#systems solutions

[thesaltyace]

Y'all I did NOT know this about Harris, and I think it's really critical that we all listen and understand as we approach this election. Video at the end.

This creator's video describes how progressive Harris was as a prosecutor -- actively going against the grain to the point she was accused of being soft on crime. Accused of being a social worker, not a prosecutor. She calls it being smart on crime. She's pushing for systemic changes to give real pathways to reintegrate incarcerated folks back into society and prevent their past from continuing to haunt them moving forward.

"Kamala's a cop" is a catchy dismissive response usually used to shut down conversation rather than add nuance. But this kind of reform is ESSENTIAL to work towards a present and future that treats incarcerated people with value.

I fell for it in 2020 and have thought "Kamala's a cop" without further inspection since - and I'm sobered by the realization that (you guessed it!) I'm not immune to propaganda.

A better system only follows liberal democracy, because library democracy allows for exploration of better systems. If authoritarianism takes hold, it will not allow for the exploration of better systems. We will have to fight tooth and nail just to try to get back to liberal democracy, and I suspect we could not achieve it in our lifetimes.

Harris isn't perfect. But she's a hell of a lot better than many leftists have led me to believe. Don't let perfection be the enemy of good. Don't let perfection be the enemy of harm reduction.

We can either help elect Trump and usher in authoritarian fascism, or we can help defeat him and pull things back in the direction we want to go. Not liking the choices doesn't absolve you from participating and doing the most good you can with the options available.

I'll link the original video in the replies. The original video has captions if you need them.

[reasonsforhope]

Legal protection against domestic violence has become widespread

"This chart shows the share of the global population living in countries that criminally sanction domestic violence or provide protection against it. The data comes from the World Bank’s Women, Business and the Law project.

Throughout the decades, the legislation on domestic violence has increased markedly. Until the 1990s, less than 1% of the global population in countries was legally protected from it, with only Canada, Sweden, and Ireland providing such safeguards. And as recently as 20 years ago, 80% of people lived in countries without legal penalties for domestic violence.

But by 2023, this had more than reversed, and 9 in 10 people lived in countries with legal measures to combat domestic violence. This shift highlights an increased recognition around the world that domestic violence is common, especially against women."

-via Our World in Data, September 19, 2024

--

Note: This really puts in perspective just how much and how quickly attitudes on domestic and gendered violence are changing. Look at that graph! Look at it!!

Thirty years ago, there was only a single country in the entire world that thought hitting your spouse should be a crime, and had acted on that. (It was Ireland, go Ireland.) That is a world of difference from where we are now.

[felikatze]

i feel like. the more i like and care about something. the less i am capable of watching video essays about it. game i never heard of and don't intend to ever play? sure i'll watch 8hrs discussing it's flaws.

but thing i like? if you think you can point out flaws i'm not already aware of, you are dead wrong. none know better how much my interests suck than me.

and also. if you get one thing wrong about them i'll maul you. with things i like it means i've already seen every single piss on the poor take of it ever, and i'm much more polarized. i got emotional investment. i'm going to start biting people.

[non-dys-sys]

It’s never okay to lock a headmate away, never. They could be the worst person in the world, you still shouldn’t lock them away. There’s a difference between keeping headmates away from eachother and taking away someone’s privacy, free will and connections. You are abandoning that headmate, you are telling them that they are not worth helping, that they don’t deserve to get better. If talking it out doesn’t work for them there are other options, I’d recommend giving them their own space to speak their mind without threat of mistreatment for it, for starters. If someone really doesn’t want help don’t force it on them, just let them know it’s always an option and leave it at that. -Ange

[uncanny-tranny]

One thing I always appreciated about English is the fact that "love" as a word conceptually refers to all types of love - from familial, to romantic, to platonic, to sexual, to the love one feels for strangers - all forms of love are referred to with the same word. What I love about this is that love isn't placed on a hierarchy (in theory). To me, this feels almost egalitarian, where all forms of love can be valued in the same way

However, I think this is also a double-edged sword that works against how we express love. Because love so often is still viewed as hierarchical, the kinds of love we can express is narrowed. It's very normal to not express love unless it is familial or romantic, and thus, all other forms of love become unrecognized and unnamed. We've shut away part of humanity in the bid to emphasize certain behaviours and emotions, and I really think that works against us in the long run.

I don't necessarily think English needs new words for different types of love per se. I love that other languages have the distinction ("te quiero" is different than "te amo"), and I think that's a valuable communication device. What I think we ought to do, instead, is focus on emphasizing all love as intrinsically equal to each other. I think introducing new words without solving this issue will only introduce the same kind of strife we are experiencing now.

[sleepynegress]

THIS ISN'T COMMON KNOWLEDGE BUT SHOULD BE...ABOUT MEDICAID....

If you ever find yourself in the position of living in the home of a parent who is disabled and requires full-time care and you are their primary caregiver for at least 2 years, and they intend to leave their assets to you after they pass, make sure to transfer ownership of their assets, home/land in your name ASAP...or they will require you to pay back any benefits received and claim those assets even out from under you, as soon as your loved one passes. This is yet another way that generational assets /wealth are easily taken out of marginalized communities. It is a loan.

And the sharks circle as soon as your loved one passes. Here's an article about it:

Decided to add context. I don't like to talk about it here, because ehh, social media is for my vapid entertainment thoughts for me. It's a hobby/getaway/ place to get semi-social with strangers and online friends with shared interests, but I don't want anyone else to go through what I am... Of course, this applies specifically to the U.S.'s broken healthcare system. So, for those who don't know, my mom passed recently. I am an only child with no siblings or children. My whole life during that time was 24/7 care. She had insurance, but it wasn't enough to cover everything that she needed, so Medicaid was the obvious solution, right? The government takes care of our disabled elderly who have worked until retirement, right? It seemed like the routine thing to do, I had never heard anything during the process about having to pay it back,but sure enough, less than 12 weeks after her passing, I was hit with a warning (which I followed up on and was told I would NOT be charged because of my caregiver status) and then 2 weeks later the "bill". The lady I spoke to, totally changed her attitude from the first time I spoke to her to the point where I felt scammed. Out came a patronizing voice certain people use with children, that measured whiny thing (it's always a red-flag to me and makes me instantly dislike you if you do this even with kids, btw... speak to kids like PEOPLE). I feel like an idiot. I have been doing this for over a decade and didn't think to transfer any assets of hers during that time because it *was* hers. I wanted her to feel as empowered about that as possible.

Not a single soul said I should transfer those assets to keep this from happening and now I'm facing down what feels like some kind of weird conspiracy to take the land and house.

FYI, there have been weird inquiries, the census came to mark down my mother's death literally *immediately* after she passed...and odd timing called the day of the notice to "help", with all the southern Christian signifiers (bless your heart we'll be praying for you).... It feels so seedy. Anyway, all this to say if you find yourself in a similar position....

TRANSFER THOSE ASSETS INTO YOUR NAME 2 years into caregiving or they will take them from you, house etc..

[flecks-of-stardust]

[ID in alt text]

hi sorry still obsessed with this gif i got. it's so funny to me. my baby's little feets sticking out. the pearl in their hands. the slime mold 'walking.' the neuron glow receding. earlier i laughed so hard it hurt and it's still just as funny now watching this help

[neighbourhoodtwo]

usamericans please stop putting your "congrats uk!! hope this happens to us in november!!" posts in the uk politics tag please please you have no idea

[mykingdomforapen]

It's going to be interesting to see Qiao Ling navigate life now that she has new abilities in S3 since her abilities are kind of like a perfect blend of Cheng Xiaoshi's and Lu Guang's. Her power is that of observation, to be able to see people's memories and present without herself having to experience being them or traveling outside of herself to do so, much like Lu Guang's ability. But her abilities also delve into a subject's psyche and inner world of said memories and present, a far much more intimate experience, like Cheng Xiaoshi's. I'm so curious if she will ever try combining her abilities with the boys' and what would result from it.

[agalychnisspranneusroseus]

Imagine you're Mr. Wu and your weird gay daughter runs away in tears after destroying some unespecified object while yelling about you ruining her life. Because you told her you'd be moving to another state. This is the last time you see your daughter in half a year, and when she comes back, she comes back... wrong. She's wearing a light leather armor, a fur-lined cape, and a green flower crown. She has two long scars, one alongside her spine and the other along her chest, the tissue around them covered in burn scars. Doctors say she shouldn't have survived. Doctors say she didn't. Yet she's right here, in front of you, hospital gown clinging to her small, fragile, trembling frame. She fidgets with her hands. Getting her to stay still has always been difficult, but now it seems impossible. She won't let go of her phone. She's always texting her two friends. When you take it away, she gets anxious. You always knew those damn phones cause kids to act weird, but your kid having a panic attack seems too extreme, even for her. Then again, she's always been odd. Nowadays, she wakes up crying and screaming almost every night, and you realize she's been stealing her phone from your bedside drawer every night to text her friends, returning it before you wake up. You catch her once and decide to give her that damn phone back. It's the only thing that calms her down, as if she were a baby with a pacifier. She spends her last weeks in LA clinging to her friends, having sleepovers and playing her weird board games with them. Everytime they drop her back at her house, there's an excessive amount of hugs and tears. But the moments when they call her, or when she leaves to meet with them, or when they show up at their door to pick her up... those are the only moments in which you see her happy. One of her friends, the rude and disobedient one, came back with a big scar on her face. She's been acting a lot nicer, though. The other one too. She acts a great deal more adult now. You doesn't know what happened or where your daughter went. She won't tell you. But you can tell this friendship is the only thing keeping her afloat right now. Maybe you know, deep down, that no one else would understand.

And then you decide to move anyway because fuck her amirite

[ramblebramblefun]

Izuku bounces on his feet as Kacchan steps off the platform, unable to keep the smile off his face as red eyes catch sight of him. He waves, a tad manically.

"Kacchan!" He yells, ignoring the looks he gets. "Over here!"

Kacchan is followed over by several other, familiar looking people. A man that can only be Chargebolt leans forward.

"Oho! Who's this?"

"My pet stalker."

"Kacchan, that's not very nice," Izuku says absently.

Kacchan ruffles Izuku's hair with more force than necessary.

"I'm not very nice."

"That is true!" Chargebolt grins, stroking his chin faux-thoughtfully.

"So," Kacchan says next. "What's new in nerd-land?"

"Oh! Um, well... Did you read that paper I sent you?"

"That thing on fuckin' Freezerburn?"

"Yeah, about the indicators! Like how you've got your mom's skin-"

"I don't want to hear about my mom's skin." Kacchan groans.

Too bad.

"- Your mom's skin" Izuku continued, "as well as your quirk in your palms and-"

Izuku cuts himself off this time. Red Riot (his hair's not that bad, Kacchan) is waving his hand in the air like a student. So was the Alien Queen, with a shit-eating grin on her face, and then Chargebolt also started to flail about and nearly hit-

"Oh my god! Are you Cellophane?!"

"Not if he knows what's good for him." Kacchan mutters.

"It's an honour to meet you! I'm a big fan! I really loved what you did last week in that fight with Athenium- actually, um, wait, I think I have-"

He starts to rummage through his bag, but Kacchan is faster and snatches his notebook out with a hiss.

"No. They don't know you. We're not doing this."

"Kacchan." Izuku frowns.

"No."

Red Riot seems unable to contain himself any longer.

"Bakubro, who is this guy?" he shouts, at the same time as Alien Queen cheers.

"This must be that guy that Katsuki's always-"

Kacchan whirls around and slaps Izuku's notebook over her mouth, because he is an oaf with no respect for other people or their property. Izuku is what, Kacchan?

Whatever. Izuku brought extra notebooks today, just in case. He pulls one out, and a pen, and then Cellophane takes the pen? And Izuku's notebook? Oh, he's signing the notebook, that's nice of him.

"Here you go," Cellophane smiles, handing it back.

Izuku already has three Cellophane signatures that Kacchan mailed to him through Auntie, because Kacchan is the best but also weird, but this is cool too. Izuku will have to cut it out and paste it in his album later.

What he actually wants to know is-

"Um, what's your name? I can't call you Cellophane when you're on vacation..." He flips open to a new page, ready to start writing...

The silence stretches too long. He looks up to find Cellophane looking at him uncertainly.

"Actually..." Cellophane starts slowly-

"That's what we wanna ask you!" Chargebolt shouts excitedly, and then Kacchan steals Izuku's notebook, again, and his bag, and Izuku has more important things to worry about than social niceties.

"Bakugou Katsuki!" he screeches. "Get back here!"

He starts running after Kacchan, who must have lost his mind on the train ride over if he thinks Izuku is going to let him get away with this. He'll tell Auntie! He will!

Auntie will just laugh at him if Izuku tells her that Kacchan has taken up purse-snatching but she'll laugh at Kacchan too, and then Kacchan will be really annoyed, just like Izuku is right now, and he's taking up running as a hobby first thing tomorrow because he's tired now already and curse Kacchan's longer legs, Izuku is going to cut them off-

They leave the Bakusquad blinking in their dust.

[anendoandfriendo]

You've seen "excluding neurodivergent people is ableist" and now understand "neurodivergency is disability" but now get ready for for this one:

Neurodivergency can be disability but not every single neurodivergency is, actually. Yes, even those who technically could qualify for a diagnosis under the DSM or ICD may consider their neurtype to be beneficial to them, actually. And some neurotypes can be adjacent to the DSM and ICD without actually falling into them!

Neurodivergency can be disabled but in the way all squares are rectangles but not all rectangles are squares.

The people seeing themselves as more abled for a neurotype that's disabling to you are not your enemies.

Break free of your chains, stop letting the DSM and ICD, the biggest perpetrators of ableism, define us and our communities.

[madtomedgar]

I do think we need to start seriously looking at and addressing the social consequences of women having children, not just the economic ones. Anecdotally, it's not uncommon for me to know or hear about college educated middle class or above women who decide to have kids and then just. Cease to exist as anything but childcare workers for at least 6 years. Maybe they get a "break" by going to work. But their lives as individual adults get totally annihilated by the demands of childcare. I also feel like that is a not uncommon reason for choosing not to have, or delaying, or not having more, kids. Women want to have time and space to see friends and go to concerts and bars and movies and read books and watch movies for grown ups, and have grown up conversations. And this isn't a new thing. Adrienne Rich talks about ot in her writings on motherhood. But it's not taken seriously because I think it's seen as selfish and petty to want a break from good night moon so you can drink g and ts with your friends and discuss the craziest podcast drama of the week. But like. It is serious and it needs to be taken seriously because women with children are still adults with adult social needs.

[dweamofsweep]

I’ve been thinking on and off about this post @boyrobott

I came to the conclusion that 1980 Astro could really have used a sling bag or fanny pack to carry spare cassettes

See, they’re even out of the way of his darn butt guns 😂 how many times could he have avoided trouble by having even *one* extra battery on his person? But then we wouldn’t have an episode…

[uncanny-tranny]

I think it's a mistake to assume that computer generation (so-called AI) is the only manifestation of the exploitation that workers (especially in artistic fields that are already considered lesser) experience. The problems that they experience are, I think, exasperated by computer generation, but it isn't like there were no problems with compensation, theft, or other forms of exploitation.

The problem is the exploitation, and I think sometimes, people lose sight of that in these conversations.

[the-paris-of-people]

The past couple days online have been... interesting. I consider myself a leftist, think capitalism is corrupt, and think that it needs to be seriously reformed/overthrown. I admit that while I've thrown around phrases and terms like "burn it all down" and "the revolution needs to come" out of frustration without actually thinking about what a revolution entails: excellent organization, unity, and strategy to defeat the United States, the world's largest military superpower which has inflicted political and social destabilization across the majority of countries around the world. There also needs to be superb infrastructure and community to support the disabled, elderly, and poor populations who rely on government assistance and programs, healthcare, and accommodations while this so-called revolution rages on.

All I've received from the far leftist movement are lectures from condescending intellectuals who rattle off academic citations regarding ideological theory rather than practical, tangible steps to advocate for change in our local and regional communities. I have not seen one of them actually discuss conversations they've had with their friends, family, or Americans about what they want to see reflected for the future of the country. I have not seen one of them discussed how destructive, detrimental and traumatic a Trump presidency was for social prejudice and morale in the United States. I understand that for many marginalized groups they've been living in a facist state for centuries so the possibility Project 2025 doesn't galvanize them to see the two parties differently, but I don't think it is fair to white leftists falsely equivocate the election of both parties for the entire American population at all??? Or like at least specify the issues you're referring to in which you view both parties as the same????? Literally one TikTok creator who I used to follow talked about how true leftists are so much better than liberals because they aren't waiting for a presidential candidate to save the world NOW due to the accelerated apocalypse due to climate change but when asked how to change the world they suggest sharing ideas of your future utopia with other leftist groups. How the fuck is sitting around talking about living in a walkable community is great considered "saving the world now"? How are you going to dismantle and restructure American infrastructure to create these communities? How are you going to remove existing racial and social tensions to create a community where everyone lives happily side by side? Do people not consider reality at all?????

And is it not wrong for people to have a fucking sliver of optimism and hope at incremental change that's achieved within the corrupt bipartisan system of American politics, even if they know it's propaganda??? Is it wrong for people to have a singular fucking moment of relief in feeling like their values, beliefs, and lives will be better protected and THEY can advocate for change better??? Is it wrong when there's a couple months until the most pressing election in recent history for people to make the choice they feel will reduce the most amount of harm???