#they measure privilege

[canidaezy]

how do transmascs not want to kill themselves all the time honestly

[jewreallythinkthat]

The most moderate, nuanced and productive people I have discussed the Israel-Hamas war with have been Jews, Israelis, and people with Palestinian family. Everyone directly affected by this just wants it to stop and to have peace and safety in the region in a way that minimises the casualty count.

The most extreme and performative and vile things I've been told are by people who have no connection to this and like to think they are experts because they have covered adjacent topics during learning, or read stuff online.

If all the randos in the west would just shut up for ten minutes and let those of us actually affected, with an understanding of the history of the land and the culture and the generational trauma experienced by Jews and Palestinians alike talk, we might actually have a chance to salvage this and stop it spiraling

[spitblaze]

gnc and butch women (cis AND trans) and transmascs are punished for performing masculinity past certain thresholds of arbitrary attractiveness because people that cishet society categorizes or clocks as 'women' are not supposed to perform masculinity. hope this helps 👍

[fromtheseventhhell]

Saying that non-conforming female characters don't face as much misogyny as their "feminine" counterparts is so funny cause literally the misogyny in their treatment is more overt because they aren't staying "in their place" like men think they should. The disdain for women + misogynistic societal ideals are so much more blatant in male characters interacting with these women. Countless times they are, in essence, told they need to sit down, shut up, and know their place but somehow that translates into them having "masculine privilege". I can only assume that people with this take haven't actually read the books and only get their information from second-hand sources.

[57sfinest]

actually i do want to make this a post. it’s so interesting to think about harry from other people’s perspectives, especially if they’re people who were around him before martinaise. because the thing about harry is: he’s a spectacle. there is not a single person left to him who genuinely *cares*. but there are people who take an interest for interest’s sake. harry is the car crash that people can’t look away from, and it’s such a rich lens to view him through.

let’s exclude jean, judit and trant because there’s already enough you can say about them as the sole remaining members of the major crimes unit. think of the other officers who worked at the 41st. whether they worked in c-wing with him or not, they were exposed to him. they had to be around him in some capacity. as a lieutenant, he was “responsible” (i use that term loosely) for overseeing a number of subordinates under the rank system. 

like put yourself in the shoes of a patrol officer at the 41st. you know harry as, in a word, unstable. a deeply unreliable man of extremes with alarmingly few personal attachments to keep him in check. he’s also practically untouchable as long as he keeps getting results, which he does, at a cost. so there’s never any point in formally complaining about him- he’s never going to be corrected or fired, so you just do one of the following: 1) keep your mouth shut (if you’re polite or playing it safe), 2) only bitch about him out of earshot (if you’ve got something to say but you’re nonconfrontational), 3) start shit with him but in a “playful” way that is secretly sincere (if you’re ballsy/have known him long enough), 4) or start shit with him for real (if you’re jean, or have a death wish). 

and the thing about the last two of those options- *especially the 3rd, which seems to be the favorite of his fellow C-wingers*- you have to know him VERY WELL to pull it off without ostensibly getting your nose broken (or worse). you have to know his moods and his triggers and what exact cocktail of bullshit he’s displaying that day so you know where the line is for this particular shift. whoever figures it out first passes it along to everyone else- hey, you can fuck with him about dating today, but don’t bring up the drinking or last week’s case or he’ll go ballistic. and it’s just like... he’s a specimen. you may not know him on a personal heart-to-heart level, but you know him the way a zookeeper knows their tigers, or the way the falconer knows their hawk. you know when to feed and when to back away with your arms up. it doesn’t make things better, but it stops them getting worse. (for you, anyway).

then martinaise happens and if he comes back- his instability is still there, but it’s not the same. you don’t recognize the way he’s acting. maybe some things are not as bad as before, but all of it is different and it’s impossible to get a read on it. you have no idea how to approach him now, or if you should approach him at all. there’s a new layer to his unreliability and it’s somehow even scarier than before. there’s a tiny tiny calm in his storm, finally, and you don’t know when it’s going to break or what’s going to break it. you hear he’s finally actually kicking the booze and maybe you just scoff and move on, or maybe you let yourself root for him. really it all depends on how long you’ve known him, how many times you’ve seen him *try*. how sympathetic you are to his conditions and how patient of a person you are. how many times he’s hurt you (because that number is rarely going to be zero). no matter what, you’re going to be left wondering. you don’t know how much of him is gone. you don’t know how much is going to come back. you’re not sure how much of each you *want*.

[yeahlikethebird]

.

[mielmoto]

She can, and should, pinch Diluc.

does he know? she only just had the "rules" of this holiday explained to her, it seems totally plausible that he wouldn't know. or maybe he does know, and just chooses to ignore it because... well. this is Diluc we're talking about. he's not exactly the most devout 'partaker in festivities,' especially trivial little traditions like wearing a specific color, or picking little plants with just-so-many leaves...

...welp. who cares. she's doing unto him as so many have done unto her (even WITHOUT the 'tradition' excuse, mind you!):

piiiiiiiiiinches one of his cheeks.

[snekdood]

Some of yall deeply underestimate how much some cis men are threatened by trans men and our masculinity. How theres so many cis dudes out there that want to rape us, thinking that will make us detransition. How many incels out there are mad at us for betraying womanhood and not sucking their dick. How much they want to force us to detransition, how much they want to kill us and force us into hiding which, to me, minus well be killing us since theyre smothering who we are for the sake of a status quo. We shake their fundamental understanding of the world. Its one thing for a GIRL to be a tomboy to them. They think its cute, like a baby pretending to be an adult. Its a whole other thing for someone percieved as a woman to try to actually be a man to them. They think thw fact we have the gal to assume we can escape their grasp, to escape the kitchen or whatever tf, means we're disrespecting them and trying to "destroy" them, rather than what it really is, us trying to be independent. We're the exact thing these types of cis men hate. Sometimes they tolerate (emphasis here bc im not saying they accept yall. Dont twist my words)trans women bc they fetishize them but they want to completely eradicate us becayse we threaten the patriarchy by virtue of deciding we dont need a man to take care of us, we want to be the man that takes care of ourselves.

[keirametzbrassknuckles]

If i ran for president my electoral platform would be based around making passports legal forms of ID in every conceivable situation. Nothing else. Just that.

[cosmik-homo]

Lying in bed crying about Alfred's fucked up identity situation

[hekateinhell]

I just went down a @vamp4rebatscave rabbit hole (the talent!) and realized YOU were the inspiration for that one VC Breakfast Club piece which is among my all time favorite fan art and wow your impact xoxo DA 🥹 (and yesss we’ve been at this for 6 months now lmao it somehow feels like 2 weeks and 5 years all at once yk 🖤)

aww yeah that was me translating my life into vc and making it everyone else's problem because I had to watch The Breakfast Club and then do a paper psychoanalyzing the group dynamics in the film 😂

it's my one talent, turning my real life problems into vc AUs (hospital AU, my beloved 🥹)

Luci is incredible and I miss seeing her around!

and girl I know, I feel like I've aged a decade in these six months rip glad you're here for the journey ♥️

[fromtheseventhhell]

This is truly my favorite genre of Arya hate cause it's really a bottom-of-the-barrel, last-ditch effort to discredit her. It just reeks of desperation. They have absolutely nothing to justify Arya not becoming a leader, aside from the fact that they personally don't want her to be one, so they have to rely on misinterpreting the story. "She's unaware of her place in society" and "she rejects society's rules" are such hilarious ways to describe Arya treating lower-class people with respect and kindness. Of course, if you tell it accurately then it's actually a reason why she would make an excellent ruler. But no, Arya is obviously going to renounce her name, family, and status cause she can't care about the smallfolk while being highborn 😔

[baronvontribble]

are people really using the lying hallucinating machine to: -weigh in on decisions about what is and isn't humanly edible -give coherent and true summaries of literally anything -GIVE YOU ANSWERS TO ANY SERIOUS QUESTIONS?? -FOLLOW BASIC MATHEMATICAL PRINCIPLES OF REALITY EFFECTIVELY???

take it from the person who loves writing about robots: chatGPT is fucking dumb. it works based on repetition, SEO, memetics, and feedback, none of which promote accuracy. it is the worst way to search any info you could possibly want. not only does it lie and just make shit up to make you happy, it bases those lies on aggregate sources that are boosted not by any method of actual verification, but by SEO.

what's SEO? well that's Search Engine Optimization, baby. strap in we're gonna do an example.

think about tumblr bots, alright? now, why do we block a tumblr bot? because they're annoying? no, we block them because they use their like-spamming to add search engine legitimacy to their scammy links in their bios. essentially, because of the way tumblr links to every user that ever likes or reblogs or interacts with a post on every post's individual linked page, every single one of those links is telling google's search engine that THIS scammer's page is totally legit. this boosts its algorithmic potential and makes it so that it appears higher up on search results than its scammy competitors.

but andy, you think, why are you going into a description of tumblr bots? well, reader, it's because this same principle also applies to viral posts. and what goes viral on tumblr? really funny trolling, lies, and people being generally obtuse and digging their own graves. tumblr is the town square and our algorithm is each other's interest; we delight in pointing at the latest pair of squeaky clown shoes being worn, and will drag the wearer out for everyone to see.

this. is bad. when you are an AI 'search' tool based on repetition, memetics, and SEO. because you were never taught to separate 'viral' from 'real'.

a search tool based on virality will tell you to eat a tide pod because they're a secret kind of candy. a search tool based on virality will tell you poinsettias and lilies are great to keep around your cats, and that you should put garlic in their food. a search tool based on virality will tell you that the best way to figure out whether bread is done is to stick your dick in it.

(it should go without saying but i'm going to say it anyway: DO NOT DO THESE THINGS BY THE WAY. YOU WILL DIE AND BE IN HORRIBLE PAIN AND SO WILL YOUR CAT.)

remember this rule, kids, and remember it well: a lie will go around the world twice while the truth is still getting its pants on. while it's fun to dunk and debunk, dunking and debunking doesn't reach the same eyeballs as the original thought, and by the time you're done you have five new ones to dunk on and debunk. and AI 'search' tools will never be able to distinguish the truth from the lie by design.

because here's the nastiest part of all: AI 'search' tools' results are then fed by the way people engage with the results. If the insane result goes viral, it doesn't get corrected, it gets reinforced. engagement, ragebait, corrections, all of these don't bring attention to a problem, they tell the AI it's done a good job making something that people engage with, and it will keep right on lying.

you can't if-then your way out of every lie it spits out because it's like trying to keep a lawnmower from making grass cuttings one blade of grass at a time. it's what it's designed to do. it's baked into the concept because people didn't think that their fun new toy needed to be able to tell the truth, and didn't realize what that would mean when it was asked serious questions. they just wanted it to earn more clicks, more eyes, more engagement, so that they could use that to farm more data that they can sell.

when you can't see what product being sold is, you are the product.

AI 'search' tools are genuinely dangerous, genuinely harmful to discourse, and genuinely something you should be critical of. even beyond their environmental impacts, intellectual property violations, worker's rights violations, this shit is bad, and its cousins in image and longer form text generation are worse.

we cannot allow our critical thinking skills to be eroded by these things. fight them. fight them at every turn. do not allow them into your spaces and do not allow them into your life. complacency is how they get their foot in the door to normalization, and normalization of this kind of shit is another nail in the world's coffin. i'm not kidding. it should be enough for you people that it's a theft-based hallucinatory lie machine but apparently it's not so here we are.

thank you for reading. now if you'll all excuse me, i'm going to go chug something caffeinated and deep-clean the microwave

[boreal-sea]

Look.

I have made you a chart. A very simple chart.

People say "You have to draw the line somewhere, and Biden has crossed it-" and my response is "Trump has crossed way more lines than Biden".

These categories are based off of actual policy enacted by both of these men while they were in office.

If the ONLY LINE YOU CARE ABOUT is line 12, you have an incredible amount of privilege, AND YOU DO NOT CARE ABOUT PALESTINIANS. You obviously have nothing to fear from a Trump presidency, and you do not give a fuck if a ceasefire actually occurs. You are obviously fine if your queer, disabled, and marginalized loved ones are hurt. You clearly don't care about the status of American democracy, which Trump has openly stated he plans to destroy on day 1 he is in office.

EDIT:

Ok fine, I spent 3 hours compiling sources for all of these, you can find that below the cut.

I'll give at least one link per subject area. There are of course many more sources to be read on these subject areas and no post could possibly give someone a full education on these subjects.

Biden and trans rights: https://www.hrc.org/resources/president-bidens-pro-lgbtq-timeline

Trump and trans rights: https://www.aclu.org/news/lgbtq-rights/trump-on-lgbtq-rights-rolling-back-protections-and-criminalizing-gender-nonconformity

The two sources above show how Biden has done a lot of work to promote trans rights, and how Trump did a lot of work to hurt trans rights.

Biden on abortion access: https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/08/politics/what-is-in-biden-abortion-executive-order/index.html

Trump on abortion access: https://apnews.com/article/abortion-trump-republican-presidential-election-2024-585faf025a1416d13d2fbc23da8d8637

Biden openly supports access to abortion and has taken steps to protect those rights at a federal level even after Roe v Wade was overturned. Trump, on the other hand, was the man who appointed the judges who helped overturn Roe v Wade and he openly brags about how proud he is of that decision. He also states that he believes individual states should have the final say in whether or not abortion is legal, and that he trusts them to "do the right thing", meaning he supports stronger abortion bans.

Biden on environmental reform: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/10/07/fact-sheet-president-biden-restores-protections-for-three-national-monuments-and-renews-american-leadership-to-steward-lands-waters-and-cultural-resources/

Trump on environmental reform: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/climate/trump-environment-rollbacks-list.html

Biden has made major steps forward for environmental reform. He has restored protections that Trump rolled back. He has enacted many executive orders and more to promote environmental protections, including rejoining the Paris Accords, which Trump withdrew the USA from. Trump is also well known for spreading conspiracy theories and lies about global climate change, calling it a "Chinese hoax".

Biden on healthcare and prescription reform: https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2023/06/09/biden-administration-announces-savings-43-prescription-drugs-part-cost-saving-measures-president-bidens-inflation-reduction-act.html

Trump on healthcare reform: https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/07/politics/obamacare-health-insurance-ending-trump/index.html

I'm rolling healthcare and prescriptions and vaccines and public health all into one category here since they are related. Biden has lowered drug costs, expanded access to medicaid, and ACA enrollment has risen during his presidency. He has also made it so medical debt no longer applies to a person's credit score. He signed many executive orders during his first few weeks in office in order to get a handle on Trump's grievous mishandling of the COVID pandemic. Trump also wants to end the ACA. Trump is well known for refusing to wear a mask during the pandemic, encouraging the use of hydroxylchloroquine to "treat" COVID, and being openly anti-vaxx.

Biden on student loan forgiveness: https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/biden-harris-administration-announces-additional-77-billion-approved-student-debt-relief-160000-borrowers

Trump on student loan forgiveness: https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamminsky/2024/06/20/trump-knocks-bidens-vile-student-loan-forgiveness-plans-suggests-reversal/

Trump wants to reverse the student loan forgiveness plans Biden has enacted. Biden has already forgiven billions of dollars in loans and continues to work towards forgiving more.

Infrastructure funding:

I'm putting these links next together because they are all about infrastructure.

In general, Trump's "achievements" for infrastructure were to destroy environmental protections to speed up projects. Many of his plans were ineffective due to the fact that he did not clearly outline where the money was going to come from, and he was unwilling to raise taxes to pay for the projects. He was unable (and unwilling) to pass a bipartisan infrastructure bill during his 4 years in office. He did sign a few disaster relief bills. He did not enthusiastically promote renewable energy infrastructure. He created "Infrastructure Weeks" that the federal government then failed to fund. Trump did not do nothing for infrastructure, but his no-tax stance and his dislike for renewable energy means the contributions he made to American infrastructure were not as much as he claimed they were, nor as much as they could have been. Basically, he made a lot of promises, and delivered on very few of them. He is not "against" infrastructure, but he's certainly against funding it.

Biden was able to pass that bipartisan bill after taking office. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Plan that Trump tried to prevent from passing during Biden's term contains concrete funding sources and step by step plans to rebuild America's infrastructure. If you want to read the plan, you can find it here: https://www.whitehouse.gov/build/guidebook/. Biden has done far more for American infrastructure than Trump did, most notably by actually getting the bipartisan bill through congress.

Biden on Racial Equity: https://www.npr.org/sections/president-biden-takes-office/2021/01/26/960725707/biden-aims-to-advance-racial-equity-with-executive-actions

Trump on Racial Equity: https://www.axios.com/2024/04/01/trump-reverse-racism-civil-rights https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-37230916

Trump's racist policies are loud and clear for everyone to hear. We all heard him call Mexicans "Drug dealers, criminals, rapists". We all watched as he enacted travel bans on people from majority-Muslim nations. Biden, on the other hand, has done quite a lot during his term to attempt to reconcile racism in this country, including reversing Trump's "Muslim ban" the first day he was in office.

Biden on DEI: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/06/25/executive-order-on-diversity-equity-inclusion-and-accessibility-in-the-federal-workforce/

Trump on DEI: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-tried-to-crush-the-dei-revolution-heres-how-he-might-finish-the-job/ar-BB1jg3gz

Biden supports DEI and has signed executive orders and passed laws that support DEI on the federal level. Trump absolutely hates DEI and wants to eradicate it.

Biden on criminal justice reform: https://time.com/6155084/biden-criminal-justice-reform/

Trump on criminal justice reform: https://www.vox.com/2020-presidential-election/21418911/donald-trump-crime-criminal-justice-policy-record https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/05/trumps-extreme-plans-crime/678502/

From pardons for non-violent marijuana convictions to reducing the federal government's reliance on private prisons, Biden has done a lot in four years to reform our criminal justice system on the federal level. Meanwhile, Trump has described himself as "tough on crime". He advocates for more policing, including "stop and frisk" activities. Ironically it's actually quite difficult to find sources about what Trump thinks about crime, because almost all of the search results are about his own crimes.

Biden on military support for Israel: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/biden-obama-divide-closely-support-israel-rcna127107

Trump on military support for Israel: https://www.vox.com/politics/353037/trump-gaza-israel-protests-biden-election-2024

Biden supports Israel financially and militarily and promotes holding Israel close. So did Trump. Trump was also very pro-Israel during his time in office and even moved the embassy to Jerusalem and declared Jerusalem the capitol of Israel, a move that inflamed attitudes in the region.

Biden on a ceasefire: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2024/06/05/gaza-israel-hamas-cease-fire-plan-biden/73967659007/

Trump on a ceasefire: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-israel-gaza-finish-problem-rcna141905

Trump has tried to be quiet on the issue but recently said he wants Israel to "finish the problem". He of course claims he could have prevented the whole problem. Trump also openly stated after Oct 7th that he would bar immigrants who support Hamas from the country and send in officers to American protests to arrest anyone supporting Hamas.

Biden meanwhile has been quietly urging Netanyahu to accept a ceasefire deal for months, including the most recent announcement earlier in June, though it seems as though that deal has finally fallen through as well.

[die-tenebris]

Maybe nobody wants to build community with you because you call nonbinary afab people 'thems' like a right wing pundit

[sybilhallward]

Ok, I'm done.

Might have a couple of posts queued, but you know what? When my country voted for a fascist government there was no day-long public grief on tumblr. I'm tired of shouldering my own sorrow and americans' too.

I still care, but one's gotta put things into perspective.

I'm still here. The people I love are still here.

There's shit about deportation and queer rights and support to genocide I gotta tend to in my own country.

A bad government won't end your life right away. It hasn't been able to squash me yet, for a start.

We keep fighting.

Roll up your sleeves.

Imma bring this blog back to being a place for getting my mind off of things.

Just a last quick hug and then we're off, ok?