#medical establishment bs

[hymnsofheresy]

so my home state has blocked access to trans affirming care if the trans person is diagnosed with depression. this will inevitably lead to many deaths. this might literally kill my transitioning friends.

while there might be some biological factors to our mental state, the idea that we are inherently mentally ill can be extremely dangerous. I know of many trans people who were depressed before they transitioned but once they transitioned they were no longer depressed. Our material reality, both our bodies and our environment, shape our emotional state.

Please question the narrative that being diagnosed is always a good thing. The inherency of mental illness is extremely convenient idea for people in positions of power that determine our material conditions. If our suffering is only caused by our biological inclination, it is on the individual to heal themselves.

After years of being burdened by my diagnosis (my rights noticeably lessened upon honest disclosure), I have decided to never disclose my medical history about my mental illnesses unless necessary. I am looking into getting my diagnoses removed, even though I still exhibit symptoms. I think my doctor, God bless her, will understand. I am not saying that you should necessarily follow suit (& please seek treatment if you need it). There are certainly some benefits to a diagnosis, but as a person whose medical records are in a state that is falling into fascism... "I have decided to be no longer mentally ill" lol

[hothammies]

mad max, the party's zoomer - apoc au character details under the cut!

---

max's role in the party:

a runner - fast and quiet, tends to be the one who makes out with the most supplies

mechanic - knows best about cars and is one of the party's designated drivers (the other being mike)

medic - not as skilled with plants and medicine like will, but is good with first aid and physical treatment!

thief - who the party sends out if they need to "borrow" from other groups (second nature to her)

skills + hobbies:

incredible with melee weapons and hand-to-hand combat -> everything she knows was taught to her by billy

decent shot, but prefers using melee way more!

stealthy, like a ninja - her and el are the quietest in the party! max's fighting style is much more brawler-like despite this

good with card games (likes poker, speed and BS) -> likes to play them with the party a lot, but in particular with dustin and lucas

skateboards whenever she can -> her favorite thing to do next to driving!

really loves listening to music (fave artists are madonna, taylor swift and destiny's child) -> likes having el or will in shotgun so they can listen together!

quirks / fun facts:

whenever dustin goes to bed, max takes his current handheld and tries to beat his high score on whatever retro game he's currently playing (dustin does not know its max who's actively beating his ass on dig dug and tetris)

she took billy's jacket and baseball bat and made them her own - very complicated relationship with him and her upbringing with her stepbro made her very skeptical and suspicious of others (especially the party when she first met them)

when she steals things, she tries to keep the party in mind when grabbing extra :')

--- other notes: ladies and gentlemen, our newest addition - maxine! i'll admit, the two characters i think i'm most shoddy on for their characterizations are dustin and max. since max's story in my au is so heavily tied to her issues with trusting people again (specifically men) and family, i'm scared that it will make her character intrinsically tied to relationships instead of having her own character. i'll try my very best for it not to be that way, of course!

for now, she's how i imagine her in the show - she's still a cheeky, sarcastic, stubborn and awesome tomboy with insurmountable trust and distance issues, and i love her for that! the circumstances that drew her to the party are currently a secret, but i will establish now that billy is tied to her storyline and how the party meets her for the first time - while billy's an interesting character in his own right, i straight up don't like him :P so i'm warning people now that billy's more a plot device for max's arc and i probably won't be diving incredibly deep into his character. this is a party centric au after all!

when i was thinking of max's character, i was trying to keep the things she liked in mind and why she was so cool in the first place! ofc, she had to skateboard, even if it was only a little, and she's honestly just great at games in general (to dustin's dismay).

her upbringing in canon and the way she acts is pure "survival instinct" behavior. she knows first aid, she knows how to drive, she escapes vecna, she's incredibly independent! she's a fighter, through and through. she's also not really one to hesitate often to be hands on, and i can see it in the way she acted seasons 2-4 :')

lucas is almost done - maybe a few days give or take!

[catboybiologist]

Tangent on the optimism post I made earlier about societal doomerism.

Most of the waste in the Pacific Garbage Patch is industrial fishing and factory waste.

Industry, overseas shipping, unsustainable agriculture, and energy production, that could all easily be replaced by sustainable alternatives, all dramatically overshadow anything you produce with your personal "carbon footprint", which I'm sure you all know is a BS concept.

Nations and political forces that you have no voice in control your healthcare, or maybe whether your identity is legal.

War rages overseas. Or maybe over your own head. It's heartbreaking and terrifying and the progress we've made to stop it seems tiny in comparison.

All of this is true.

But have you ever done a creek cleanup, and seen that specific creek slowly come back to life?

Have you ever organized one tiny event for your local queer community?

Have you ever voted in a local election and seen one local regulation help establish queer safe havens, or medical aide, or help the homeless?

Have you seen an institution that you're part of quietly stop supporting one of these systems because of actions you played some tiny part in?

Because I have. All of that, and more. Tiny scraps of things getting better on a local scale. They do work.

Will they save the world? No.

Will they make things a bit brighter for the people around you? Yes.

And is it unfair that the world continues to get worse overall anyways? Yes. But there are tiny things you can make better bit by bit.

I'm not absolving capitalism or corporations or governments of blame here. In fact, like my last post, I'm enraged by them even more from this mentality. Because when you have something on a local scale that you can improve, and find joy in, and bring that joy to other people, then you have something that fires you up to fight against the larger systems that threaten it.

Never forget who the real enemies are. Never allow them to guilt you or make things "your fault" for existing. But you also can't let it destroy the ways you can improve your community. Giving up is what they want you to do.

[stxrdust-widow]

And ANOTHER thing,, what was with all of the borderline sexual assault/rapey scenarios thrust upon Scully? First in 114 she’s essentially incapacitated, and if Mulder hadn’t found her in time, she absolutely would have been violated- and no comfort after that. He just made a joke.

Next we have her abduction. No denial that what she went through was undoubtedly straight up medical AND sexual assault. Not only would it result in psychological trauma- but physically as well. For all intents and purposes- and for lack of a better diagnosis when one has ovaries but no eggs- she essentially underwent a double oophorectomy which would have thrown her into early menopause and realistically (yah yah I know its fictional) left her on hormone replacement therapy for the rest of her life basically. Not to mention the already established trauma of being sterilized against her knowledge and will.

(I wish they would have delved deeper into her actual thoughts about being taken and experimented on and having her agency stripped away- beyond just the ‘I can no longer have children’ bs. Like show us the PTSD, the anxiety attached to not completely knowing what had happened to her, etc)

Next, we have 420, and I don’t even want to get into it. Again, if Mulder hadn’t shown up… and then it’s never brought up again.

And the last big one that I can remember atm- the blatant and bluntly stated admission by CSM in s11 that he was the one to get her pregnant. Because medical rape is totally cool. Even if he was a liar like always, that’s a really fucked up thing to manipulate her with. (Although I have blocked the revival and the last movie from my head so it’s actually not actually canon, okay? Okay.)

Anyway when I catch you Chris Carter,,,

[omegaverse-anthropologist]

pack

i love packs. packs are so important to my omegaverse. they’re communities, they’re friends, they’re families. fuck the nuclear family; in this omegaverse we are pack-centric

general

in an ideal situation, most people would be born into a pack. this would be the pup’s community of care. the loosest definition might be “a group of adults connected by pack bonds who engage in care for each other, and any children being raised by that group.” example pack makeups include, but are not limited to, the following:

1. A group of high school friends: Two A/O pairs, a B/O pair, a single B, and their pups.

2. A group of people who were packmates as pups, along with their mates: A/B/O triad, a single O, and a B/O pair and all of their pups.

3. A polycule of As, Bs, and Os and their pups.

4. A number of single As, Bs, and Os who have chosen to be each other’s cycle partners, and their pups.

packs tend to be made of groups of non-related adults, though in some cases (e.g. small or aging towns, instances of abuse, etc) groups of siblings or cousins may form a pack and simply avoid one another during reproductive cycles.

cycling

packmates are not obligated or expected to assist sexually during reproductive cycles, though many packmates will offer the cycling individual scented clothes or comfort items, food, or non-sexual comfort, especially in situations where the cycling individual’s mate may be absent.

when a cycling individual is unmated, their mate is absent, or they are unprepared, the pack is expected to provide non-sexual care (e.g. cooking/cleaning for them, offering nest companionship or cuddles when requested). it is perfectly acceptable for the pack to provide this care even when the mate is present. alleviating the burden on a cycling individual and their chosen partner is an act of pack care.

pups

packmates raise pups together. often, pups will refer to their non-parent adult packmates as ‘auntie,’ ‘uncle,’ or other similar terms. ideally, if packs do not share a home, they live near enough to one another that pups can safely travel between pack homes. when this is not possible, packmates escort pups to and from pack houses. packmates are listed on school documentation so that pups’ trusted adults can pick them up from school or make decisions on their parents’ behalf in case of emergency.

pups may refer to other pups in the pack as pack-siblings, cousins, or packmates. older pups tend to gravitate toward calling the other pups packmates, as it sounds more mature.

forming packs

after an individual has experienced their first full cycle, they may feel an increased drive to establish their own pack apart from their pack of origin. they may spend more time at friends’ homes and establish scent bonds with close friends. this can be a difficult transition for all parties involved. parents and packmates want to keep their pup close or may become despondent at ‘losing’ their pups, while young adults may feel stifled by overbearing or possessive packs of origin.

it’s common to see scent-bonded teenage packs spending time together in public. they aren’t afforded the same legal rights as adult packs, but in cases where emergencies occur (e.g. an accident or injury involving one scent-bonded packmate), leeway may be granted for access to things like hospital visits or school absences.

adult packs are created through the exchange of pack bites, generally a bite to the wrist from another pack member. historically, they were given by a pack’s dominant alpha, but this was a ceremonial restriction only. packs may be legally recognized with a document called a roster, which serves as a record of pack membership.

legal

adult packs have legal rights—the pack roster may be registered for ease of:

childcare (e.g., signing pups out of school early, accompanying them to medical appointments in a parent’s stead)

property ownership (e.g., a pack purchasing land or a house)

medical care (e.g., access to a hospitalized packmate’s room outside of visiting hours)

not all packs choose to formalize their membership, just as not all couples choose to become legally married. packs who do not hold a roster are still packs, and they provide all the social and emotional benefits of a pack but do not have a rostered pack’s legal privileges.

[lboogie1906]

Trish Millines Dziko (1957) is the co-founder and Executive Director of the Technology Access Foundation. A native of New Jersey, she focused on college and became a first-generation college student. She made history by becoming the first woman to be awarded a full basketball scholarship for Monmouth College. She received her BS in Computer Science.

She spent 15 years working in the high-tech industry as a software developer, manager, and consultant as well as a database designer in such industries as military weapons, business systems, communications, and medical equipment.

She became one of the early employees at Microsoft Inc. She became active in promoting awareness of the importance of diversity in the corporate world. She became a co-founder of the Technology Access Foundation, a Seattle-based organization designed to provide science, technology, engineering, and mathematics skills to children of color. She became the full-time TAF Executive Director. As one of the young Microsoft millionaires at 39, She contributed over $150,000 to establish TAF.

TAF’s programs seek to increase mathematical and literacy competencies for K-8 students through project-based activities that use technology as a tool for learning in an after-school environment. Each year about 70 teenagers enroll in the Technical Teens Internship Program which includes courses in programming, website development, networking, and career development skills. The program provides job-readiness training, college entrance preparation, and paid summer internships with local corporations or small businesses for practical experience. In addition, about 200 five to twelve-year-olds take computer classes to enhance their reading, math, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills. Since its founding on October 1, 1996, TAF has taken the lead in preparing African Americans and other students of color for training in science and technology fields in colleges and universities.

She received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Seattle University. She continues to guide the Technology Access Foundation. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[calvincell]

I genuinely think it’s absolutely vile how antichoice conservatives have pushed the deluded notion that being pregnant is some simple feat in order to frame abortion as just some sick hobby liberals do for fun. Pregnancy is an absolutely taxing ordeal even with zero complications. It comes with months of insane hormone alterations, perpetual bouts of nausea & outright vomiting, significant fatigue, a complete restructuring of one’s body and all of that is before even getting to the act of birth which throughout the entirety of human history has been explicitly understood as amongst the most painful natural physical events a human can experience/endure such that killing the pain chemically is almost a default requirement during it. Yet republicans really want to pretend that there are people who endure such an intense emotional & physical process, a process that a medically compromised patient could potentially die from (and explicitly have died from considering dying during childbirth is an outcome that still happens in the modern world), all so they can supposedly get off on “killing infants”. That’s without even going into how an abortion isn’t some fun activity. It is a medical procedure at the end of the day which is also insanely invasive and financially taxing. Ignoring that to frame abortion as something people do on a lark is like claiming that there’s an epidemic of people deliberately shattering the bones of their arm just so they get to enjoy the experience of getting it surgically repaired. It’s absolute nonsense.

The right wing narrative that abortion advocates want to “commit infanticide/post-birth abortion” is one that is also extremely harmful and dangerous & doesn’t get pushed back on nearly enough and requires erasing the very concept of miscarriages & birth defects to demonize the abortion process. There is literally no end to the stories of infants who are born and yet due to a multitude of possible defects may only live for a few hours to days of abject pain & suffering before dying. Choosing to spare an infant from such a fate before or after birth isn’t something people treat lightly. The parents and families who make that decision don’t do it on a whim because it’s a heavily traumatizing situation to live through. But of course conservatives have to ignore those explicit medical realities because they get in the way of their bs conspiratorial narratives of patients, nurses & doctors all sitting around cackling evily at ultrasounds and/or newborns in the neonatal ward eager to slaughter them for entertainment or ritual sacrifices I guess; because of course antichoice conservatives don’t actually have a reasoned & rational argument for what they believe abortion seekers & medical providers gain from abortion access outside the already established & frequently expressed facts that: people get to choose if and/or when they want to be parents with the resources & stability to support a child, avoid severe (potentially fatal) medical issues during pregnancy or birth for the patient & fetus alike, and erase the permanent traumatic consequences of sexual assault.

[theinternetisaweboflies]

Jägermeister

Chapter Nineteen: Rivalry

“That was not Newt Oji-chan.”

“Of course it wasn't,” said Hermann. His voice was rough, but not from being choked. Newton had barely started to squeeze before he was restrained by medical staff. “He didn't speak.”

They were on the flight back to the Hong Kong Shatterdome, Newton sedated and restrained to a gurney only a meter away. 

By the time they reached the Shatterdome, the Four Seasons Hangzhou had forwarded the results of Newton’s MRI. All those top-dollar doctors, and all they were able to discern conclusively was that the swelling in his brain had become so severe that it was pressing up against his skull. 

Newton was placed in a medically-induced coma until the encephalitis could regress. The doctors administered anesthesia, monitoring his brain activity via EEG until it reached the target level. The anesthetic suppressed his respiratory drive, so he also had to be intubated.

They all took shifts watching over him, even though he had a dedicated medic with him at all times. Marshal Hansen himself took the first shift, after ordering them all to take naps, or at least showers. Hermann took the second shift after doing neither. Tendo supplied the coffee. 

A day passed, and the swelling did not go down.

Eddie the medic attempted to distract them all with photographs of his gravid gecko in her nesting box. He had decorated it with a miniature banner that read, “It’s a gecko!”

Another day passed, and the swelling did not go down. 

Dr. Lightcap came out of retirement to consult, and while Hermann had once been accused of going ‘full fangirl’ by Newton when they heard her speak at a conference in 2021, he now found himself unjustly frustrated with her for not having any answers either. 

Another day passed, and the swelling did not go down. 

Dr. Lightcap recommended a controlled drift. 

It was theoretically possible to establish a neural link despite the anesthesia, though it had never been attempted before. Many medically-induced coma patients reported vivid dreams, interpreting their surroundings through a surreal filter. Some believed they were taking part in the conversations carried on over their head. Others experienced the application of ice packs as nightmares about going down with the Titanic. 

At first, Hermann was vehemently opposed to Dr. Lightcap’s recommended treatment. It seemed too much like what had been done to Newton in captivity, but he knew that was not entirely accurate. They would not be forcing Newton to drift with a kaiju. They would be forcing him to drift with Hermann. 

It was with some trepidation that Hermann donned the squid cap and listened to Dr. Lightcap count down from three. 

The hive mind felt almost omnipresent. Everything shone with the heat shimmer of an orange sun, dark at the center, like the theoretical ‘dark star’ of Newtonian mechanics. Everything echoed with their clicking, like a million ticking War Clocks. Everything hissed. 

Newton’s presence in his own mind was little more than a whisper, but Hermann followed that whisper as though it was played by Pied Piper. 

He saw more of Newton’s memories. Getting all As. Getting a few Bs on purpose to fit in better. Getting nearly waterboarded, by several boys significantly his senior, in an MIT toilet stall, if the graffiti on the door was anything to go by. Hermann hadn’t even known ‘swirlies’ existed in real life, let alone at a private institute of higher learning, even if it was American. 

Then he saw a rabbit.

Hermann did not see a Random Access Brain Impulse Trigger. 

He saw Bugs Bunny.

“What’s up, Doc?” asked Bugs, a carrot sticking out of his mouth like it was a stogie. 

“I beg your pardon?” asked Hermann, more out of habit than anything else. 

Bugs Bunny suddenly cocked his head to the side, one ear perfectly erect. 

Hermann could hear something too, just the barest strains of music rising over all the clicking and hissing. It was Wagner. A piece from Die Walküre.

Bugs Bunny turned and started to follow the music.

So Hermann followed the rabbit. 

Bugs ducked into a bulkhead style corridor that twisted, turned, and forked before letting out into a theater. It was a gorgeous auditorium, with a proscenium stage, red velvet curtains, and a grand chandelier. The seats were all empty, but a woman was performing onstage. 

Hermann recognized her as Newton’s mother, Monica Schwartz. Her photograph had been easier to come by than Newton’s own when their correspondence first started. She looked too beautiful to be fully real, and Hermann knew that was because Newton remembered her primarily from photographs as well. 

Her voice was equally beautiful, but there was a very insistent part of Hermann that hated it with an intense and fiery passion. 

Bugs Bunny began applauding loudly even though the piece was nowhere near completion. When Hermann turned to look at him, Bugs shrugged and said, "Well, what did you expect in an opera? A happy ending?"

Then he played dead, performing a teetering twirl on the spot before falling over in full rictus. When Hermann continued to stare at him, Bugs cracked open one eye, and pointed an ear towards the stage. “I think Brünnhilde is up there. Watch out for the flames though. This whole place is burning.”

Even Hermann could follow a cue so overt. He climbed the steps onto the stage, where he was thoroughly ignored by Monica Schwartz. The backstage led to another bulkhead passage, this time with only one egress. 

Hermann emerged in a small room. It was sparsely furnished, but heavily decorated. The walls were covered with photographs, documents, and handwritten notes, all connected by red string tied around push pins like some sort of particularly intricate spider’s web. 

The photographs were all of Hermann. The documents were his academic papers. The handwritten notes were unmistakably his correspondence with Newton.

Newton was in the middle of it all, standing on both a chair and the tips of his toes to add more string. A row of pushpins was held between his pursed lips and he was humming, more or less along with the Wagner, but at twice its actual tempo. 

“Newton!” 

He startled, spitting pins and nearly falling off his chair. 

“Christ on a cock, Hermann! What are you doing here?”

“I'm here to save you,” said Hermann, like  a complete prat.

Newton rolled his eyes, which were not shot with blood the way they were in the real world. Hermann wondered if he even knew how badly he had been hurt.

“That's…. great. The NPCs have developed free will, and I have apparently developed a damsel-in-distress complex. I appreciate the initiative, Ghost Hermann. I really do, but I don't think you can do anything I can do better. I'm supposed to be in charge here, at least if you listen to the Existentialists. Although I don't think either one of us likes them.”

Hermann had tuned out, more or less on instinct, after ‘NPC,’ but he got the gist. Newton thought he was a figment of his imagination. Hermann might have corrected this misapprehension if he wasn’t so distracted by the decor.

“What is this place?”

Newton winced. “Wow, this is just as humiliating as I always imagined, even though neither of us is a real boy. Still, I guess it beats talking to myself. I do a pretty good Hermann, if I don't mind me saying so.”

“So, this is…” Hermann knew there were more important topics of conversation, but it was difficult to focus on anything else when he was looking at a photograph of himself offering Mako-chan his fifth attempt at omurice, complete with a crooked ketchup smile drawn on top to match his own. 

Hermann was reasonably certain  no such photograph existed in the real world. Newton had attempted to take one, but Hermann had confiscated his phone in protest. Apparently, he had captured it in his memory instead. 

Newton  referred to his memory as ‘semi-eidetic,’ but Hermann had always argued that ‘selectively-eidetic’ would be more apt. 

Apparently, he had selected Hermann. 

Repeatedly. 

There were photographs of Hermann writing on his chalkboards, drinking Jägermeister, arguing. There was a photograph of the day they met, before it all went wrong. There was another one of the day they drifted, before it all went wrong again. 

“This is the Hermann Cave! The real you wouldn't get that, so pretend you don't, for authenticity’s sake.”

Hermann didn't have to pretend. 

“I made this room to hide from the Precursors. I mean, sure, technically they know exactly where to find me, but they don't like coming here. It’s not even because of Mom— She’s just the perimeter guard. I mean, don’t get me wrong, they hate opera, but it turns out there's something they hate even more.”

“Oh?” 

“Love,” said Newton. “They hate love! They’re not even homophobic. They hate all love equally. See I've got sections for Dad, Uncle Illia, Mako-chan, and the Frog Formerly Known as Prince, may he rest in peace. So sure, Hermann Cave is technically a misnomer, but it’s also hilarious.”

Surely enough, the pictures on the wall did seem to include several photos of Mako by herself, Jacob and Illia Geiszler, and an African Dwarf Frog. 

“They really hate the romantic kind though,” Newton was saying, “and they really, really hate the sappy, song-writing, decades-of-pining kind I've got for you. I’ve been trying to figure out exactly why love is such an anathema for the Precursors. My working hypothesis is that they can’t comprehend sacrifice for something that’s not a part of themselves. Don’t quote me on that though. It might just be like Kryptonite.”

“Oh,” said Hermann. “Oh.”

Before he could say anything else, he was forcibly ejected from the drift. Everything seemed to freeze, like a lagging computer, and then he was back in the Medical Bay of the Hong Kong Shatterdome, surrounded by anxious faces. 

“Your heart-rate spiked,” said Tendo. “Like, a lot.”

It took Hermann a moment to catch his breath, and even then, all he could manage to say was, “Yes, I imagine it did.”

...

@lastdaysofwar

[cherryblossomshadow]

Ageism

Dr. Alex Powell (@/APowellLaw)

The idea that someone cannot make autonomous decisions about their own life below the age of 25 is a direct threat to the autonomy of all young people. What separates gender from access to abortion or the right to vote?

This is a very dangerous and harmful proposal.

Kay And Skittles (@/kayandskittles)

It’s significant that in a world where older generations have profoundly different political objectives (and far more political power) than younger people, we’re seeing this "think of the children" bs feeding seamlessly into "people under 25 are actually children".

Aside from some niche extremist groups, the right has utterly failed to capture the minds of younger people who have so little material reason to be invested in the current system. So plan B is just to deny them autonomy and the right to basic decision making.

If it should become any kind of legal precedent that under 25’s can’t consent to medical procedures deemed to be non-essential, using a vulnerable marginalised group as a wedge to get the door open, what comes next?

Under 25’s already get a smaller minimum wage in this country, there’s already an established current of thought that they’re not "real" adults yet. If that becomes further entrenched it would be hard NOT to ask "wait, why do we let them vote?".

And these legal structures will influence how people see themselves! We’ve already had a generation of young adults who won’t shut up about "adulting", imagine how infantilised they’d become if they were literally legally children at 24.

[theanticool]

Ranking UFC 301 fights by my level of interest. It's not a great PPV card but there are match ups that do interest me.

Alexandre Pantoja (C) vs Steve Erceg - the UFC constantly does bs to undermine the flyweight division. Remember when they had John Moraga fighting on the facebook prelims before being thrust into a title fight against DJ? Well, Erceg is only getting slightly better treatment. But at least Erceg has shown himself to be a unique and diversified threat. He's got some really clean boxing and a solid wrestling game that pair well together. Will that be able to lift him up despite his limited experience against elite flyweight competition? We will see. Pantoja is nothing if not consistent. He will find his way to his dangerous grappling game, even if it involves starting firefights to do it. Should make for an exciting fight.

Joanderson Brito vs Jack Shore - We got two interesting 29 year old featherweights on the rise. I really like both fighter's games. Brito is a dangerous man who has finished his last four opponents. He's not the most technically sound but he's an athletic, aggressive and a fantastic opportunist when given the chance to finish. Jack Shore is a workman. He's crafty and skilled everywhere. Not as much of a danger as Brito but has a more cohesive approach to fighting. Should be a banger fight.

Jose Aldo vs Jonathan Martinez - The dire state of this PPV called for the UFC to ask for Aldo to come back. And they're giving him a fantastic leg kicker, which should be interesting. Martinez is on a big run. He's won 6 straight, where he's won two fights by leg kick KOs. He's got a Nurmagomedov on the resume (Said), Yanez, and Swanson. If there was a time to get a big win and establish himself as a true bantamweight contender, this is the fight to do it. Especially against an Aldo that has been retired for 2 years and only doing boxing in the interim. But Aldo has never had issues with kickers.

Elves Brener vs Myktybek Orolbai - Brener has built himself a ton of momentum. The Brazilian 155er knocked off a couple of former highly regarded prospects in Zubaira Tukhugov and Guram Kutateladze to kick off his UFC career and then knocked off fellow Brazilian Kaynan Kruschewsky. Orolbai came into the UFC and neck cranked the hell out of Uros Medic. This should be a good one!

Iasmin Lucindo vs Karolina Kowalkiewicz - After losing 5 straight fights, Kowalkiewicz has managed to rebuild her career. Brick by brick. She has rattled off four straight wins. And while I wouldn't call any of the women she has beaten elite, the fact she's still adapting as she is pushing 40 is impressive. Lucindo has also been impressive. The 22 year old has been putting on impressive performances in the UFC from the jump and has started looking like a legit prospect to watch out for at strawweight.

Michel Pereira vs Ihor Potieria - Michel Pereira was always too much of a meme fighter to not be a middleweight. And while the crazy flips and capoeira kicks are gone, he has just turned to knocking people out instantly since moving up. Ihor Potieria is coming from the opposite direction, moving down from 205lbs. And he looked good in his debut in the weight class. Not a world beater but he's looking more and more like a complete fighter. This should be good. Plenty of potential for a mess.

Alessandro Costa vs Kevin Borjas - Costa is a guy that is athletic enough to be UFC flyweight champion. He's got dynamite in his hands and is extremely fast. He turned Erceg into a wrestler with his physical advantages. With some direction and more cage time, guy could be a legit challenger. I just hope to see him active. I don't have much to say about Borjas, so down the ladder this goes.

[likealittleheartbeat]

It’s only that representation does not address a core issue that allowed for the groups you want represented to be excluded in the first place and will continue to cause types of exclusion for certain groups of people to be represented and to create in the future. The same issue lies at the heart of the nepo baby discourse.

The problem is not someone’s inclusion in Hollywood or art or government. The problem is a financial system that prevents so many people the prolonged opportunity to take the risks and endure the early burdens of establishing a career in these fields. That sounds like some ‘pull themselves up by their boot straps’ bs, but what I mean is that someone can’t invest their time and skills in something if they’re afraid of going into insurmountable debt to go to school for it; someone can’t invest their time and skills they have to worry about a random injury or condition that requires medical treatment which would require medical insurance which they wouldn’t have while they’re out there kicking off their dreams; someone can’t invest their time and skills into something if they have people at home who financially depend on them; people can’t invest their time and skills into something if they have no resources or options to recover from addictions; someone can’t invest their time and skills if there are prohibitive hiring practices toward people who were previously convicted of a crime and they can’t get their records expunged no matter what they do (not to mention their lack of voting rights to do anything about it); someone can’t invest their time and skills if they are still paying off debts from generations ago (and heaven forbid we trace that back to when their family might have been freed from slavery only to be neglected by the federal government that failed to provide them with the financial necessities to do nearly anything but become a poorly paid laborer for their former master and did about just as little to prevent the violence and policies that foreclosed democratic power for those same people to elect people who could do anything about that condition); people can’t invest their time and skills when the financial backing depends on mass interest in the project but their language and/or own experiences are considered too local and niche to be ‘marketable.’

The problem, while ostensibly is about representation, is actually about an economic situation that forces a majority of the population to fight ten times harder to get their voice heard and produced by a select elite minority. Even then, tho, it is not merely some execs who are foreclosing the market for outside talent and depictions (although some are surely more responsible than others) but an entire free market system that they must work within whether their desire is to use it for diversity or some kind of supremacy.

The best part of this revelation is that you don’t even need to be mad about seeing that elite minority represented, in this case. They’re just people with a specific culture based on their material realities like anyone else. If you’re going to get mad, get mad at a system that only privileges diversity as a goal to maintain itself while still giddily creating new groups to obscure. And then, don’t stay mad, but get focused on a history of people and actions that resisted this system and imagined other possibilities (see the Anti-Oligarchy Constitution for a detailed US description) and then get focused on the people who are doing things now, especially locally, where they really do need an extra set of hands once a week for an hour.

Obviously, don’t ignore representation because there are artists who are making it there who are your allies even when they don’t do it perfectly. But when that spark ignites about representation issues, kindle it so you can see the whole picture on the cave wall.

[madara-fate]

i don't particularly enjoy boruto but i'm not a hater either, but there's one detail i don't understand about the borutoverse in general and it's the contradictions there are all the time.

first the idea of shino as a jonin that was created by the anime in a diagram but that was also discarded by themselves, like they didn't agree with their own idea.

second that i thought ino would become the head of the yamanaka clan but that's actually a filler episode that was talking about ino leading people with mind transfer because that's the jutsu se was learning in filler. i didn't even know that inoichi was never described as clan head just shikaku and hiashi why would sp pull that bs?

then mitsuki being the official medic in team 7 in the manga from the beginning but the anime never shows it because they always push the sarada agenda when sarada doesn't need to be one just because she's sakura's child.

and then there's the problem with sakura in the manga, anime and novels set in boruto. so in the manga, sakura is just a regular doctor, no particular position just heals random people here and there and that's it. but in the anime she's the greatest medical boss ever and i love it she's the head of the medical department, she also directs konoha hospital and she's a teacher medical ninjutsu. she's packed in her own field and i really appreciate sp doing all that for her even when they're infamous for making her look bad.

but what's this contrast between the anime and the manga? why is the anime making sakura the biggest boss b1tch ever while in the manga she's almost like she doesn't have a job? i lowkey would love if ikemoto "canonized" or mentioned sakura's jobs from the anime. the contradictions are a little off-setting.

i know that the anime is the canon and the manga is just to tell future events but it's still two paralel worlds.

because if you include all the novels in the boruto time, sakura has a lot of influence outside the medical field too that reminds me of her connections with team 7 that she doesn't speak to anymore.

sakura goes on missions as jonin in 2 novels and gaiden, she's the head of the medical department, director of konoha hospital, sensei and doctor in the anime, she's the founder of the mental health clinic in sakura hiden that sp will never mention, she's a bodyguard from the hokage guard platoon and also worlds briefly with shikamaru in decoding teams in naruto retsuden and in the same book she's established as a pillar of konoha.

she's an outstanding character and a female role model. why is it that the manga will never acknowledge these? sometimes i prefer to watch the anime than the manga because the responisiblities are different

first the idea of shino as a jonin that was created by the anime in a diagram but that was also discarded by themselves, like they didn't agree with their own idea.

Shino isn't a Jonin, don't take the word of some random obscure diagram that's not readily available to the masses. The manga didn't say he is a Jonin, and neither did the anime.

then mitsuki being the official medic in team 7 in the manga from the beginning but the anime never shows it because they always push the sarada agenda when sarada doesn't need to be one just because she's sakura's child.

I strongly disagree with the idea that the anime has pushed for the notion of Sarada being a medic.

and then there's the problem with sakura in the manga, anime and novels set in boruto. so in the manga, sakura is just a regular doctor, no particular position just heals random people here and there and that's it. but in the anime she's the greatest medical boss ever and i love it she's the head of the medical department, she also directs konoha hospital and she's a teacher medical ninjutsu. she's packed in her own field and i really appreciate sp doing all that for her even when they're infamous for making her look bad.

but what's this contrast between the anime and the manga? why is the anime making sakura the biggest boss b1tch ever while in the manga she's almost like she doesn't have a job? i lowkey would love if ikemoto "canonized" or mentioned sakura's jobs from the anime. the contradictions are a little off-setting.

I'm honestly rather sick of people saying things like this. So you think Sakura in the manga is just some random doctor who heals "random people here and there", and may as well be jobless? If that's what you think then I'm not gonna bother saying anything on this topic. I'm tired of reiterating the same points to people who allow their frustration of Sakura's current lack of on panel involvement, to severely cloud their judgement.

i know that the anime is the canon and the manga is just to tell future events but it's still two paralel worlds.

But I will say that the manga is the canon source of information, and it has always been the canon source, not the other way around. The anime expands on what the manga tells you.

[tramontane-fire]

okay one more and I'm done I swear

humanity (according to the minbari) has this glorious destiny to be a great race reaching through the stars we don't know the half of what our future holds etc etc etc

and yet you have a whole section of the station full of homeless people who live in unsanitary conditions and likely sometimes die because we've established they can't afford medical care

security arrests people who are clearly mentally ill on BS charges and regularly engages in police brutality with no consequences

and all anyone can say on the matter is "damn [homeless people] we ought to space them all."

None of the senior staff are particularly bothered by the issues either, and they might actually be able to do something about the quality of life of the "lurkers."

And yes I get that it's probably a more realistic version of the future than, say, Star Trek, where we solved all of Earth's problems and went into space looking for more

After all as @autisticslp pointed out, it's been 30ish years since the show aired and healthcare still isn't free in our country.

But if humanity has made spaceships and a mars colony and space stations and still can't manage to guarantee basic human (sentient being?) rights, how great can our destiny among the stars be?

I remember really enjoying this show as a kid before working in emergency services made me really pissed off about things like homelessness and healthcare inequity and police violence and social murder and now everything I read or watch is colored by that.

And I think it wasn't even deliberate on the part of the showrunners? Most middle and upper class people in America where I live view homeless citizens as human pests, and are glad when the guy having a psychotic episode in public is arrested so they don't have to look at him. They never question the police or the prison/jail system because they never interact with it. It's all just background noise to them. If they think about homelessness or poverty or police violence at all, they quickly reassure themselves that it only happens to Other People who probably deserve it anyway.

this may sound horrible and monstrous and it kind of is, but we are raised to think this way. I remember my mom telling me a disabled man panhandling by the offramp was probably faking his mobility issues for sympathy. Imagine a whole generation raised that way who never had to question what they were taught.

Now supposing one of these middle/upper class Americans wrote a science fiction TV show.

[a-frog-in-a-bog]

… why do you agree that aro/ace people are “privileged”?

is there a specific post i reblogged you're referring to? i don't think i've ever said that. anyway non-LGBT aces and aros definitely benefit from cishet privilege, even if they're not heterosexual (a cis aro-ace person for example, who is neither straight nor queer). oppression operates on a systemic level, upheld by the law.

here's an example from the stonewall riots wikipedia: "Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the FBI and police departments kept lists of known homosexuals and their favored establishments and friends; the US Post Office kept track of addresses where material pertaining to homosexuality was mailed ... bars catering to gay men and lesbians were shut down and their customers were arrested and exposed in newspapers. Cities performed "sweeps" to rid neighborhoods, parks, bars, and beaches of gay people. They outlawed the wearing of opposite-gender clothes and universities expelled instructors suspected of being homosexual".

today's bathroom bills, gay wedding cake bs, bans on gay couples adopting kids, and limits on testosterone levels in women's sports are just a few of many laws upholding oppression. non-LGBT aces and aros are not affected by these laws or cultural stigma.

that isn't to say that non-LGBT aces and aros don't face any discrimination, just that it's not a result of them being ace or aro. being pressured to have sex when you don't want to is rape culture, and it affects everyone, especially women (misogyny). the outdated idea that adult happiness depends on getting married and having kids (which is fortunately dying out) isn't amatonormativity, it's the christian ideology that's permeated into our culture. being asked about your libido at the doctor's isn't ace discrimination, it's bc changes in libido can indicate something serious. in order for low/no libido to be characterized as a disorder in the medical and psychiatric fields, it must explicitly cause the patient significant distress, and even then, treatment is usually regular ol' couples counseling, not conversion therapy. btw conversion therapy involves harmful methods to force patients to associate homosexual attraction with pain and disgust, it's not a therapist asking "but are you sure your lack of attraction doesn't stem from trauma?"

do aces and aros get bullied for their identities? yes. but that's not what oppression or privilege refers to.

[alanfromrochester]

Regulations do often have obvious safety purposes. Yet as for the "just corporate BS" point: a regulatory scheme could be set up in such a way to benefit large/established companies in the industry at the expense of small players or new entrants, say by requiring equipment/employees/services proportionally more expensive across a smaller workload or more than necessary generally.

For a building code example, dismissing housing that's perfectly safe as too small, requiring you to buy/rent a bigger one. For a medical example, the American Medical Association often gets accused of wanting there to be too few med school students to cut down on competition for doctors

yet because of genuine safety regulations, it looks bad to complain about anticompetitive regulations.

I think I can trace my intense hatred for the whole "regulations are just corporate bullshit, building codes are just The Man's way of keeping you down, we should return to pre-industrial barter and trade systems" nonsense back to when I first started doing electrical work at one of the largest hospitals in the country.

I have had to learn so much about all the special conditions in the National Electric Code for healthcare systems. All the systems that keep hospitals running, all the redundancies and backups that make sure one disaster or outage won't take out the hospital's life support, all the rules about different spaces within the hospital and the different standards that apply to each of them. And a lot of it is ridiculously over-engineered and overly redundant, but all of it is in the service of saving even one life from being lost to some wacky series of coincidences that could have been prevented with that redundancy.

I've done significantly less work in food production plants and the like, but I know they have similar standards to make sure the plants aren't going to explode or to make sure a careless maintenance tech isn't accidentally dropping screws into jars of baby food or whatever. And research labs have them to make sure some idiot doesn't leave a wrench inside a transformer and wreck a multi-million dollar machine when they try to switch it on.

Living in the self-sufficient commune is all fun and games until someone needs a kidney transplant and suddenly wants a clean, reliable hospital with doctors that are subject to some kind of overseeing body, is my point.