#especially if you are marginalized in any way.

[entertaining-two]

Men that are sympathetic, understanding, and truly loving and supportive of women and their rights need and I mean NEED to start having the difficult conversations women have been having for years with other men.

At this point that is the only thing I can see changing anything at all. Men refuse to even vote a woman into power when are rights are on the line they do not actually care about us. They will not listen to us the way they would other men.

If you are one of the men that cares about and supports the women in their life, it’s time to step up and hold other men accountable and don’t back down.

And we all need to do the same thing for other marginalized groups.

And women- depending on how the next four years + go, I highly recommend you start breaking up with and letting the men that don’t stand up for your rights leave your life. I don’t care if you’ve known them forever, they clearly do not actually care about you if they can elect a rapist into office. If abortion is banned nation wide, stop having sex, I mean it. The risks of even a wanted pregnancy going badly to the point where you need it medically is statistically very possible. Don’t take the chance.

If you’re married, and you have any question about if your husband supports women, start thinking about divorce, because no fault divorce is also a possible route for this presidency especially because the right has the house as well. These are unfortunately things we now have to think about. Take care of yourselves. 💕

things we need to address:

gen z men getting pulled into alt-right pipelines through andrew tate, joe rogan, elon musk, jordan peterson etc

the gullibility and stupidity of half the country voting against our collective best interests

the broad effect social media has on public and common good

lazy minds and lack of empathy

outside-country interference (trump and elon’s connections to russia and the amount of bots from other countries spreading misinformation)

the long-term effects of AI and rampant disinformation

[traegorn]

hi, i'm reeling from everything today. was wondering your opinion on the "blame" for this result. i've seen fellow leftists say it's because harris abandoned her base and catered to right-wing voters. but i've seen exit polls say that they think harris is too extreme, and i don't think the third-party voters can account for the margin between her and trump. i see people saying it's discontent against democrats + biden, while some seem to think it's about harris and her lack of policies specifically - which doesn't make sense to me, since she explicitly outlined a lot of her goals as president.

i also think that her being a black woman *does* have something to do with this, especially amongst the demographics that voted against her more (white men + women).

but yeah. where do you think the democratic party is going to go from here? is it a misinformation, political literacy issue? a specific distrust of harris, or distrust of the left??

and obviously you must be going through it as well, so feel free to reply with "how the fuck should i know" haha. hope you're doing ok :(

The only people to blame in an election are the voters.

The people who voted for Trump, the people who voluntarily didn't vote at all, and the people who voted third party are responsible for Trump's win and in that order.

Trump told everyone who he was loudly and regularly, and we live in a two party system. We knew he had support, and that Harris was the only other option.

Anyone who chose not to vote for Harris was making the conscious decision to allow a second Trump presidency, and I don't care about any excuses. The folks who voted for Trump got what they (at least think they) want, and the folks who didn't vote on purpose or voted third party chose their own selfishness over saving real lives.

But it doesn't matter who's fault it is. We are where we are, and we have to move forward and fight from here.

I'm going to fucking live, and I'm going to try to help save as many people as I can along the way. I hope you're with me.

[anarcowboy]

Boiling it down to any single factor is a mistake when it's a soup of dogshit

--there was substantial decrease in voter turnout between 2020 and 2024. more voters than 2016 tho, and still a popular loss. Woof. 3rd party votes did not make a difference and even if all "other", Stein, AND libertarian votes went to Harris she'd still lose (libertarian pulled from Trump more than Harris)

--running to the right of Trump on various issues normalized conservative policy, so those who they attempted to court could get the same results from Trump without having to vote blue

--those they attempted to court are also, yes, a lot of racists and misogynists. The Black vote was almost unanimously in favor of Harris. Just wildly strong polling. The Latino/Latina vote was split, men leaned Trump and women leaned Harris. The white vote skewed pretty strongly to Trump. Failing to ever address white supremacy and instead court it will never make a woman of color appeal to these people, no matter how "lethal military strong border" fascist you try to be

--Harris's campaign ruthlessly belittled her constituents. They refused to speak with people, canceled meetings, mocked them, and tried to make a fool of people in mourning, scared, devastated, yet still ready to vote for her if she gave them crumbs. She didn't. The campaign turned its back, like Clinton did before, on people willing to vote for her if she put any effort into getting their votes. But like in 2016, Schumer was confident you could replace blue collar dems with suburban republicans. it failed. twice. The whole campaign trail has been littered with contempt for their own base. Harris didn't even speak at her own rally last night and sent everyone home.

--2020 has shifted us into an era of extremism and desperation. People are angry. People are scared. Multiple people have tried to kill trump in the last few months. Many voted for him not because they like him but because they have contempt for Harris, whether reasonable or bigoted varies across the board.

--Even as min wage hikes pass, abortion passes, social security expansion passes, and "radical" politicians like Omar and Tlaib win re-elections in the same exact places Harris loses, anchors blame progressive policy for her downfall. Even now, the marginalized people used as pawns by her campaign are being thrown to the wolves for her loss.

--The dems never learn from a loss. They are a center-right party with substantial hatred for progressive policy even as progressive policy polls as wildly popular among the masses. They loathe their base, while Republicans are willing to kiss the asses of theirs.

--Trump will fail to meet all the expectations placed on him, and his base will become angry. Then rather than ever run a platform to help working class americans, marginalized people in substantial and lasting ways, the dems will court those disillusioned by Trump, until they fail to wow them next time and a new fascist runs.

--The two party system does not work, especially when both are right-wing. Trump is not the sole issue and never was. He's convenient cover. Biden is too weak to do anything, then Trump will be too powerful to stop. It repeats forever. But this dance is crumbling for people. Something is breaking and people are tired of it. We have always been a fascist nation that is rapidly becoming more fascist, and unless something truly radical on the left becomes a possibility for dems that can grab the masses and inspire hope--like say, Bernie Sanders--then we are doomed to slide ever right-ward forever until collapse. But hey, the dems certainly wouldn't sabotage and kill a movement like Bernie's, right?

To sum up: we are in a fucked up time where we refuse to reckon with our past and white supremacy and instead cater to it and then have the nerve to be shocked it bites you once again. In politics and in life you cannot appeal to white supremacy, it is a snake to defeat.

Organize, find solidarity, fight, and god while you need to stop bending over for your enemy, you'd maybe be inclined to learn from them, understand them, and realize the way to defeating them has always been with force and a "fuck you I'm here to stay" attitude.

Electoral politics are never the beginning or end of what politics is. The presidential election is even a very small part of that process. Support community work protecting the people neither party will, support organizations working to undo the harm of these parties, and stop seeing this as a team sport with black and white villains and heroes where one side of a corrupt system represents the good guys and so surely their loss can only come from Evil Forces and not a system performing as designed.

[ot3]

pretty long meandering post here just talking through some thoughts about the late game arizona progressive endorsement for kamala

i find it really fascinatingly racist the way certain people took the letter from local arab/muslim leaders in arizona endorsing kamala's campaign and decided that mean they now had 'palestinians want you to vote for kamala' as a hammer they could deploy in a world full of nails. to be clear i don't think this endorsement was meaningless at all and the opinions of these people are certainly worth considering. especially for swing state voters, who were the target audience here.

but i saw people responding to fucking bisan's on-the-ground video of people in gaza saying the election results made no difference to them with sentiment along the lines of 'don't believe this video,, its disinformation, palestinians want you to vote for harris' and i can only assume it's because none of them actually read the letter. they just saw headlines like this one and decided that absolved them of any need to own their own decisionmaking at this time

now clearly the palestinian people are not a monolith, and palestinians currently living in gaza and suffering through a genocide vs those living in the US in a swing state are going to have different priorities vis a vis this election. i don't think acknowledging that in any way diminishes the validity of either group's opinion, and it's absolutely not my place to critique the way these various communities are choosing to respond to kamala's stance on israel. so it really disgusts me to watch mainly white liberals act like this specific group of people discussing the specific political context they currently exist in represents the complete and collective will of the palestinian people, just because doing so happens to support their political goals. i don't know man i think the second you start talking about an entire nationality of people as if they have the same political opinions you've already lost!

the reason i say i don't think most of these people read the letter, beyond the fact that i've yet to see anyone discuss the specifics of it, is because the letter does go out of its way to acknowledge potential strategic benefits of 3rd party votes in the 43 other states that aren't going to be the deciding factor. i know this is not sentiment that the average voteblue liberal agrees with.

anyway. there's not really a conclusion to be had here other than i think we're going to see a lot of vitriol directed towards third party votes in the immediate future. we saw similar sentiment after the 2016 election; people were INCREDIBLY quick to say that the reason donald trump won was because not enough people showed up for hillary. people are still saying that, as a matter of fact.

as i and many other people have been pointing out for the past eight years, hillary won the popular vote by a margin of several million, and still lost. at that scale you simply can not blame things on voter turnout. i don't really know what to say at that point. trump's 2016 victory really just pitch perfectly illustrated in a way too blatant to ignore that the US presidential election does not represent the will of the public. but people will do literally anything to keep viewing the state of US politics as a result of people Voting Wrong and Being Too Stupid To Understand What's At Stake

as always, we are not allowed to hold the democrats accountable for delivering nothing to their constituents, but we can hold the constituents responsible for not showing up like loyal dogs to beg for whatever table scraps harris's campaign vaguely pretended to offer us. surely this strategy will work in 2028! see you all then.

[roborabbitart]

Fuck it, I'm not hiding this in the comments.

Support any vetted Palestinian campaigns in whatever way you can. Prepare yourself to defend trans people and the full range of LGBTQ+, as well as Palestine and people of color, with your very lives, especially those of you with our blood and theirs on your hands.

This means everyone who voted red whatsoever. This means everyone who chose not to vote when they had the physical and legal ability, regardless of emotional setbacks or any threats to your person. This means everyone who let Trump win the first time, everyone who grew comfortable with Biden simply because he's a "democrat". This means everyone who still has yet to protest the erasure of marginalized groups and the slaughter of an entire people. This means everyone who failed to take meaningful action during the Black Lives Matter movement.

This likely means you, reading this.

This also means myself.

Call this a condemnation if you wish, but it is first and foremost a call to accept your part in this destruction, and through that acceptance, to better yourself and the world around you, and to take action toward meaningful and positive change, at any and all costs.

i've been feeling incredible anger and frustration lately with these posts lamenting what the next four years will look like in the u.s., how much "worse" things will get under the trump administration, as if we haven't been witnessing a holocaust for the past year funded by the biden administration. if you have seen a single video from gaza, a single picture, read a feature from a gazan journalist, spoken to a single person in your inbox when they plead for your attention and help, words like "worse" or "better" turn to ash in your mouth. just yesterday my friend hilda texted me that even when her family manages to get food, smoke from the fire needed to cook aggravates her sinus allergies, making it difficult to breathe. this is how she's been living for the past year and a month, under a democrat-funded genocide.

below is a small fraction of the palestinians who have reached out to me for help with their campaigns. it is a huge source of shame to me that i can't keep up with all of the people in my inbox. please go to their accounts and read their stories. and please give what you can spare.

hilda @hildanasr1 / GFM - 5%

dina @dina179 / GFM - 33%

yousseff @youseffamily / GFM - 92%

suad @suad-khaled / GFM - 51%

nada @nadamd44 / GFM - 1%

asma @asmaayyad2 / GFM - 62%

shehab family @reemshehabnew / GFM - 90%

yahya @yahyabkheet-blog / GFM - 21%

mohammed @mohammed-hassouna1 / GFM - 19%

abdulrahman @3bdulra7manosama / GFM - 9%

mai @abuhamdasblog / GFM - 5%

ibrahim @aburakhiaibrahim / GFM - 22%

mona @mansh99 / GFM - 13%

ahmed @najah-meshal5 / GFM - 16%

noor @noor-yashour / GFM - 10%

*ALL CAMPAIGNS ARE VETTED*

[narriose]

Thoughts on Veilguard so far:

Preface: I’m ~50 hours in with a handful of endgame spoilers.

My general values are: Story > Characters > Gameplay > Romance > Rep > Visuals.

My rating of the previous games: DA2 > DAO > DAI

Spoilers under Cut:

What I expected: Having to deal with an unappealing art style and clunky gameplay with leftover multiplayer and live service era elements that they couldn’t get rid of for the sake of the story and characters.

What I got: Well…

Let’s Start with the negatives:

-Dialogue: I want to know what happened there. Ik for a fact they had veteran BioWare writers on the team and it feels like there was a decision to dumb everything down to the point of me immediately having a line in my head that would sound better in universe every time someone spoke. It proved especially grating once I heard Morrigan speak. And when people compare the writing to MCU I cannot really protest. “Dragon Age has always been unserious” yes but like. Not every other line was a joke or relatable™️ millennial awkwardness . When jokes did happen they became memorable moments for the fandom. It’s often very difficult to listen to. Especially when Rook talks. It is getting marginally better though.

-Tone: Dragon Age has been compelling to me because it wrote conflict and trauma and corruption in a way that felt developed enough to feel grounded and believably horrific. Even with all its faults. DATV mellowed out the horrors and seems to gloss over a lot of sociopolitical dynamics and lore. Stuff like portraying crows as vigilantes and not showing the evils of Tevinter slavery. The tone itself just feels like theyre trying to make an easily marketable sanitized IP out of it to cater to a wider audience.

-Character Writing: A lot of characterization has been “Tell not show” because I’m disappointed in Lucanis and Neve. The story says one is a serious killer and the other is a cynic but both have only been friendly soft and positive which is like??? I feel like a lot of their intro has been cut out or something where they establish those traits on screen. Another thing is: there don’t appear to be actually detestable and controversial traits in characters or even internal conflict they need to overcome. They’re just dealing with some kind of external thing thrust onto them and that is very shallow to me personally.

-Intro: I know we’re not getting Origins style personalized intros again but it felt like too much is handwaived into people making their own OCs and forming headcanons when the game doesn’t let us RP much at all outside identity stuff anyway. Like how do we know Varric? Why should any of the pep talks he gives us mean anything when we haven’t experienced anything to warrant the complements he gives us?

-Villains: possibly the worst part of the story: they lit act like theyre in a preschool cartoon down to body language. No nuance no controversy no actual horror to them when in previous games the evil felt so much more pronounced because some of the villains felt human enough to be a shitty person irl.

-Rep: Sigh. Even as a transmasc I might be a little too internally transphobic for the rep in the game. It feels like so many steps ahead of what the story should be handling. Like fix the slavery problem in a meaningful way then start philosophical gender discussions about what a gender binary even is. And it’s very cringe to me when it’s spoken about in game. Like yeah I love that there’s no way to dispute what the characters are but it also feels so entirely uncreative using modern day terminology for this stuff. And I don’t mean “replace it with ambiguous sad baby talk” but something more. Like is it terrible to want that? Even if you were planning on using the word nonbinary, at least tell us what a binary even is and how it was instituted as an idea into this world. Like I do adore Taash, I just wish the gender stuff wasn’t so clumsy.

-Visuals: It’s hard man. As an artist who sees human bodies as proportion reference points, the bodies still look off to me. Like it was worse and I’m getting used to it but it’s still painful. And I’m all for trying to stylize but this particular heroforge direction was not something I would have picked.

-OST: At first I couldn’t tell Zimmer/Balfe’s stuff apart from Morris’s but yeah, the new stuff is more boring(Sans the Rivain part)

-The 3 choice thing: yeah not a fan of that. I feel like perhaps it was a part of the multiplayer era where they would not be able to import much if everyone had a massively different world state so they limited it to the tiny MC choices. Still sad that the romance thing only really matters if you romanced Solas because the Dorian cameo wasn’t anything to write home about. Kinda feels like they added him in last minute because someone pointed out how much Solas-skewed the choices were. Idk. I so expected Josie in Antiva but alas.

Now Onto the Positives:

-Codices: The very way-too modern simplified conversational dialogue style carries over to the codices. And while I despise that as a creative, I do find myself actually reading them as they come because they are so easy to absorb. I feel like a lot of people would benefit from not skipping them because there are some references and plot reveals worth checking out.

-Story: If you deafen the dialogue style, the story itself is top. Gets way better as you play and from the spoilers I’ve heard, yeah. It’s good. Can’t wait to find out more.

-Gameplay: Listen I have a massive preference for DA style combat even if most ppl call it a slog. The turn based element, the pause button, the hoarding skills I never use. It’s like coming home to me. I hated DAI combat for the amount of anxiety it induced and I usually hate fast-paced action combat in most other games. DATV made me eat my boots. Its combat is insanely fun and engaging and often times I’m looking forward to fights more than quests themselves. Very colorful, very flashy, and very effective. The pause button gives less freedom but it’s there. The combos are fun. It is like Mass Effect except I did not find commanding the companions in Mass Effect as intuitive. Tho I wish non mages had less magicey feeling attacks.

-The CC: Yeah it wowed me with the options. I like how much can be done with the facial sliders and how good the hair looks.

-Puzzles: Listen the puzzles are extremely stupid in this game. But I also am very stupid and lazy when it comes to solving them. I have looked up the vast majority of puzzle solutions for DA games. No more DA2 Fade Barrels and no more trying to circumnavigate the ad infested Fandom Wiki to get to the Kitty’s prison solution. Crafted specifically for me.

-Mechanical Things: The game is optimized insanely well. Both when It comes to your PC and the gameplay. I’m amazed how well it runs on my PC when games like BG3 and Cyberpunk make my CPU scream. Love that. As far as gameplay goes: everything is super streamlined and designed to be as un-annoying as possible. No carry weight, no collectibles as annoying and unrewarding as the shards and mosaics. The maps are easy to parse. The game does not bombard you with useless NPCs, banter can’t be interrupted and characters catch up on banter at the Lighthouse if you’ve been avoiding certain party comps by accident. The quest locator is actually helpful. Skill points can be refunded. Looting is easy and finding shit feels rewarding.

-Characters: Honestly they do have some interesting things going on and while most characters feel a little hollow so far, I was pleasantly surprised by Davrin and Bellara. Davrin is the one I’m romancing and while the actual romance isn’t groundbreaking I’m glad I chose him. Yes, his character has a lot to do with Assan and his arc, but he does have stuff going on of his own. He’s very refreshing because some of the things he says low key both makes you think and also worry about him. He’s also not your usual preppy jock type. He can be a little mean sometimes. He’s artistic and principled. He has some remnants of “opinions I don’t agree with” that I love early DA for. When it comes to Bellara, she absolutely breaks the sort of Manic Pixie/Quirky Awkward young coded girl mold. It is the fact that there is self awareness and hints of history of failure and isolation in her words. There is also masking and over-clarification that I can relate to personally. I hope there is stuff like that to other companions when I get to know them better.

Visuals: the UI and Locations are stunning. The outfits the best the game has had so far(tho wish the overall look was less stylized) The blighted stuff(sans the ogres) and the Crossroads. Beautiful.

-Dwarf Lore: started out as fucking cheesy but I just finished meeting Valta and I’m seated.

-Solas Stuff: Hated the man for a while. Caved and made a solavellan to import to get more story stuff. NGL he is actually tolerable/interesting to me in this game.

Overall: A sickly sweet combo of Disappointed and Impressed. And I’m still gonna be playing. I am used to not liking something about every DA game. That’s part of the fun for me. But damn is this one testing me. Am I having a lot of fun playing it? Absolutely. Am I finding it difficult to get through a concerning amount of dialogue…yeah. It does still feel like a DA game but also like if someone made a pg-13 live action of Inquisition and then made a supplementary game based off that. If I forget that it’s supposed to be a sequel and just treat it like an action game with plot then it’s easier. And like I’m sure at least half of what I listed as a negative can be attributed to EA meddling or prev iterations of the game being inseparable. Anyway. Can’t wait to see the ending and I will add more thoughts when I’m done.

[dungeonsanddragonsfifthedition]

standard disclaimer of fuck the dems they ran a bad campaign and refused to do the barebones work. but the broader american cultural shift to the right is more concerning to me than dems being dems and generally the fact that they were too arrogant. that's always happening; i'm not surprised by it; i'm not electionposting out of panic. just anger over the fucking right's coalition.

this isn't just a matter of swing states--biden won my home state of virginia by ten points back in 2020; it has been consistently blue since 2008, but since 2021 there's been a lot of culture war racism and transphobia taking hold statewide. and last night, as results came in, harris was fucking slogging there. she still won, but it was way closer than a presidential race ought to be there. californians voted for so many godawful propositions--they didn't even pass the one that would prohibit slavery.

it's all fucked up and we are seeing this horrific cultural turn against marginalized groups--especially against Black & trans individuals. along with that, antifeminism is back en vogue, racism and xenophobia are inescapable, tiktok loves to mock any given disabled and/or fat person, and. as a gay educator, i'm not particularly thrilled about how i'm going to be treated for being out.

anyway. all this to say: right wing propoganda is everywhere. stop it when you can. if it's safe, argue with people you know; if it's not, find community that can support you.

never kill yourself! etc!

[epsilonchi]

This is probably very immature and illiterate from my part because some of my twitter friends / oomfies were / are part of the dropout boycott thing and I do get their frustrations with dropout but after the shitshow that was that fuckass man's reelection there's a part of me that is frustrated that people will just direct all their energy towards pushing a company with progressive tendancies to condemn the zionists they "platformed" when a literal fascist was about to take power once again and pretty much threatening the whole world.

Like let me be clear. Israel's fucking evil and committing a genocide for nearly 80 years now. Palestine and Palestinians should and will be free. There's no denying that. And those who deny it are the scum of the earth. I'm really appreciative of everyone helping Palestinians in any way they could, and i'm still giving to godfundmes and campaigns whenever I can. And on the other hand, Zionists (in all shapes and forms) are the scum of the earth and should not be respected.

But my thing is : when you're staring in the face of straight up neonazism, with the misogyny, transphobia, LGBTQphobia, racism that comes with it... it feels extremely pointless and a bit absurd to direct all your attention and energy to boycott a company who, for all their flaws (and they do have a lot), are juggling with both the essence of being a company and their drive to support marginalized people in all shape and forms, just because some of their collaborators, regular or not, have said some shitty Zionist things. Part of me does get it, the frustration and the breaking point, especially from POCs, but after the elections... was it really the bigger fish guys ? Was it all worth the effort and anger to in the end get a milquetoast statement saying what we already knew but in a watered-down PR language ? And then barely 48h after the most dangerous man in the world gets back into power again ?

Like... I don't know. It might be because i've been slowly falling into a depressive episode and ultimately my anger is quite meaningless too because it's just fandom shit but with hindsight, that dropout boycott just felt like fans guiltripping one another while ignoring the obvious immediate danger. Once again, I know those fans have already done a lot for Palestinians and marginalized people overall, because I follow a lot of them firsthand, and I really don't want to diminish their efforts, but as someone who is not USAmerican but has seen some IRL friends directly suffer from Trump's disgusting foreign and internal policies... You guys focused on the wrong thing this time. I get why you did but also I hope you understand it wasn't really worth it.

Anyways, @ all USAmericans who follow me : please take care, because I'm fully aware this is a scary situation <3 Peace and love guys

[alexseanchai]

[image: post and reblog from the same redacted Tumblr user, transcribed below:]

Better not see any middle class white people say bullshit about "logging off for your mental health" again when black and brown people having been living like this since forever

You guys have the luxury to just log off and close your eyes and cover your ears. The rest of us are constantly reminded every single day how much this country and white people hate us

.

.

.

Better not see any cis people say that bullshit when trans people have been living like this forever. Better not see any abled people say that bullshit when disabled people have been living like this forever. Better not see any goyische people say that bullshit when Jewish people have been living like this forever. I can keep going until we hit a marginalized group the redacted user does not belong to, that just got screwed over in a way the redacted user will only be reminded about if they doomscroll themself into a panic attack or a depressive episode. Which is also obviously the only possible way to help anyone in that or any other marginalized group. The redacted user does not dare look away from anyone else's suffering in order to do anything about anyone's suffering, especially not their own.

Anyway I have laundry to fold and a dishwasher to empty, because the mental health of disabled people (me and my housemates) suffers if it's left to pile up. And then I have embroidery to practice, because for some odd reason I feel like stabbing someone today.

"You can't log off for your mental health!" Sounds like someone needs to log off for their mental health

[peppermint-cardboard]

hey. hello my friend. i am grabbing you by the shoulders oh so gently. do not become hopeless. that is exactly what they want. blue state governments will give them hell over the next presidential term, and you can rest assured there will absolutely be people in our government fighting for democracy.

the thing we can all do that will have the most direct immediate impact and will lay the groundwork for cultures of help, creativity, and love is to get involved at the local community level.

i’m talking especially to my fellow teens here!!! may not be able to vote but that doesn’t mean we’re not able to help.

for my fellow Angelenos!

Hollywood Food Coalition - free food! you can sign up to volunteer and do meal prep (cooking), meal service (serving food), or help at their food bank. locations are on their website. thanksgiving is coming up and HFC will need volunteers!

My Friend’s Place - free aid for youth homelessness, especially queer youth homelessness. volunteering is for 18 years and older

Los Angeles LGBT Center - exactly what it sounds like. offers a wide range of wonderful services and opportunities for volunteering. also works with school GSAs!

Moonwater Farm - a community farm in Compton with great opportunities for education and sometimes paid fellowships

for people everywhere else! just some general recommendations:

The Trevor Project - queer youth services that have saved my ass a number of times. i don’t know if they call the police as part of their responses or not (offers a single-click-to-leave button in case of emergency)

TrevorSpace - a great queer youth-centered website and a very safe place for queer community and discussion

Debate Me, Bro - a great anarchist newsletter/advice column run by a friend of mine!

The Child And Its Enemies - anarchist child rights-focused podcast also run by that same friend of mine :)

Neocities - make a website! learn some HTML! it’s fun, it’s pretty simple, and it’s a way to get a message out if that’s what you want but it’s also just a great de-stresser

Queer Liberation Library - need i even elaborate on the importance of libraries and access to queer media over the coming few years? (offers a single-click-to-leave button in case of emergency)

American Civil Liberties Union - an activism and aid organization that gave the Republicans absolute hell last time and will continue to do so this time

Blackline (800-604-5841) - a crisis and help hotline prioritizing BI&POC and black queer people. will not call the police!

Trans Lifeline (US: 877-565-8860, Canada: 877-330-6366) - a helpline run by and for trans folks. has a quick escape button and will not call the police!

Wildflower Alliance Peer Support Line (888-407-4515) - a warmline to chat with trained therapists and professionals. will not call the police!

StrongHearts Native Helpline (844-762-8483) - a domestic and sexual violence helpline prioritizing Native Americans and Alaska Natives. has a quick escape button and will not call the police!

Thrive Lifeline (313-662-8209) - a live crisis warmline prioritizing marginalized people. also offers text messaging! will not call the police!

LGBT National Health Center (888-843-4564) - exactly what it sounds like! warmlines for queer people if you need help. has a quick escape button and will not call the police!

Transfeminine Science - a fantastic resource for... transfeminine science. exactly what it says on the tin.

Planned Parenthood - an incredibly prolific and important organization that offers a very wide array of vastly important services. if you live in an at least semi-urban city in the U.S., Planned Parenthood probably has a clinic near you. you should find out if they do!!!

please feel free to add more resources if you know any!!

other recommendations: say hi to a neighbor. bake someone a pie. start a garden. treat homeless people like your neighbors (because they are). propose a community movie night. have a party in your apartment building. call a friend. text a friend. draw something. cool something good. go to a restaurant you like. buy some DVDs. get a new stuffed animal. compliment a stranger’s shirt. ask for a hug. offer someone a hug. listen to music. KEEP LIVING!!!!!!!!!

don't just survive, keep living <3

[whydoifeelthisquiet]

back to my other url <3

[riflebrass]

I'm interested in the audio but a few things don't add up.

I'll state the obvious. The secret service fucked up big time. This wouldn't have happened if they did their jobs right and that's the biggest finger pointing to the possibility of an inside job but I still have questions.

Speaking of audio I saw a thing where someone compared the impacts of the bullets with the sounds of the gunshots to try and pinpoint how far away the gunshots were. If I remember correctly it was within 20 meters of the shooter's position which depending on the velocity of the ammo and atmospheric conditions could be an acceptable margin of error.

Do you think Trump's vest was rated to stop rifle bullets? It was thin to be inconspicuous under his clothes and didn't come with plates so I'm willing to bet it wouldn't. Even if it could stop mild rifle rounds the government could have given the shooter a more powerful rifle capable of penetrating the vest. Better yet the secret service could have given him a temu knockoff vest and he wouldn't have known the difference.

A shooter competent enough to be trusted with the job knows that a headshot is unreliable. The chest is bigger and slower, especially if the target is standing still. People move their heads a lot while they talk energetically but the chest not so much. The average anti-gunner can be easily convinced that "assault weapons" can defeat "bulletproof vests". Meanwhile people who know guns and gear could be easily convinced that his vest was only rated for pistols so any rifle would have penned it. The government coroner and the FBI handling the investigation would make sure to confirm it was a 5.56 bullet and pistol armor.

And even after the shooting failed there are other ways to get to him. The man loves diet coke. The flavor is strong enough I'll bet it could mask the flavor of some kind of poison. The coroner can conveniently miss it on the toxicology and label it a heart attack. At his age with all the pressure he's under that's a very believable cause of death. Even after the shooting failed that could have been a backup plan a while later when the heat died down. Naturally a lot of people would be suspicious but it could be covered up enough that I'll bet nobody would do anything about it.

Hell, with so much talk about cheating in this election why didn't they rig it again if they cheated last time?

If he was such a threat to the establishment they would have pushed harder to get rid of him. The second attempt was so laughably pathetic there's no way they were in on it.

When the secret service fucked up on the first attempt I'm betting letting some random shitlib give it his best shot was fine. His death could serve their purposes but I don't think it was absolutely necessary.

Anyone else getting the feeling that this was too easy?

Trump wins immediately, Kamala concedes the next day, and everyone seems to be happy. Kinda like the fraud, the destruction of the American judicial system, the outrageous cost of everything (aka inflation) and the TREASON committed by the military and the three letter agencies is just forgotten. Everyone skipping around like the problems have been solved.

Yes, this is a good start, having Trump back in the Oval Office, but the tyranny that We have lived under these last 4 years has left an indelible mark. We don't get those four years back. The damage is done.

Sure We can start rebuilding. We can close the border, We can drill for oil and build a pipeline, We can start building wealth again, We can put an end to the wars going on around the world, but the corruption of the three letter agencies remains. The weaponization of the judicial system with its corrupt judges remain. The foolish turncoats in the Pentagon remain. The propaganda and the deception of the media remains. THE FACT THAT THE 2020 ELECTION WAS STOLEN REMAINS!

The Government Men are still in their bureaucratic positions and no one has been held responsible for the damage done to the nation that I love.

There can be no freedom without Justice. Letting the criminals go, with their government pensions intact is not Justice. Failure to address these many issues is not Justice. Nor is it mercy. Infact its down right dangerous and it sets Us up for failure in the future.

Our problems will not be fixed until Rope is employed. We will not survive if the traitors are left free to roam about continuing their destruction of Our values. I still believe in Rope. Justice demands a reckoning. Things are not right just yet. There is still work to be done.

[xxplastic-cubexx]

hello!! i just want to tell you that your art is so goddamn scrumptious, you are literally feeding my xmen brainrot and I find myself smiling when i see your art come across my feed. I love how you draw charles, pretty privilege and post (lets be fr he's serving every time)

i hope you always have fantastic brainrot and id kiss your blessed hands for giving us the gift of cherik and charles xavier, you are literally an icon

hope you have a great day ahead of you and more!! you deserve it !!

well i'ma absolutely have a wonderful mornin after readin this AWWWW thank you so so much !!!! i haven't been postin xmen long, so it's been really heartwarmin seein the warm reception to my work in the wonderful tags people have been leavin on my posts- and especially gettin to answer the lovely asks y'all've been sendin in (❁´ ▽ `❁) !! im glad people also like my goofy text posts and esp quotes from my brother he really has no right being so funny at the most random times

i hope to be xmen posting a while: ive got at least 60 years worth of stuff to look through and ongoing, so i dont imagine my interest'll wane anytime soon :]] !!

[musical-chick-13]

Maybe I’ve just been Thinking Too Much About the Concept of Justice due to...currently watching....something (Idon’twannatalkaboutit)..........but GENUINELY the way most of y’all talk about the death penalty and about ANYONE who decides to go through law school for ANY reason is terrifying.

[ciderjacks]

u guys rly just get on here and say shit don’t u

[duncebento]

agh i know it can be rally difficult but especially if you are a marginalized person especially if you are a woman ESPECIALLY if you are trans please make sure that you’re not signaling insecurity to ppl via your dating app profiles or what have you. it can literally be a matter of your own physical safety.

as an example, i often see trans girls on hinge liable to put something like “i’ll fall for you if you show me any affection at all <3” on their profiles…and i know u just think it sounds quirkily self-deprecating and i KNOW that’s the way you really and truly feel but if i am someone who whether consciously or not is searching for a dynamic in which i have power over another person, a statement like that will make my ears perk up!!

furthermore, and especially for younger people, there are a lot of things that are very necessary to discuss with a partner that are ALSO very necessary to not reveal for a little while. if you have been abused in a certain way or if you are inexperienced, those are things that are unsafe to talk about with people you don’t know, no matter how honest and upfront you pride yourself on being. i’ve had someone tell me about all the sexual assault they’d experienced on a first date— and luckily for them i wasn’t interested in harming them or really into them at all— but again, imagine if i were someone who wanted power over another person! all their truthfulness and vulnerability would do is reveal them as an easy mark for my manipulation.

if you do encounter a critical situation with someone you haven’t spent enough time with yet, it should always be possible to say what instead of why: e.g. “i’m sorry, but i’d like to wait before having sex with you” or “i’d rather not hang out in that park, can we pick somewhere else?” instead of “i’d like to hold off on having sex BECAUSE i’ve never had sex before” or “i’d rather not hang out in that park BECAUSE that’s where i was assaulted.” again, both very important things to talk about with a partner, but unfortunately potentially dangerous things to discuss with someone you’ve not yet gotten close to! and anyone who seems to be sniffing around for signs of your inexperience or victimhood is not to be trusted anyway (note that sniffing around is different from a polite “oh, would you like to talk about it?” interest.)

i know it can be difficult to come across as more confident than you feel, but it is really necessary that you’re projecting a desire for something healthy and safe that will make you happy instead of saying outright that you’ll be fine with crumbs.