#calling politicians

[kittyprincessofcats]

ICJ Ruling

Okay, let's get into this.

First of all, I get the frustration at the court not ordering a ceasefire. I was disappointed and frustrated at first too, since a ceasefire was the biggest and most important preliminary measure South Africa was requesting - and of course we just all want this horror to finally end for the people in Gaza. So I get the frustration and disappointment, I really do.

However, I do think this ruling is still a major win for South Africa, Palestine, and international law as a whole and here's why:

The court acknowledged that it has jurisdiction over this case and completely dismissed Israel's request to throw out the case as a whole. It will now determine at the merits stage (that will probably take years) whether Israel is actually commiting genocide.

The court acknowledged that Palestinians are a "distinct national or ethnic group and therefore deserving of protection under the genocide convention". Pull this out next time someone tells you "there's no such thing as Palestinians, they're all just Arabs".

The court acknowledged very unambiguously that "at least some" of Israel's actions being genocidal in nature is "plausible". South Africa has a case, officially. Israel is accused of genocide, in a way the ICJ deems "plausible", officially. This is huge. (And seriously, how freaking satisfying was it to hear all of those genocidal statements by Israeli politicians read out loud and used as justification for this rulling?)

The court might not have ordered a "ceasefire" in those words, but they did order Israel to "immediately end all genocidal acts" (which includes killing and injuring Palestinians) and submit proof that they actually did. How are they going to comply with this ruling without at least severly reducing or changing what they're doing in Gaza?

In fact, this wording might actually be more appropriate for a genocide (vs a war), as author and journalist Ali Abunimah notes on Twitter:

He's completely right. Israel lost today, by overwhelming majority (I mean, 15 to 2? I heard people predict the rulings would be very close, like 9 judges vs 8, but instead we got 15 to 2 (and even 16 to 1 on the humanitarian aid). Holy shit.) The court disimissed almost everything Israel's side of lawyers said, while acknowledging that South Africa's accusations are "plausible".

And this is important especially because of Mr Abunimah's second tweet there^. Because the question is, where do we go from here?

This ruling means that Israel is officially /possibly/ commiting genocide and that should have huge international consequences. The rest of the world now HAS to take these accusations seriously and stop arming and supporting Israel - and if they won't do it on their own, we, the people, have to make them. This is THE moment to rise up all around the world, especially in the countries most supportive of Israel (the US, the UK, Germany): Protest, call your representatives and demand a ceasefire and an end of arms deliveries to Israel.

We now have a legal case to back our demands: If Israel is, according to the ICJ, "plausibly" commiting genocide, then all of our governments are, according to the ICJ, "plausibly" guiltly of aiding in genocide. And we need to hold that over their heads and demand better. We need to do that right now and in huge numbers. Most politicians only care about themselves and saving their skin. We have to make them realize that they could be accused of aiding in genocide.

(As a German, I'm thinking of Germany here in particular: After South Africa's hearing, our government dismissed their case as having "no basis" - how are they going to keep saying that now that the ICJ officially thinks otherwise? Over the last months, people here have been arrested at protests for calling what's happening in Gaza a genocide. How are the police supposed to legally keep doing that now that the ICJ has officially deemed this accusation "plausible"? I used to be scared to use the word "genocide" at protests or write it on my protest signs - not anymore, have fun trying to arrest me for that when the ICJ literally has my back on this one 🖕🏻.)

So yeah - don't be defeatist about this, don't let Israel's narrative that they "won" (they didn't) take over. This might not be everything we wanted, but it's still a good result. Don't let what the court didn't say ("ceasefire"), distract you from the very important things that they did say. Let this be your motivation to get loud and active, especially if you live in any country that supports Israel. Put pressure on your governments to not be complicit in genocide, you now officially have the highest international court on your side.

[contagious-watermelon]

Why do I keep seeing transmascs and trans men insisting or implying that all trans men are "female socialized," or "understand the female experience," or "navigated the world as a woman." Because yeah, sure, that can be true for some people. especially if you weren't gnc at all as a kid and didn't crack your egg until well into adulthood, it makes sense.

But they don't stop at saying they had that experience. It always comes with an addendum that trans men, as a group, all can relate to this experience. I don't know about the entirety of my demographic, but I never got even a little bit of what some of them talk about. I didn't even believe that women were scared of going out at night until I kept consistently seeing them say it, online or wherever, for years. I never realized catcalling was a thing until I saw some women complaining about it on reddit.

But they posit it as some sort of, you're safer than cis men, right? You know what it's like? Which, on top of being patently, demonstrably false in the case of myself and many other trans men, holds some unpleasant and often outright hostile implications about trans women. And they always deny it, but if you can't even conceptualize someone like me who grew up gnc, and never got the bulk (or any?) of whatever we consider to be 'female socialization,' what does that say about what you think trans girls went through, growing up? I don't want to speak for them, as I've never experienced that firsthand, but I can guarantee that (if you're even a little bit obviously trans) people don't treat you like a cis kid of the opposite gender. By and large, they don't get treated like cis boys.

It just makes me mad that we're taking this inaccurate framework that (ever so conveniently) puts trans people into the box of our assumed birth gender, and trying to fancy it up and use it with a faux-progressive veneer; never mind the way that transphobes use it to bar trans women from being athletes, or using the bathroom, or having access to any gendered resources they need. It would be bad enough to try and dust it off and use it even if it were largely accurate, due to the aforementioned connections to outright transphobia, but it literally is patently false. Not in all cases, obviously, but why are we trying to revamp this untrue, inaccurate generalization and pretend that we can make it 'trans-inclusive?'

[problemduetest4life]

idgaf I need nora to bring back slurs and cracker dust in TGR

[bouncinghedgehog]

[golmorehotgirl]

Going through screenshots on Pedro and can we just talk about how perfectly executed this shade was LMAO

I remember laughing on my initial play through 3 years ago and this made me laugh again! For context if you’ve forgotten since ARR I believe they’re asking how Ishgard fared after the attack on the Steps of Faith, the attack that Wol had to practically beg the Alliance leaders to send reinforcements (they did but…a pitiful amount lol) Naturally I believe he’s playing the part of the diplomat and being polite of course, but it’s his use of “generous” that makes me lol Lest we forget this is a man who’s clawed his way up through Ishgardian politics which have to be blood baths so I know he’s well versed in the ability to throw blink and you miss it shade wrapped in the most noble and polite packaging.

[bonkalore]

Feels fitting that I've been wanting to get more out of Cyprus drawn and laid out lately and it also happens to be the start of Mer May! He's a character that I had around since around the beginning, but didn't really start getting to incorporate him much more till more recently and I'm glad for it.

Ended up with a polycule I guess (don't worry Jayce, you will eventually be included too). I kept shying away from it officially bc for some reason that's a thing that people still get worked up over still, but that's what it is! Jayce and Lucy get together and also their boyfriend Cyprus lol Anyway, this is some stuff of how he and Lucy first met that I was trying to get out. He has some interaction with the Bureau as an ambassador and has to sit in meetings. With recent events and the former Primus gone suddenly, Lucy moved up in position suddenly and also had to sit in on said meeting. Things have been chaos. He ends up joining in the Primus tournament and was also sick of the way they handled things. He and Lucy have some of that in common to start~

Bonus Jayce faces lol:

[saltpepperbeard]

Call It Through as a Crew: Alleviating Some Phone Anxiety

Hello everyone! So as you probably already know, there has been a recent call to make, well, calls! Another member of our crew figured out that the max customer service line (855-442-6629) is a very effective way to get our feedback heard, as the feedback gets transcribed and shared to a multitude of teams.

I already sort of briefly shared my experience on this post, but I wanted to go a bit more in detail to offer some solace for those who are also phone averse, as well as share resources and get the word out even more.

And y'all, when I say I'm phone averse, I mean PHONE AVERSE LMAO; MY FEET WERE SWEATING JSDKLS LIKE I WAS FIGHTING FOR MY LIFE. So I totally, TOTALLY get it, and am here to walk you through everything in detail!

So I called that number and was on a brief hold--probably like 5 minutes or so. The customer service representative (Margot my bestie Margot) then picked up, and asked for the email associated with my account as well as my full name.

I was extremely extremely worried and anxious about being bothersome/annoying the person on the other end and just being able to feel it in their tone, so I was shivering and sweating all the while. But then when she asked for my reason for calling, I said, "Oh, it's actually in regard to some feedback," and she went, "Is it for Our Flag Means Death?"

And we both laughed, and I was like, "Haha how did you knooooowww?" And she laughed some more and was like, "Let me tell you, I have never seen anything like this in all my years working here. We are getting so many calls. It's incredible."

And by that point, a large weight was off my chest because she was friendly, I was friendly, EVERYONE WAS FRIENDLY.

I laughed and told her that we were a very passionate and concerned bunch, and she told me that she thought that was so cool and also super important. She then allowed me to tell her my feedback, and she transcribed it as I talked. This was the little script I had prepared in case you'd like to reference it:

I just wanted to call and express my disappointment, dissatisfaction, and concern with the recent cancellation of Our Flag Means Death on Max. As a queer person myself, this show has a tremendous impact on me. And in a climate where so many diverse and LGBT-centric shows have unjust ends, I’d just like to express my wish for reconsideration, and just the hope that…Max will allow LGBT stories like ours to live and flourish. And I’m really worried about there being some kind of…homophobic angle to the cancellation, so it would mean the world to myself and so many others if the decision could be reversed, and we could get our third and final season.

I went a little graver than originally planned, because I saw talks that taking a DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) angle, as well a "hey I'm a queer person and this feels like a decision made for a nefarious purpose" angle, are supposedly more likely to be noted.

Anyway, she allowed me to say my piece and wrote it all down, and then actually stayed with me on the line to chat a bit more. So, the phone call didn't feel rushed or anxious which was SO so huge to me; it felt far more conversational.

She was like, "I don't want to toot our little horn or anything, but Max really takes all this feedback into consideration. It will be passed to the properties team (or something equivalent, I can't remember the EXACT term she used), and they're in charge of what goes on Max and why. So, I really feel like you guys have a fighting chance with these efforts."

And of course I was thanking her profusely for telling me all of this, and for listening; polite menace, that will be my brand!

But man, the coolest part of all? She told me that she was POC, and a queer person herself, and that this was all so cool and so amazing to see. She applauded our efforts, and expressed interested in the show. I laughed and said, "Well uhhhh I might have a BIT of a bias, but I cannot recommend it enough."

And then she proceeded to tell me that it might be even MORE effective to hit from different angles. So, keep calling (they're available 24/7), and also keep utilizing the online feedback form. Basically just keep FLOODING them with how much this means to us and why.

I then expressed a lot of gratitude, we exchanged pleasantries, and there was a brief survey at the end. I don't think the survey is necessary, so you can probably hang up by this point, but I stuck around for a little more horsepower. It tells you to rate the customer service on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being the highest, and you know I gave my bestie a fivvvveee. It also tells you to press 1/2 if your issue was resolved or not. I said HELL TO THE NO, DUDE SJDKLS. And THEN, it asks you to leave a voice message after the tone describing your experience. I said that I was with the customer service representative Margot, and that she was extremely friendly and helpful, but that the issue at hand will not be resolved until Max reserves their decision about the recent cancellation of Our Flag Means Death (I'm also always saying the show title in full as opposed to just the acronym, just for more OOMPH).

...And thennnn I proceed to shake it/shriek it all off LMAO.

Buuuut yeah! Probably took a total of 10 minutes or so. @xoxoemynn also shared with me that she's seen people say that these customer service representatives likely deal with older folks who need help with technology, and are subsequently stunned (and maybe even excited) to talk to younger people who just want to voice concerns instead of chew the poor customer service people out lol! And Margot also mentioned that they were eager to take calls no matter what, so as long as we're all polite and succinct, I don't think we'll have to worry about a very tense and awkward call.

I hope this alleviates some fear a bit! We got this, crew. We're doing so, so much. And it seems like it's being heard all over the place; it also seems like we've got so many people on our side, too. Big big hugs, and I'll share the necessary resources once more-

Customer Service Number: (855) 442-6629

The Online Feedback Form:

The original tumblr post with all the information:

The tumblr post where Fox and others were sharing even more information:

[goldkirk]

okay, wow, I’m not publishing that ask, anon.

I need you to understand that online activism only reaches people who are also online.

And it only reaches people who, in our current algorithm-based internet, are actually shown that content.

When you do online activism that’s not something concrete like a petition, you’re spreading information and awareness. That’s super important.

But it’s also like, step one of twelve, and unfortunately it’s where most of us just stop. We share information and news and share guilt tripping posts and we say things should be different and we tell other people that things are terrible and we carry on and most of it makes no real-world difference at all.

I don’t know how to tell you that you have got to do local, real life activism if you want to make any change.

You have got to pay attention to your school boards and judges.

You have got to campaign for local candidates.

You have to encourage locals to run for office, or run for office yourself.

You have to volunteer your time and energy for real local causes and groups.

You have to get acquainted with your local news sources so you know who to reach out to when word needs to be spread about something important.

You have to call and contact and petition your local officials, you need to put up flyers where your actual community will see, you need to get aquatinted with local resources so you know where to direct people who need them.

You have to actually do activism irl. That is how you make change happen.

Any time you spend arguing with online users about activism and not doing enough could be spent actually making a difference in your literal real life community, or helping the people who do.

[mister-a-z-fell]

Will you and Crowley adopt us Americans and bring us over? The elections are coming up and its looking to be very scary 😓 I would like to leave please

Oh, my dear. I think there are a lot of people feeling the same way and not only in your country. The problem with trying to escape from corruption, cruelty, oppression and incompetence is that those things don't recognise borders. They find their way everywhere.

It's an easy thing to tell you to be brave, strong, and hopeful in the face of dread, and it may feel as if I'm asking the impossible. I know that you're tired. Even so, sometimes you have to stay and fight, or the darkness follows. I hope that you're as safe as you can be, and that there are people close by ready to stand with you. And I know that others reading this understand your fears.

If so, gentle followers, please raise your voice and tell my anonymous friend they aren't alone?

[sunny-m00n]

Grandfather approved Spamvil

[hotsugarbyglassanimals]

freaking out over transfems making forcefem jokes as if they're going to force you, tumblr transmasc, into detransitioning says a lot about how you view transfems in the most bad faith way you can muster

[malacandrax]

interestingly I did consider a scottish surname (re- father McKenzie in the beatles song) but I think I have decided he's irish because I love the idea of him having a soft irish accent - Eugene Cleary and Cliff Marsden (this is. for me. I will probably never even use them)

[coochiequeens]

"There were thousands of victims: 1,400 in Rotherham, 1,000 in Telford, more than 300 in Oxford. It was an industry of sexual violence."

By Brendan O’Neill

It’s the scandal that refuses to die. Despite the best efforts of our spineless elites ��� who’d rather talk about anything on Earth other than grooming gangs – it keeps creeping back. For all the left’s cheap, libellous cries about how racist it is to talk about these gangs, people keep talking about them. In the face of official indifference to the suffering of thousands of poor and working-class girls at the hands of these groomers and abusers, people have demanded a reckoning. There is a public thirst for truth, and no amount of top-down slander and censure can crush it.

Three days into 2025, grooming gangs are back in the news. As British readers will know, ‘grooming gangs’ is the somewhat euphemistic name given to those marauding bands of men from mostly Pakistani backgrounds who subjected girls of the white working class to horrific abuse. In towns across the UK – Rotherham, Rochdale, Huddersfield, Oldham, Telford, Oxford – gangs of men plied girls with drugs, demeaned them, exploited them, raped them. Conservative MP Robert Jenrick has a point when he says the flat phrase ‘grooming gangs’ seems designed to ‘sanitise depraved crimes’. They’re ‘rape gangs’, he says.

They were. The girls who fell victim to these gangs experienced the most hellish degradation. The men ‘deliver[ed] them to hell’, as one prosecutor put it. In Huddersfield, girls were ‘passed around and raped’. In Manchester, a girl was injected with heroin to make her easier to rape. In Rochdale, a girl called Ruby was raped a hundred times from the age of 12. She had an abortion at 13. There were thousands of victims: 1,400 in Rotherham, 1,000 in Telford, more than 300 in Oxford. It was an industry of sexual violence.

What made these horrors even worse – and in some cases what made them possible – was the calculated indifference of officialdom. Across England, local politicians and cops were initially loath to dig into the gangs, lest they stir up ‘sensitive community issues’. They knew very well that gangs of men from Pakistani backgrounds were preying on white girls from the dirt-poor parts of town, but they held back because they didn’t want to be seen as ‘targeting [a] minority group’. In town after town, ‘race relations’ were elevated above the safety and dignity of working-class girls. Protecting the ideology of multiculturalism was seen as more important than protecting girls from rape. The girls were sacrificed to ideology, their humiliation treated as a small price to pay for upholding the edicts of political correctness.

Now, this outrage is making waves again. It follows Home Office minister Jess Phillips’s rejection of Oldham Council’s request for a government-led inquiry into the ‘grooming gangs’ scourge. The fearless reportage of Charlie Peters at GB News has also helped to drag these sick crimes back into the spotlight. Elon Musk is stirring it up too, cack-handedly, using X to slam Keir Starmer’s government and Britain more broadly for our failures over what he calls this ‘rape genocide’. That our media ‘hid’ these atrocities for so long is awful, he says.

There’s historical erasure at play here. Mr Musk, and others, might have first heard about the ‘grooming gangs’ scandal in 2025, but Brits have been aware of it for years. It was the mainstream media that uncovered it. For years The Times was all over this story. Julie Bindel wrote about it as far back as 2007. spiked has covered it in depth for more than a decade. The idea that we need a rich rabble-rouser in America to pry open our eyes to our nation’s legion crimes and failures is ridiculous. Here’s my question for those feverishly tweeting about these ‘grooming gangs’ they’ve just discovered – where have you been?

This horror hasn’t been ‘hidden’. It’s been the subject of much media scrutiny and righteous public fury. But here’s the curious thing, the worrying thing: while there’s been a great deal of reportage on ‘grooming gangs’, there hasn’t been the reckoning we really need. While there have been numerous local inquiries – all cataloguing the gross failures of officials who showed more concern for communal peace than female safety – still the scandal rarely troubles the broader political conscience. Everyone knows about it, but few dwell on it. In polite society it is the great unmentionable, the atrocity that dare not speak its name. You wring your hands over it, and nothing more. You agree it was bad, and you move on.

It’s not hard to see why a culture of cowardice still clings to this scandal more than any other – it’s because the questions it raises about 21st-century Britain are legion, profound and terrifying. Thousands of girls subjected to vile abuse while officialdom, the police, the left and even many feminists looked the other way because they value communal calm more than working-class life and dignity? No wonder they wish this scandal would go away. No wonder they’re content to acknowledge it but never interrogate it. No wonder they’re more comfortable talking about a Tory MP putting his hand on a middle-class journalist’s knee. They simply lack the psychological and moral resources to reflect on what it says about their rule that thousands of poor and working-class girls were raped right under the nose of their bureacracy.

It isn’t because they think the ‘grooming gangs’ scandal is insignificant that they avoid dwelling on it. On the contrary, it is precisely the mammoth nature of the scandal, the vast and swirling questions it raises, that makes them so allergic to grappling with it. This is without question one of the great outrages of the postwar period. It is the moment the state failed, catastrophically, in its most basic duty: to protect its citizens from harm. It’s the scandal that exposes the sinister self-preserving instincts of the bureaucratic elites, who we now know will do anything to protect their ideology and influence, including turning a blind eye to the rape of destitute girls. They shout ‘racist!’ at anyone who talks about ‘grooming gangs’ because they know our pesky questions threaten to unravel their moral pretensions and shatter their political authority. They know what’s at stake.

For nothing exposes the dangerous aloofness of Britain’s new ruling class as much as the ‘grooming’ scandal does. This scandal speaks to their classism, cowardice and deep distrust of us, the public. Every step of the way in this horror, they were guided by their fear of the masses, their dread of the plebs. From their panic about stirring up ‘Islamophobia’ to their fear of fuelling the ‘far right’, they confirmed, again and again, their view of everyday Brits as a mob-in-waiting, as so bigoted and volatile that we cannot be trusted with the truth about these gangs, or anything else. They failed working-class girls and then demeaned the whole public. They treated poor girls as trash and then trashed the right of everyone else to protest against it. This scandal is far from over. It has only just begun.

[dragmebymyhair]

its literally the 4 horsemen

guys, im connecting dots

[vehemourn]

went to post this on twitter but i didnt wanna get banned . crazy that u can scrape my entire lifes work and i cant even tell u to die over it <3

[lightscamerabitchsmileee]

A hot take here: but can we all agree that it's not an artist or actor or athlete or any other celebrities' responsibility to be a political activist on every single goddamn issue?? Like for fuck sakes guys give it a rest...I'm sick of it