#because i care about the mental health of POC

[minnesotangothic]

If you vote third party or don't vote at all, your activism is performative at best, and nonexistent at worst. Get off your moral high horse and begrudgingly vote for the "Lesser of Two Evils" instead of allowing all the rights of women, POC and LGBTQ people in America to be actively stripped away. If you don't believe they'll be stripped away, just read Project 2025. Yes, you can still protest and vote for more personal things, but you can only protest under Kamala Harris. Trump is going to make protesting outright illegal, taking away our first amendment freedom of speech. Would you rather have a presidency where making a change is somewhat possible, or a presidency where you're guaranteed death for trying?

If you see it as the trolley problem; would you rather have millions of LGBTQ children and young adults kill themselves across this incredibly large country, and not be able to do anything about it specifically because your actions/inactions caused their basic rights to be taken away and your right to protest taken away, or would you rather continue to see violence against Palestinians for a little while, but still be able to protest against it and fight like hell for the living?

In the trolley problem, you choose the second option if you want to take the moral high ground, or you're more of a murderer than the first option, and yes simply doing nothing is actively choosing the first option.

And guess what! EVERYONE can see if you vote. That information is public knowledge. They can't see who you voted for, but they can see if you did absolutely nothing.

[zebulontheplanet]

I think the whole “my life expectancy is lower?!” Things with autism are getting a bit out of hand. Taking mental health and suicide rates out of this. Because most of these people who are saying it are; mostly if not fully healthy, are low support needs, white, not visibly autistic, etc.

And it kinda makes me upset. Because like, no Brenda. You’re probably going to live a pretty long life compared to the high support needs person who needs 1 on 1 care everyday.

And I think these people don’t realize that most of these studies, are done on higher support needs autistic people. At least most of them are centered around them. Yes, high support needs people do have a lower life expectancy. Why? Because we’re often neglected, killed, die, etc. why? Because of our neglectful caregivers. Because of often comorbid disorders that come along often with high(er) support needs autism. And yes, there is even a study that was done and it went circling around, and people discovered later on that it was about the death rate for high support needs people involving drowning because of their risk of being caught in water. Because there is actual scientific proof that autistic people are attracted to water. And yes, this does lead to autistic people drowning at a higher rate then their allistic peers.

No. Your life expectancy probably isn’t lower, or at least not as low as you think. (Again, taking out mental health aspects).

You know whose life expectancy is lower? Mine. A nonverbal person who relies on a caregiver. A Latino Jew who does look very Jewish. A person who can’t affectively communicate in emergency situations. A person who relies on others. A person who elopes. A person who doesn’t notice cars. That’s me. But even mine probably isn’t as low as other High support needs people.

Mine is lower. But not as low as my HIGH support needs brothers and sisters and siblings who rely solely on other people and don’t get certain things, and are a danger to themselves. To the HIGH support needs people who would eat dangerous things, who would run out of the house and into the street, who are black, who are indigenous, who are POC. Who are neglected. Who live with abusive caregivers. Those are the people with lower life expectancies.

[pocketsizedquasar-3]

i mean, we knew this. but the fact that i’ve seen dozens and dozens of post focusing on queer ppl and telling queer ppl to take care of themselves and queer ppl that it’ll be ok and queer ppl to not kill themselves (which, not saying not to make those posts or that those posts are bad), and not a single, single post* checking in on or showing compassion to Black people, undocumented people and other immigrants, brown people, Muslims, Jews, or other religious minorities — basically, any and all POC in general** — is truly, truly emblematic of what we have known all along: white people fundamentally do not see oppression if it is not happening to them.

*the one or two exceptions were posts i saw before the elections, reminding Black&brown folks to stay safe (bc regardless of outcome, racist hate crimes spike around elections!), and the OPs of those were, predictably, themselves Black or brown.

**QTPOC of course exist. we exist especially at the most dangerous intersections of this violence & horrid effects to our health, mental and physical. but it is frequently clear when ppl make posts like this and consider none of the harm which we are subject to, only that which also affects them.

it does not occur to you to show compassion to us. it does not occur to you to show solidarity with us. it does not occur to you that we are in danger, and have been in far more danger than you, regardless of which color they slap on the white house. it does not occur to you that when you talk about violence against queer people, the vast majority of that violence will fall upon queer and trans POC, especially Black queer people. it does not occur to you that QTPOC exist at all, except when we can be used as a hypothetical argument.

white queer people are white before they are queer. white trans people are white before they are trans. white women are white before they are women. they are disappointed in the status quo only when it stops supporting them. they are aghast and appalled when they are treated like those people. they are shocked and disappointed when suddenly their whiteness no longer insulates them from being treated the way the rest of us are treated. baldwin of course said it first and best:

I think white gay people feel cheated because they were born, in principle, into a society in which they were supposed to be safe. The anomaly of their sexuality puts them in danger, unexpectedly. Their reaction seems to me in direct proportion to the sense of feeling cheated of the advantages which accrue to white people in a white society. There's an element, it has always seemed to me, of bewilderment and complaint.

white queer people, white people in the imperial core, are experiencing a fraction of the dread and violence that everyone else has been subjected to for years. you are afraid, rightfully so. but in your fear and your rage and whatever else, you do not look to those of us who have been fighting this violence for years. you do not offer us compassion and care the way you do with white ppl. you, of course, fall back on your whiteness.

again, none of this is new. we know this. we’ve known this. but it is frustrating nonetheless.

it does not occur to you that we are in danger. that we are dying. that we are being killed. it does not occur to you to to offer us the same hotlines and resources and reassurances and kindness and compassion.

keeping rbs on for now but if people start being weird i’m turning them off. don’t put words in my mouth. don’t say i said something i didn’t. i meant what i said and nothing else.

[transmutationisms]

serious question but do you personally believe there is a way to approach psychiatry in a way that uplifts and upholds patient autonomy and wellness or is the entire trade essentially fucked haha. Btw this is an ask coming from a 3rd year med student—with a background of severe mental illness—who is considering a residency in psychiatry after receiving life-saving care in high school pertaining to said conditions. (I have peers who have been involuntarily hospitalized and treated horribly in psych wards, with approaches i patently disagree with, but was lucky not to experience. I don’t like modern american medicine’s approach to mental illness; “throw pills” at it to “make it go away” ie. a problem of overprescribing, inadequate and non-holistic approach to mental health, and i feel a lot of that can be attributed to the capitalistic framework. I also def agree with you that so much of what can be considered normal human responses to traumatic events/normal human suffering can be unnecessarily pathologized—a great example being the whole “chemical imbalances in the brain is the ONLY reason why im like this” argument that ive unfortunately fallen hard for when i was younger and am still currently dismantling within myself…and like dont even get me started on this field’s history of demonizing POC, women, LGBT, etc). Like i deeply love my psych rotations so far, and i utterly feel in my gut that this is the manner in which i would like to help people—a lot of whom are just like me—but im wondering if there is a way to reconcile these aspects in a way that one can feel morally okay participating within such an imperfect system, in ur opinion… ngghhhhhh i just want to be a good doctor to my patients…

(ps i love all ur writing and analysis on succession!! big fan mwah <333)

i don't mean to sound unduly pissy at you, specifically, but i do have to say: every single time i've talked about antipsych or broader criticism of medicine on this website, i immediately get a wave of responses like this, from doctors/nurses/psychs/students of the above, asking me to, like, reassure them that they're not doing something immoral or un-communist or whatever by having or pursuing these jobs. and it's honestly frustrating. why is it that these conversations get re-framed around this particular line of inquiry and medical ego-soothing? why is it that when i say "the medical encounter is not structured to protect patient autonomy or well-being," so many people hear something more along the lines of "doctors are mean and i wish they were nicer"? why is it that it's impossible to discuss the philosophical and structural violence of academic and clinical medicine without it becoming a referendum on the individual morality of doctors?

i'm choosing to read you in good faith because i think it's possible to re-re-frame this line of questioning to demonstrate to you the sorts of critiques and inquiries i find more interesting and more conducive to patient autonomy and liberation. so, let me pick apart a few lines of this ask.

"is the entire trade essentially fucked?"

if you're thinking of trying to 'reform' the project of medical psychology within existing infrastructures and institutions, then yeah, it's fucked. if you're still assuming that affective distress can only be 'treated' within this medical apparatus (despite, again, no psychiatric dx satisfying any pathologist's understanding of a 'disease' ie an aberration from 'normal' physiological functioning) then you're not challenging the things that actually make psychiatry violent. you're simply fantasising about making the violence nicer.

"I don’t like modern american medicine’s approach to mental illness; “throw pills” at it to “make it go away” ie. a problem of overprescribing, inadequate and non-holistic approach to mental health, and i feel a lot of that can be attributed to the capitalistic framework."

i hate when i talk about psychotropic drugs being marketed to patients using lies like the chemical imbalance myth, and then pushed on patients—including through outright force—by psychiatrists, and the discussion gets re-framed as one about 'overprescribing'. my problem is not with people taking drugs. i am, in fact, so pro-drugs that i think even the ones administered in a clinical setting sometimes have value. my issue is with, again, the provision of misleading or outright false information, the use of force and coercion to put patients on such drugs in order to force social conformity and employability, and the general model of medicine and medical psychology that assumes patients ought to be passive recipients of medical enlightenment rather than active participants in their own treatment who are given the agency to decide when and how to engage with any form of curative or meliorative intervention.

'holistic' medicine and psychiatry do not solve this problem! they are not a paradigm shift because they continue to locate expertise and epistemological authority with the credentialed physician, and to position patients as too sick, stupid, or helpless to do anything but receive and comply with the medical interventions. there are certainly psychotropic drugs that are demonstrably more harmful than others (antipsychotics, for example), and some that are demonstrably prescribed to patients who do not benefit from them and are even harmed by them. conversely, there are certainly forms of intervention besides pharmaceuticals that people may find helpful. but my general critique here is aimed less at haggling over specific methods of intervention, and more at the ideological and philosophical tenets of medicine that cause any interventions to be imposed by force or coercion on patients, then framed as being 'for their own good'. were suffering people given the information and autonomy to actually choose whether and how to engage in any kind of intervention, some might still choose drugs! my position here is not one of moralising drugs, but making the act of taking them one that is freely chosen and available as an option without relying on physician determination of a patient's interests over their own assessment of their needs and wants.

"so much of what can be considered normal human responses to traumatic events/normal human suffering can be unnecessarily pathologized"

true, but don't misunderstand me as saying that drugs or any other form of intervention should be forcibly withheld from those who do want them and are made fully aware of what risks and harms seeking them could entail. again, this would still be an authoritarian model; my critique is aimed at increasing patient autonomy, not at creating equally authoritarian and empowered doctors who just have slightly different treatment philosophies.

"dont even get me started on this field’s history of demonizing POC, women, LGBT, etc"

ok, framing this as "demonisation" tells me that you're not understanding that, again, this is a systemic and structural critique. it is certainly true that a great many doctors currently are, and have historically have been, outright racist, trans/misogynist, ableist, and so on. framing this as a problem of a well-intentioned discipline being corrupted by some assholes is getting it backwards. medicine attracts prejudiced people, not to mention strengthens and promotes these prejudices in its entire training and practice infrastructures, because of its underlying philosophical orientation toward enforcing 'normality' as defined by 18th-century statistics and 19th-century human sciences that explicitly place white, cis, able-bodied european men as the normal ideal that everyone else is inferior to or failing to live up to. doctors who really nicely tell you that you're too fat are still using bmi charts that come from the statistical anthropometry of adolphe quételet and the flawed actuarial calculations of metlife insurance. doctors who really nicely deny you access to transition surgery are still operating under a paradigm that gives the practitioner authority over expressions and embodiments of gender. the issue isn't 'demonisation', it's that medicine and psychiatry explicitly attempt to render judgments about who and what is 'normal' and therefore socially 'healthy', and enforce those standards on patients. this is not a promotion of patient well-being, but of social conformity.

"i deeply love my psych rotations so far, and i utterly feel in my gut that this is the manner in which i would like to help people"

let me ask you a few questions. you say that you like your psych rotations... but how do your patients feel about them? is their autonomy protected? are they in treatment by free choice, and free to leave any time they wish? are they treated as human beings with full self-determination? if you witnessed a situation in which a patient was coerced or forced into a certain treatment, or in which you were not sure whether they were consenting with full knowledge or freedom, would you feel empowered to intervene? or would doing so threaten your career by exposing you to anger and retaliation from your higher-ups? what higher-ups will you be exposed to as a resident, and then as a practicing physician? could you practice in a way that committed fully, 100%, to patient autonomy if you were working at someone else's practice, or in a hospital or clinic? could you, according to current medical guidelines, even if you had your own practice?

when you say "this is the manner in which i would like to help people", what do you mean by "this"? can you define your philosophy of treatment, and the relationship and power dynamic you want to have with any future patients? is it one in which you hold authority over them and see yourself as determining what's in their 'best interests', even over their own expressed wishes? have you connected with patient advocates, psych survivors (other than your friends), and radical psychiatrists and anti-psychiatrists who may espouse heterodox treatment philosophies that you could consider? do you think such philosophies are sufficient for protecting patient autonomy and well-being, or are they still models that position the physician's judgment and authority over that of the patient?

"im wondering if there is a way to reconcile these aspects in a way that one can feel morally okay participating within such an imperfect system"

and here is the crux of the problem with this entire ask. you are wondering how to sleep at night, if you are participating in a career you find morally distasteful. where, though, do your patients enter into that equation? do you worry about how they sleep at night, after having interacted with a system of social violence that may very well have traumatised them under the guise of providing help? why does your own guilty conscience worry you more than violations of your patients' bodies, minds, and basic self-determination?

i can't tell you whether your career path is morally acceptable to you. i don't think this type of guilt or self-flagellation is fruitful and i don't think it helps protect patients. i don't, frankly, have a handy roadmap sitting around for creating a new system of medicine and health care that rests on patient autonomy. affective distress is real, and is not something we should have to bear alone or with the risk of having violence inflicted upon us. what you need to ask yourself is: how does the medical model and establishment serve people experiencing such distress? how does it perpetuate violence against them? and how do you see yourself countering, or perpetuating, such violence as someone operating within this discipline? what would it mean to be a 'good' actor within a violent system, if you do indeed believe that such a thing is ontologically possible?

[its-target-official]

Hey guys. I know there’s already a shit ton of these posts, I know I don’t have much reach here. I don’t care.

You know a trans/POC/disabled/pregnant/etc person? Nope. No ya don’t.

I recommend deleting selfies you’ve posted. Don’t say where you live, don’t even use your legal name.

Please don’t doomscroll forever. I know it feels good in the moment, but it’s so bad for your mental health. Put the phone down (or use the phone to talk to friends) and don’t look at the stuff.

Make yourself a warm drink, take a nap. Start researching your own health, because we all know what’s about to happen. If you can, get garden stuff, if prices go up for groceries.

If you’re a person struck with the curse of a period, don’t track your period by traceable means. That means no apps, and if you use a default calendar, please code name it or something.

And if you’re out to IRL people… maybe say you’ve come to your senses or something? I don’t know, just be super careful.

And above all, remember:

TRUMP CANNOT BE ELECTED AGAIN.

Please don’t kill yourself, don’t hurt yourself. You can make it, and there’s people who need you. Turn those feelings out into useful things, like advocating and helping others.

The next four years will be hard. But I believe in us.

ACTUALLY IVE GOT AN EDIT

I KNOW IT LOOKS BAD BUT TECHINCALLY NOT ALL OF THE VOTES HAVE BEEN COUNTED YET. HOLD OUT GUYS. HE MIGHT NOT BE WINNING.

[nostalgiclittlespace]

For everyone struggling with the state of America right now:

I know everything is super scary right now, especially for queer, trans, disabled, poc, and other minority groups in America rn. I know a lot of us are going into mental health crisis because of the fear. So I just wanted to say that if you need someone to talk to, if you need encouragement, absolutely anything, then send me a message. Whatever you want to talk about- your latest existential crisis or your favorite stuffie. Whatever will make you feel better and sends a little hope your way. we can’t do anything to change the election results. But we can stand together as a community and keep each other safe. That’s something no vote can take away from us.

I refuse to let a vote determine your right to life, happiness, peace, and freedom. You matter so god damn much. Please, please, please don’t lose hope and don’t give up. If not anything else, I am here for you. I don’t care who you are, how you identify, etc—you are a unique and valuable individual who deserves to be loved and respected. im here for you guys. Never give up. I’m always here if you need someone to talk to, I promise I’m friendly :p (just a little shy sometimes!)

I seriously love you all. Take care of yourselves and each other. We’ll get through this.

-Marty 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

[heliza24]

Being a physically disabled Dimension 20 fan breaks my heart sometimes

I’ve been thinking about this since last Wednesday’s episode when we finally got a real scene with Lydia, one of the few physically disabled characters in the entire canon of the show. It was nice, but it was really just a lore dump. An excuse for exposition. A moment for Kristen to look good by expending sympathy/pity. (I’m a little frustrated about how that interaction went down. Extending the help action was nice but patronizingly touching the neck of a full-ass adult without consent was not. It was weird and not something she would have done to a nondisabled character).

I have watched almost all of D20 (still missing a couple of seasons) and as far as I know here’s where our list of canon physically disabled characters stand: Lydia Barkrock, Jan de la Vega (who feels pretty problematic to me, maybe more on that in a later post), one of the Dwarven statues in the temple in The Seven (who is not given the dignity of being brought to life like Asha), and Pete’s coworker in TUC2 who is in exactly one episode and is so unimportant I have forgotten his name. I guess you could make an argument that Gunny is disabled, but I don't feel that Lou or Brennan really talk about him or play him through that lens. So in terms of canon physically disabled PCs-- that leaves us with 0.

We do a bit better with neurodivergent characters and characters with mental health problems; Ayda (my beloved) is very well developed and Adaine is a PC. There have been some openly neurodivergent players, like Omar and Surena, whose characters also read ND to me. But that isn’t labeled or discussed in canon, so it's hard for me to know where to class that. I am going to focus the rest of this post on physical disabilities, since that is my area of lived experience. If another fan wants to write about their perspective of neurodivergence rep in the show, I would love to hear that, and will happily amplify.

There has never been a character with a sensory disability or a limb difference or a chronic illness (not a fantasy one, a real one) on Dimension 20. The only NPCs we have are nondescript, similar wheelchair users. And there has never been a physically disabled player at the table. On the flagship show of Dropout, a company founded on diversity and inclusion. It feels extremely pointed to me.

In fact as far as I can tell there has only been one (1) physically disabled performer on any of Dropout’s shows. (Shout out to Brett, you were great on Dirty Laundry.) Obviously I haven’t seen every episode of everything they have produced. If I have missed someone, please do let me know in the comments/reblogs. But it’s a problem. And Sam Reich even agreed with this criticism when I asked him directly about.

I do really hope they’re working on it, as Sam says. But why has it taken so long?

Dimension 20 has had trans and nonbinary and queer players. It has had players of many different races. I’m not saying that the diversity here is perfect; there should always be more POC in the dome, more queer people. We should keep pushing for that. (And we should also push for performers at the intersections of these identities!) But we’ve seen the ways this diversity has expanded and improved the different seasons, because diverse players create sensitively drawn, diverse player characters. They add details to their PC’s experiences that make them feel rich and alive. I’m thinking about each of Ally’s PC’s incredible capital G gender and Aabria “all my characters (even the stoats) are Black” and how excellent they all are. D20 would not be the show it is without this input.

And yet. And yet.

There are 1,000 interesting and complicated themes to explore around disability. Dealing with access. Dealing with ableism. Dealing with compassion and community care. Dealing with none of it and just being a cool fantasy or sci fi character that happens to be disabled. We don’t get any of it.

I watch my favorite show and I see myself in the ace rep and the female characters. But I don’t see all of me. I see a silent but ever present message: you aren’t quite welcome here.

I have this fantasy that I play in my brain sometimes that someday I’ll get to talk to Brennan in person, like maybe if I buy a VIP ticket and risk Covid to go to a live show or we run into each other on the street or something. I am able to look him in the eye and articulate why he NEEDS to include a physically disabled player in an upcoming season. I reference the ways he’s talked about inclusion and writing diversely on Adventuring Party. Maybe I hand him a handwritten letter, or hell, a printout of this post. And because he really cares about diversity and his shows and his fans he would listen to me, and cast a physically disabled performer in the next season.

But I think that might be giving that nondisabled man (whose work I adore, who I respect so much) too much credit. Because he’s had Jennifer Kretchmer, a physically disabled actual play performer, on adventuring academy to talk about access in gaming. He’s hired disability consultants. He knows about physically disabled people, enough to give us shoutouts as inconsequential npcs. And he still hasn’t thought to include us at the table. In over 20 seasons. None of that other stuff matters if we aren't given a seat at the story telling table, and the agency to craft our own narratives equal to other participants in the game.

When Lydia was telling her story in the last episode, I kept wishing for a prequel, where she is more than a plot delivery device and a kind but unimportant parent. I want to know about her adventures with her adventuring party. I want to see a talented, wheelchair-using actor play out the scene when she decides to put the gem in her chest. I want to hear about what happened after. I want to know how she survived. I want it so badly it hurts.

I am in the process of trying to find new indie actual plays that feature more disabled talent. I am learning how to GM myself so I can tell these kinds of stories. But it’s not the same as being a fan of something. Sometimes I don’t want to have to make my own representation. Sometimes I just want to turn on my favorite tv show, the one that I have cosplayed from and written metas about and loved whole heartedly, and see myself included.

If you’re another disabled or neurodivergent fan I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. If you’re not, I’d love for you to reblog this. I would love for the absence of physical disability in this show to be a topic of fandom conversation, at the very least.

[joesalw]

Blaming joes mental health for her cheating is on another level but then to take it even farther and use all that asylum imagery is so disgusting. She obviously doesn’t care about him or anyone else beyond a paycheck. I stopped using TikTok because of all the”I can’t face consequences I’m just a girl🥺” and “I only hang with girls who would’ve had a lobotomy” from white girls who bully and refuse to acknowledge how bad it is for actual patients, especially POC, forced treatments and all that shit. Now she’s adopted that personality and is selling it as her new 🤪 persona. I hated her before but this is a new low even for Bigot Barbie.

Oh her fans are gonna be insufferable now!

[foreskinniest]

Ok now that I've stumbled out of the Appalachian woods after getting some Bigfoot dick, I'd like to say a few things in light of recent events.

1: I hope leftists/liberals/the DNC finally realize that just because someone is le wholesome poc immigrant doesn't mean they're gonna be any less xenophobic or racist than your tired old white boogeyman. Immigrants in the US fucking LOVE closing the door behind them. Stuff like open borders or defunding/abolishing cops is stuff that sounds great inside of Portland slam poetry queer clubs, but is pants-shitting idiocy with any sane society on earth. And even appearing to be linked to those ideas is political poison, sorry to inform you. Nobody wants weak borders, not even the immigrants who crossed them to get here. Yes it's heartless, yes it's unfortunate, yes it's tough to hear, but now you know that is the reality we live in, because fear sells better than hope. The beatings will continue until this lesson is learned.

2: I've talked before about the need to log the fuck off, the promised Touch Grass Movement, and this is honestly the ultimate sign of that. Living all this time inside your echo chamber has been -- surprise! -- not healthy for you. Not only are you going to stress out more about things you cannot possibly control (how the fuck are you going to save Gaza when you can't even save your own rights at home?), but it's exactly what's lead to everyone being so hyper emotional and partisan about everything. Nobody has a reasonable debate anymore because they're used to amped up internet vitriol, which is manufactured half the time. Still care about the issues, be PROPERLY informed, keep voting (every time, not once every 4 years), and also go have an actual life outside of twitter and tiktok, which have turned politics into cheap entertainment. Your mental health comes first.

3: Yes it's gonna get bad, but we've literally already been here before. None of this is new. It's good to keep this in mind so you don't go completely insane. This country won't change in any meaningful way until it hits rock bottom and if this is what it takes, then so be it. Take care of yourself and the most vulnerable around you, that's all you can do.

[urfave-masc]

America, God bless you if it’s good to ya.

(A letter to those who voted or voted third party)

Ive had plenty of time to think about the weaponized words you all have used against us. “I don’t think you’re who I thought you were” and “you’re misunderstanding me” no, I hear you loud and clear. What you’re not doing is listening to us.

A third party or non-vote is the same as giving a vote to someone who wears genocide as a shiny pin on his suit. At least maybe with Kamala, we could save some unfortunate victims of assault, rape, incest. We could’ve protected our own trans kids, now we are going to fight a genocide of our own. We are going to have to fight and riot because someone got killed for “walking while black” under this administration.

I beg of you to organize. That’s an important thing to do while the world is going to crash and burn, because it already is, and nobody is going to be happy with either party. We clearly did not do critical thinking when it came to our own issues. I’m specifically looking at my third party and non voters here, whatever your reason may be from “i don’t like either” to “children are dying overseas” well, now our mothers and trans children are dying here. what have we solved. apart from enacting horrible tariffs the likes of the economy will have never felt since the great depression, and giving tax cuts to the billionaires to make the working class even poorer than the ruling class, which doesn’t sound like we are solving anything at all. it doesn’t sound anything like the reform we need, the revolution we need, right?

ah yes, because your activism for children overseas while you can’t be an advocate for your mother, or her mother, or her mother, or her mother, while you can’t be an advocate for yourself, while these women and kids are getting raped and assaulted you thought a non vote meant more than a impending genocide on POC and trans people and control over women in our own damn country wasn’t as important as kids in gaza. “if it means i don’t have to have access to gender affirming care or hormones, ill live.” well im very glad you’re privileged enough to live. i’m extremely glad you will never feel some of the pain trans kids feel who took their lives because they got beat so bad at school, or their parents left them homeless.

Nex Benedict, you were a child who should’ve been able to feel safe at school.

Kids should feel safe in our schools. 513 mass shootings and counting in 2024 alone, kids doing lockdown drills monthly and posting video of police stampeding their school complexes wasn’t enough for even a vote for basic mental health issues and addiction issues? Was issue 12 nothing to somebody who is almost a year sober? Who has almost died 2 fucking times in the span of a year because of drugs? Is abolishing the department of education really what we needed here, to put behind kids like me who had IEPs and those with autism, adhd, and other mental disorders and even physical disorders from receiving a proper education?

Where was your voice while protesting the genocide in gaza when the 20 kids in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting should’ve been able to vote yesterday. Where is your support for “March for Our Lives?”

Where was your voice when black men and women are being subjected to some of the worst systemic racism in modern times? “Kamala jailed thousands of black people for weed charges” and if you look at what’s law right now, she gave 95% of them a slap on the fucking wrist if you actually did your research. Doing her job, and then trying to do a job for the people where weed could be legalized and charges could be expunged, which affects majority black people. This issue hits close to me. Because you want to paint someone out to be an absolute monster, which there is some merit to, but you neglect to see that the other monster wants nothing to do with the community and won’t give an inkling of hope to give people a safe way to make community. It’s like a damn pitbull at the shelter. Stay in the crate and potentially get adopted someday, or get euthanized.

Tamir Rice, you should still be breathing, you should still be alive.

We should organize regardless of who was elected but I guarantee you now there are going to be repercussions the climate, people, and world have never known with an outcome like this.

With major climatologists begging you to vote for somebody who isn’t going to immediately continue burning fossil fuels and continue the meat industry, to continue doing the things we are doing now and you still let a non vote out of “making a message” happen when the most crucial part of our climate journey is NOW. Because of the political divisiveness in our country and unwillingness to vote for somebody that’s “less bad” than the fascists, we are going to make absolutely no progress. You really think rioting under Trump is going to work? It may not work either under Kamala, but damn it was sure a fucking shot if it meant that my grandpa still had access to healthcare while he steadily declined.

This isn’t about parties for me. This is about my grandpa, who drank from colored water fountains and couldn’t enter certain stores because he was too dark. Or when he was told he would never amount to anything in life and went to college all while having two kids and three jobs.

This is about my grandpa who we fought long and hard to get the ACA for his parkinson’s to work out with the VA to make sure his succumbing to death was as painless and humane as possible.

This is about my grandpa who always said to “love your neighbor no matter how much they hate your skin color” because we have too much fucking infighting to make an actual revolution work.

This is about my grandpa and his family who had their fucking land taken away in a broken ass system who even then knew better than to vote for a fascist fool. This is about the millions of undocumented immigrants who are now at an even heightened risk of deportation. this is about my teenage best friend, D. R, who’s mom is living in a trailer park with 3 kids and can’t get citizenship because they might deport her. And leave her DACA children and US citizen born children at the hands of child protective services.

This is about our broken ass system which only became more fascist because of your non fucking vote. do better. even if you don’t agree with everything i am saying from my own experiences or lived experiences, do fucking better. support minorities and people in need instead of running away or giving salutations to what you think is right in your mind. Personally, we are upset that you did not vote. Very upset. Because you couldn’t decipher when to look out for yourself and your own marginalized community while making a difference in another. It’s like a black person voting for Trump. Do. Better. We are so deeply involved in a two party system that this election would not have been swayed by your non vote or third party vote and your privilege and naivety is really showing based on your ability to vote, and yall didn’t anyways. Until we come together as a community and start disassembling the system starting at a local level, you have no fucking reason to let a christofacsist win to help bring down the system.

[eddiediazismyhusband]

that account also responds to a lot of anti Ryan stuff on Twitter even going as far as either calling him Ryan slurzman or laughing at someone who did. Fuck them fully

TW: mentions of mental illness and suicide ideation; read at your own risk

no the double standards towards ryan from that hald of the fandom is insane. they don’t actually care about someone’s past mistakes because if they did, then they wouldn’t be defending lfj with their whole chests.

as i said before, i myself am not a poc, i am not in a position to forgive or not forgive ryan for any mistakes he made in the past:

but i look at how strong his friendships are with kenny, and aisha, and tracie, and i know that if he had not done the work to better himself and make up for his mistakes they would not be friends with him… and if they can be friends with him then who am i to say anything against him?

the crux of the matter is that these fans are showing their true colors. they are berating and calling for the death of a poc character, they are advocating for that character to remain closeted. they are sending death threats to fans of that character, calling them names, and spreading hate. they are actively attacking a poc actor’s vulnerability about his mental health saying theu would like to see him play a plotline in which his character attempts to take his own life in line with the actor’s own past mental health struggles. they have been attempting to reduce that man to a comment he made in a moment of anger years ago that he has apologized for, and as far as we can tell atoned for, while their fav continues to post weird shit and has never once actually addressed his support of trump, his questionable instagram activity, or his reducing depictions of workplace racism and misogyny down to “teasing.”

you don’t have to like ryan. you don’t even have to forgive ryan. but don’t turn around and use your supposed “grudge” towards a poc character as an excuse to lift up a white man with his own controversial past (and present)

This is gonna be the last thing I post about the matter bc honestly Bree has proven herself to be an awful person and has shown a lot of her true colors today so I won’t waste my breath anymore, but this kind of behavior has to stop. This fandom has reaaaallllyyyyy proven itself to not be a safe space for poc lately and for a show with multiple complex poc leads that is very disappointing to see.

[noonieftp]

Sneaky but freaky..🥀

!Drug dealer! Eren x poc reader.

Uhh this my first time doing this, so treat me kindly my peoples! This is a chapter story so bare with me 😅. I hope everyone enjoy my little story 🖤

Warning: if you feel uncomfortable or disturb in any type of way please exit off and enjoy the rest of your day.

Description: Eren is your boyfriend’s !drug dealer!. He’s been selling to Jean for months and even sold to you time to time. Eren likes you and didn’t think Jean was the right man for you, Jean never expected that. Of course, Eren had to say something one day that had Jean thinking…

Your name is jasmine btw 🫠

Minors dni pls 🥲

Sneaky but freaky..🥀

You and eren been friends for a long time, well not really just about 6 months. He was you’re plug. You were his favorite buyer, even though you didnt really buy from him unless you’re boyfriend jean was home. Jean and eren was friends in high school but they not very close, they would hang out here and there,at the apartment and parties but anywhere else they would act like they don’t know each other. It’s kinda weird.

Eren was older then jasmine and jean, not calling him old or nothing because he’s far from that. eren is 26, long black locks with gorgeous emerald green eyes. at first place eren seemed a bit on the skinny side until one day he came over to do a sale with you’re boyfriend and you ended up opening the door while you’re boyfriend was in the bathroom. When the door swung open and you seen that eren was wearing a all black compression shirt with grey sweat pants, he looked like he just came from the gym. His muscles looked like they were gonna rip his shirt, his abs was stuck to his shirt showing all it’s glory and-!

“Hey ma, what ya lookin’ at?” Eren looks down on you and smiled knowing he just caught you staring at his toned body.

You rolled you’re eyes and put you’re hand on you’re hip. “Boy nothing. You got my 8th?” You stuck you’re other hand out waiting for him to give it to you.

Eren looked passed you to see if jean was around. “Wheres ya man?” He look back down at you with you still giving him an annoyed face.

“Sitting on the toilet why?” You huffed but next thing you knew you felt eren’s arm snake around you’re waist and pulled you in. You gasp from the contact, you’re eyes shot up at him but all he did was lower his head to you’re shoulder and whispers into you’re ear.

“You look amazing today Jasmine” he then kissed you’re shoulder making you shutter under his touch, you were breathless from such a small encounter. Jean never made you feel like that before. You knew this was wrong but something about him just made everything feel so got damn right. You can admit that you and jean relationship is very toxic and isnt health for you’re mental but you loved him no matter how many times he cheated on you. You still loved that man.

Eren pull away from you when he heard the bathroom door open. He then dig into his pocket and took out the 8th and handed it to you when jean started to walk up.

Eren looked passed you again and smiled at jean. “Whats good man” jean dapped eren up and smiled back. “Nothing man just tryna get high so this b-“ jean stopped and looked at you, his whole mood changed.

“You see im talking so go.” You mumbled a sorry then turned around walking back to the living room.

Jean turn back to eren “this bitch is the reason why I need to get high” he sighs annoyed at you but eren gave jean a glare.

“You just talk about and to yo shawty like that” eren face said everything he was thinking but jean was to dumb to see it.

“Well yeah the bitch cant do shit but annoy me, fuck me, and roll my joints when I tell her to dude.” Eren shook his head and laughed at what jean just said.

“Aye man you’re a funny guy, but seriously though take good care of her or someone else will” eren looked passed him and yelled out bye to you, you yelled it back as you seen him start to walk away and jean slowly closing the door. When he came to the living room he seen you on you’re phone smiling at some game you were play.

What eren said didn’t sit right with jean. He walk over to you and snatched you’re phone out you’re hand making you gasp.

“Wtf! Jean gimme my damn phone!” He get up to take it back but he pushed you back on the couch.

“So now you’re fucking my plug” jean tone was so serious you could tell he wasnt joking. You’re face twisted up an you cocked you’re head back confused.

“Nigga wtf is you talkin’ about right now?!” You stand up from the couch and towards him. He laughed in you’re face like a mad man. “Bitch stop trying me. I know you and eren got something goin’ on, you think im fucking stupid!-“

“Yes you’re fucking stupid jean cause why the fuck do you think that?! I sit at him every fucking day till you get home! So why the fuck would I cheat on yo-“ you’re words were cut off when a hard slap connected to you’re face. You fell to the floor holding you’re face in disbelief.

“Bitch didn’t I say stop fucking tryin’ me!” He looks down on you and scoffs. “Now stop fuckin’ playin’ with me before I beat the fuck out of you like yo ex did.” That right there pushed you to the edge.

“He thinks he’s gonna put me thru hell like that nigga did? Fuck that!”

you quickly got up and shoved that man pushing him a bit out the living room close to the front door. “Nigga get the fuck out my apartment! You got me fucked up! GET THE FUCK OUT!” The anger in you made you feel stronger then ever but even so jean was a big guy..

His face twisted in rage, he stood up straight. You look down and see his fist ball up, reality snaps back to you making you’re beautiful skin turn cold knowing you just fucked up.

“You want me to get out right? I gotchu.” He started walking towards you forcing you to spin on you’re heels and run to you’re shared bedroom. You quickly slammed the door and locked it.

Jean was hot on you’re tail but he still got locked out. “Open the door babygirl” you could tell he was trying to stay calm but his words was laced with venom making you’re skin crawl. “Just leave me alone jean..”tears start to form from the sides of your eyes.

He bangs loudly on the door “open this fucking door jas!” You quickly grabbed your trap phone off your bed and went straight to your call log and called the last person you talked to on the phone, He hears your phone ring.

“Who you calling jas?! Nobody is gonna come and help you bitch” he started to kick the door ready to break it down. Fear hits you like a line of coke and tears started to fall hard until you hear the line connect.

To be continued..🥀

[kahin]

white people can raise money for AO3, for Zionist Taika Waititi and his stupid shit show, they dump entire paychecks on entertainment, on games, on luxuries. they can't afford to boycott. they can't afford to give money to people undergoing genocide because why are these brown people taking my money? i'm too good for that! and so palestinians have to bare their every misery, they aren't allowed to grieve in private, they must share every facet of their story for the white populace to care. and even then they might just not. they'll ignore, they'll scroll by. they'll accuse palestinians of being scammers. they'll play dumb and go "oh but i didn't see it!" they'll filter any tags relating to palestine, any mention of it so they don't have to look at the fact that people are dying and they're complicit. they can't afford to break their gimmicks, ruin their blog aesthetics. it's fine if you don't give money! take breaks for your mental health!

you are all first-worlders through and through. Privileged. Able to not care, to be as apathetic to mass suffering as much you want to be. Able to have meaningless debates that have already been settled years ago about voting, what Zionism is, what even is a genocide? why are we throwing this word around? So serious! Able to start smear campaigns and walk away with a simple "teehee! oops! im sorry" and not be held accountable. Able to withhold lifesaving money/donations if it suits your fancy - how many black, indigenous, POC, users of any marginalised community have posted their requests to get money for food, rent, a place to stay? and have had their cries ignored? and meanwhile those who care don't have enough to give.

How are you not ashamed?

[sayyourprayers]

It is kinda cute how the Duffers' writing is rated on here. Cuz like that isn't how shit works at all. But ya guys, make it work. And also be patronising as hell while you're at it. The treatment of POC characters or homo-sexuality/phobia (yes that too, sowie) and war and cop worship and sexism and classism and mental health (people not named Max exist) are not exceptions to what is otherwise stellar writing. What the hell are y'all on about? Especially treatment of POC characters.

Ya cuz I'm only keeping my eyes peeled open to see where they falter and ooh POC. Bad Duffers! Everything else is dope I say. Like that's a compartmentalisation that even works. It's not a gangrenous arm that you get to cut off n then be like.....woah now you're gangrene free. Nope it's part of the whole show. You can't discount it to rate the writing. Hello. How's that the only thing you discount (cuz other stuff is considered good writing in most circles)? And then say: the Duffers are great writers but....... No the duffers are mid writers because.......

That's how the sentence is supposed to start bitch. That's how stuff's rated. Go take a course on haterism. It's more holistic. Holistic shitting >>>>>>>>>>> compartmentalised dick riding.

Roger Ebert would have 4 starred everything if he had the foresight y'all have. Just forget the bad parts exist. Four stars that it ended right? Be for fucking real.

P.S. I see who RBs what from where and how the tags differ depending on who is RBed and lemme just say the call is coming from inside the circlejerk cuz you bitches dunno how to dial a number that's not listed in your faves. Tell me you care about Tumblr celebrity without telling me you care about Tumblr celebrity.

P.P.S. I'm POC in that I'm brown. But also not in that my wholeass country is brown. But yet there's shit desis from the des are understanding better than people living in multi-cultural (in terms of countries) / multi-racial race obsessed countries. Which is 🤯

P.P.P.S. Not thinking that one sensitive plotline will be handled well because another sensitive plotline barely exists or is fumbled over massively is perfectly sensible. (Re: homophobia)

[spaghettificationandpretzels]

Writing Resources: Chronic Pain and Illness

Sp's resources for Content Creators Materialist

Trigger warnings for discussion of chronic pain and illness. Other authors are more than welcome to add their own points and I will update the link in the masterlist as more is added. Alternatively, send me an anon ask or DM if you want to remain anonymous. I have more than one chronic issue myself, I will use the block unbutton if you're an ass about this.

Chronic pain and illness have little to no representation in fanfiction. If you wish to add these to your story and you don't experience the subject yourself, please do research using medically accurate sources.

Patient Care and Health Information - The Mayo Clinic. Look up the condition in the search bar.

The NHS website Look up the condition in the search bar.

Another good resource is forums and subreddits.

2. Even people with the same condition have different experiences, be careful not to make blanket statements.

3. Women, POC and members of the lgbtqia+ community are less likely to get treatment, more likely to be treated like drug seekers and are more likely to be misdiagnosed or have to wait much longer for an accurate diagnosis. Similarly, their issues are more likely to be blamed on mental health issues and hypochondria.

4. Someone living with a chronic condition may not have a 'normal', or what they consider normal may be disordered. Some people with chronic conditions may not know what not being in pain or being well-rested is like. When I was younger and before my current treatment, I was never hungry or out of pain, this shocked people when I told them, it was as normal as breathing to me.

5. Doctors can suck, some people are outright terrified to get treatment due to past experiences. I was treated like a drug seeker once and now get the shakes before seeing a new doctor for fear of being called an addict.

6. The things people experiences do not care what you have going on. They can steal happy moments in a flash and render someone unable to leave their home, it's common for someone with a chronic condition to need to plan everything down to the second (or feel like they need to), cancel at the last minute or worry that they won't be able to enjoy something they have looked forward to.

7. We are not looking to be babied, I know my own limits and will express them. There is a line between a character being caring and infantilising. Having said that, there are times when I haven't expressed my needs for fear they will be ignored. If you are writing a caretaker scene or character be careful to ensure the other person still maintains their autonomy.

8. Empathy, not sympathy. Sympathy is looking down at someone in a hole and telling them they can climb out, empathy is getting in there are helping them out. Sometimes the best thing someone can hear is "I have no idea what you're going through."

9. Chronic conditions are systematic, it's not just pain, it's also brain fog, being unable to sleep or stay awake, having problems controlling emotions, and changes in appetite and sex drive.

10. There is never a magic cure, chronic conditions are a part of someone. Making them disappear doesn't mean a happy ending because, in real life, they don't disappear. It doesn't make someone less than others if they don't get better.

Part Two: Chronic migraines

[obxfiles]

The hate is way too much, and I’m sure Rudy is anxious as hell. Remember last year everyone was worried about his mental health and now it’s “let’s just bully and harass this actor because his exGF made a TikTok and we’ve jumped to conclusions.”

End of the day, he’s dating someone who’s using the attention to share pro-Palestine content.

Love or hate her Elaine is doing more to help people right now and I applaud her for that. If it was me I’d be telling all the fans to F off lol.

putting my response below the cut because it's quite long and gets a little on tangent but i really appreciate you pointing this out! it's so important to keep in mind!! i hope i worded this well...sometimes my word choice doesn't always come out the best

from what i've heard, elaine has always shared links for important issues on her social media; she uses her platform for the things she cares for and that's awesome of her. i totally agree, she's done a lot of good and even some of her instagram captions that may not seem like much, have made me self reflect on some of my own views.

i think it absolutely sucks when people hold someone's past against them and do not allow for any growth or change. none of us are the people we were in our teens. it's wild to think she's still the person she was at like fifteen. most of us at that time were just spoon-fed what our parents believed, or our peers. especially in the time period we were teens in. i think people forget what high school looked like for her vs. what high school is like for them now. there wasn't all this social media. you were pretty much in a bubble. and, unless you actively got out of that bubble, back in the day, you were just kind of locked in to what your family and friends were saying.

she's about my age and while i knew of course what was wrong and right, there'd be jokes friends would make that i'd laugh at without really thinking about on a deeper level. it took getting out of my small bubble to really see that hmm some of that stuff just wasn't and isn't okay

i think there's a lot of young people on social media that just simply do not allow for any kind of grace or change or progress. you are who you were and the mistakes that you made as a teen no matter how much time has passed and how much growth has happened. and i just can't agree with that. like of course you don't have to like her or anything, no one has to like anyone, but there's a certain level of grace and empathy i just can't wrap my head around withholding from a person. and of course if someone is a POC and they have an issue with her it's an important to hear that out and understand where they're coming from. a lot of what i've seen though, that has not been the case. a lot of the hate on twitter stems from people just trying to stir up drama and it's sad.

sorry for going off on a bit of a tangent there!

and yes i agree!!!!! no one is seeming to take mental health into consideration. i've seen threats, and even "spells" wishing ill upon both him and her on twitter and it's wild. people were even laughing about madison's car being wrecked. it's sick and disgusting. the lack of empathy is bizarre and frightening to me.

i'll never understand it, those levels of cruelty. it's inhumane, plain and simple.