#the discriminator system is GOOD

[prettypangolins]

okay I don't have nitro but I have a Feb 2016 discord and my username is already gone which... sucks

the account I made in Jun 2016 hasn't had the chance to change yet, while some much newer ones have

i've seen people on reddit who are 2015-ers, and have had nitro since it became a thing who but haven't had the change yet, or who lost their #0001 to a newer non-nitro account, and someone saying they lost theirs to a 2021 account that got nitro 4 days ago

there are people who got nitro - literally started paying money - so they could pick their discriminator ffs (the #0000 bit) and now that's gone

it was super cool that you could make an account and get a version of the name you wanted. but now it's like... fuckin abysmal. i've had my account for 7 years. maybe the newbies to the platform aren't that fussed because they come from twitter but the discord update is BAD. this 'easier to remember' line shit is utter bullshit (you'd just copy and paste your name if you weren't adding someone you were already in a server with lol but yeah i know both my discriminators 4 digits aren't that hard how do these people cope with phone numbers, PIN codes, and fuckin post codes or zip codes?)

if i had nitro, i'd cancel it. discord is now too big to actually give a shit about their users, but they will care about money

but i don't have nitro so i'm just like... uuuugh i hope enough people who do pay decide to cancel so the bastards really feel it

[reasonsforhope]

Article | Paywall Free

"Maryland Gov. Wes Moore issued a mass pardon of more than 175,000 marijuana convictions Monday morning [June 17, 2024], one of the nation’s most sweeping acts of clemency involving a drug now in widespread recreational use.

The pardons forgive low-level marijuana possession charges for an estimated 100,000 people in what the Democratic governor said is a step to heal decades of social and economic injustice that disproportionately harms Black and Brown people. Moore noted criminal records have been used to deny housing, employment and education, holding people and their families back long after their sentences have been served.

[Note: If you're wondering how 175,000 convictions were pardoned but only 100,000 people are benefiting, it's because there are often multiple convictions per person.]

A Sweeping Act

“We aren’t nibbling around the edges. We are taking actions that are intentional, that are sweeping and unapologetic,” Moore said at an Annapolis event interrupted three times by standing ovations. “Policymaking is powerful. And if you look at the past, you see how policies have been intentionally deployed to hold back entire communities.”

Moore called the scope of his pardons “the most far-reaching and aggressive” executive action among officials nationwide who have sought to unwind criminal justice inequities with the growing legalization of marijuana. Nine other states and multiple cities have pardoned hundreds of thousands of old marijuana convictions in recent years, according to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. Legalized marijuana markets reap billions in revenue for state governments each year, and polls show public sentiment on the drug has also turned — with more people both embracing cannabis use and repudiating racial disparities exacerbated by the War on Drugs.

The pardons, timed to coincide with Wednesday’s Juneteenth holiday, a day that has come to symbolize the end of slavery in the United States, come from a rising star in the Democratic Party and the lone Black governor of a U.S. state whose ascent is built on the promise to “leave no one behind.”

The Pardons and Demographics

Derek Liggins, 57, will be among those pardoned Monday, more than 16 years after his last day in prison for possessing and dealing marijuana in the late 1990s. Despite working hard to build a new life after serving time, Liggins said he still loses out on job opportunities and potential income.

“You can’t hold people accountable for possession of marijuana when you’ve got a dispensary on almost every corner,” he said.

Nationwide, according to the ACLU, Black people were more than three times more likely than White people to be arrested for marijuana possession. President Biden in 2022 issued a mass pardon of federal marijuana convictions — a reprieve for roughly 6,500 people — and urged governors to follow suit in states, where the vast majority of marijuana prosecutions take place.

Maryland’s pardon action rivals only Massachusetts, where the governor and an executive council together issued a blanket pardon in March expected to affect hundreds of thousands of people.

But Moore’s pardons appear to stand alone in the impact to communities of color in a state known for having one of the nation’s worst records for disproportionately incarcerating Black people for any crimes. More than 70 percent of the state’s male incarcerated population is Black, according to state data, more than double their proportion in society.

In announcing the pardons, he directly addressed how policies in Maryland and nationwide have systematically held back people of color — through incarceration and restricted access to jobs and housing...

Maryland, the most diverse state on the East Coast, has a dramatically higher concentration of Black people compared with other states that have issued broad pardons for marijuana: 33 percent of Maryland’s population is Black, while the next highest is Illinois, with 15 percent...

Reducing the state’s mass incarceration disparity has been a chief goal of Moore, Brown and Maryland Public Defender Natasha Dartigue, who are all the first Black people to hold their offices in the state. Brown and Dartigue have launched a prosecutor-defender partnership to study the “the entire continuum of the criminal system,” from stops with law enforcement to reentry, trying to detect all junctures where discretion or bias could influence how justice is applied, and ultimately reform it.

How It Will Work

Maryland officials said the pardons, which would also apply to people who are dead, will not result in releasing anyone from incarceration because none are imprisoned. Misdemeanor cannabis charges yield short sentences and prosecutions for misdemeanor criminal possession have stopped, as possessing small amounts of the drug is legal statewide.

Moore’s pardon action will automatically forgive every misdemeanor marijuana possession charge the Maryland judiciary could locate in the state’s electronic court records system, along with every misdemeanor paraphernalia charge tied to use or possession of marijuana. Maryland is the only state to pardon such paraphernalia charges, state officials said...

People who benefit from the mass pardon will see the charges marked in state court records within two weeks, and they will be eliminated from criminal background check databases within 10 months."

-via The Washington Post, June 17, 2024. Headings added by me.

[brick-van-dyke]

So, I've been doing some thinking. This could either be a meaningless little ramble that no one will care about, or something seen as really dangerous and putting a target on my back.

So, what if we, those most weary of the far right created an international group of activists in light of the US election? See, the thing is that Donald Trump and Elon Musk are very dangerous, but they are also very incompetent and could lead the government down a path that weakens it. It could create a very unique opportunity to address the far right problem and the US Imperialist system itself in one go. Or maybe I'm being overly ambitious.

This group I have in mind would have several purposes, such as keeping communities safe and protecting people from the harm the far right would do in the name of winning the election. Or, most importantly of all, connecting activists from all over the world and allowing us to dismantle the system as a concrete and united movement. Maybe it's just me being naive and hopeful, but maybe it's also something we've all wanted deep down but been too afraid to initialise? If so, maybe this is a sign to really stand up and start trying to make those connections.

[dykegeology]

Stuff that's like 'we want to increase representation of women + people of colour in science' and it's like yay awesome so you're you're going to do stuff about systemic discrimination, and racist and misogynistic views about only white men being good at academic stuff right??? and they're like 'lol noooo we are just looking at doing more focus on scientific communication rather than maths and programming because everyone knows only white men can do those things, and women and people of colour hate data and love Community' and it's like wow what if I put 10000 funnelweb spiders in your house

[cedarspiced]

i will be honest. if you water down the whole concept of the terms TMA vs TME as 'penis havers vs vagina havers' all it shows is that you fundamentally misunderstand each of these terms.

[infestedguest]

The way a lot of people on this site treat discrimination against atheists is really weird. The dominant position I’ve seen is that because (in the U.S.) atheists don’t have it as bad as other minority groups, we should just never address it at all, and if we do we’re just whiny attention seekers. it’s a very “there are children starving in Africa, so shut up and eat your peas” kind of argument.

Acknowledging the ways in which Christian hegemony in the U.S. can be shitty for atheists is not the same thing as claiming that atheists have it worse than or as bad as any other minority that is screwed over by Christian hegemony. Acknowledging less severe issues does not negate more severe ones.

[huldrabitch]

Playing as the elf in origin, specifically the mage origin, almost gives you more privilege than the city elf. This is despite mages being discriminated against inside and outside the circle. Like, at least you have some political say and guaranteed housing and necessities, unlike the city elf's and any dalish spotted by humans. It's terrible lol

[cakemoney]

i don't want to put my uninformed foot in my mouth or get involved with the Discourse but i've been seeing the two extremes of reactions to the korean low birth rates issue (on tumblr and twitter both) and i'm just kind of like. look. i feel like "low birth rates (in many countries but especially japan and korea as part of this conversation) are more broadly the result of capitalism/a culture of overwhelming overwork that makes social relationships and having families incredibly inaccessible to young people" and "low birth rates are very much a part of the current conversation about misogyny and social expectations for women in korea especially in the context of reproduction as 'unpaid labor' for women" are statements that can both be true

[atheostic]

[sudamaniparva]

It’s so fucked that we inherit the bigotry of caste both literally with our last names and figuratively through our upbringing.

[littlebigmouse]

People like to make fun of YA worldbuilding tropes that sort teenagers into arbitrary categories based on arbitrary characteristics that nonetheless have a huge impact on the teenager's future.

This is not unrealistic however, because the german education system sorts 4th graders based on their "academic merit" as determinded by one of their elementary school teachers into one of three (sometimes four) further type of schools, which has a drastic impact on the likelihood of you even getting the qualification to attend university.

Yes, your entire academic career path is dependent on whether your elementary school teacher likes you or not. Don't worry, some states think that's bullshit too and instead make fourth graders sit entrance exams for the education level of their (parents') choice. (Although the teachers still get a say). That's why sometimes have news articles about the burn out rates of elementary schoolchildren in Bavaria.

But don't worry! Politicians love to complain about... to many people in recent years receiving the qualification to attend university...

[siriwesen]

TLDR: This is just a collection of my thoughts on the Bayern verbietet Gendern-Stuff. Do not approach this from a POV of an only English speaking person. German is a very gendered language and we have discourseTM. Language mixed for chaos and suffering of all who choose to read. Y'know, the issue with the Gendersternchen/ Semicolon etc. not being screenreader friendly, shouldn't mean, we abandon the notion of gendering in german. It should mean "We incentivise developers to include the Gendersternchen, Semikolon and other German gender Variants into their programming".

In written context, I definitely understand the accessibility option. Ich mein, als jemand der in einem pädagogischen author-bezogenen Bereich der Erwachsenenbildung gearbeitet hat und immer noch gelegentlich arbeitet, ist die Zielgruppe oft das A und O wenn Texte geschrieben werden. Gendern KANN Sätze umständlich und kompliziert gestalten. Lustigerweise ist "Lehrer:innen" oder "Lehrer*innen" jedoch schneller visuell zu fassen als z. B. das binäre Gendern. Beispieltext: "Lehrerinnen und Lehrer müssen sich der neuen Verordnung anpassen. Wenn die Lehrerinnen und Lehrer sich nicht anpassen, gibt es Diziplinarmaßnahmen von den zuständigen Kolleginnen und Kollegen. Viele Schülerinnen und Schüler verwenden womöglich bereits eine gegenderte Sprache. Wenn Jungen und Mädchen..." vs. "Lehrer:innen müssen sich der neuen Verordnung anpassen. Wenn die Lehrer:innen sich nicht anpassen, gibt es Disziplinarmaßnahmen von den zuständigen Kolleg:innen. Viele Schüler:innen verwenden womöglich bereits eine Gegenderte Sprache. Wenn Kinder..." Das ist jetzt nur ein Beispieltext den ich improvisiert verfasst habe, der natürlich nicht sehr sinnhaft ist oder perfekt ausformuliert. Aber in bestimmten E-Learning und Schreibkontexten muss man immer wieder die gleiche oder ähnliche Personengruppen erwähnen. Irgendwann ist man dann komplett genervt, weil man in einem Absatz drei mal "Beamtinnen und Beamten" oder "Verwaltungsmitarbeiterinnen und -Mitarbeiter" etc stehen hat. Vor allem wenn man als Author unter Zeitdruck steht und schlechte oder unzureichende Quellen zusammenfassen muss. Da gibt es dann viele Wiederholungen in bestimmten Begriffen und Phrasen, was auch eher eine Budget-/Zeitsache ist die da mit reinspielt. Wenn man gezwungen ist binär zu gendern im Text ist das anstrengend und ein Gender-Symbol ist tatsächlich weniger umständlich in diesen Kontexten. Alle Geschlechter sind mit eingebunden und der Text ist kürzer und griffiger. Das binäre gendern macht zwar Männer und Frauen sichtbar, aber es exkludiert auch ganz klar Intersex- und Transidentitäten. Ich selber gendere sehr häufig nicht, was eher aus Gewohnheit passiert. Ich verwende für mich selbst das generische Maskulinum, aber ich habe auch schon Personen getroffen, denen die weibliche Endung wichtig ist, oder denen das Gendersternchen wichtig ist. Von allen Arten gendergerecht zu schreiben ist das binäre Gendern von Personengruppen am längsten und zieht Texte am ehesten in die Länge.

Wir sind die Nation die zig Rechtschreibreformen innerhalb weniger Jahre durchgezogen hat. Ich habe zwei verschiedene Rechtschreibreformen mitgelernt in meiner Schulzeit. Wir haben Schulbücher innerhalb eines Jahres von DM auf Euro umgewandelt. Wir haben nach Jahren endlich offiziell ein großes scharfes ß in der Typographie eingeführt. Obwohl KEIN mir bekanntes deutsches Wort mit ß anfängt. Warum ist es so schwer zu sagen, wir führen ein Zeichen als Gendermarker ein, als Bestandteil unserer modernen Sprache, welches dann auch von Softwaredevelopern von z. B. Screenreadern wahrgenommen und umgesetzt werden muss? Zusätzlich, wenn man amtliche Dokumente in "leichter Sprache" beantragt, dann ist die Sprache und der Satzbau eh KOMPLETT anders, als man es von den üblichen Behördenschreiben gewohnt ist. Im Kontext mit leichter Sprache muss man vielleicht schauen, ob es einfacher ist "Menschen" oder "Personen" zu sagen anstelle von "Bürgerinnen und Bürger", "Einwohnerinnen und Einwohner" oder "Bürger:innen". Da kenne ich mich zu wenig aus, welche Worte da angebracht sind, ich weiß nur, dass lange Worte und Fremdworte vermieden werden müssen. Und dass Sätze kurz gehalten sein sollten. Aber es geht hier ja vorrangig nicht um leichte Sprache, sondern um das Beamtendeutsch. Und Beamtendeutsch war leider noch nie leicht. Behörden sind zwar angehalten Kommunikation so einfach wie möglich zu halten, aber dann ist die Verwendung Geschlechtergerechter Sprache (z.B. Personengruppen, Person, Studierende...) sinnvoller als überall "Studentinnen und Studenten" zu schreiben... like.

[nozomijoestar]

Extremely frustrating when I sit in class and realize how everyone there gets soo close to making good points and being understanding, before falling boldfaced back onto deeply ignorant prejudices believing they don't carry them- then they apply this to their art and understanding of art too

[unforth]

Everything feels awful right now but it isn't really. We still don't officially have a winner, but regardless of how the presidential election ends up, I wanted to take a minute and find what lights I can in the 3 a.m. darkness. Here's what I know:

* Kentucky overwhelmingly rejected an attempt to undermine the public education system by offering private school vouchers:

* Delaware has elected a transgender woman to the House of Representatives, the first out trans person of any gender ever elected to congress:

* For the first time in history, two Black women will be serving in the senate at the same time, and they are only the fourth and fifth Black women ever elected to the senate:

* New York State has passed a constitutional amendment enshrining the rights of pregnant people (including the right to an abortion), LGBTQIA+ people, the disabled, immigrants regardless of legal status, and other at-risk groups:

* Democrat Josh Stein has beaten self-avowed Nazi Mark Robinson to become governor of North Carolina:

That's everything I know off the top of my head. It's not many bright spots, but it's not zero. I'm going to try to find more and I'll add them to the post. It's the only thing I can think of to do that isn't sobbing and throwing up or looking up Canadian immigration rules.

If you know more good news, I encourage you to add it in reblogs.

[agayconcept]

.

[whats-in-a-sentence]

Here is the wording of the exemption in the SDA:

Nothing in paragraph . . . 14(2)(c) renders it unlawful for a person to discriminate against another person on the ground of the other person's sex, sexual orientation, gender identity . . . in connection with employment as a member of the staff of an educational institution that is conducted in accordance with the doctrines, tenets, beliefs or teachings of a particular religion or creed, if the first-mentioned person so discriminates in good faith to avoid injury to the religious susceptibilities of adherents of that religion or creed.

"In/Out: A Scandalous Story of Falling Into Love and Out of the Church" - Steph Lentz