#and this didn't even go into ethnic demographics...

[undefeatednils]

On Twitter I legit saw people share the Jesusland map again...

It's been 20 years, and liberals still make the same stupid suggestion about having solid Dem states join Canada.

At the same time, it also reminded me that between 1968 and 2004, Virginia was a solid GOP state, and since 2008, it has voted for the Dems consistently.

At the same time, in the last ten US elections, Ohio has voted for the winner of the election (based on the Electoral College) every time. Except 2020. When Biden won but Trump still carried the Buckeye State.

In the 2004 map meme, both states were part of "Jesusland".

The new version I saw posted included Virginia in the list of states that "should" join Canada. Which would be legitimate border gore thanks to West Virginia.

At the same time, Virginia does feel incredibly volatile, like it's Democratic majority is largely based on DC-adjacent counties that are closely connected to government jobs. In a Trump 47 world, this could easily change, as these jobs will likely be reduced in number and become less career- and merit-based, but rather based on political affiliation with the current administration.

Any breakup of the United States is incredibly unlikely, yet it's also important to consider logistics for that hypothetical.

Ages ago, someone posted a semi-joking map of their most plausible US collapse scenario. It showed the US only losing the coastal states, with the rump USA consisting of the Greater Mississippi River Basin, including the Ohio River Basin and thus the Old Northwest/modern Midwest. Based on logistics and geography, it really does feel very reasonable. Though it lacks in cohesion when looking at demographics and economics.

In my mind, unless the US somehow first decides to move its capital into the interior (s. the 19th century proposal of creating a new capital, Metropolis, on the Kentucky-Illinois border), the only parts of the East Coast that might consider leaving are the states north of the Mason-Dixon-Line.

Maryland and Virginia are too connected to the political power center of DC to have an incentive to leave. The states south of Virginia with an Atlantic coastline meanwhile follow similar-enough politia and demographic trends to the Southern states bordering the Mississippi to go their own way if Virginia doesn't.

That would leave Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine in the northeast.

Delaware and Pennsylvania deserve an asterisk due to economic concerns. Delaware's economic niche of a domestic tax haven isn't unique. South Dakota is also competing for this niche. Pennsylvania, meanwhile, as part of the so-called Blue Wall/Rust Belt, is economically very similar to Michigan and Wisconsin and Ohio. But if Pennsylvania stays with the Mississippi Core, Delaware would effectively be surrounded by the rump USA. Plus, Delaware, too, is rather connected to the DC ecosystem.

Meanwhile, it should also be noted that climate change and internal migration can't be ignored either and need to be addressed.

The Great Lakes region is, together with the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, projected to "benefit" from it and to continue to enjoy high quality of life.

On the other side, parts of the Sun Belt will become less suitable for large-scale, safe habitation, and since it would become the primary center of economic and political power in such a scenario, that would be a recipe for disaster.

Anyway, this has been a geopolitics essay.

[yooniesim]

I'm sitting here thinking about a pretty age-old debate on simblr... the race of sims that have black hairstyles, particularly in cc preview pics.

I know it's been talked about repeatedly, but when it comes to cc previews for paid cc I think it's especially worth talking about. Some people say, well, the creator only uses a few different sim models each time, it's not like they're intending to be racist or something. It's just for convenience, because they're busy, they're hustling, they gotta pay their bills. They always use the same sim, so it's fine. But like... isn't that gross to y'all? Someone making money off of black hairstyles, but they can't even be assed to go in cas for 15 mins to make a black sim? Isn't that a prime example of appropriation of black culture for profit? Like the human aspect of us as a person is gone, it's just another part of us being advertised and sold. Black hair makes money, black hair cc is limited, it will sell and nothing else matters. It feels like black hairstyles are some kind of trend with them too, because none of these creators made them before it was possible to profit off of them... back then it was "too hard" just like now it's apparently "too hard" to make a different preview sim.

Also, it's not lost of me that when a creator does make a black sim for their previews, they're as light skinned and white looking as possible. Whether just by skintone, very eurocentric features (like they just gave a white sim slightly darker skin), vitiligo to make most of the skin light, or claiming the sim has albinism. And while some of this I'm sure is just finding that aesthetic more "pretty", I also think this has to do with potential sales. I'm going to be honest... besides engagement by black simblr itself, I've noticed a lot of posts I have get less engagement/reblogs if the sim in question has darker skin and darker hair. It's much more likely to pick up in the mainstream cc finds blogs/YouTube videos etc, if the content is for white sims or the sim has lighter skin and light hair. I don't care about engagement and simply make whatever sim I want to make, and since I do have that variety, it's how I noticed this strange trend. And with the volume of content paywall creators make, I think they noticed this too. Posts with lighter skinned sims get better engagement, and thus, make more money.

Have you ever noticed, even in paywalled cc packs, there will usually be a sort of token effect? One white sim, one ethnically ambiguous sim, one black sim. This is great if you're showing off something that will vary for different skintones- makeup and skin details, for example- but why is it always like this? And why is the variety usually only in previews for cc packs instead of solo items (like hairs)? It feels like it's all to sell better, to appeal to different demographics and say, hey, I didn't forget poc exist! Please pay for my content! It feels disgenuine, and since creators like this rarely engage with the community anymore besides paid content, it's hard to figure out whether they feel this way or not.

Personally, I don't care much what people do in their own games- I might look at them weird for a sec, but I move on, cos it's their issue not mine. But like many other aspects to this community, when it crosses over into paid content, it sparks my interest. It feels like everything, everything, is about maximizing profit now. And for the people that focus on that, that's their prerogative and all, I can't exactly stop them, but. It's just something I observed and wouldn't mind discussing with y'all.

(Note: I don't apply the "profiting off black culture" part to black creators, obviously. Also no hate to any creators that do this stuff. Be reasonable adults, please. I'm just discussing in a constructive criticism type of way.)

[horpyna]

On May 18th, The Deportation of Crimean tatars Day...

...and the way this knowledge lingers through my family. my grandma grew up in north Kazakhstan, USSR turned it into a melting pot of ethnicities with the frequency they were sending the deportees there. my grandma's family were deportees from Ukraine on both sides, but to them it happened way before USSR came to existence (it just shows how it was the same old system, just repackaged). my grandma recalled living among not only kazakhs, ukrainians and russians, but also chechens, ingushs, jews, germans, and of course, crimean tatars. many of these demographics were often under supervision, meaning they were not allowed to leave, they had to go and mark their presence every morning, the had limited options in employment. it especially concerned the Crimean Tatars. they were already very poor, having arrived literally barehanded to the foreign, unfamiliar, colder land. on top of that, the were treated like social outcasts due to the "traitor" status. it in turn, barred them from getting better employment. so they were set up for poverty regardless. they lived along the coast line of the river in handmade huts. i don't have the details about how they lived through wintes, but considering what i know now, they probably didn't. Many crimean tatars, that survived the deportation itself, died within the first few years.

Now, compare it to the fact that even PoW germans, who were also contained in this town, were later allowed to settle and develop. they're was no way to know if they were just bystanders or ideologically motivated in the past, during the war. but i find it fucking telling that potential former nazis were given a chance to a normal life, but their victims, who spent years under nazi occupation, were branded as traitors of the State and denied a chance to live normally, even after such a detrimental uprooting, after a literal genocide. USSR was probably hoping they would go extinct on their own from poverty and isolation. Those, who carried on, would still live in the shadow of this false accusations, as well as their children and grandchildren.

And in 2014 russia came back with the same policy. Crimean tatars, who just then managed to begin reclaiming their land, were shunned again. There's political and ethical persecution against them going on since 2014 till this very day. it a crime that international community allowed it to happen again, and that somehow it wasn't a good enough reason enough to seriously oppose russia back then, when we still had time.

[neechees]

CC: racism is alive and well here on tiktok, where random accounts will make up bullshit demographics for slides only to promote their shady link tree sales, but will also allow racism to run rampant and go unchecked in the comments because it gets their accounts more clicks, and then will also delete any comments that call them out for racism or their bullshit! I don't know why they deleted MY comments of me pointing out the misinformation they were spreading and that they were deleting my comments, but they didn't wanna delete the comments of people saying Native Americans are quote unquote, "basically Asians". So um, you know, fuck you, go fuck yourself.

I thought I'd bring this here, because tiktok literally removed my video not even an hour of it being up. For context, this was me calling out a tiktok account with thousands of followers @/eyeelixir on tiktok, where all their videos are just creating slides of people with various "phenotypes" (they even have a whole Playlist with this title) and then creating random, percentages claiming that's what those demographics were with no sources. For example, the first slide claimed that 0.8% of the world's population was mixed race with a "Native American/Asian" ethnic background, (and obviously this cant be true considering how low of a population Native Americans take up in general), and then showed a photo of an Alaskan Inuk woman (with no record showing she was mixed race or Asian), as well as actor Eddie Speads, who is not mixed race nor Asian, he is Lakota. While the account left my comment up that neither of these people were mixed or Asian, they deleted my comments elaborating on this as well as me pointing out that they deleted my comment & were likely using misinformation for clicks and to attract customers. However, they did not feel the need to take down multiple comments of tiktokers being racist & also spreading misinformation such as that Native Americans are "actually Asian" (& they're doing this because tiktok's algorithm is based on interaction, so more comments = more views = more people buying from them).

The tiktok account in general is VERY shady since literally ALL their videos tell viewers to go to their link tree to buy makeup products & are encouraging people to "collab" for modeling, but their linktree ONLY shows their social media accounts (a tiktok & a youtuve) & then where they are selling the products, but there is 0 transparency on their "company" (or what theyre trying to look like), who runs the account, any contact information, where the money goes or what they do, etcetera. Normally i wouldn't do this kind of thing since I'm such a tiny tiktoker, but I found it especially insidious since this whole tiktok account makes content off of people's ethnicities, fetishizing mixed race people, and lying, but they cant be bothered to get rid of racist comments because they want more viewers and more potential customers. If you see this tiktok account report it, and don't buy anything from them.

[no-passaran]

a few years ago, someone in university told me she didn't want to be friends (we had met up for coffee once) because I'm *xyz sign* and her experience has been that *xyz sign* tend to be emotional master manipulators, they like to play the victim in situations where they caused the drama. Obviously every person is entitled to whatever boundaries they want to have for friendship and dating but it's not ok to just accuse me of being a certain way on grounds of... the date I was born lol.

Like I used to think this stuff was ok as long as people didn't take it seriously, and as long as it's just "oh I'm a *xyz* that is why I'm artsy :-)" but now I honestly just want nothing at all to do with it, and I don't want to know anything about it either.

Wow, I'm so sorry you were told that. Thank you for sharing your experience.

Astrology is a form of bigotry, after all. Assuming that a whole demographic (people born in x time) share a series of personality traits, assigning those personality traits to people you've never even met because of this aprioristic belief about their demographic. It's the definition of bigotry.

In Western society, astrology is less of a problem than other discriminatory systems (racism, sexism, homotransphobia, classism, etc) because it's not as widely believed and hasn't become entrenched in the societal organization to be a systemic issue present in the social, cultural, and legal spheres and interpersonal relations that affect us everyday. (That is not the case in other places like, for example, India, where astrology might dictate who you can and cannot marry and where the victim's astrological sign has been used in court to refuse justice to women who have been raped, justifying the man who raped them because women born under certain star positions are believed to be astrologically "bringers of bad luck" and even bringers of death, so they're free game to abuse!)

So I'm not comparing it when it comes to the effects it has, but on a personal belief level it's just as discriminatory. It's as stupid to say "I don't want to be friends with this person because they were born at X time so I assume Y bad things about them" than it would be to make the judgement based on someone's gender, ethnicity, class, etc. There have already been people (in Western countries where we don't traditionally have an astrology-based oppression system) reporting discrimination for their astrological sign: I've heard experiences similar to you with that "friend", but some have even explained how they were not believed about their pain when they could have found out earlier about their illnesses and refused renting a room because the flat bans people of certain astrological signs!

It can seem like it's harmless fun, but this is what the belief is promoting. It's only a logical continuation of believing in horoscopes to start making these generalizations. It also contributes to normalizing these patterns of thought according to which it's "normal" and "truthful" to consider that whole demographic groups share the same traits (that is: bigotry; lowering our guard in front of more serious ones like racism, sexism, etc).

I don't think we should go around shaming people who talk about it, but I am certain that it is a responsibility not to contribute to spreading this form of bigotry, especially now that it's on the rise and becoming more popular among young people. For example, it goes against our interests as queer community to make space for astrology in our events (making people introduce themselves with their name and their sign, or painting astrology as some kind of radical queer thing somehow just because it's trendy??), I think we should stop promoting these beliefs in magazines, and start challenging our friends who believe in it to think of how it works (and how it prepares them for other forms of discrimination).

Idk sorry for answering with such a long text but I'm tired of seeing it rise too and I had a friend who went though that, she got really into astrology because her other friends were into it, and once that anti-scientific proof door was open she got into moon landing denialism and now she believes in conspiracy theories and it's very annoying to talk with her lol.

[nathancone]

Interview: Ellen Evans, co-owner of Earth Burger

For a decade now, San Antonio-based Earth Burger has been pioneering plant-based food at their flagship burger stand, located near Loop 410 and Blanco in the Park North shopping center. The key to their success? It’s freaking delicious, from the crispy fries to the signature Earth Burger, which has a flavor profile that pleased even my meat-and-potatoes father! Earlier this summer I took a few minutes after our meal to chat with Ellen Evans, “Director of Community Love” at Earth Burger. She also happens to be one of the two founders of the company, along with her husband Paul, and chef Mike Behrend, who also creates the delicious dishes at  Green Vegetarian Cuisine. Our interview below has been lightly edited for length and clarity. Read on to learn more about how going plant-based for even a day a week can be beneficial to both you, and the planet!

Nathan Cone: When you started this, what were you hoping for?

Ellen Evans: We really wanted a place where we could stop and get the kids something to eat quickly, because between the time we'd opened Green to Earth Burger, we had started families. So our children are the main reason we opened Earth Burger.

Has that been borne out by the clientele that comes in, [has it been families]?

The clientele really amazes me, because really it's all demographics, from young to young kids to grandparents, seniors, all ethnicities, everyone seems to have embraced Earth Burger, not just one demographic.

What kind of feedback do you get?

The people who are trying us are the… I would say that they're the cuisine curious, you know? They want to try it for the first time. Maybe they just want to eliminate meat one day out of the week. Obviously, we do have a captured audience with the plant-based and vegetarian community in town, but for those who try us for the first time, they're just amazed at just the flavors and the creativity that we've created at Earth Burger and we've really been a model to the rest of the nation when it comes to fast food, plant-based.

I saw at one point that there was a there were franchise options…

Yes, most definitely. All markets right now are available for franchising. Though, some states have tighter franchising rules, so it's a little bit harder to get in there. But right now, the Texas market is wide open.

There are a lot of documentaries and articles about different segments of the population that are embracing plant-based diets. And they may not be thinking of it in terms of, like, “I'm eating plant-based” but there was, like, an article at NPR a couple of years ago about the Latino audience, and their favorable response to plant based [food]. There was that documentary “The Invisible Vegan” a few years ago about the Black community in New York. It's interesting that that's out there.

Whenever a new documentary comes out, whether it's “The Game Changers,” it's “Forks Over Knives,” et cetera, that always creates a new ground swell of new customer base who want to try and change their diet and just try and eat a little bit more healthfully… I do not claim that our food is healthy, but it is a “better for you” option than your next fast food restaurant around the corner, and it does take up less of a footprint on the planet when it comes to emissions and whatnot.

And how about flavors that you're looking at in terms of… what are you developing?

You know, our flavor profile is really where it's at. That's where we stand out. There's other places around the state that opened up plant-based burger stands and whatnot. But really, we've put so much thought and care into our home curated sauces and how we prepare our burgers that we stand out as as really a winner. And you can just look at our reviews and see that. Our goal has always been to provide really tasty, flavorful food that has always just been plant-based.

Anything that we didn't talk about that you think you want to mention?

We would not have made it for 10 years without our customer base and without the support of San Antonio. So I would just like to thank everyone, even if you've only tried Earth Burger once, just thank you for putting your faith in us and your support in us, for us to represent you.

[hero-israel]

this isn't meant to deny al Nakba or pretend it doesn't exist, but i wonder sometimes why people pretend the expulsion/displacement of hundreds of thousands of people was a unique action taken on israel's part? the jewish people who lived in territories that came under control of the arabs were also expelled during the war. hundreds of thousands of jews were expelled from neighboring arab countries despite having lived there for generations.

it is a tragedy on all fronts, of course, and i dont intend to deny or make light of that. i just find it odd that people talk so much about the 750,000 palestinians who were pushed out by the Israeli army upon our victory of the war of independence yet say nothing about a similar amount of jews who faced the same fate. again, it doesn't make it okay, but as the war concluded the amount of palestinians and jews who ended up being displaced, ethnically cleansed, etc. seem about equivalent. its just that jewish people had a country willing to take them in and yet nobody was prepared to help the palestinians. why does israel alone bear this responsibility? why not jordan? or egypt??

Most people aren't Jewish, most people don't know history in general, most people certainly don't know the history of ethnic groups they don't belong to and countries they don't live in. It is a bad combination for expecting widespread "basic" knowledge. Now add to that latent cultural antisemitism, and the immense demographic imbalance between Jews and Arabs/Muslims. There are always going to be many more people speaking out against us, and against our history, than for us.

I went to Hebrew school through confirmation at age 17 and visited Israel multiple times and did not learn of the existence of Mizrahi Jews until after Operation Protective Edge in 2014, when I saw my close friends repeating antisemitic propaganda and it upset and infuriated me into doing a deep dive into history books on my own free time. I had learned in Hebrew school that "the Jews" were expelled from Arab countries, but we were never taught they were in any way different from Ashkenazim. Practically every single thing I have ever said on this blog was learned on my own initiative, not in any public or even Hebrew school.

The Arab states should have absorbed the refugees of 1948, but they didn't. For the most part, those Arab states have moved on and are willing to work with or at least not actively fight against Israel, and that leaves the Palestinians marooned.

[catboybiologist]

Unprompted fucking rant time!

I'm getting my PhD after getting my BS and my Master's. I've gone through three separate rounds of university applications. And while I'm openly a bisexual trasfemme now, I've done every round of those applications as a cishet white boy. I've been rejected by a shitton of universities, and accepted by a fraction of that. My current institution is an R1 for my field- basically meaning it's in the highest tier of research funding and therefore research prestige/output- but it's very far from a household name the way Harvard or Stanford is. My undergrad institution was the cheapest local four year college that I was guaranteed admission to because my high school grades were piss poor due to an array of mental health problems.

So from that perspective.... Race and ethnicity demographics should 100% be used as a factor in determining admissions to help increase diversity. There's many reasons to think this, but there's two that underline a lot of my thinking on the matter.

Number one is kind of obvious, but what isn't obvious is how blatant it is. The top tier of universities has blatantly favored white people for generations, oftentimes explicitly. And oftentimes, they still do! Having relatives working at a particular university, or being alumni from a university, is literally part of the application materials for many of these universities. During my Harvard grad school apps, they literally had a pop-up window that asked me to check off any wealthy families I was a part of from a list of donor and alumni last names. It was so fucking blatant that I bust out laughing. Spoiler alert, I didn't get in. You cannot look at me with a straight face and tell me that these universities should be allowed to openly and blatantly give admission priority to rich, white, dynastic American families, while not affording any concession for overcoming the shittiness of being born into a persecuted group.

Number two is the thing that most people realize, but I don't think has really sunk in on a societal level. A massive factor in admissions is blind, dumb luck, and I'm not joking. When admissions tells you they received more qualified applicants than they could admit, it's 100% true. Many applications end up in a stage where they just have to randomly reject people to keep numbers down- or even if it's not completely random, they have to grasp for straws into an enormous amount of intangible factors that have nothing to do with someone's actual qualifications. So if you're down to that level of grasping at straws.... Why not use it as an opportunity to increase diversity? Because as it stands, you're not getting rejected because you're white- you're getting rejected because your high school didn't have a fucking sailing team. Remember that Stanford admissions scandal a while back?

There's a number two and a half that is an observation I've had about life in general here: one of my deepest held beliefs after going through a good portion of my early career is that everyone is overqualified for the opportunities they've been given. If your education system is genuinely functional, you'll be able to take people from an amazing diversity of backgrounds, and y'know... Educate them. If these universities lowered their admissions standards a shitton, and randomly pulled from the new pool of "less qualified" people, and they put them in an environment with access to the same resources as before... They would succeed.

There's a whole other rant embedded here about how elite-tier university education actually sucks, and all they do is filter for people who already have massive educational resources of their own. University prestige is mostly a lie, except in terms of how much grant funding you can get. But if you gave that level of funding to a state college tomorrow? They'd still do great things with it. But that's a side thought.

There's ALSO the side rant about why marginalized groups are important in science overall for perspectives on how science interacts with society, but that's also a whole other rant.

There's one thing I will say against this: sometimes, it's too late. For grad school and a little bit for undergrad admissions, an enormous amount of unpaid labor and study is required to even be eligible for the application itself. Required undergrad research hours are often unpaid. My undergrad research advisor paid her student labor when she wasn't required to, and surprise surprise, she has one if the most diverse and successful labs on that campus. Beyond just undergrad research, this goes waaayyyy back to the schooling and tutoring opportunities that people from higher socioeconomic backgrounds have access to from day one... But that's also a larger side rant. Point is, race based admissions are valid and necessary now, but they're a temporary bandage on the bleeding wound that is education discrepancy.

This was kinda random, but this got kick-started by an IRL discussion with a couple of friends and I just needed to vent my whole perspective here. Idk if the community of voyeuristic transfemmes I've mostly accumulated here will care, but it's nice to just type these things sometimes lol

[cursedvibes]

if you think that a non-black author has the range to write an anti-black character, you are extremely wrong. the way gege draws hakari and miguel is anti-black (hakari’s hair isn’t drawn well or with care and his skin is drawn way too light, and miguel’s lips aren’t as bad as a lot of authors but also not good), so what makes you think he can write about it in a meaningful way?

all that’s come of this is non-black people 1) making jokes about it and 2) relentlessly harassing black people in the fandom even more than before. please don’t piss me off.

I assume with the first sentence you are talking about non-black authors writing about black characters

I never said it was perfect. In fact I criticized Gege's writing and said that if you tackle issues like racism you should do it more carefully and in-depth. But again, this all depends on Gege leaning into those aspects of his character more and exploring it to not have Miguel be the only black person in the manga. That hasn't happened so far and with the manga soon ending I doubt it ever will. I was talking about hypotheticals on how I think things could be improved.

And I don't think there is in principle anything wrong with writing about a demographic you are not part of, otherwise stories would be incredibly monotonous and you lose the variety of real life, which isn't great either. The issue is just that you have to inform yourself before writing about what you don't know, even if it's for example writing about characters from another country. Which is usually part of any writing process, at least if you plan your story ahead. I think Gege initially didn't put much thought into how Miguel or Hakari experience racism. It's there rudimentarily in Vol 0 and Hakari's introduction and background, but I doubt they wanted to go in-depth with it. Technically they still didn't because Miguel telling Gojo once "you're being racist" was more intended as a quick message for the (assumed to not be black) readers than a real impactful moment in the story. Even in the scene itself they brush past it very quickly. But I think overall Gege is perfectly capable of improving their writing, they just need to be advised and have someone look over the work to check for internal biases. So you don't end up with things like Gojo being criticized for one stereotype, while Miguel's rhythm-based CT plays into another. Like, if they wanted to, they could absolutely write more about the experiences of black Japanese people, the source is right there and unlike with someone from Kenya, there is also no language barrier. The resources for it absolutely exist and the Black Lives Matter protest happened only a few years ago, giving their experiences more attention.

Look at the manga Billy Bat for example. Urasawa Naoki and Nagasaki Takashi have characters from all kinds of ethnic backgrounds and write about a variety of historic events including the civil rights movement in the US and it works because they did their research and listened to advisors who can speak from actual experience on this matter. That is a lot harder to accomplish in a weekly format with no co-writer, but again, I was talking about how Gege could theoretically improve things and I think under different circumstances they have absolutely the capability for that, everyone has. Otherwise media would be exactly where it was 20 or 50 years ago in terms of how diversity is handled. If they want to improve it is another thing (definitely not in this manga).

[broomsick]

🌞 🥂 ⭐ 🧭 for the polytheist and pagan ask game!

Thank you so much for the ask!

🌞 - Which deity(ies) are you closest to/do you worship the most often?

The answer to this has changed a lot over time, and will likely change again. I have worked closely with Skaði, Óðinn and Loki in the past. For the past two-three years or so, I have mainly worshipped Yngvi- Freyr, Baldr and Thórr! All Gods have been a joy for me to worship, but I feel I have developped an especially close bond with Freyr and Baldr. Within the heathen circles I am active in, I have earned myself the nickname Freysgoði, meaning priest of Freyr. The name is a nod to the Icelandic saga character Hrafnkell Freysgoða, whose patron God was famously Lord Freyr.

🥂 - What is your favorite devotional act or offering to give?

Tough question! All acts of devotion are enjoyabel to me. I love to dedicate prayer readings and songs, as well as to sacrifice offerings into a bonfire. I often do the latter in honor of Yngvi-Freyr, generally at the beginning and at the end of the harvest season. Devotional toasts and the ritual pouring of alcohol is also a personal favorite, due to its established historical roots!

⭐ - What is something you wish people outside your practice knew more about?

I have answered this question already in the previous ask, so I will now come up with another answer! After all, there is much I wish non-pagans, or non-heathens knew about the heathen path.

Something I feel I must say is that yes, norse paganism has earned itself a bad reputation, thanks to highly conservative, folkist groups. It's a heartbreaking fact, but one that should drive us to fight even harder against prejudice and hate. Especially considering the large amount of LGBTQ+ people who make up the norse pagan demographic. A lot of the people who go against the traditional norm when it comes to their identity naturally drift towards unconventional spiritual paths as well, and to try and push them out of pagan circles is to deny them a fundamental right. What I wish more people knew about heathens is that so, so many of us are kind and open-minded people. I have met amazing people thanks to this path, all of whom fought fiercely against exclusion and hate in heathen circles. As practictioners of an open practice, we have a duty to make it so all may feel welcome to join if they desire. I'm proud to say that as it currently appears, at least in my area, we are making progress in that direction. The only ones who are not welcome in the norse pagan path are those who discrimate against gender, sexuality, ethnicity and religious roots.

🧭 - What led you to your practice?

I'm proud to say that I have been pagan for nearly eight years now! The story of how I became pagan is really quite ordinary. There was no "grand reveal", no being somehow "called out to". No God came down from the sky in a flash of light to tell me to worship them. I had already been practicing witchcraft for a little while, and had been atheistic pretty much forever. I didn't know about the existence of paganism at the time, and I had never even heard about it once. While browsing the web for witchcraft inspiration, I stumbled upon a prayer to Óðinn and two main thoughts crossed my mind: A. for some reason, the fact that such a religion exist feels so amazing and relieving to me; and B. this is the religion I was supposed to practice all my life. It was as if spiritually speaking, I had subconsciously been waiting for this specific moment to happen and now, every piece of the puzzle had clicked into place. This was the simple, logical and natural beginning of my spiritual life.

[thedawningofthehour]

Something I was curious about was what ethnicity you picture Cass as? You often talk about ancestry and ethnicity and stuff like that but I dont recall it ever mentioned for Cass. I know some people headcannon her as Hispanic or sometimes wasian, so do you have a headcannon?

Her dad is half Native American, but other than that I haven't really earmarked anything specific. Just a blend of white and white-passing ethnicities you'd find in a lot of American cities. And it's New York, so...maybe Italian? Irish? German? I'm drawing a blank on what's actually common US-wise, the demographics skew pretty Scandinavian here in the Midwest.

I bring up ancestry and ethnicity when it's relevant. Like, we go into it with the boys because the Hamato Clan Destiny and stuff are all plot points of the show and Splinter's culture and heritage are things that are still very important to him. Plus all that stuff about the boys wanting to feel like they belong somewhere in the world and Japanese heritage giving them a sense of that. I mention genetics and population genetics because Draxum is a biologist and works with that sort of information, so it's very relevant to Gale and his work.

But that stuff isn't important to everyone. April is half black and half Irish, but she really doesn't bring up the Irish part outside of St. Patrick's Day. (she'd def make corny jokes about it) Bella's Jewish but she barely acknowledges it. Tigerclaw doesn't even identify as Chinese anymore, his ethnicity is Tiger and his gender is Gun. Likewise, Cass really doesn't identify as anything in particular. She's been to her grandfather's reservation like twice and didn't get along with any of her cousins, that's really all the exposure to her heritage she's gotten. She's a New Yorker, and she's perfectly satisfied with that identity.

[gaykarstaagforever]

Vote Against Trump

The next presidential election is a final test of the full power of white supremacy. Trump is its candidate; he has virtually no other platform. All future plans drawn up for him are for him and his appointed judges to create a fascist White Nationalist state, where democracy is merely a ritual, taxpayer money flows unregulated to fundamentalist Christian churches, and Congress exists to raise the rich into a new generational aristocracy, and make it legal for the cops and military to eliminate everyone the new aristocrats aren't interested in exploiting.

They can win, and will be able to do all this, if only all the white people do their "tribal duty" and vote for Trump. After this election, they will soon lose the demographic war, and never have the numbers to legitimately win national elections again. They know this, which is why they're abandoned democracy. The aftermath of January 6th remains living proof of that.

Trump is literally their last gasp, their final savior, who can destroy the traditional system that isn't working for them anymore, and create a new one, where generational wealth and ethnicity are all that matter.

This is their end game. Their backs are against the wall. People who think America = white supremacy know their time is up, that they absolutely have to win this, or they've lost everything. That's why they're so desperate and terrified. This is why they'll almost certainly use illegal schemes and terrorism and violence to win. Because they have to. The White Race and its White God are doomed, as they see it, if they don't.

Anyone who lives in a rural area of this country already knows that if you're white, and you aren't MAGA, you are considered a race-traitor and a heretic. Even the pastors at the supposedly apolitical churches are all but openly saying that refusing to support the GOP is a sin. This is their End Times. Everything they know and love - toxic masculinity, default racial and cultural privilege and superiority, a right to consequence-free violence against people of color and the poor, undying personal loyalty above all else - is doomed, if they don't win this election. At any cost.

The wagons are circled, and any pink person who doesn't fall in line is automatically a soldier of the Enemy. And they are putting these people's name on lists, to be handed off to the relevant authorities, once Trump wins.

This all seems melodramatic and stupid. And it it. But fascism doesn't do anything in half-measures. Fascism is a 20th Century invention. These people view reality as a movie, and themselves as the heroes. And they HAVE TO win, or the movie doesn't make any sense. Trump is the paragon of this way of living, which is why they identify so strongly with him, no matter how deranged he gets. In fact, the wilder he gets, the better! He understands! They NEED to win this war, because without this traditional innate superiority, they have nothing! And they'd literally rather be dead!

The question here is, if you're white, do you fall in line with this last gasp of grubby tribalism, or do you choose something better? Do you vote AGAINST this destructive nonsense, however you can, or do you put your head down and let it flow over you? Because not voting is voting for Trump, if you're white. Not voting is agreeing with MAGA that if you don't support Trump, as a white person, you had better shut up and go away and stay out of it. Not voting is totally letting these people win.

Being white in America comes with an undeserved privilege. It also comes with a mound of responsibilities most of us don't even know we have. We don't get to exist neutrally, as white people. We are born the racists, the oppressors, the fascists, the comfortable children enjoying the fruits of the colonists's genocidal labor. I didn't realize this until recently, either. Us not voting is us tacitly agreeing to keep silently enjoying our unjust state. And that isn't a morally neutral position. That makes us automatic supporters of this horrible, evil thing.

Vote against Trump, fellow white people. Prove you don't believe in the NeoConfederate dystopia that has ensnared you when you weren't looking. Choose to be better, by actively cutting yourself free.

Because you don't get to stay out of it. You are in it, as it was designed specifically for you. And if you don't stand up against it, your only other alternative is to be dragged along behind it, to be used by it however it sees fit.

This is what we've always done. But you can be the future, not the past.

Vote against Trump.

[enarei]

I guess the thing is that I'm not even sure if people register that I'm trans if I'm not wearing makeup. if they expect me to be trans, I'm not usually fulfilling the conditions for them to read me as such, and then decide if they're going to make an educated guess as to how to refer to me, or be an ass and default to male. most people just do the latter without trying to be an ass about it, I rarely notice malice in how people address me, cause it probably doesn't even occur to them that I'm like, not whatever else they see me as. the recurring thing I've seen in discussions of people that are conscious of not passing some significant majority of the time, or only pass from a distance, or some other qualifier, is that they keep their hair long, and it helps people see them as female. in their idea a trans woman probably has long straight-ish hair. and I don't. since the vast majority of black women straighten their hair to some degree, anything that isn't is perceived as very masculine by default. I think it exceeds the regular racial dynamics of how afros (actual natural ones) are scrutinized for highlighting racial difference to white women, which is how the discourse on this is usually framed in the US, the fact is here they're uncommon even with the black/pardo/mixed demographic for people of this particular gender, so they highlight maleness simply by virtue of being rare for women of any ethnicity to wear. I can count on one hand the number of women I've seen out in public with un-straightened hairstyles very similar to mine. so it's probably no wonder people look at me with no makeup, and read me as an effeminate teenager boy before reading me as a trans (woman). straightening their hair is one of the first things a sensible tranny would do, and I didn't.

[uiruu]

you know, i didn't really understand the situation in Palestine and Israel until this year. like i didn't really know what what the West Bank was, or about the situation in Gaza, and i barely knew about Hamas. nobody teaches us this. and now i feel angry that for my whole life, everyone who mentioned Israel always talked about how complicated the situation was, which is probably part of why i struggled to learn about it. i was expecting it to be complicated and nuanced. but it isn't. growing up, of course i was told that both Israel and Palestine had legitimate claims and there was no inherently right or wrong party, it was just an extremely complex issue. nobody actually sat down and taught us the step by step history, or what the complexities were, they just told us that is was complex and that was it. now that i know a lot more about the history and the current situation, it's not fucking complicated at all. it's a european apartheid state that's only been around for like 80 years. it's not a millennia-long conflict. it's pretty cut and dry. are Hamas's actions complicated? sure, i suppose so. are they heros? no, of course not. but their actions make sense as a response to the situation they were born into. are Israel's actions complicated? not even a little bit. there is no justification for the IDF's actions. with Hamas, you can understand what makes them lash out and do things as a response to the starvation of their people. killing people is bad, but they want to be free. with the IDF, they just want to kill. they don't want to be free, they are already free. they want other people to not be free. what's simpler than that? the Palestinian people are endangered due to violent genocide, and I'm supposed to believe that this is a complicated issue? that there are possible justifications for why that would be happening to them?

zionists will say that Israel's nuance comes from them being victims of the Holocaust, and Jewish people having a right to that land. and sure, fine, if it means a lot to them to live in their holy land, I'm sure it wouldn't have been a big deal for Jewish Holocaust survivors to move to that part of the world and live in harmony with the Palestinians, who would probably have been pretty empathetic. if Palestinians began killing innocent Holocaust survivors who just simply moved there to live a better life and be friends, yeah, that would be pretty complicated. but what makes it cut-and-dry is that Israelis didn't just move to Palestine and coexist with Arabs, they forced Arabs out. they killed them. they erase their culture wherever they can. they renamed the place for them, as if they're the same people who lived in that part of the world thousands of years ago, which they aren't.

the Jewish faith originates there, yeah, sure. Islam also just simply originates from the Jewish faith. the Islamic Arabs in Palestine are the continuation of the Jewish people who lived there millennia ago. the white European Jews are not. sure, demographics shift over time, and surely the Arabs there today are not really the same ethnicity as the people who lived in Jerusalem in like 2000 BC or whatever. but do the white Europeans think that they are? you think the Jewish people in the Bible were white?

and look, okay, let's assume they're right. let's assume the Jewish people in the Bible looked like the white Europeans who have been settling there for the past 80 years. does that give them the right to force people out of their homes and slaughter them? all human beings originated in Africa. do you think it's justified for Europeans to go "reclaim" Africa because it was "theirs" millions of years ago?

and sure, the victims of the Holocaust wanted a place where they could be themselves and protect themselves. on a surface level, i get that. if every single Jewish person all moved there at once, that would be a bit complicated, but it's not that. the Jews who are not in Israel outnumber the Jews in Israel. so i think pretty uncomplicatedly, plain as day, Israel just straight up does not actually represent any sort of Jewish stronghold or homeland, as for most Jewish people, it's not their homeland and they want nothing to do with the genocide happening there. the fact that Israel considers non-Zionist Jews to not even be Jewish at all really goes to show that it's not about Judaism for Israel. it would be complicated if it was. but it's not. so it isn't.

idk. this is a ramble. hopefully it makes sense. i might delete it later.

[garethgobblecoque]

Now, I'm no expert, but regardless of what you think of a state I don't think it's actually possible to completely relocate a population of five-million-ish people from a country they live in and have roots and family in to some other place they aren't native to and don't want to be and you definitely can't do it with their consent.

And even if you could you surely understand why that isn't ethical in the slightest, those people live there, you can't just remove them from their country.

No matter what exactly you think of the Israeli government and it's actions, saying that Israel should be dissolved as a state or that Israelis should "go back where they came from"

A. Is genocide talk. completely removing a demographic from its homeland by force is a form of ethnic cleansing.

B. Doesn't make any sense, they're Israeli, they didn't come from anywhere, they live there.

[infiniteglitterfall]

Also, I bet I can find a study about how their perception of their skin is affected by ambient societal misogyny.

hmmmmm

"With a few exceptions, masculine but not feminine trait identification significantly predicted body appreciation and drive for muscularity, indicating a complicated association with overall body image. These findings underscore the value of an intersectional lens for analyzing how broad social forces may manifest in individual-level body image for SGM individuals."

I just found a related study that basically says that for straight women, there's a correlation between feeling bad about how their body looks, and being bullied, trying to lose weight, trying to eat less, and/or using supplements. Age and ethnicity also played huge factors.

I feel like that all boils down to "being treated badly makes them feel like there's something wrong with them, and they try to 'fix' it by trying to 'improve' their outsides." (or: by trying to make themselves look as much as possible like the straight women they think get treated really well.)

And because (I say with some agender confusion) their gender is a core part of their identity, plus often they're treated badly specifically because they're girls/women, it shows up in the areas where they're being told they can "improve" as girls/women.

But there are also factors associated with feeling good about how their bodies look. For straight women, those factors were comfort with sexuality; social support; resilience; and sports participation.

The first one is uhhhh this study was done on adults. I don't know what the age-appropriate version of that is. Having a positive experience in sex ed/ family life classes? Having people around them who model acceptance and comfort with physical affection?

But it's REALLY telling. Straight women are so sexualized, and treated so much like their worth as a person lies in their sexual appeal to cis straight men, that their own comfort with sexuality in general is tied in with their body esteem.

You know who doesn't have that problem? Lesbians.

I kid, but also I absolutely do not kid. That's what the study says. For lesbians, "bullying was the only factor negatively associated with body esteem."

They didn't even have "protective factors" that affected their body esteem. It's not that lesbians don't have social support or play sports. It's just that for them, those things didn't tie into their goddamn body image.

But as always, everyone else is still screwed! Actually, mostly the aces were screwed this time.

Aces didn't respond in large enough numbers to be statistically significant, so weren't included in the results. (Aka the people conducting the study didn't put in the effort to find out how to reach more aces.)

The results for bi women are absolutely fascinating. Whereas for lesbians, neither age nor ethnicity played a factor in body image (!!), age was a huge factor for bi women... but ethnicity still wasn't!

This tracks: both the bi+ and lesbian communities have a strong history of diversity, inclusiveness, and anti-racist work.

Trying to lose weight, and using supplements or steroids, were both somewhat associated with lower body esteem for bi women, and comfort with sexuality was somewhat associated with higher body esteem.

But apparently what REALLY increases bi+ women's body esteem is resilience; social support; and BUILDING MUSCLE.

BI WOMEN JUST WANNA BE BUFF!!! AND EMBRACED BY THEIR COMMUNITIES!!!! AND BE ABLE TO BENCH-PRESS A SMALL SEDAN!!!!!!

And this was not at all the case for pan women?! Which makes me REALLY WANT a decent fucking study about what the hell is going on there. Like: what is it about these identities, experiences, and communities that makes such a demographic difference right there.

Pan women's body esteem was slightly impacted by their age. But other than that,

WAIT! THIS MEANS PAN WOMEN ARE LIKE LESBIANS!

Honestly what the entire fuck??? Why???

The only thing they studied that REALLY affected pansexual women's body esteem was RESILIENCE.

And honestly, it wasn't a huge effect. Not like freaking BODY BUILDING FOR THE BISEXUALS.

Although it was a larger effect for pan women than for anybody else. Having resilience -- basically, being able to process your feelings quickly and not get stuck in them -- had a 0.63 positive effect for pan women, which I think means that the ones who were resilient felt 63% better about their bodies than ones who weren't.

So I’ve been teaching 6th grade since January, and one thing about my female students which made me upset to realize is how many of them are obsessed with skincare. I've heard the girls in my class discussing the EYE CREAM they use. Like tf you mean eye cream? You're ELEVEN!!! I'm a decade older than you and have never even touched eye cream!! The most skincare a middle schooler needs is cleanser and moisturizer, maybe some acne cream. Who tf is selling you all this other stuff? Who tf told you you needed all this?

It hurts me to see. Their brains are too young for these types of insecurities 😭 no 11 year old girl should be obsessed with wrinkles, I wanna beat tf out of whatever tiktoker made them believe they needed skin that perfect