#of OUR engagement

[babygirlgiles]

I never understood people freaking out like “my ex is ENGAGED now” like who cares what they do after you’re broken up, they’re welcome to do whatever they want with their life as part of moving on bc I’ve also moved on (and for the better) but. Also. My ex is ENGAGED now. Hey anyway totally unrelated to this does anyone wanna go set shit on fire in the backyard with me?

[freckliedan]

I refuse to believe you were wrong about ring theory actually

thank you. i do also <3

[fly-chicken]

A Pragmatic and surprisingly comforting perspective about the Trump 2nd Presidency from the ACLU

***Apologies if this is how you found out the 2024 election results***

Blacked out part is my name.

I’m not going to let this make me give up. It’s disheartening, and today I will wallow, probably tomorrow too

AND

I will continue to do my part in my community to spread the activism and promote change for the world I want to live in. I want to change the world AND help with the dishes.

And I won’t let an orange pit stain be what stops me from trying to be better.

A link to donate to the ACLU if able and inclined. I know I am

[cat-in-a-mech-suit]

Being forcefully raised as a woman is not any less traumatic and emotionally repressive as being forcefully raised as a man. Femininity is not inherently pure and safe. Coercing someone to perform femininity is not any less toxic than coerced masculinity. Being dysphoric around femininity or having trauma from women doesn’t make you a misogynist.

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

the fact that shakespeare was a playwright is sometimes so funny to me. just the concept of the "greatest writer of the English language" being a random 450-year-old entertainer, a 16th cent pop cultural sensation (thanks in large part to puns & dirty jokes & verbiage & a long-running appeal to commoners). and his work was made to be watched not read, but in the classroom teachers just hand us his scripts and say "that's literature"

just...imagine it's 2450 A.D. and English Lit students are regularly going into 100k debt writing postdoc theses on The Simpsons screenplays. the original animation hasn't even been preserved, it's literally just scripts and the occasional SDH subtitles.txt. they've been republished more times than the Bible

[yourbasicqueerie]

[mossy-aro]

sorry but i am SO deeply tired of the 'aphobia isnt real' arguments because they are literally always being conducted in such bad faith. NO there is not specific societal or legal discrimation against aces and aros BECAUSE we are asexual and or aromantic. you cannot hold specifically bigoted beliefs towards a group you do not even know exist. there ARE, however, underlying and deeply pervasive systems and beliefs that actively erase, dehumanise and make life tangibly more difficult for aro and ace people on a social, economic and legal basis. most of this is due to hyperinvisibility, the medicalisation of any nonnormative + misunderstood orientations, the elevation of romance + romantic structures as the most important aspects of interpersonal relationships in society, as well as the nuclear atomisation of the family. among other things. like. amatonormativity has never been ABOUT aromantic people specfically oh my GOD. its simply the underlying social belief that everyone is expected to be in monogamous romantic relationships and that those relationships are expected to the default centre of one's life. its something that affects EVERYONE! but within that it affects aromantic people in a specific and heightened way because of our inability to participate in it in a societally acceptable way. like these are not 'aromantic' or 'asexual' or 'polyamorous' issues specifically. these are theories and terms that originated within feminist + queer sociology studies! its all part of the wider underlying social fabric! aspec people are simply pointing out that we are often affected by these things in unique and often unseen ways.

the idea that we believe people actively 'hate' us for being asexual or aromantic is completely ridiculous. most people i know do not even know the definition of those words! so how could they hate me for it. they could however, for example, hold the pervasive + societally unchallenged belief that not experiencing sexual or romantic attraction is a medical issue or something concerningly abnormal in a human being + something i should get fixed. and its not uncommon that when you DO explain that its simply your orientation to them, they continue to medicalise it and see it as some sort of issue. genuinely so deeply tired of having to explain this to people time and time again when they only want to cherry pick the most ridiculous arguments to respond to and then act as if that's a majority held opinion in the aspec community. like i actually think we are aware of how society views us we're not fucking deluded and stupid. we don't have victim complexes we are just pointing out facts that yall are so desperate to ignore. UGHHHHH

[uncanny-tranny]

Little things adults and older people can do to help younger people and children feel included, safe, and respected as an equal individual:

Ask before touching the young person - even for hugs. Ask before you take pictures of them, and let them see photographs of them before they are printed or sent to others (even family).

Apologize when you are wrong

Ask for a young persons thoughts on a subject, then engage with them after they have spoken

Demonstrate behaviour you want to see from them (see: apologizing). Say "excuse me," say "thank you," say "please" to them

Validate their feelings, even if they don't know how to express them just yet

Remember that this is the first time they've been alive, and that you've had way longer to "figure it out"

These are some things I wish other adults remembered when engaging with young folks. We so often forget what childhood felt like and how unfair it all was because we were often awarded freedoms as adults that we never had as children. These kids are equal to adults, and they deserve the same courtesy, respect, kindness, and understanding we give to other adults.

[the-cimmerians]

Rep. Zooey Zephyr, the first transgender woman elected to Montana's legislature, attended a Montana House of Representatives session to oppose an anti-transgender bill that would remove references to transgender individuals from more than 40 sections of state code. The bill, which would define sex in a way that excludes trans people, was one of over a dozen heard this year. The previous day, her strong speech against the gender affirming care ban the state had passed led to the Montana Freedom Caucus calling for her censure while intentionally and repeatedly misgendering her. When she punched in, they refused to recognize her to speak, and instead moved forward to pass the bill.

Tensions flared on the House Floor when the entire Democratic Caucus rose to demand that she be permitted to speak. In a strikingly undemocratic move, Republican House Speaker Regier declined to allow it, asserting that he could refuse to allow anyone to speak at his discretion. When Minority Leader Abbott objected, they moved to a packed rules committee meeting, which upheld the ruling. Following that, the Speaker stated it was his intent to no longer allow Representative Zephyr to speak moving forward.

[the-millennium-curse]

You're not wrong for feeling sad or disappointed or even betrayed when a fic you put time and work into gets very little attention. But I do want to remind you that one (1) kudos is a whole-ass human being who read through what you wrote, experienced it, thought about it, and realized they felt so strongly positive about it that they had to send that feeling to you. Try to let the feeling reach you. Feel that you changed someone's day, maybe even more.

Be proud of what you've done, even as you wish you did more.

[a-very-tired-jew]

“It’s not antisemitism, it’s anti-Zionism!”

Meanwhile, Kiswani’s Twitter.

And if you don’t know who Nerdeen Kiswani is, she’s the leader and founder of Within Our Lifetime. She and her organization are the ones routinely organizing protests in NYC. Said protests always end up harassing and threatening Jews in some capacity, their last big one to make the news ended up in front of the Nova exhibit and vandalizing an anti-Zionist Jew's home. She has spread antisemitic conspiracies repeatedly, multiple members of WOL have been arrested for hate crimes, and the “If you’re Zionist raise your hand” person is a senior member of WOL as well. Kiswani’s entire brand is violent antisemitism under the guise of “anti-Zionism”.

She is the epitome of the Sartre quote as she knows what she is doing and quickly jumps to an aggressive defense of her actions. Any time she gets called out for her antisemitism and stochastic terrorism she has rhetoric ready to go that makes her the victim and Jews Zionists the villain. Never mind that she engages in every type of antisemitic conspiracy and canard, she's the actual victim here and calling her an antisemite just shows you how much of a victim she is.

She has a follow up tweet to this that essentially victim blames Jews, but calls them Zionists who "twist everything". Disregard the fact that she's "just joking" about getting Black September originals, this is the same type of "just joking" that we see all know is a method for the person to wave away accusations of bigotry. If this was a joke trivializing a tragic event in any other ethnicity's history she would be rightfully called out and vilified.

Read that again. Why are people allowed to do this to Jews and the Left refuses to hold them accountable?

It's people like Kiswani who openly use Zionist to mean Jews and then use the old Soviet playbook of "well we're anti-Zionist, not antisemitic".

Why does the Left not hold people accountable who engage in stochastic terrorism against Jews when they do so for other groups?

Instead, Kiswani is lionized and held to no standard beyond her own.

[scottish-valkyrie]

I've been told repeatedly to stop over-defending myself, to not litigate everything I do because it makes me look more guilty. And it is mindblowingly frustrating because they have no understanding that for trans women that is the ONLY option. If we leave our actions up to interpretation, it guarantees that it'll be interpreted as malice, as sexual deviance, and with as poor faith as possible. If I and other trans women let you guess to our motivations there's a good chance we end up with a black spot that has us excommunicated from that social group, because TME are more than willing to pass around 'warnings' about the strange and deviant tranny. They do it for their own safety of course, to ensure everyone is on the same page, and suddenly the trans woman who was surrounded by friends is now left feeling cold and alone. And she either realises and leaves, or is made to feel like a leper in the group.

But the thing TMEs don't get is how little justification it takes. For me it was one post with an opinion one friend of a friend didn't agree with. She brought a jury of my friends to a public trial and then after I defended myself, they blamed me for not working to bridge the gap after an ad hominem attack.

Every trans woman I have ever met has had this happen to them, we all have a story of one dumb joke, one awkward interaction. Some miscommunication about the name of a pillow because the other person automatically assumed the worst of them, and they're gone. Iced out and left to die alone. Is it any wonder we hide amongst ourselves

[da-janela-lateral]

I see plenty Dad Reigen out there but where are my Dimples exhibiting weird uncle behavior

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

jin guangshan and lan qiren yaoi perhaps? since their shapes create a perfect balance?

Two old men perform worlds first successful 96.

[ridleymocki]

Ed tearing up over a love letter while distractedly strangling a guy to death is peak dark comedy to me guys, like this is the show, it was so funny and neither Ed nor I are perfect people in that moment but here we are