#so being disabled is really rare
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Guess what I am doooing Sooo it started back in november, I found the end of the Empurata Prowl stuff here and went back and read all of it and just HHHHNNNGGG And so I started writing. I have a buffer but I hope to put the first chapter up soon and just... hope people care enough to want to read it.
I have known this AU for 24 hours and I love it.
The funniest thing is that I also have known this au for only 24 hours. This thing has literally no preparation only the agony of me and anons throwing art an asks to each other
#being physically disabled makes writing disability or disabling problems hit well for me#and disability when it comes to Cybertronians is so interesting because they can usually just print out whatever parts are needed#so being disabled is really rare#often poverty#or congrats you don't fit standard sizes#or other stuff#and you usually come online with everything you need to fully function#plus suffering#fell in love with this AU and can't escape#Hard road to recovery#and shadowplay#yum#not sure how to end it but I hope peeps enjoy what I write
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I love that you draw Peri using a walking cane! I've got my theories, but what kind of disability to you hc him as having? 👀
shout out to this post for analyzing peri for potential symptoms! i think it’s very likely that he’s got some sort of magical fatigue (possibly related to how powerful he was in the original series) and/or* chronic pain that gets worse when he’s walking or standing
(*leaning more towards the “and”)
#i sincerely hope that peri being disabled is canon tbh#i rarely see younger cane users (no less younger characters with disabilities such as chronic pain) in media#so it’d be really nice if anw had one as a major character#we have winn (openly nb 10 year old) so the creators definitely aren’t afraid to show less-represented groups
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winston my quant of billions
#''😒''#corned beef#winston billions#& green of all things; drew it in purpley pink & being like whoa hey is this too much deliberately breaking out this Rare Coloring#minty fresh....been funny to be rotating the villainy of; let's say; bsol & xmas & then thinking about billions' whole other world there#& its completely different take where of all things winston is like. treated as a villain in a way its sicko My God central men aren't#(who are also quite different from iconis villains but yknow with the very fundamental differences in general what else is a surprise)#axe? prince? alive & well & billions does mean to be commenting on that like yeah sure#but winston? gotta be humiliated & violated & attacked / killed (if figuratively + just by assumption Oh He's Fiiine)#as well as basically truly dead to everyone but in a Never Existed / Spontaneously Shunned way. nobody thinks about him ever again#including when non wretched central men characters are getting these silver linings Benefits from their sabotaging a central man#not winston though maybe; the writing has forgotten him / sees no worth in bringing him up unless At His Expense; not gain#didn't get background randos telling prince or the like to go fuck himself at any point. open contempt reserved for winston there#better to have Objective Entitlement to power over / access to people & then; hey what the; be an asshole about it???#than to not just Have that entitlement & not expect it & not try to use it & be friendly & minding your own business as much or more than#any other characters like good lord what a Loser. the queerness & disability of this inferiority? just some jokes (at winston's expense)#& we will be killing him like nobody even considers for central men takedowns. those are polite & we all have Some regret it came to this#better to abuse people than. be so unepic (different from Normal white cishet 50some men who love certain media)#& on that note you're never gonna guess what's Good to do to the unepic people who bring it upon themselves....yeah haha. abuse#you're never gonna guess but power difference is a given & also good if an epic person has that power. & on that note#what can they do with it but keep unepic people in their place? what other hope do we have? winston may try to say a pun. or speak at all :#anyway while there's the absolute joys of Any Good Bastard over in a wildly different oeuvre it's like well yknow#while winston is already Ruining Things as more a Wretched Sicko Evil Asshole for seeing himself as a person & others as people#instead of himself as an inferior who has to apologize for existing & initiating any interaction vs only ever doing as he's told#unlike the best heroes who know they're superior & will use others & mess with their lives however they feel is justified; you're welcome#like well if winston's such an exceptional dick(tm) around here that he has to be introduced w/discussion / explanation around this#great let him be even bitchier & more ''difficult''....& billions would never & that's why [sorry to all the characters trapped in there]#the slightest glimpses of like & The Quasirival Weirdo Duos Are Kinda Being Cunts b/w usual parallels riawin & taylip#what comes of that? oh nothing. but as ever these are at least glimpses of a little more liveliness & range for making room for this a sec#anyway imagine getting so niche that your other kinda just as niche thing is like. less niche. but not really. wheee yayyy fr lol My Whimsy
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Sighs like a big old dog
#jay talkin#sorry im being kept from sleep by arm pain again so im musibg#i really want to go be queer in queer community spaces as i live in an area#without gay bars or queer clubs or what have you#so my idea is to go with my husband to a gay bar next year while in america#only problem is i am terrified my general ineptitude at socialness and lack of exp#will make me noticeably out of my depth and that ill feel like i dont belong#and im really quite scared of finding myself in a state of isolation from my community#in the slim and rare chance i get to be physically within it#im scares of being clocked as a pathetically bad fag!!! i am going on 28 i feel so behind!!#what if its embarrasing for other ppl what if my ineltitude makes them uncomfortable#what if they think im a straight woman and hate me. what if i get overwhelmed. christ#i just. want to feel belonging. i want to not feel othered#social isolation and disability complicate this so much#idkkkkkkkkkkk i just dont want to suck at this. i want to find my place and peers one day
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#This world is soooo fucked up#The fact that my brother is being bullied for his disability … AGAIN 💔💔💔💔#We were really hoping something with change in college#But the guy who was in his previous school (not the recent one bc we moved him) is also in the college and is apparently making his life he#I literally burst out into tears in public … bc it just doesn’t stop yk. people are so fucking cruel I can’t deal#Like no matter what he tries to do … people like THEM exist and make his life so hard#And it’s so shitty bc he already gets soooo much slack from our extended family for his disability … if anything it’s only now they#Understand such stuff and have become more kind#But his age mates have always been so fucking shitty … well not all of them … there’s always that one group#And it’s crazy bc he is not the only disabled kid they attacked … there were multiple. I’m soooooo sick of this#and their parents are disgusting bc they protect them#And teachers rarely do a single thing
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having a lot of thoughts about how people use 'normalize' when they mean 'destigmatize' or 'make the nature of into common knowledge,' and how they conflate 'the perception of this thing as normal' with the thing actually being a normal occurrence, and how it is in fact incredibly harmful to try to convince people that an ideal situation is normal when that does not map onto their lived reality or the dangers they need to be aware of to avoid. it is 3:33am though so writing up an actual poast about it will have to wait for later
#whosebaby talks#this post brought to you by 'spreading awareness of what an abusive relationship is and looks like compared to a nonabusive relationship'#'is fantastic and i support it fully and think it's deeply important. giving people the false idea that abusive relationships are uncommon'#'and are flukes that go against the grain of society functioning as it normally does; is insanely dangerous to people who are potential#targets; and incredibly alienating and isolating and cruel to people who have already been targets'#'in uniquely awful ways depending on whether they're already aware of that or aren't. don't fucking do that'#it applies much more broadly than that; but it's an instance i think about A Lot and it's what led me to this line of thought to start with#there's also 'normal does not mean good and saying so has incredibly unbelievably harmful implications keep that shit out of your mouth'#but that is so obvious it boggles my mind that it has to be explained to anyone on this site; and it is talked about often enough#that i would rather focus on the parts i don't really see talked about much; if at all#also like the fact that 'statistically average' normal vs 'things are functioning as they usually do' is a critically important distinction#they are closely related and interplay heavily with each other but they are Not the Same Thing#and how 'normal' can refer to different layers and aspects of a subject--people with rare health conditions are not statistically average#and that by itself is fine. and those people having conditions that are disruptive to the usual functioning of a space or system#is avoidable in some cases by establishing as much infrastructure as possible to integrate their more common needs smoothly#and unavoidable in others; which means the normal functioning of a system/space that accommodates people with unexpected needs#has to account *for its normal functioning being disrupted sometimes*#and bend around that disruption without either breaking down or rolling right over the disabled people who Cause Problems#and at the same time 'rare health condition' gets applied to health conditions that are not rare *at all* to not only justify not bothering#to make the system integrate their needs in general when it could do so easily; but make it so that accommodating their needs anyway puts#immense and unnecessary strain on the system; so there is zero margin for anything you didn't specifically fight tooth and nail for already#anyway it's a really extensive subject and a fascinating one. for later. sleep now#abuse cw#ableism cw#the salt files#is there a name for that tag
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Unless, you ask the great British public apparently
I mean this ☝️☝️☝️ is bad enough, a quarter of the public thinking poor out of work (likely disabled or long term sick or even women trying to find work but can't because a large section of the feckless job market doesn't account for needing flexible time to look after their kids) or those in low paid meanial jobs shouldn't have access to basic human standards of living, but this 👇👇👇
Is absolutely ludicrous 40 percent basically think if you're poor you shouldn't be able to celebrate holidays, and that forty five percent think people who are sat at home all day ill and in pain or who might be working two jobs and STILL need universal credit to make ends meet shouldn't be able to watch TV and try and forget the misery that is their lives for an hour or two. Rest IS sacred, but apparently only for the wealthy.
Good news: if you’re currently laying around and not producing anything, you are a credit to your species.
#sorry for turning this post into something it was never intended to be#but i read this article just before i came on Tumblr and it made me so 😡😡😡#and then i read this and ugh#being poor#or disabled#or sick#or underemployed#or underpaid#or on benefits#should not be a reason to be punished#these people are entitled to rest and leisure as much as any other#great britain#Britain#british politics#universal credit#broken britain#fuck the tories#and im sure this is a problem elsewhere other than Britain but since im a brit that rarely leaves my county and has never left the country#i cant really comment on elsewhere
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My hot take is that ASL should be mandatory from a young age in schools in the USA
#while many people will rarely encounter fully deaf people#it is extremely common to interact with the elderly#people who usually lose their hearing#while talking with family about a relative passing they spoke of having a really hard time communicating with her since she didnt like#reading writing and was so hard of hearing with hearing aids that you had to shout#not to mention all the practical usages that have nothing to do with being deaf suvh as trying to communicate in a loud environment or#across a big space where you shouldnt yell#i think the quality of life of my grandparents would be increased greatly if we both understood ASL#ASL#that being said so far i only know the alphabet#i benefitted greatly from learning spanish from a young age through school#id love to see something similar but for ASL#OH not to mention that babies can communicate even younger with asl since they dont need their auditory abilities in order to communicate#grandparents#school in the USA#languages#in the US there are more people who are disabled by their hearing loss than there are natural redheads
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I feel like I can understand the way Matt Bellamy’s brain works in terms of music creation.
It wouldn’t shock me at all if he ever came out and said that he just hears music in his head like almost all of the time or hears it if he closes his eyes.
Because as an artist I can close my eyes and see color combinations a lot. I close my eyes as I’m going to sleep and ideas just float across my proverbial vision so clearly. I can look at things irl and overlay or imagination “enhance” the colors of it. Make that blue a little more purple. Give that tan a pinkish tinge. Beautify the ordinary right in my head and almost nearly before my eyes.
And I think, had I been better at music, had I been able to learn to count music to have a more innate rhythmic understanding of the stuff that I’d be able to do the same thing with music because every once in awhile, I DO do that with music.
It’s rare. Really really rare. But every once in awhile I will wake up from a dream in which my brain magically composed a song out of nothing. A song that does not exist in the real world. And almost always slips away as I wake up but it’s there long enough for me to realize exactly what happened and it always astounds me because I certainly spent many years in music. Learning piano and playing in an orchestra, but I’ve always felt there’s something in me that is blocked in that department by just the way that my body, my being, IS. I’ve radically accepted that when numbers get involved in anything even in the simplest of ways, which to be sure, is an absolute when it comes to music even in an instinctual way, I am slightly disabled in the brain by it.
I practiced music a lot. I picked almost all of it up by ear, similar to the way he also learned. I can read music but I can’t really sight read. I can read the notes but I can’t read the rhythm until I hear it first. Rhythmic clapping exercises don’t tend to help me very much. And in playing in groups I do tend to come in a fraction of a second late, which is unnoticeable to almost anyone when you’re playing in groups.
Yet despite this disability I still chaired quite high in the upper level orchestra at our school. I qualified for the regional orchestra that had the best of the best in region (though in that department my disabilities placed me where I truly belonged. The back of second violin lol. I was simply too busy between school, dance practice and work to put in the practice needed to get up to that level with only four practice sessions before the performance which we played at the intended pace as the music was written. I was truly an imposter in my orchestra class that got away with a lot from my by ear talent. Fully admitted that.)
But knowing that my brain is, on a rare occasion, capable of creating full compositions like that- I feel like it MUST come as easily to someone like Matt Bellamy as colors come to me. Right?
#sorry this was a weird self reflection slash somewhat relating to Matt Bellamy in the weird brain goo#the way he talks about learning piano the traditional way and how he’s a little blocked in that department is how I feel like#about music and rhythm as a whole despite it being a HUGE part of my youth both in playing instrument but also in dancing#and I’m not sure that I’m even fully making sense in connecting these two points#they feel connected somehow though#it is funny though because before I started really doing art regularly I didn’t see colors that way exactly#so maybe if I had tried to go further with music I could have?#but again- there definitely seems to be an actual disability block in there in regards to it#and yet my subconscious has still done it on a rare occasion. like it’s just out of my grasp#weird things
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As a person with bipolar disorder, I never thought I'd see a joke about mania I liked, but Gangle's struggles with her emotions and the heavy guilt for being over the top or needing help all the time was handled with so much care in her "episode". I feel respected and heard... Which is very rare.
Lots of people who are doting when your hurt in a thematically romance-able way, conveniently quiet or depressed and tragic, suddenly don't like helping or being around you, or even knowing you at all once your disabilities make you annoying, discomforting or angry. When your feelings are out of your control, and your hurt and overwhelming emotions disables you from being kind and helpful and happy, people are often much more disconcerted with you than bad behavior from a "normal" person. Sometimes it feels way lonelier than being stuck in a depressive episode somehow.
And you know they often don't mean to or don't know they're disrespecting Gangle, she seems to know too, but she sucks it up because she doesn't know how to "earn" help in either state, and the fear that a sudden surge of happiness will lead to a sudden great fall after solidifies the want to hide your "wrongness".
She is the very opposite of helpful here, but she tries her best, and having someone let her know it's ok for her to be around or have failed attempts to not bother those around her is all she needed to smile on her own face today. It doesn't fix everything, Zooble doesn't even correct her from saying she doesn't deserve their friendship, cause that's not something she will believe or needs to hear right now. She needs to know she still deserves and will get help and more tries, that there will still be people who will forgive and love her, that those who lose their patience with her right back will still want to spend time with her later.
The horrible ups and downs still haunt you, the long long journey to find the right treatment is exhausting, and it still won't ever get rid of all of it, but the episodes don't feel like their going on forever and always when someone will listen to you, wants to listen to you. Wants not just to help you, wants to spend time with you, wants you to be.
Also it is legitimately really funny to me she outright states she's going to weaponize her trauma to get back at Jax for his warcrimes lol. There isn't much out there better at making you feel less guilty about your mania than a legitimately evil person tbh. The manic episode having more seasons pun feels like something a bipolar person or someone who is trusted personally by a bipolar person would say, it legit made me giggle
#gangle#rambles#the amazing digital circus#i needed this episode today#i needed this episode for a long time honestly#tadc#tadc gangle#zooble#tadc zooble#pomni#tadc pomni#tadc jax#jax#tadc ragatha#mentioned vaguely really#ragatha#fast food masquerade#tadc episode 4#tadc spoilers#the amazing digital circus spoilers#cartoons#gangle tadc#glitch productions#tadc analysis#the amazing digital circus gangle#gangle the amazing digital circus
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One thing I rarely see in injury and chronic pain fics is the grief that comes with missing out on stuff you love because you can no longer do them without hurting yourself. Writers who have been disabled their whole lives (or at least a long time) tend to forget that not all disabled people are used to being disabled. For able-bodied characters, especially athletic ones like vigilantes, a serious injury could mean a jarring change that includes giving up the things that mean the most to them.
I was physically fine until I was 18. Back then, my sense of self was entwined with interests that required a lot of movement and dexterity. I started doing MMA in middle school for self-defense. I loved parkour and even had a few hundred subscribers on my old YouTube channel. I learned to shoot and was gifted my first gun when I was 16. I took up multiple instruments. You get the idea.
My motorcycle accident fucked up the joints on my left side—my knee and shoulder especially, but also wrist to an extent. When it first happened, I thought I'd be on crutches for a bit but things would eventually get back to normal. The pain didn't go away even after I got rid of the crutches but I figured it was just residual and I should do what I'd been doing before. It's why I turned to substances—to block the pain and do what I love, but that's another topic. I didn't recognize my injury as a disabling thing until the end of the pandemic, when I put my parkour channel on an indefinite hiatus because it was seriously wearing my body down. It might sound silly to you but I was devastated. It's like if Spider-Man wasn't allowed to swing from buildings. It took me a long time to make peace with losing that part of me.
Another piece of that grief is even when you can do stuff, it's not the same because you have to exclude certain aspects of it for your own health. It's like the Robin that died and came back wrong. I can't use certain gym equipment and I have to tell my sparring partners what to avoid. I don't go to the shooting range much now because I can't extend my arm and hold a rifle for the amount of time it takes to aim without it starting to hurt. I'm a drummer, but I need breaks throughout the setlist and I can't do anything too fast or complex with the pedals, which means I can't play some of my favorite songs and my band is limited in what we write and perform. I can't take my motorcycle on road trips without frequent rest stops. Making accommodations helps physically, but emotionally, they're not always easy to accept because that means accepting the pain as a long-term disability rather than a temporary setback.
This got super long because I think it's unexplored in fics so some tips for creators:
First, learn how the body works and how stupidly fast and easy it is to get hurt. Mine was on a residential road because I didn't pay attention for 0.2 seconds
Learn the difference between internalized ableism and being upset over becoming disabled. I think a lot of writers skip over the feelings someone would naturally experience because it can be construed as ableism. Let them be in denial, sad, angry, etc. upon finding out because acceptance almost never happens right away. That's different from being a dick to themselves or others based on disability
Also, not everyone uses the same labels or has the same vocabulary to describe themselves. Different characters will have different ways of describing depending on their personality, level of knowledge, where they come from, and their relationship with their disability. I still don't really call myself disabled since I don't have it as bad as others so I tell people what happened instead (anyone who says "differently abled" will receive a different ability from me in the Denny's parking lot)
Think about how they cope with their new disability. Do they realize it's a disability right away? Do they talk to someone? Search desperately for a cure? Numb the pain? Turn to alternative methods? Do they worry about something else first, like money? Do they develop something else because of it, like a mental illness? Again, coping poorly is not ableism
What stays the same and what changes? I think about the difference between Forrest Gump and Lieutenant Dan after they were both wounded in battle
If they have a passion they can no longer pursue, it doesn't make much sense for them drop it so readily. Maybe they find a way to continue with accommodations (a good place to get creative!). Maybe they try and push through anyway. If they do ultimately resign, include the thought process and internal conflict behind it
#writers on tumblr#writeblr#writing#writing advice#writing tips#creative writing#fanfic tropes#fanfic#fanfiction#comic fandom#multi fandom#fandom#injury#chronic pain#disability#disabilties#disabled#dc comics#marvel#personal#writing resources#writing reference#grief#opinion#tw swearing#long post
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poverty is so isolating. it means being alone and away from people, events, society. you can't afford trips to and from places. you can't afford to spare gas. you can't afford the entrance fee. you can't afford tickets. you can't afford making eating a social event. you can't buy drinks. you can't engage in hobbies.
all you're encouraged to do are "free" things, but they're not free. Internet isn't free. cell phone service isn't free. sitting on the computer and your phone all day is frowned upon for good reason because it destroys your health. we shouldn't have to only be able to talk to people digitally to be able to socialize. we shouldn't have to watch streams all day. we need to see other people, i DON'T care if it costs a few dollars: poor people shouldn't be relegated to what few free activities there are because most of them involve being alone.
the library is one of the most annoying suggestions because it makes you feel pinned. yes i want to support my local library. i cannot sit still and read in public. it is not socially acceptable to start taking to strangers in the library in fact you can't have conversations there at all because you need to be quiet for the other readers. libraries are places of education, accessibility to information and resources, and social services. it is not a place to socialize. maybe entertain but Only if you can, well, read. i have dissociative disorders and unmedicated ADHD, i don't make it very far into books. i feel like most poor people get really tired of the library suggestion. it's an amazing resource. but it's not for this purpose
social events are almost always off limits. sure you can go to the bar and not drink, if you don't have alcohol trauma, aren't a recovering alcoholic, aren't overstimulated by noise, aren't photosensitive, don't have anxiety with crowds and strangers, aren't a minor, have an ID, and can walk there or get a ride there. sure you can walk to the cafe and use their Wi-Fi but this isn't a social activity and in many places you can't sit there for long periods unless you buy anything.
i get SO tired of the "go to a cafe" suggestion. think about how boring that actually is. you're alone. in America, it is NOT socially acceptable to sit at a strangers table like it is in other countries, let alone just start talking to them. it is NOT a common experience to strike up a conversation with strangers in cafes in America, like we really have cafes other than fucking starbucks to begin with.
going for walks and going to parks is not accessible to people with physical disabilities, agoraphobia, some schizophrenics, people with dog trauma, and other issues. parks usually have really poorly maintained or no sidewalks or foot paths. they can be uneven and hard to traverse for people who use mobility aids. unless you live near a monument or state park, your local parks are really meant for dogs to piss and shit in, for joggers to run through, and to look impressive to investors. they're usually pathetic swaths of grass with you guessed it, nothing to do. again it's rare to strike up conversation at the park. people need conversation starters. there's Nothing going on at the park. it's a great place to go if you need to cool down when angry or stressed, but it's fucking boring.
window shopping is pointless and dehumanizing. i really can't stand it when people suggest poor people window shop so we can think about things to buy when we have money ... why the fuck would i ever do that. when i don't have money i don't think about frivolous things i don't need. what the fuck kind of activity is window shopping, that's for people who have money.
poor people get tired of doing the "free" shit. if you suggest that a poor person should do these things when you do none of them yourself, you have 0 clue how boring and dehumanizing it is to never be able to decide what you do with your time. to have limited options to live. to experience.
money is not the reason you get to experience; you get to experience because you are alive. no poor people don't deserve to sit there and do nothing all day because they didn't "earn" anything. no poor people don't deserve to live their lives because they don't make as much as you. poor people deserve to enjoy being alive. poor people get to decide to have fun with their money, too.
I'm so tired of people being so harsh on people who struggle with financial issues and spending money "right" or "smart". reckless spending and difficulty managing finances are symptoms of mental illness and neurodivergence. bipolar, personality disorders, schizophrenia, anxiety, autism, ADHD, OCD and other mental health conditions can make managing funds very hard. don't be extra cruel to someone who spends money poorly in response to a mental health crisis. this won't make their situation any easier.
i sat in apartment after apartment for a decade doing nothing. i was a total shut in because i had no money. i never did anything but browse the Internet. all day long. without end. i was dissociating constantly. my anxiety was at its highest. i was constantly psychotic. instead of going out to fix it, i would stay inside longer, making it worse and worse and worse. i never bought anything. i didn't have hobbies. all of my decorations and possessions were from my childhood, my clothes were literally falling apart, a decade old. my walls were barren. my world was grey.
don't do this to yourself. don't tell yourself that you deserve nothing because it's harder for you to make money than other people. I'm very lucky now that i have made friends who pulled me out of my shell and have helped me get outside of my house. i spent so long alone and trapped indoors thinking it's the only thing i could do with myself for years. I'm finally recovering. if you're poor you deserve to live. you're alive. and you're not alone. i love you.
#punk#trans punks#trans punk#punx#trans punx#queer punks#queer punx#queer punk#poverty#anticapitalist#anticapitalism#our writing
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"don't vote for Harris or you're supporting genocide" "voting blue is still voting for fascists" Then what else do you expect us to do?
Here are some options y'all seem to insist on and why they're fucking stupid:
Vote Third Party :: Until we have ranked-choice voting (and probably even if we did have ranked-choice voting), it is practically impossible to make a 3rd-party candidate viable. There's not enough of the population that's far enough from moderate to give up their "safe" blue vote for some "revolutionary."
Don't Vote At All :: I'd prefer to pick my enemy. If I'm going to be working in spite of the government, or even against it in some ways, I'd rather the people I'm working against not already be targeting me for being queer, for example. If my options are "bad" or "much, much worse" I'm gonna pick "bad" and try to improve things from there.
Violent Revolution :: It's a cosplay power fantasy in the same vein as the Right-wingers looking for a reason to shoot protesters. Assuming you even have enough people organized and enough firepower to pull that off in the first place…have you prepared a plan to keep the innocents alive and safe? Are you sure you can keep supply chains for food and medicines intact? Are you sure there will be resources available for the disabled, the scared, the young and old, those who won't be able to fight and still need to be taken care of? Turns out revolution is ugly and causes a lot of undue collateral damage. Are the lives "saved" really going to outweigh those whose lives will be upended and destroyed? It's not like a newly-toppled, unorganized country will be able to do anything about Israel/Gaza, so you're just hurting and killing far more people than you're saving.
As for the power you do have to better things (and make Leftism more viable as a political stance in the US)?
Work at the level of your local government. If you're in a small enough town or neighborhood and think you have what it takes, run for local office. Be a local face of the left wing; you're far more likely to sway a small town to your views than the whole country, and each small town with a socialist-leaning government is a dot on the map for larger-scale viability, and you can help keep your community safe while trying to build up in scale.
Build community so we can keep each other safe if worse does come to worst. Push mutual aid initiatives, help at food banks, grow produce to donate to those in need, apply to work at your local free clinic, empower local businesses whenever possible so that if there is a socioeconomic collapse, you and those you love aren't left completely without resources.
Protest, and make it disruptive. You can be disruptive without being violent: graffiti, blocking roads, encampments, sit-ins, to name a few examples. Create inconveniences so it gets people's attention whether they like it or not.
Above all, FUCKING VOTE BLUE. You're choosing your enemy. You get to help decide if the government we're working in spite of is run by milquetoast neoliberal war hawks who do, on some rare occasions, actually make things marginally better…or full-tilt Christo-fascists who want to kill some of us for kissing people with the same genitals as us. There aren't any other options that are going to be picked. It sucks, but at the bare minimum we can pick the option that isn't going to actively murder us while we try to build up viability for a candidate who won't sell out brown people to an ethnostate.
If you aren't doing at least one of the things above, then don't lecture me about how I keep myself and my community safe. I'd love to see a United States (or some future iteration of it) that acknowledges the sovereign rights of indigenous peoples, that doesn't fund genocide, that provides healthcare as a basic human right, that doesn't meddle in every other country's business. But if we are to see that, let alone help that happen, we need to survive this next presidential administration.
Edit: y'all have lost reblog privileges. If you wanna screenshot this and have stupid unnuanced opinions OFF of my post, be my guest. Just leave me tf alone.
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i want to talk about walmart for a second. if you haven’t worked or known someone who worked for walmart, you probably don’t know how bad it is. most people don’t, so i want to talk about it.
there’s a points system for absences. if you miss work, and can’t cover it with accrued time off (because you don’t just Get time off - it builds up over time. it takes about a month of straight work to get a day off.) you get a point. five points and you’re at risk of termination. all managers - team leads, and above them, coaches - have the power to excuse points so that you don’t get fired. some do, so you don’t lose your job. most don’t. five days, that’s it.
if you miss more than three shifts of work due to a medical issue, you have to go through a third party company (which isn’t really third party.) to get a medical exception so you don’t lose your job. it is hard to get this. they need a lot of documentation to prove that you somehow deserved to miss work. they don’t accept regular doctors notes. this is somehow nebulously legal. you are also forced to work while sick and infectious. flu, strep, covid, doesnt matter for all departments except produce and deli. even then, they only send you home if you throw up *at work* or have food-related illnesses. every other department you’re not allowed to go home. more than likely you are being exposed to someone who’s sick at walmart, because its either come in sick or get fired.
i work hard. everyone *has* to work hard. you are on your feet 8 hours a day. you can’t sit. there are no surfaces to sit on. some departments are harder than others. i worked in OPD, the online grocery fulfillment department. i would walk, bare minimum, 7 to 8 miles a day, hauling sometimes over 200 pounds of groceries. every day. now i work in the deli. you are constantly moving. this is very typical for the deli - you are given too many tasks to perform in one day. most days i can barely get enough done. i know people don’t take their legally entitled second breaks. I know people who have to work off the clock just to get everything done. my department - as is *most other departments* - is understaffed. i cook, clean, work the slicer, and dispense food at the same time. and trust me when i tell you the standards of cleanliness in my department is high, but in practice it is very, very poor. simply because there is usually only one of us working back there, and we just can’t do everything right all at once.
none of the “fresh” food in the bakery / produce area is fresh. the bread is baked in store, but the dough is made and frozen elsewhere. sometimes it’s been frozen for weeks. everything is shockingly artificial. same with produce. you’re better off buying your produce elsewhere, or even locally. walmart has been fraught with recall after recall.
people are cheated out of retirements. so many people I know that are at retirement age simply can’t. there are people working here in their 70s. they are being overworked. there are a lot of teenagers that work up front. they are being overworked. I know two kids who are disabled that work the register. they aren’t allowed to sit. one had to fight to be able to get a medical accommodation and only got one when he threatened to sue, because not taking a doctor’s note for an accommodation is illegal. they do it anyways. there are so many people i know personally that are disabled, have chronic pain, have mobility issues, and can’t sit. or walk miles and miles a day. one of my coworkers recently quit because she tore both rotator cuffs in her shoulders from this job. this job disables you. it kills you. (just look up how many people have died on the job due to negligence. it is not a small amount.)
even the prices are fake. sales are fake. rollback is fake. i notice how things are priced and they rarely change, even when they say they’re on sale. it’s a scam. you are being scammed.
we are overworked and underpaid for our labor. (speaking of, wages used to be higher by several dollars a couple years ago. they lowered them. my department paid 20 an hour. it only pays 16 now. almost all other departments are at a flat 14. it used to be 16.)
wage theft, lack of breaks, overtime violations, lack of sick leave, chronic understaffing and chronic abuse from management, not terminating employees that sexually harass coworkers, and piles and piles and piles of responsibilities. all of this is to say, walmart only operates because of how much they exploit their workers, and it’s in the top of the Fortune 500 list. it is impossibly dire. and it is in EVERY SINGLE store, because that is just how the work culture operates.
all salaried management is also given guides on union busting. unionization is impossible. there was one store that they completely shut down because of successful unionization efforts, laying off hundreds of people, and blamed it on “faulty plumbing.”
one last thing - if you are assaulted by a customer, you cannot defend yourself. nobody can help you, because none of us are allowed to put our hands in any capacity on a customer. if you are assaulted, you have no choice but to run and hide. I’ve heard of a worker at my store that was assaulted repeatedly over several days from people who would come in and beat her. they weren’t banned, and she was fired for fighting back. if you fight back, you’re fired immediately, no exceptions.
all of this is to say shop elsewhere. buy locally. buy at other stores. you will get better quality items and produce literally ANYWHERE else. if you can’t, be kind to Walmart workers. theres abuse at every step of the chain. even on the supply side. walmart is a corporate dystopian monster that only makes its money off of intense labor violations.
tl;dr don’t shop at walmart. it’s not worth it
#thoughts#needed to yap about my job for a minute and how much i hate it#all of these things are things I’ve personally seen or heard that has happened at my store#to people I know or to people who knew others affected#sorry it ended up so long BUT THIS ISNT EVEN EVERYTHING.#THERES SO MUCH MORE.#SO MUCH!!! I PROMISE!!!!!
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Imagine, for a moment, that your internet just stopped loading images one day. Your dash might look pretty different (and less usable), but at least you can still make posts — whether about your internet situation, or about completely unrelated topics.
Now, imagine that one or more of your posts blew up, to the tune of hundreds if not thousands of notes. Imagine people started adding images to your posts.
Imagine your post circulating almost entirely in the form with four or five images attached, and with everyone in the notes laughing about those images — except you, who started the post in the first place, who can't even see those images because you're trapped in Tumblr's loading gradient hellscape.
You're excluded from any further conversations on your own post, because someone added a mystery image with the caption "don't leave this in the tags," but you have no idea which set of tags it is, and can't tell if it's one of the good takes from the tags or one of the horrible takes from the tags. You're excluded from the Tumblr users playing with JPEGs like dolls. You can try to guess the contents of the images based on people's reactions, but it's hard. And no one adding images even seems to notice the irony.
This is, of course, a real problem plaguing Tumblr users with regularly slow internet. And it's also a huge, insidious problem plaguing blind and low vision people who rely on either screen readers, or image descriptions in combination with enlarged text on their device.
People with disabilities around comprehending images, people who have images (or gifs) disabled due to photosensitivity, and many others are also affected.
If you add an image to a post without either alt text, an in-post image description, or even both for maximal inclusivity, you don't know if OP — or the person whose tags you're peer reviewing, or whose reply you're screenshotting — will actually be able to see it. From their perspective, you might just be shoving a mystery rectangle in their face, expecting them to be able to guess — or responding to them without them being able to know.
Imagine being on the receiving end of that expectation constantly. Imagine how isolating that must feel.
We need, collectively, to stop making assumptions that everyone we interact with online will be able to access, physically see, and mentally process images. The assumption that disabled people are vanishingly rare and statistically shouldn't really need to be considered is an assumption of structural and/or implicit ableism.
Write image descriptions. Write image descriptions for every image you post, if you're able — but if you have limited energy, or you're still learning, you should at least start trying your absolute best to describe images you add to other people's posts. If you're starting a conversation, even an online conversation, you should make your best effort to be accessible.
So: Write IDs, especially if they're as simple as just text, like screenshotted tags (link to guide). Write IDs even if you think the best ID you can write is too short, or too incomplete (link to post explaining why even "bad" IDs help).
Write IDs in general (link to a huge compilation of guides). Challenge ableist assumptions and inaccessibility.
#this is not a callout post or anything - i've actually reminded a few people in my notes about this recently#pointing out the disability flag in my icon - and they've all been very courteous#it's just that the site culture as a whole needs to change. urgently#accessibility#image descriptions
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she's three years younger than i am, and i put on cascada as a throwback, cackling - before your time! i've been borrowing my brother's car, and it's older than dirt, so the trunk is like, maybe permanently locked. when the sun comes through the window to frame her cheekbones, i feel like i'm 16 again. i shake when i'm kissing her, worried i won't get it right.
in 2003, my state made gay marriage legal. where she grew up, it wasn't legal until 11 years later - 10 years ago. if legal protections for gay marriage were a person, that person would be entering 5th grade. online, a white gay man calls the fight for legal marriage boring, which isn't kind of him but it is a common enough opinion.
it has only been 9 years since gay marriage was nationally official. it is already boring to have gay people in your tv. it is already boring to mention being gay - "why make it your entire personality?" i know siblings that have a larger age gap than the amount of time it's been legally protected. i recently saw a grown man record himself crying about how evil gay people are. he was begging us, red in the face - just do better.
i am absolutely ruined any time my girlfriend talks about being 27 (i know!! a child!), but we actually attended undergrad at the same time since i had taken off time to work between high school and college. while walking through the city, we drop our hands, try not to look too often at each other. the other day i went to an open mic in a basement. the headlining comedian said being lesbian isn't interesting, but i am a lesbian, if you care. as a joke, she had any lesbian raise their hand if present. i raised mine, weirdly embarrassed at being the single hand in a sea of other faces. she had everyone give me a round of applause. i felt something between pride and also throwing up.
sometimes one thing is also another thing. i keep thinking about my uncle. he died in the hospital without his husband of 35 years - they were not legally wed, so his husband could not enter. this sounds like it should be from 1950. it happened in 2007. harassment and abuse and financial hardship still follow any person who is trying to get married while disabled. marriage equality isn't really equal yet.
and i don't know that i can ever put a name to what i'm experiencing. sometimes it just feels... so odd to watch the balance. people are fundamentally uninterested in your identity, but also - like, there's a whole fucking bastion of rabid men and women who want to kill you. your friends roll their eyes you're gay we get it and that is funny but like. when you asked your father do you still love me? he just said go to your room. you haven't told your grandmother. disney is on their 390th "first" gay representation, but also cancelled owl house and censored the fuck out of gravity falls. you actively got bullied for being gay, but your advisor told you to find a different gimmick for your college essay - everyone says they're gay these days.
once while you were having a hard day you cried about the fact that the reason our story is so fucking boring to so many people is that it is so similar. that it is rare for one of us to just, like, have a good experience across the board. that our stories often have very parallel bends - the dehumanization, the trauma, the trouble with trusting again. these become rote instead of disgusting. how bad could it be if it is happening to so many people?
i kiss my girlfriend when nobody is looking. i like her jawline and how her hands splay when she's making a joke. there is nothing new about this story, sappho. i love her like opening up the sun. like folding peace between the layers of my life, a buttercream of euphoria, freckles and laughter and wonder.
my dad knows about her. i've been out to him since i was 18 - roughly four years before the supreme court would protect us. the other day he flipped down the sun visor while driving me to the eye doctor. "you need to accept that your body was made for a husband. you want to be a mother because you were made for men, not women." he wants me to date my old high school boyfriend. i gagged about it, and he shook his head. he said - "don't be so dramatic. you can get used to anything."
the other day a straight friend of mine snorted down her nose about it, accidentally echoing him - she said there are bigger problems in this world than planning a wedding.
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