaming the streets at night. it sounds more like pathologic 3 is set to be more of a nonlinear experience, where you'll probably fast travel from place to place instead of having to walk across town so much? so you'll be avoiding bandits just in the sense that the gameplay will be avoiding them. i guess i'm hoping that at the very least, there's still the implication of the crunch of not getting enough sleep or food and the threat of being stabbed to death while trying to get through town occurring to dankovsky in the background, even if those mechanics are deemphasized in favor of more macro-level town resource management, time control, and sherlock holmes fruit ninja or whatever the hell they were on about back in 2022 lmao.

[velvetvexations]

The fact that Junior Year didn't at all challenge the way ANY system is set up is insane to me.

In the first half of the season I kept telling people the solution to Adaine's money problems wouldn't be Fabian buying her shit for her, because Brennan - DECOLONIAL PHILOSOPHER THAT HE IS - would never construct a scenario in which the solution to a ruinous lack of funds would be to get your rich friend to pay it off for you. This was just the foundation of my argument that Fabian literally, in-universe, did not have access to enough money to do that, because BLeeM usually plugs those holes and that seemed to be essentially the point of kicking Hilarial and Gilear off-screen for most of the season, but put that aside. The point is, it was clearly a critique of the system.

Right?

Because I assumed the solution would in some way be either changing the system or breaking free of it. Part of Adaine's problem is capitalism in general, but most immediately it's the financial demands the school system makes of her.

And then...the solution is not that. The solution is that she yells at her bosses to start paying her for being the Oracle, and Fabian beats someone in a dance contest so they do it. Problem solved. It's fine that Aguefort, which prides itself to an insane degree about what an anarchic madhouse it is for all the real freaks who want to just reach out and take life by the horns, requires you buy literal barrels of diamonds to be a wizard. That's fine.

The problem was that Adaine didn't have a fortune, not that she needed a fortune in the first place.

And it's wild because exactly that's something I liked about A Starstruck Odyssey. Obviously, Starstruck is an existing IP, and there wasn't a lot of room to just revolutionize galactic society overnight, but thematically it only enhanced the season's thrust to have everyone's problems be tied to money and for them to get past them by inventively striking a fortune. It was essentially taking this mildly grimdark capitalist hellhole and being like "okay, we'll play by your rules, assholes" and by the end it felt like there was a heavy tone of irony to the celebration of The Ball Rolling Up. Like you were meant to notice and be aware that the crew of the Wurst basking in their newfound riches was good for them personally but also a fucked-up reflection on how the setting operates.

And there was little tiny baby steps towards acknowledgement of systemic issues in JY that seemed promising, but all ultimately fizzled out.

Fig being overwhelmed by her responsibilities as a working musician and owner of a part of Hell? She orders her demonic underlings and indentured souls to help her put on a hella sweet concert and she goes quintuple platinum and her old agent is totally seething.

Gorgug is being failed by an educational structure that won't allow and doesn't even want him to succeed in the way he aspires to? Zac rolls insanely well so no he isn't, he's doing great, everyone should take four times the coursework.

Riz has to do a ton of shit to get into college because as a poor person he has to run to where others walk? Jokes are occasionally made about him being in a lot of clubs but that's never once examined or otherwise touched on between the the third and final episode, with the resolution in the epilogue being his mom going "hey kiddo wherever you end up you'll do great, just as long as you get enough sleep and take regular breaks to eat ice cream!".

Fabian trying to live up to the pressure of his legacy and maintaining his social status at school? Bill has a genuinely moving conversation with Fabian in the finale, indisputably one of the highlights of the season and a moment that in spite of everything I found incredibly powerful, where he tells him that he would love him even if he weren't a Maximum Legend, but it ends on "maybe we can have both" because as Brennan himself noted Lou was rolling so well that it was actively strangling the theme of his arc so that it ended up just being Fabian occasionally feeling a bit frustrated about the pressure while effortlessly succeeding to the point that not even Fig's catastrophic bardic put a dent in his popularity could have been an interesting exploration of tragic imposter syndrome, but it felt more like they were trying to stick to an expected "Fabian has to struggle with fluctuating popularity" plotline without really examining the contradiction.

Kristen failing cleric class? Kristen deserved to fail cleric class.

The issues with Fabian and Gorgug's arc was just luck and a flaw in the downtime mechanic. The others went deeper and man I really wish more had been done there.

[sparksinthenight]

Have a Heart Day 2024

This is a letter I wrote to the Canadian Government for Have a Heart Day 2024. I am asking the government to stop discriminating against First Nations children, to stop giving them inadequate services, education, and support, to stop treating them unequally compared to non-Indigenous children, and to stop taking them away from their loving families. I really hope that you read my letter and that you either copy paste it or write your own, and email the Canadian government yourself.

Hello. Our names are ____ and we are people from various parts of so-called Canada. We are writing to you to ask that you ensure the government stops discriminating against First Nations children, by signing a Final Settlement Agreement on Reform that meets and goes beyond the Agreement in Principle on Reform, and by following the Spirit Bear Plan and enshrining it into law. 

First Nations children and families on reserves are being discriminated against in many ways. Most communities do not receive the same amount of and access to social services that non-Indigenous people receive. Most communities do not receive as good quality social services as non-Indigenous people. While there has been progress, Jordan's Principle, which is about meeting children's needs, is still not being properly applied. Most children don't have access to an equal quality of education as children off reserves, and many children receive very inadequate education services. And, very horrifyingly, children are being separated from families who love them and want to take care of them. This all needs to stop. We need to make, follow, and enforce laws that stop this discrimination. 

First of all, let's talk about the fact that social services are inadequate on most reserves. As you know, the federal government funds services on reserves that the provincial or municipal governments fund elsewhere. The government generally funds services on reserves far less than services are funded off reserves. These include education, water infrastructure, housing, financial assistance, transportation, basic infrastructure, utilities, healthcare, mental healthcare, addiction support, job training, childcare, youth programs, cultural programs, recreation programs, libraries, child welfare, and more. These services are human rights and should be well-funded for everyone. It's not fair that non-Indigenous people have better services to better meet more of their fundamental human rights and basic needs while people on reserves don't. 

The fact that people don't have access to the services they need is part of why there are high levels of poverty on reserves. Ongoing and historical racism, trauma, and discrimination have caused a lot of people on reserves to be poor. And this lack of services is part of that discrimination that is causing people to be poor. If people had the healthcare, education, housing, childcare, mental healthcare, addiction support, cultural support, job training, basic food and water, disability support, and other things they needed, they would be able to have the peace of mind, mental strength, knowledge, support, and resources necessary to pull themselves and their communities out of poverty. Also, since there is so much poverty on reserves, these communities need even more services to help meet their basic needs and human rights. 

Services delivered need to be good and effective for the communities they are delivered in. This means that services need to meet each community's different needs. Because each community has different needs due to different connectivity to the outside world, poverty levels, local prices, etc. Service providers need to first see what services people need and how to best deliver them, then work out how much money is needed. Money should be the last thing considered. What each person, family, and community needs should be the first thing considered. And of course, services must all be culturally sensitive and relevant. 

And part of why services are so low quality, as well as part of why so much discrimination and cruelty happens, is because Indigenous Services Canada has biases in its systems and people, and must be reformed. Indigenous Services Canada doesn't listen to experts about what communities need and how things should be done. They don't try to do their actual job, which is ensuring good services are provided to Indigenous people. They need to be reformed and communities need to lead their own service provision. 

The Spirit Bear plan must be properly implemented and properly followed. It must be enshrined in law and the law must be completely enforced. The Spirit Bear Plan is the following:

"Spirit Bear calls on:

CANADA to immediately comply with all rulings by the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ordering it to immediately cease its discriminatory funding of First Nations child and family services. The order further requires Canada to fully and properly implement Jordan's Principle (www.jordansprinciple.ca).

PARLIAMENT to ask the Parliamentary Budget Officer to publicly cost out the shortfalls in all federally funded public services provided to First Nations children, youth and families (education, health, water, child welfare, etc.) and propose solutions to fix it.

GOVERNMENT to consult with First Nations to co-create a holistic Spirit Bear Plan to end all of the inequalities (with dates and confirmed investments) in a short period of time sensitive to children's best interests, development and distinct community needs.

GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS providing services to First Nations children and families to undergo a thorough and independent 360° evaluation to identify any ongoing discriminatory ideologies, policies or practices and address them. These evaluation must be publicly available.

ALL PUBLIC SERVANTS including those at a senior level, to receive mandatory training to identify and address government ideology, policies and practices that fetter the implementation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Calls to Action." This information is from the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society. 

Another huge factor contributing to the inequality faced by many First Nations children is the fact that Jordan's Principle isn't being properly implemented. 

The federal government, not the provincial government, typically pays for the services on reserves. But many times disputes arise about who should pay for a service, and the children don't get the services non-Indigenous children would get as a matter of course. Jordan's Principle is named after Jordan River Anderson, a young disabled boy from Norway House Cree Nation who passed away in the hospital after the provincial government and the federal government couldn't decide which one should pay the costs of his healthcare. The Principle states that if a First Nations child needs something for their well-being, they need to be given that service first and payment disputes should get addressed later. This includes medical, psychological, educational, cultural, disability, and basic needs support. Non-Indigenous children get these supports without having to ask because they have access to many more and better services. These supports are human rights that everyone deserves, especially children going through generational and contemporary trauma. 

Jordan's Principle is not being properly implemented, and this is hurting kids. Though there has been much progress, Jordan's Principle requests, which are for things children need, are often denied, which goes against children's rights. Indigenous Services Canada, which runs the Jordan's Principle approval process, doesn't have an adequate complaints mechanism to hold to account its provision of the Principle. The government isn't making data available on whether they're meeting children's needs. Many children have delays in getting help, including time-sensitive medical, psychological, educational, and development help. 

The application process, though easier than before, is still difficult and many families don't have adequate help and guidance through it. As well, most doctors don't know which children are eligible for Jordan's Principle supports, 40% don't know which services are covered, and ⅓ don't know how to access funding through it.

Long term reform is needed. An Agreement in Principle on long term reform has been drafted by the government and First Nations advocates, and it looks promising. It talks about increasing funding for Jordan's Principle services and trying to root out prejudice in the system. But the Agreement in Principle is not legally binding. It's not something the government has to follow, or is following, but rather what they claim they might do eventually. Negotiations for the creation of a Final Settlement Agreement based on the Agreement in Principle were underway but have been on standstill for months. A Final Settlement Agreement would be legally binding and would if done right increase the chances of achieving change. 

The school system is also horribly unfair. Many First Nations schools on reserves get less funding than schools off reserve, with an average of 30% less funding per school. They don't have adequate funding for computers, software, technology, sports equipment, field trips, labs, lab equipment, extracurriculars, cultural learning, job training, and the list goes on. They don't even have enough money to have adequate heating, good quality infrastructure, adequate and safe ventilation, enough textbooks, and reasonable class sizes. Many schools don't have a safe and appropriate learning environment. All children, including First Nations children, deserve good education. 

There is no clear plan to eliminate education and employment gaps.

The government claims it's negotiating with Indigenous groups but there's no evidence that they're actually doing anything to lower inequality. They also claim that they're funding education on reserves equally but all the evidence says they're not. You need to actually, genuinely fund education on reserves adequately and equitably, and make sure that children on reserves are actually receiving a good and equal and equitable quality of education. 

A lot of communities don't have self-determination over their own education systems, meaning they can't teach about the history of their people and other important cultural knowledge. First Nations children need and deserve to learn about their culture, about the ecosystems their people are connected to and how to interact with those ecosystems, their history, their language, their traditions. And if communities have self-determination over their own education systems, and they have adequate resources and funding from the government, they'll be able to teach these things so that children grow up proud of who they are. 

And what is perhaps the most horrible thing is that so many children are being separated from families who love them. This is the most traumatic thing that can happen to a child, and all children deserve and need to be with the families who love them. 

At the height of residential schools, many children were separated from their families. Currently, 3 times as many children are in foster care, away from their families. One tenth of First Nations children have been in foster care. Children in foster care experience higher rates of physical and sexual abuse and do not get as much cultural immersion. Not to mention, even in the best circumstances, they're away from their families. 

Most Indigenous children in foster care have loving families that try their best to take care of them, who they want and need deeply. But their families are poor or mentally ill or disabled, or have other factors that make it hard for them to meet their children's needs. Preventative support like financial, housing, health, and mental health aid could keep many families together. If child and family service agencies have the resources and the empathy to help families with what they need so that families stay together, that would be a great relief. Child and family service agencies need adequate money, infrastructure, and personnel to give families real help instead of taking children away. Most agencies do not have these. Programs that help the wider community such as healthcare, financial aid, housing services, mental healthcare, parenting classes, food support, community programs, youth programs, cultural programs, pregnancy support, and others would greatly decrease the number of children taken from their homes. Most communities do not have adequate levels of these programs. 

Child and family service agencies need to be completely reformed, and should be led by First Nations communities themselves. Most child and family service agencies are not. This is especially important since there is bias against First Nations people in many agencies. Some communities are getting the opportunities to start their own child and family service agencies, but most communities do not have this opportunity. Canada needs binding laws to ensure child and family service agencies are led by First Nations communities and are based in the unique culture of each community, which they often aren't. Each community has unique needs depending on local prices, remoteness, poverty levels, and other factors. The way child and family services should be funded is by first seeing what services the children truly need, then seeing how to best deliver them, then determining how much money will be needed. 

There is a promising Agreement in Principle on Reform, created by the government and First Nations advocates. It discusses increasing funding for child welfare services and trying to root out prejudice in the system. However this is not a legally binding agreement that the government has to follow. It's just something that they claim they'll maybe do in the future. A Final Settlement Agreement based on the Agreement in Principle would be legally binding. It would, if done right, enact more funding and reform. But negotiations for this have been on pause for months. Canada needs to implement evidence-based solutions to keep kids with their families. This means creating a legally binding and well-enforced Final Settlement Agreement on Reform that meets and goes beyond the Agreement in Principle on Reform. 

Some communities are trying a new funding model for child and family services that may give more funding, allowing them to do more preventative services instead of taking children away. However, the results of this new funding model are not clear yet, and most communities do not have the opportunity to be funded by it. And there is no guarantee that the new funding model will be applied to all communities if it indeed does work. There is no guarantee that enough funding for prevention services will be given to all communities, whether or not the new funding model works. 

The government often promises to create reform or adequately fund things, but they don't follow through on those promises. If the government does make progress, safeguards need to be in place to stop them from backsliding. 

So here are our asks for you: 

-Implement the Spirit Bear plan and adequately fund all social services on reserves. 

-Make sure all services are available de facto just like they are off reserve. 

-Fund cultural services and make sure all services are culturally-rooted. 

-Eliminate all discrimination and bias in service providers. 

-Listen to experts such as doctors and teachers, the community, and community-led service providers. 

-Allow and help First Nations communities to lead their own social services rooted in their own cultural values. 

-Keep funding flexible and adaptable to changing needs. 

-Have adequate accountability measures for all service providers. 

-Make a binding law to adequately fund all social services and have communities lead social service provision. 

-Create a binding law to ensure that once you start adequately funding social services you don't stop. 

-In a reasonable timeframe, reach a Final Settlement Agreement on Long-Term Reform that meets and goes beyond the Agreement in Principle. 

-Make sure all Jordan's Principle requests in the best interests of children are accepted. 

-Give presumptive approval for Jordan's Principle requests under $250.

-Support organizations and communities already providing Jordan's Principle services. 

-Accept urgent requests within 12 hours and non urgent requests within 48 hours. 

-Don't require more than one document from a professional or elder for making requests. 

-Make data available on Jordan's Principle provision effectiveness. 

-Make sure all supports are given in a timely manner without delays. 

-Make it easy and convenient for families and professionals to make Jordan's Principle requests. 

-Fund schools on reserves as much as schools off reserve. This includes funding for computers, libraries, software, teacher training, special education, education research, language programs, cultural programs, mental health support, support for kids with special needs, extracurriculars, ventilation, heating, mold removal, vocation training for students, and more. 

-Make sure all schools have the resources, funding, and support necessary to teach culture. 

-Make a clear joint strategy to eliminate the education and employment gap.

-Make sure all school staff are non-discriminatory. 

-Make sure communities have self-determination to create culturally rooted education. 

-Adequately fund child and family services on reserves, and make sure they can hire enough people and have good infrastructure.

-Stop discrimination within child and family service agencies. 

-Allow and help all First Nations communities to lead and run their own child and family service agencies that are based on their cultural values. 

-Enact evidence based solutions to keep families together. 

-Don't take children from families that love them. 

-Have and fund adequate preventative services so families can take care of their children and no child is taken away.

-Keep funding for child and family services flexible and responsive to each community's needs, and listen to communities to learn what their needs are.

-Have adequate accountability in child and family services so that any underfunding, discrimination, or failure is stopped and remedied. 

-Family support needs to start at or even before pregnancy.

-Fund culturally-based healing of people who have been harmed and are being harmed by the government's discrimination. 

———

Find your MP here: https://www.ourcommons.ca/en/members

justin.trudeau(at)parl.gc.ca- Prime Minister Trudeau

chrystia.freeland(at)parl.gc.ca- Deputy Prime Minister Freeland

patty.hajdu(at)parl.gc.ca- Minister of Indigenous Services 

gary.anand(at)parl.gc.ca - Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations

[soracities]

Hi Mim,, I wondered if you or any of your followers have words/advice on going long-distance with a beloved partner. I have to move far away from my love of 9 years(!) to attend my dream PhD program and we won't be able to reunite for another 3 years while he finishes his schooling. Every day takes me closer to the move and has me more heartbroken even though this is what I want and I believe we can make it through. Any words of comfort from the soracities community is so welcome and needed. <3

I have no experience with long distance relationships so there really isn't much advice I can give, but what I can tell you anon (if you haven't already) is: plan, plan, plan!!! Long distance is always going to be difficult and there's no way around that difficulty so one of your best bets is for both of you to work as hard as you can to maintain open, attentive, consistent, and deeply honest communication.

Figure out how much communication you need and what kind you value most--what about your partner? What are the ways you can make time and space for these despite the distance? Then sit down with your partner and work out a schedule for phone calls, video calls, daily (or weekly) check-ins etc and, most importantly: hold each other (and yourselves) accountable to them. Set out a game plan for how you will tackle conflicts over long distance: if you both are having packed school weeks, or feel you really need to talk about something, agree on a code word that says "I know you are busy but I desperately need you to make some time for this issue / for me" and then agree on a timeframe in which the other person will address it.

For example, you can schedule it so that you both ensure you have at least one weekly catch-up, and one fun date, on separate days that you always keep to: if you can manage something extra, great, but if not: have a baseline minimum you both honour alongside your commitments to your work and education and daily lives (you can even just have a study date where you both do your work together via video call)--your dates can be anything: you can do a weekly movie night with Hyperbeam or Teleparty (or visit the cinema on the same day to watch the same film and then call each other to talk about it), if it's feasible, take a walk together when you're on the phone and make a whole thing of it: pick a nice scenic spot in your respective places, plan your route, let the other know what it's like where you are, bake something together over video call, etc. Whatever routines and rituals you had together, see if there is a way you can carry them over remotely over the next 3 years, or even vary the things you do to make up for the fact that it is remote for now.

I think one of the hardest things to contend with is the sudden lack of physical proximity to each other, and the loneliness that follows especially if you see people around you in relationships having that, so I would also recommend finding stand-ins for that physical closeness. You said you won't be able to reunite until your partner finishes his own schooling--I don't know if that means quick weekend visits are out of the question (either through sheer distance or financially) but if they aren't, absolutely see if you can plan a visit either from your end or his. If not then maybe, along with your virtual dates, write each other letters, or send each other small tokens, postcards, silly little missives, anything to offer a physical piece of yourself to each other but also to remind the other that you're thinking of them and missing them and they can physically touch and hold those thoughts in a physical form.

I can absolutely understand your fear, anon, and it is definitely not easy and incredibly daunting, but I think it is something beautiful that you have had 9 (9!!!!!) wonderful years with your love already and the fact that you are brave enough to take this leap for your own dreams AND have such faith and trust in your relationship and its strength is a true testament to what you have built together over these years. You both should follow your dreams and fulfill them and I wish nothing but the best for the future awaiting you both where you get to combine those dreams and continue building another chapter of your lives together 💗💗💗

[subiysu-chan]

Sanson family rewright...Dynamics

Now, with Anne-Marthe, Jean-Baptiste and Charles-Henri established...Let's establish one thing.

Jean-Baptiste: Super stressed out dude (executioner with virtually three jobs, one of which includes making medicine from scratch, starting with seeds and spider larvae, also he has to maintain professional relations with the guy who harmed his mother), and honestly, because he believes in harsh CP (for the sake of his own sanity), he's very harsh in his training of Charles. Although, he'd never outright use Inquisitorial level torture on him, but he's not above let's say giving him 24 strokes of a hazel rod if his clumsiness or bratiness exeeded levels of tolerable, or in fact 30 for something as minor as moving during an operation (which did happen because Charles-Henri, being the great clumsy kid he is, tripped down the stare and bit off a small chunk of his tongue, forcing emergency surgery to stop the bleeding.) Or making him bath in ice cold water to train him, so he does drown if he's forced into la Seine by his persuers. (No, training to control your diafragm in cold water can be a life-saving skill, too bad Charles is a klutz). Despite that, he considers whipping his kids a chore, a chore he delegates to a servant whenever he can. With Anne-Marthe, Jean-Baptiste is a lot softer, and quite submissive. Also, because he's the type to conceal his desire for appreciation, he ends up not being the most affectionate parent. However, he's still capable of praising them when they behave in the proper way (at least in his eyes) and leads by example, for example, by demonstrating his stoicism to pain in front of them by burning his fingers with a hot iron in the most painful way possible and not even wincing...Or by calling his wife "cousin" in front of his children (I have an inkling the term was used in the executioner cast as a term of reverence). So, in his eyes, he's trying to teach them to respect their future partners, and failing to adress his wife as cousin would in his eyes, make him a worst father. Also, his responses are like...perfectly anticipated for someone from an executioner family, and is legit confused when outsiders respond negatively to his overall personality. Also, he lacks a formal education, and while he's not illeterate...It shows. Plus, his lack of deeper knowledge on the beliefs of people of "good reputation" and who don't torture people for a living can fill several volumes.

Charles-Henri : He really wants some affection from his father, or at least approval. Which Jean-Baptiste gives sparingly. Yet, the two share some nice moments, and when he gets bullied, or his life is in danger, he knows his father has his back. His father also supports him, both emotionally and financially, through his studies. He also knows that the tricks he pulls at boarding school to avoid physical punishment won't work on his father, and in fact, might make his situation worst. He's desperate for parental warmth, and honestly, believes the only way he can get it is to embrace the family profession. He deeply respects his father and is slightly fearful of him. Charles-Henri is also very insecure about his clumsiness, and honestly, the way Jean-Baptiste tries to train him out of it makes things worst. In fact, he's so nervous around his father that he messes up things he can complete just fine if left on his own.

Their dynamic slightly, well considerably changes with Jean-Baptiste new handicapp. Jean-Baptiste, who's stroke, and resulting NDE plus his limited ability to move...On the one hand, it does lift some painful psychological triggers for him, but on the other, the fact he no longer has to kill people that regularly allows him to self-reflect. Also, Charles-Henri doesn't want to be an executioner...Like, he lacks the temperment for it. Resulting somethings in this type of dialogue. Also, Charles, because he knows his father dissapprooves of his clumsiness, would try to hide it, but it's hard to hide publically bumping into walls, falling down the stares and so on. He tries to make excuses for it, but none sound convincing, and has plenty of victim-blaming, and end up being comical, more than mean-spirited.

It takes a time for Charles to accept this new version of his father...But the two eventually become a power duo, with Jean-Baptiste dexterity and experience, combined with Charles-Henri's strength and knowledge of high society. However, it would take years for that to happen, and no amount of time will make Jean-Baptiste less fustrated at his son's clumsiness.

[rockofeye]

the hell is going on with these folks (and the cat accusation is downright insane): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvZTr3F_YZI

This is purposefully targeted hate speech and propaganda, and it is not new to the US political field. This is part of the racist Great Replacement conspiracy theory, and the same statements have historically been said about folks immigrating for Asian countries, from the Middle East, and even folks coming from Central and South America. I hope it's no longer a common thing said, but there were racist 'jokes' when I was young that if you went to a Chinese restaurant, you were getting cat for dinner.

These are tactics attempting to demonize an extremely vulnerable and marginalized community in the same manner that Jews and other 'undesirable' groups were demonized at the end of the Weimar Republic as the Third Reich rose in Germany. This is a tool of a political party that is trying to seize power by fearmongering, which requires a scapegoat to be successful. Recently arrived Haitians are that scapegoat, and it's dangerous.

That video is really sad, and it's a masterclass in how racism is both a class issue and is used as a tool to divide. The statements about how recently arrived folks supposedly get so much money for the government, but we can't...this is manipulating working class, blue collar workers, and folks living at or under the poverty line, and it is exactly the tactics used in the building of race and racism that the United States was founded on. Instead of white folks who fall into working class, blue collar, or poverty categories realizing that the government is the problem in that basic needs of every day persons are absolutely ignored under our so-called democracy, they are being told that it is the people who are leaving a literal war zone to try and stay alive who are the problem. At base, racism is capitalist divide-and-conquer; if working class/blue collar/poverty level white folks united with Black folks, immigrants, and those seeking asylum, this country would be on it's knees...but instead, capitalism has manipulated vulnerable citizens to believe that outsiders are the problem with claims that are absolutely out of hand

Some of this is lack of education and critical thinking skills; basic research can show people that what people claim as fact is not at all true. People who are arriving from the border or arriving via the Biden parole program are in the United States legally but honestly...who fucking cares? It is a factual inaccuracy to believe that individuals who are not citizens and/or have not passed the 5 year mark if they are legal permanent residents have access to federal benefits earmarked for citizens or folks with sufficient residency. They do not qualify for SNAP, most Medicaid, social security, federal financial aid, and on and on. When they work, they pay taxes but they do not reap the benefits--there are no tax refunds and they do not benefit from social security, which means even if they work for 30 years in the US on a work permit, they can never access social security retirement benefits.

The rest is political strategy, wag-the-dog style. This bluster distracts from the fact that the Republican candidate is a fucking lunatic who cannot string together a single coherent thought and who is able to be provoked to anger with a single side eye. This is a distraction to remove pressure and attention.

Moreover, if it was true that recently arrived Haitians were left to steal domestic pets or wild living birds to survive, the shame is on our hands, as US citizens, for allowing people to starve when there is so much food available. How would a country with one of the highest GDPs allow people fleeing terror to be reduced to stealing pets to eat? That would be disgusting and a terrible indictment of who we are as a country, not that many of us don't already see it.

The other statements about Haitians being filthy etc are just poorly informed or purposefully aimed to be harmful. Anyone who has lived with or around Haitians in any significant way knows how a Haitian home is kept. Anyone who has spent any significant time with Haitians understands how, even if someone is living in poverty with nothing, there is still pride in themselves and how they live...and that is a huge reason, all other things aside, why folks are not out stealing Fluffy to have dinner. Those things are without pride, and folks would rather starve.

There is also the purposeful misunderstanding of how immigrants acclimate to a new place. Folks coming here from the border or via the Biden program are on pins and needles because they know their situation is wobbly, and they are smart. No one is going to be knowingly acting in a way that is going to upset where they live or who they live around, and Haitian culture contains nothing that would be super out of the ordinary in the US.

I am glad the reporter spoke to local Haitians and made the effort to get accurate translations of what folks were saying. How some questions were answered gives a clear picture to folks who know that they know they are under a microscope, both in the US and with the situation in Haiti; did you catch how, when questioned about gangs and violence, the one guy knew nothing about nobody? That's not accidental.

This will also target Vodou and Haitian vodouizan as well. I have already seen commentary on social media about how Haitians who are eating all these animals--dogs, cats, ducks, rats, etc--and doing 'rituals' with the remains. This is a dangerous and slippery slope, particularly if the party supporting these statements retakes the White House.

So...pay attention. This is a masterclass in the deployment of classism and racism to create distractions ahead of an election that feels very important to many people. Don't let them control your attention.

[molsno]

I'd be lying if I said I didn't look upon all those people who talk about giving up on life and just becoming a neet with envy. maybe that's problematic or reductive of me but like damn I wish that was even an option for me. if I did that, I would simply be homeless. that's all there is to it. nobody in my life has the means to support me indefinitely; certainly not my family, who are basically all poor women struggling to support themselves, multiple of them having been evicted from their homes very recently. even if they were able to financially support me (who are my options? MAYBE my cop sister and her cop husband? fat fucking chance), how would I get there? I live on the other side of the country, thousands of miles away. should I give up on the few nice things I've been able to afford (which I am still in debt paying off) that have given me some basic securities - namely my bed and car - and use the last of my money to board a plane there? or should I risk my life driving across the country as an inexperienced driver hauling a trailer full of my belongings?

the fact is that I'm the only person in my entire family to have ever earned a bachelor's degree, but even passing through the classist barrier that is higher education was not sufficient to free me from the chains of poverty. I'm an autistic tranny faggot who never learned any of the necessary skills to succeed under capitalism because nobody in my life could have ever taught me that. because I transitioned, I have no connections from my college days, and I lack the social skills to engage in networking, which bars me from most jobs that are actually worthwhile. essentially, even as lucky as I am to hold a degree in computer science (which technically is not even issued under my name as I've never had enough money to get it reissued after my name change), I still have to contend with the fact that the actual benefits of said degree will continually be gatekept from me due to my background.

it is so tempting, especially now as I discover how much more time I have for personal fulfillment while unemployed, to simply give up and resign myself to the fate that seems so fitting for me. unfortunately, I literally Can Not do that, as the only thing waiting for me on the other side is a life far, FAR worse than anything my family has suffered, and one which I will never recover from. I'm forced to play the capitalist game no matter how much misery it brings me. the only thing that I can dream about is one day feeling even the slightest bit of stability.

[gwgaccountant]

Dan Olson's newest documentary, "This Is Financial Advice," has really gotten into my head.

I should mention this first: I'm going to call the memestock redditors believing the MOASS conspiracy theory "apes" because that's one of their most common names for themselves. Like most of their other self-descriptors, it implies a lack of intelligence. There's a weird self-deprecating streak in the memestock community, which you'd think would be incompatible with a typical conspiracy theorist's overconfidence. You'd be wrong. That's part of what's interesting.

Part of me wants to break down all the places where the self-proclaimed apes' financial theories break down. Like, if we accept that Ken Griffin needs to buy back more Gamestop shares than are in existence, and that the Reddit apes already own most real shares of Gamestop, and that all of them will hodl as the stock prices rise to plausibly high stock prices, the hedge funds wouldn't be forcibly liquidated to pay arbitrarily high prices demanded by the apes. The short sale contract is a contract between the short-seller and the lender; nobody involved has an obligation to the shareholders. If stock prices rose too high, the short-seller would either cut a deal with the lender or break contract and deal with the legal consequences. But this kind of thing is pointless; the people who believe that stuff aren't available to be persuaded, and the exercise requires accepting so many absurd premises that its educational value is limited.

Another part of me is fascinated by how the whole memestock community is basically playing the world's slowest game of chicken. They seem to conceptualize their conflict with hedge funds as—well, first of as a conflict that both sides are participating in, where both sides are fighting by the same rules. But those rules are, themselves, kinda silly. The apes ascribe their inevitable, ultimate victory to the fact that they're willing to grind video games for little practical reward; their actions involve stubbornly refusing to sell the stocks they buy, even as the company they represent goes bankrupt and warns investors that those shares are likely to become worthless soon. As far as I can tell, they conceptualize the conflict as basically a contest of will—the diamond-handed apes holding onto their stocks versus the greedy hedge funds...doing...something. Spreading FUD, I guess. It's such a weird conflict and bears so little relationship to how actual finance works.

It also overlaps in some key ways with other topics Dan Olsen has covered, which isn't surprising. Everyone needs a niche, and Olsen's is increasingly online conspiracy theories and grifts. Also, /r/Superstonk users are swimming in the same waters as a lot of conspiracy theorists and crypto-bros, and the sort of person who buys GME because Reddit says it'll make them all gorrilionaires and then swallows conspiracies like tic-tacs to explain why the price is still falling is probably vulnerable to blockchain scams and flat-earth theories and such.

But there are also interesting differences! To start with, despite being a financial conspiracy theory, MOASS is remarkably non-antisemitic. There is still antisemitism, don't get me wrong, but since the villains of their conspiracy are international financial institutions, I expected more. I expected the antisemitism to be front and center, even more prominent than in most conspiracy theories. But it's not! It's probably less antisemitic than the average conspiracy theory!

There's also the fact that apes are basically trying to organize a counter-conspiracy. It's an ineffective one, considering how its plans are based on a bunch of lies they keep telling each other, but they're still organizing an effort to create a new world order with themselves at the top, by accumulating financial capital and forcing the US government to pay obligations owed to them. It sounds like the kind of thing a conspiracy theory with the average amount of antisemitism would say Jews are doing. You don't see that kind of counter-conspiracy "we're gonna take over the world" thing often, outside Christian Dominionist circles and imperialist war hawks, and their "we" is a lot broader than the apes'.

On a completely unrelated note, one of MOASS's core figureheads, DFV, is an ordinary securities broker who wanted to be a finance Influencer. He said that GameStop was probably undervalued by about 50%; it would probably see a bump in 2020 from the ninth console generation (which wouldn't be delayed by any unexpected global events that also hurt brick-and-mortar retail in general), which would give it the capital needed to potentially pivot to a business model that's more sustainable in our digital world. By saying GME was undervalued, defending his theory despite the global pandemic ruining the assumptions it was based on, and celebrating GME's obviously unsustainable prices as evidence of his theory being correct despite being caused by completely different factors, DFV became a bit of a thought leader. The apes started reading anything he said in public as a coded message to them, which lead DFV to withdraw from the memestock community and social media overall, which lead to the apes simply recasting him as the sort of shadowy cabal leader that would be a conspiracy theory villain if he wasn't supposedly supporting and leading the apes from the shadows. DFV is not perfect. He committed to his pet theory even when the basis for it collapsed, even though COVID gave him a perfect ego-preserving exit ("I was wrong, but who could have predicted the pandemic?") He then took an equally unpredictable freak event as confirmation of that theory, even though it was unrelated to the theory's premise. But he saw a bunch of increasingly conspiratorial cranks who wanted to make him a figurehead in their movement, potentially giving a huge boost to his finance Influencer dreams, and said "no, bye". I can respect that.

M

Ryan Cohen is such a character. He's a perfect example of a capitalist failson. He's an activist investor, a concept which I've been meaning to ramble about ever since I learned of the term in one of my accounting classes. But he likes attention and is willing to give apes the kind of crumbs they like for it. And maybe manipulate them for his own profit. Despite this, the apes still treat Cohen as a trustworthy savior, so much that Carl Icahn got drafted into the pantheon through flimsy association with Cohen. They think he has this master plan to create a megacorporation out of failing retailers that he has already stopped meddling with, which will somehow make the apes into billionaire cyberpunk villains.

Speaking of which: For all that the memestock apes like to position themselves against Wall Street's real-life cyberpunk villains, their predictable bad decisions are making a tidy profit for those same villains. (Aside from the one company that went out of business because it was making short sales that were considered reckless before Reddit started memestocking.) I don't have a point here, it's just ironic.

And, of course: Is the headband guy the same as the "I'm within 400 feet of an elementary school to prove the haters wrong and tell you about an unmissable business opportunity" guy from the Contrepreneurs video?

[madfantasy]

Been crying alot lately not knowing why, nd now I can verbalise it, I need to type it down for the sake of my sanity.. I think its lots of trauma dumping, I'm sorry

I've seen a post ask about if you're an ace would u be in romantic relationships, and I have just thought about how I'm always revolted by these concepts since I was 6 years old.

Having been always groomed to be wed to one of my cousins or a rich somebody to be my highest achievements as it solely focuses on my private parts as my worth and my ability to contribute to the family's "Good reputation" and reap back benefits to.

But I knew, all along, if I was forced to be with someone, that will end me being on this earth or them if they tried going near me. And growing up, I always tried to accept that fact, accept that u need to be pure and clean and be good for wedding and basically enslaved to it, cuz that's all our still impoverished family can aspire to. And on top of the dark thing that happened to me, making me truly believe I have no worth in this world and have prayed to be taken to heaven before I hit puberty, and have tried pitiful attempts to leave it, untill i got faint access to Internet and stole the keys to the locked books, they themselves should have been reading, around 17 years old, found an only opening and escape to reality.

I remember, my refusal was all the firmer the more anyone tries to tell me all about the glamor of being an intimate house maid and the domestic abuse they gloss over that I personally have witnessed time and time again with every couple that visited or we went to. I always respond that i am already one to my guardian's with the same abuse minus the gross intimate part.

I didn't even understand why I hated it so much while everyone is doing it, and as young as 16.

I avoided alot of marriage offers thanks to my guardians being, in one good way, over protective. And me losing my mind every time they brought it up. Literal uncharacteristic melt downs and now they fear the subject after they finally snapped me after saying no for years wasn't enough of a respond.

I'm 30 and the latest offer was from a rich cripple who was willing to pay all my guardians debts and give them a farm. My guardians dream. They turned it down without consulting me.

I've always hated the concept of pairs joined by s*x and the s*x itself. And marriage as a whole never made sense to me, considering the developing world and its problems. But I understand it as a bond if its first and foremost was not for love, it was for safety— mental, financial and otherwise.

And where I come from, independence is supported by the family, you can not survive, work, do anything if you do not have a family, and specially if you assigned a certain gender. So basically, I lived in isolation for the majority of my life, in poverty, marriage seen as the only -allowed- way out.

And it's all stims from a so called religious teachings.. Alot in common in this world, who take it as a personality trait and use it to justify injustice. Even though most of the time they know nothing about it beside what they are told by their authority figures and operat in this world as superior to all others because they were told they r the true religion. I saw on TT a so called mus-girl complaining about her children being exposed to 'rainbow ppl' in school education and having the nerve to complain about it living as a foreigner welcomed to practice her religion in a western country and claims not to be hateful. And yes, Arab ppl call the community 'rainbow' which reeks of the phobia and condescension. Like their religion teaches them to be at peace with all and treat ppl how they like to be treated, yet they fail to apply that when they don't like or lack the emotional intelligence to understand others who are merely different, just different and existing, exactly like them. And they do believe God made everything, so he did make those people, so what their excuse to that? And they exsisted since tbe dawn of humanity. And funny thing is their religion tells them that God made humans different, and urges them to read, to wonder the earth and consider facts and if they don't know to ask who are knowledgeable, and their intentions matters more and if they did unjustly by anyone, who ever they are, they r not a true mus--. It obviously translate to just ask a man who knows nothing about science, empathy or common sense or notice the accumulating facts and only repeat a select few he is told at a religious house. Thinking seems to be a burden these people happily relinquish to others. Which irkes me to no end

I was told all the shit I endured is because it from gods teachings, and it should make me happy. I never stopped questioning if this is a bless then why I was never happy? And why I can't do as I am told

They beat me up when I drew, when I was rowdy and when what now i know is stimming, shaming it as an act of another religion, and it was the running joke in the whole family. Mental health was an immense shame and hush hush, and anyone who seemed to need it was judged to be just a lesser mus-- so they deserve all the pain and suffering they get

I was glad that lady was getting chewed by ppl who was responding to her, but one person said something that just made me burst into tears and I couldn't stopp crying lately..

She said she was a teacher that goes from school to school and stuff so she experienced alot of communities and she noticed the vast differences between children who's family love and support is unconditional and those who don't, they obviously tend to later thrive.

And thats the word..

Thrive

Besides our financial situation never changing to the better, everything else was in decline, my guardians health themselves relying on me even more, and my mental anguish exasperated to a point i barely see a point in life, daily.. I can barely draw now, something I did 24/7

Everything that I am I had to do deep research for just to know that there's nothing wrong with me or im not deserving punishments for. I am ace, I am a gentle Them, I am on the spectrum, and I am Mani..

I did everything I do now in secret and complete agony. I learned English to gave privacy, continued to draw cuz it was my only alive part, and posted online when I was forbidden completely to protect my art from being lost, had to swear that I was nit interacting with others. I lied and one of the few times I was found, I was beaten while a school friend was on the other line in a voice chat. I was more humiliated that my friend witnessed it than being caught.

I still have the deep fear and distrust, I can't deal with social things, having to keep guessing which social cues they are using and not to become a living status, leaving the house the mere thought if it alone is panic inducing, I can never feel safe and cant risk something that might bring any harm to me and my sibs, every few days I struggle not to just delete my whole exsistance online. I can't look at faces even in pictures and if I did or need to I have to mentally prepare myself for so long. I literally had to convince my guardians that I can have a credit card so I can "learn" to do stock shi then used it to have PP and one day i got commissioned, and only when that happened I was able not to keep it a secret. And in its place now I feel the pressure when I can't provide or won't

The rest I still have no luck, I bearly managed to tell them recently that I suspect that I am on the spectrum, reading alot about it lately and it explains even things I couldn't. The nearest I managed to tell them that I am ace and what it is is that I started by saying I find who we are suppose to be wed to disgusting and I already living that glamorous stay at home shi nd co-raising 5 siblings they know very little about. They said fine but don't go saying that out loud cuz God says that marriage is the greatest bless but I won't force u ever.

I just feel my life force almost over, while I experienced nothing of life beyond isolation and constant need, so i cant thrive in anything.. Everything I wanted to do I begged to try was denied cuz either of my privates or cuz we were poor. I wanted to be athletic and do sports but there was no such thing as a second gender sports around. I wanted to be and still wish I could be, a wrestler. Unsurprisingly WWE was my inspiration and practiced as serious as a kid could, having what I believed a super pain tolerance cuz I never cried as I was beaten. I was cut from even watching it because it was "shameful " all of a sudden. Later I understood it was because everyone was shirtless and it was s*xulised by them. Everything became the same later, everything I drew or expressed feared to be s*xual and or homo nd I was punished over, I literally drew dying ppl and bromance alot at first. And they just projected their assumptions on me. I understood later and still can't bear the thought that ppl can project s*x into anything, and it never clicked in my mind because of what I am. And that was their biggest fear. I drew things cuz I saw them beautiful, and they only saw it as vulger, because they can't help but hyper s*xualize everything or assume it being so even with clear indications. Something that happened online too, tumblr nd tt, so it triggers me horribly

Something ace i also realised there's a word for (forgotten ittt ugh)— even though s*x and its mention is completely revolting to my person and I can have no relation to it. I can still enjoy it as a fictional concept, as entertainment, if u will, specially in a muse of two characters I enjoy. So drawing it is fun and exciting and enrichs my naughty side. Until I finish it and I never want to see it again cuz I'm not super good at it yet heh

In my mind, I can love and treasure who ever platonicly, and our bonds does not have to direct our paths in life. My romance is bromance, and meaning I will do everything to make my bestie happy, and my biggest wish is to live like tintin, in a mansion and everyone can be free to go on adventurous escapades, like getting coffee. ( i never done that, so

And this is something I wish to do with my siblings, if the stars were ever to align..

At least have Sherir with me.. puppets make me happy

[tjgenvs3000f24]

Modern Nature Interpretation

In the new age of entertainment, dominated by on-demand content from streaming services to YouTube, nature interpretation can and has reached new heights in popularity and effectiveness. BraveWilderness on YouTube, Maya Higa on Twitch, and the entire Planet Earth series come to mind, adapting to their respective platforms to build their brands of nature interpretation. As with anything new, however, there are plenty of pros and cons to discuss in this new world of online and on-demand nature interpretation content.

© John Cairns / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA-3.0 / GFDL

First and foremost, the biggest pro of online and on-demand nature interpretation is its accessibility. Though some content might be locked behind a paywall, such as on Netflix, Hulu, or other streaming sites, videos and live streams on YouTube and Twitch are entirely free to watch. As the internet and smartphones become globally widespread, videos become more and more convenient and available. Coyote Peterson, the host of BraveWilderness, and Maya Higa use their platforms to communicate to their extensive and diverse audience, teaching them about what makes animals so fascinating, how to be safe and respect them, and why nature needs to be protected. To do this, they mainly focus on the most interesting facts, keeping terminology simple, using diagrams or footage of the animal, and presenting with a charismatic and engaging personality. As a zoology major, keeping terminology simple and digestible is what I appreciate and admire the most, as I don't imagine many people have an anatomical understanding of how spiders breathe or the distribution patterns of mussels in Ontario's water systems. This accessibility can be essential to those who don't have access to nature, those who don't have the materials to learn about it, those just getting into the topic, or even those who want to see a cool animal and learn a cool fact about the world around them. Online nature interpretation can connect to all age groups, education levels, and financial classes, as long as they have access to the internet and an interest in nature, and is essential to help push the creation of more "citizen scientists," as Washington Wichara's TED Talk describes them.

© Mark Vins / https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sB_9TIEL5Vo / CC-BY-SA-3.0 / GFDL

The issue that clashes with this accessibility is the lack of personal connection and direct, in-person appreciation of nature. A peaceful walk through nature, hearing the animals around you, appreciating the silence and wonder of it all, that has not been recreated by technology yet (though I'm sure virtual reality is getting closer every day). In my experience as a nature interpreter during my time as a camp counsellor, this in-person experience was crucial. The connection kids got while walking down the rabbit trails, surrounded by nature, finding an interesting bug, a peaceful place to sit, or a plant they've never seen, that just can't be beat. Teaching them about the things they saw with their own eyes - the things they thought were interesting - opens kids up to look around and be curious. They ask questions and learn, and what more can a nature interpreter ask for?

What do you think? Do you have any favourite nature series or content creators? I'm always excited to see new content and expand my horizons, so don't be afraid to share!

[01298283]

Your hands are covered in blood

Injustice regarding rape is a reality that unfortunately still persists in our society. Rape is a heinous crime that violates a person's most basic human rights, their dignity and physical and mental integrity. However,rape victims often face a second violation: the injustice of the legal and social system.

Firstly,many rape victims do not report the crime for fear of retaliation,shame or disbelief. This is made worse by the fact that the victim is often blamed for the crime, whether due to their clothing,behavior or being in the "wrong" place at the "wrong" time. This mentality is unfair,as it also perpetuates rape culture,shifting blame from the aggressor to the victim.

Furthermore,even when the crime is reported,the victim often faces a legal system that may be insensitive or ineffective. Many rape cases do not result in conviction, either due to lack of evidence or flaws in the legal process. Not only is this an injustice to the victim,it also sends the message that rape is not taken seriously by society.

We need to educate people about consent, combat rape culture,and ensure rape victims receive the support and justice they deserve. The fight against the injustice of rape is a fight for a fairer and safer society for everyone.

I have been fighting for years in court against an abuser,but I have no hope in relation to the Brazilian judiciary,many people form alliances with abusers here,especially when they have a more favorable financial condition and I have been suffering procedural violence and persecution from them for a long time,I suffer different types of violence and the law remains blind, especially to the people who defend it because they are all gaining some benefit from it.

The most ironic thing about this situation is the fact that the abuser's defense lawyers are women,he was very intelligent in this part in choosing women to defend him because this way he gives more credibility to the judge who follows the process,so he gives the impression of that the victim (me) is lying,he is extremely manipulative and arrogant and hides many dark secrets and tries in every way to harm my life, in fact he is a true psychopath.

All the women who defend the abuser help him to abuse,they are all gaining some benefit from all this and one of them expects to earn a lot more $$$,so she does everything he says. So yes,I am also being abused by women,both of whom say they are Christians and hide behind a Bible and so is my abuser,he is a pastor's son but all of this is to keep up appearances.

The public bodies that monitor these processes here are mostly misogynistic, moralistic,conservative and follow many Christian customs and always discredit the victim. They abuse the victim through the judicial system and pass all of the victim's personal information to the abuser,so the abuser benefits and uses this information to continue psychologically abusing the victim.

Then they will try in every way possible to try to destroy the victim's health and life and purposefully trigger crises in the victim,the more negative reactions the victim has,the better for them (abuser). His lawyers (women) abuse me in various ways,and pretend to be blind to what he really is because they are making a lot of money from it,and I just wish that everything that happened to me happens to all of them one day,they deserve.

In fact,no one really likes him (the abuser) they help him because they are gaining benefits and money from all this,they are self-interested and just as he is false and treacherous they are also,It's like a nest of snakes.

If you are a woman and defend an abuser, don't forget that one day this could happen to you and if it happens I won't feel sorry,you deserve it.

So,there are many women who form alliances with scoundrel men,especially when there is money involved,they also abuse, they also help to abuse,they also say that the victim is lying. Public bodies and society will always try to annihilate and blame the victim and ignore all the facts,especially when they use religion as camouflage.

[thekrows-nest]

Krowspiracy anon. Bruh. Why do you hurt me like this?

I don’t know! I’m a morbid gremlin and have to share the horrors? The imp of the perverse?

Really I just see some areas where equally strong values can come into conflict directly, and wonder just what would happen if the unstoppable force met the immovable object. Without any fudging what would crumple first?

It isn’t wanting it to happen! I’m fond of these characters and want them to be happy. It’s not even trying to rules lawyer or ‘win’ a scenario.

It’s more just intense hypothetical curiosity about exactly where the limits are and how each situation could play out if pushed to its logical extreme. Especially if somebody does something unexpected or something unusual happens. I’m mainly wondering if there could ever be different outcomes to the familiar ones that have been set out. (I knew immediate restraint and the cage would be the most likely result. But thought over some different responses Krow could have.)

[delete below this if it gives away too much]

Mary comes from a large family. Large family.

Oh. Oh no. I had a theory but this is actually a bit worse than that.

The Krack theory just became much less likely - not impossible, but unlikely. I’d say what it was but bringing it up even to dismiss it could possibly spoiler part of someone else’s story.

But this is giving me thoughts about the situation. While I can’t read people well irl, the facts in text sometimes form a pattern if you have a key piece of information and know it could be relevant.

TW abuse

Mary may have been born into one of those very large fundamentalist families, like on 19 Kids And Counting, or something like the Quiverfull movement. Those environments are highly patriarchal and religious, highly restrictive in terms of behaviour and access to information/education.

Homeschooling can even be a thing (limiting information further, removing external oversight of what is happening at home, no legal protection like teachers as mandatory reporters, cutting off outside contacts, and allowing even less comparison on how other families live).

Regardless the sheer number of kids and the constant scrambling to meet their needs makes it very easy for all forms of abuse and neglect to occur and there are barriers to recognising it or reporting.

Hopefully that wasn’t the case. But unless Mary was the youngest child (and with that many kids, the odds of that go down) it’s very possible that she experienced an overlooked form of abuse called parentification.

(The chance of being parentified also goes up as - assuming she is cis - Mary was presumably raised as a girl. And traditionally AFAB children in that culture are moulded to grow into homemakers, wives and mothers.)

In these huge families the older children are expected to step in and actively help raise the younger children, and the responsibility is a lot more intense than normal babysitting. It’s extensive caregiving. Kids basically become mini parents while not really being equipped for it. Sometimes if a family is large enough groups of younger children are assigned to each older child in ‘pods’, formalising those roles and even fostering favouritism/rivalries.

There can also be a lot of time pressure, conflict or bustle, and lack of space or privacy.

It’s very understandable if Mary escaped into books and now she thirsts for information, likes quiet predictable environments and values her personal time.

And it’s understandable to look back, feel that she failed someone, and wish she did things differently. She was a kid in a difficult situation.

If I’m going with this interpretation I actually wonder if kind Mary waited for her younger siblings to marry and leave home/be old enough to be independent, so she knew they were good before she left for the city.

Or perhaps meeting Camila was the catalyst - whether it was to be with her, the new perspective she provided, or maybe having her financial and personal support made the next steps manageable.

It’s also very possible that simply being able to access more information helped Mary understand herself and choose how she wanted to live.

(Queerness isn’t or at least wasn’t generally covered in the curriculum. Assuming Mary went to school. And under purity culture - especially with a religious school or homeschooling - she may not have been allowed any sex education at all.)

Final thought - she may also feel she failed another queer person (by rejection or outing) or someone in a situation worse than hers (by inaction, or thinking mistreatment was normal or a ‘cross to bear’). Or some combination of the above.

Or under the guilt and pressure given for choosing her own path, she could feel like she ‘failed’ a parent or someone chosen to be her husband.

There are a few possibilities.

(I meant to answer this much earlier but life got away with me lolsob.)

Anyway, Krowspiracy anon I always delight in getting your asks, it's fun to read them and see what lil ideas and theories you have. It flatters and humbles me that you like these goofy characters so much to think up of these things!

Now for what you say about Mary...

I won't pinpoint exactly, but a lot of these are either very close or precisely what Mary has gone through.

Poor bbygirl has... gotten a lot of bad hands dealt with in life. She is in a much better place now, with Camilla and all, but she's still working through... a number of things.

And like I said, she still carries with her guilt and regret and even takes on a form of grief.

[mcenvs3000f23]

My personal ethics as a nature interpreter

As I've studied more in this program, my personal ethics have also grown as a nature interpreter. I didn't have the same strong ethical beliefs going into this class as I have now. My values and obligations towards nature have been rediscovered as a result of taking this course. I did have personal ethics about nature before taking environmental science classes and learning about nature interpretation, but they are more stronger and more varied now. My environmental ethics were very much what you may have heard before this class; I didn't litter and I was concerned about recycling, but now they go far deeper. Even while I still think those things are significant, my knowledge has grown to include a greater comprehension of how humans affect the environment. 

While advancing my nature education, I have grown more conscious of the ethics of accessibility and inclusivity in the environment and in nature education. Many more people will become aware of their effects if environmental education is made more widely available. In communities where there may be a lack of natural knowledge, nature interpretation ought to gain more traction. Everyone should also get the chance to enjoy the outdoors and learn about the natural world.

As a nature interpreter, I also think it's critical to provide accurate, fact-based information. The public is assisted by interpreters in understanding the scientific and financial foundations of resource management (Beck et al., 2018, p.12). As interpreters of nature, it is our duty to stay up to date on scientific and practical issues pertaining to the natural world. As a nature interpreter, my ethics have developed to place a high priority on sharing what I know about the natural world. I had no idea how crucial it is to educate people about nature interpretation and the reasons why protecting it is so vital until I took this class. In my opinion, encouraging conservation and environmentally friendly behaviours is crucial to protecting ecosystems, and biodiversity, and minimizing the effects of human activity on the environment. One of the most exquisite things that nature has to offer is biodiversity.

Additionally, because of the special connections among species, the diversity of plant and animal life would diminish the wonder and allure of the natural world. By protecting them, we can extend the lifespan of the distinct and varied ecosystems. Ecosystems depend on biodiversity in order to function, despite their own diversity. We depend on ecosystems for clean water, air, and pollution control as well as climate regulation. Not only are they necessary for survival, but they are also a crucial first step toward establishing a connection with your surroundings. Human-caused carbon footprints have harmed the ecosystem. Some people may not be aware of their carbon footprint or the influence that humans have on the environment if they had little environmental education or were not raised in an atmosphere that emphasized preservation and conservation. That's why educating others about nature and how to perceive it is one of my personal ethics. 

It is our responsibility as nature interpreters to encourage the moral preservation of the natural world while also encouraging people to have a personal connection with it. This is a crucial duty because nature interpreters should promote respect for the natural world in order to motivate conservation efforts and moral behaviour in relation to the environment. If someone is motivated to take the time to enjoy the outdoors, they could come to respect sustainability and conservation as well. As interpreters of nature, it is also our duty to adjust to changing requirements and learning methods. We need to be adaptable and change with research and education. Our knowledge and methods may need to change when new insights into sustainability and nature are discovered.

There are many useful methods for interpreting nature that might be used to encourage people in the future to cherish nature. Children love to utilize their imaginations and are frequently entertained by stories; they also enjoy believing that a forest is magical. Anybody, but especially kids, can be inspired to be creative when they hear stories told aloud in the outdoors. Engaging in hands-on activities is another captivating approach to encourage someone to get inspired and involved with nature. Approaching nature interpretation as a return to childhood is another way you can inspire children to become involved with nature. Whether you take a child on an adventure with friends and show them the pileated woodpecker, or you give them the tools they need to make healthy decisions, when on a hike with friends. Or something else, you are offering a spark to be fanned and developed (Hookyas, 2023).  My parents encouraged me to explore with nature and utilize my imagination when I was little. Playing in the mud, the trees, or the creek was one of my favourite ways to pass the time when I was a child growing up in a house surrounded by forests. There were so many levels to the forest to discover, and I frequently figured out a method to mark my favourite locations with groups of sticks and pebbles so I could find them again. This did, in fact, ignite a spark in me that motivated me to mature and pursue my education in nature. This is why I relate to the perception of nature as a return to childhood.  

I still cherish my ethics and views of how to perceive nature while I pursue my studies. As I go through life, I want to keep learning and encouraging others to get outside and discover why so many people work to preserve the environment. We are really fortunate to live in Canada, where there is an abundance of wildlife. We are fortunate to have a wide range of natural characteristics, including different kinds of fauna and the northern lights. Along with this obligation is the maintenance and protection of our ecosystems. I am passionate about ensuring that nature is recognized and conserved because I have this luxury. The interpretation of nature is a field that benefits from a diversity of viewpoints and methods. This means that everyone may find inspiration in their own unique facet of nature, and that there is no right or wrong way to spend time in nature. By selecting approaches that are in line with variety, interpreters help to create more harmonious and long-lasting connections between humans and the environment.

[pinkkittysaw]

I agree with your tags on that rb btw angel!! I don’t shame anyone’s decision to have a kid. Hell, every mother in my family except for one has had at least two kids before 22. And that’s fine!! I think at least for me my gripe is the social media aspect of it. So much of the content coming from family vloggers / family tiktokers is making profit off of children without the kids consent or even having children for the sake of views… or putting kids personal info / medical info out there… and I do feel like a lot of what we see paints a certain lifestyle that statistically is unattainable for most young families (unless they convert to Mormonism akdjskdj that’s a whole other topic) idk something about the social media aspects of it rubs me the wrong way in a “Christian fascism conspiracy” kinda way LOL.

But I did see some tags on that post that are just shaming young families and that’s just not right.

- aleks

for context, i deleted a reblog to this tumblr post here but i will share the tags of that post under the cut since i took a screenshot of them then deleted the post after i got this ask

i definitely didn’t mean to imply that you didn’t agree with my tags. my problems with the post were honestly from other people who reblogged it, not with that you said in particular /lh

i agree with you on your points in regards to the social media aspect of it all and the harmful effects of “influencers” showboating their children online for views/interactions. i think it’s very weird…to say the least.

obviously this is a lot more nuanced than a simple brush stroke of, “it’s all bad or it all isn’t”. there’s a million and one factors and a million and one scenarios to each individual situation and that’s why it can be difficult to articulate points on a particular situation, especially on social media.

i do think the people on social media who paint staying at home and having kids as something that should be ideal for every “woman” and romanticize it as well are also harmful. especially if said people making these posts are earning an exuberant amount of $$$, when that’s not the case for most people today.

(i don’t want to be negligent of the fact that women aren’t the only gender who can and do give birth but often times when consuming media where these social norms are praised, cis women are often the target audience specifically although these social norms do effect all people who can give birth)

social media heavily influences people, i definitely won’t deny that.

there are people and institutions in place that are abusive and preach/push this rhetoric that staying at home and raising a family while still being young is the most fulfilling/best/only option one can have. i don’t want to take away from anyone’s experience from the harm that’s caused.

i am very much a proponent of educating people on sex, birth control, pregnancy, financial independence/literacy because unfortunately, some of these stay at home moms/wives/girlfriends are put in abusive situations and have nothing to fall back on to help themselves rebuild their life.

I GET that is the point with a lot of posts like the one i initially reblogged are ultimately saying.

I GET that they’re criticizing world views that have kept women in an oppressed position for so long.

(not to say that they aren’t still oppressed in today’s society but hopefully you (general) get what i mean with my point)

my biggest biggest problem with all these posts is that they don’t critique the harmful institutions that create scenarios where domestic violence/misogyny/ general harm may arise, they just broadly critique all young parents (and mothers especially).

that’s truly my main issue with it all. not every young parent was forced to have children and to imply that the only “valid” (for lack of a better term) reason for people to have children that young is if they were in a position where they were forced to is also…wrong.

my mom had me when she was in her teens (later teens but still) she wasn’t forced or coerced into choosing to keep me, does that then make her decision “wrong” or make her a shameful person for choosing to keep me? even though she was young? and “didn’t have a future” like so many people in the reblogs love to say. i should surely hope not.

not everyone’s life stories look the same. i too wanted kids. back when i was eighteen i genuinely thought my future was going to contain three little kiddos and a husband. it was only little over a year ago, that i realized that wasn’t really the life i wanted to have, at least for the time being (granted, the time gap between 18-21 isn’t really a large one). me choosing to not pursue a life with children does not make me a better or worse person and that’s the root of what i think all these posts are about.

“you’re inherently wrong and bad for choosing to have kids at a young age” except now it’s repackaged to seem more feminist than before when really, it’s the same exact branding of shame that teen moms have been getting for years and it’s that same shame that prevents people from reaching out and getting the resources they need.

it doesn’t matter what my personal views on teen/young adult pregnancy are because there are always going to be young parents regardless of the amount of education we give them. some people just want to have kids at a young age and that doesn’t make them inherently bad people.

if people who make posts like that want to critique trad wife culture, christian conservatism (which is indeed a whole other can of worms), other systems in place that take advantage of vulnerable girls/women and force them into give birth at a young age, i’m all for it. i just wish they wouldn’t go about it in the most obtuse way possible because then you get a thousand people in the tags being like “i feel sorry for my friend who’s having a kid” “you’re young and stupid too why bring a kid in this world”

the shame that these posts create and endorse is what i have a problem with, not the actual message behind it.

ANYWAY, this was all very long winded but i wanted to make sure i got out everything i wanted to say. also this was more of a general post on my whole thoughts on the matter, not specifically to you aleks /lh

i never meant to imply that you held the beliefs that i was criticizing in that initial reblog and i apologize if it came across like i was.