#united in diversity

[ms-boogie-man]

Angie/Maddie🦇❥✝︎🇺🇸

[schoolidolfestivals]

[sscarletvenus]

they're like the powerpuff girls for really miserable bitches

[reasonsforhope]

"The Illinois Senate has passed HB 2789, a bill whose terms dictate that state funding from public or school libraries that remove books from circulation will be withheld.

As per the bill, the $62 million of funding that goes to the state’s libraries will only be eligible for said funding if they “adopt the American Library Association’s Library Bill of Rights” or “develop a written statement prohibiting the practice of banning books or other materials within the library or library system.“

Alexi Giannoulias, Illinois’s newly selected Secretary of State, first drafted the bill in response to the 67 book bans that were attempted in Illinois, as well as ban attempts in other states.

As to the cause of the increase in book bans, Giannoulias shared that, “All these efforts to curb reading materials have absolutely nothing to do with books. They are about restricting the freedom of ideas that certain individuals disagree with and that certain individuals think others should have access to.”

So far, the bill is the only one of its kind in existence. Since being passed in the Illinois Senate, it is now being sent to Governor J.B. Pritzker to be signed. It’s expected to go into effect, as the democratic governor has already voiced his support for the measure."

-via Book Riot, 5/4/23

[clove-pinks]

Local sachem of the Weckquaesgeek and an English merchant in 1657 Massachusetts cannot BELIEVE this man is stealing their wi-fi without even asking!!!

[candela888]

First, second, and third most spoken language in New York City 🗽🚇🌭 and Los Angeles County 🌴⭐️🌆

[hussyknee]

There's something so deeply sick about the Biden administration consistently making its Black politicians the face of its genocidal imperialism, especially Black women. The violence in the Black female UN Ambassador they used to veto the ceasefire exhalting Nelson Mandela, a staunch supporter of Palestinian liberation who the US themselves listed as a terrorist until 2008, as a PR exercise might be its peak.

This is why I prefer Republicans' flavour of racism. Wolves should wear their own face.

[half-life-crisis]

I developed Info in Context™ as a #free resource to #educate on how to identify #wedgeissues, #redflags, and escape the #echochambers.

https://halflifecrisis.com/hlc-articles/lets-defeat-authoritarian-propaganda…

So, I decided to DO something to prevent it from getting worse. #Authoritarians are defeated by understanding #context.

[more-flotsam-and-jetsam]

Responses to poll by the Pew Research Center, June 2024

[emeraldspiral]

So in Bad, Bad Rubber Piggy we clearly see what appears to be a genuine Sasquatch baby that Dib hassles in one scene, and it speaks English. In the first episode Dib says he saw Bigfoot in his garage using the belt sander and later in another episode says "He wouldn't fucking say that" while reading a magazine claiming to have interviewed Bigfoot. In another, a kid claims Dib insisted his father was a yeti.

Assuming that Dib's accounts of the paranormal are generally reliable, as I do, I've come up with a few theories:

Bigfoot is real and Dib has actually spoken to him. That's how he knows that the magazine interview was bogus.

Either his classmate does in fact have a yeti for a father, or the kid once mistook a yeti for his father and wouldn't listen when Dib tried to tell him "That's not your dad, that's clearly a yeti wearing your dad's clothes so he can sneak into your house and raid your fridge". I consider both to be equally possible, given that Zim and Dib go to class with an Old Kid and a Pig Boy and the premise hinges on everyone being too stupid to see through Zim's obvious disguise. Based on the fact that the yeti is able to pass for human, Bigfoot is implied to be able to speak, and the Sasquatch baby from BBRP does speak, I would propose that the yeti also has the ability to speak.

So we have two presumed adult cryptids of a similar type and one baby, all of whom have the ability to speak, implied human-level intellect, and all of them have been spotted in the same skool district Dib lives in. So, what if they're all related? What if Bigfoot and the yeti are married and the parents of the Sasquatch baby? Even better, if my first theory about the yeti actually being Dib's classmate's father and not an imposter is correct, then he is also their child and the brother of Sasquatch baby. Furthermore, since the yeti is said to be the kid's father and Bigfoot is referred to with he/him pronouns they're a same-sex couple.

[lizard-reads-the-world]

Fantasy Series by European Authors

The Mirror Visitor Series by Christelle Dabos

Magical floating arks, court politics and arranged marriages

The Reckless Series by Cornelia Funke

Mirror portals, curses, and shape-shifting foxes

The Engelsfors Trilogy by Sara B. Elfgren & Mats Strandberg

Teen witches, ancient demons, and the end of the world

The Raven Rings Trilogy by Siri Pettersen

Norse myths, an outcast heroine, and... tails?

The Arcadia Trilogy by Kai Meyer

Mafia romance, shapeshifters, and Greek mythology

The Watch Series by Sergei Lukyanenko

Paranormal people, magic organizations, and Dark vs Light

The Gifts Series by Caroline O'Donoghue

Tarot cards, psychic cults, and queer rights

Lockwood & Co. Series by Jonathan Stroud

Ghosts, paranormal detectives, and British humour

-------------

(*some series are longer but I limited the images to 3 books)

(*All YA except the Watch series but I wanted diversity in location)

[themangledsans0508]

Companies that have rolled back DEI programs

What is a DEI Program?

DEI stands for "diversity, equity, and inclusion" and are initiatives put in place to give communities which have historically been marginalized representation and opportunity. Just like with affirmative action college programs, conservatives are throwing a tantrum over them. As a result, some companies are caving and removing them.

A fair number of these don't deserve support for other reasons, but it can be hard to think of other options. The ones I've listed as such are ones that either still have DEI programs or have not made public statements against them. This is not every alternate, only a few. There are others and I encourage you to look for them. Again, these companies also have plenty of things to be critical of.

Walmart

Alternative Retailers: Target, Five Below, Costco

Ford

Alternative Vehicles: Chevrolet, GMC, Honda

Harley-Davidson

Alternative Vehicles: Honda, Kawasaki, Yamaha

Toyota

Alternative Vehicles: Nissan, Subaru, Hyundai

John Deere

Alternative Vehicles: Kubota, Massey Ferguson

Lowe's

Alternative Retailers: Ace Hardware, Aubocon, TrueValue, Home Depot

Tractor Supply

Alternative Retailers: Ace Hardware, Aubocon, TrueValue, Home Depot

Two more that have also ended their programs, but I do not know enough about to offer other options:

Coors

Brown-Forman

These decisions made by companies in response to backlash pushes our communities from sight and makes it easier to demonize and stigmatize us. Two of the most powerful things we have are our voices, and our money. Tell them you are no longer supporting them, tell them why. We need to make it clear that these decisions are not sustainable in the long term, and they are going to lose more money this way than the other. This is more important than ever with what is at stake right now, and our futures are on the line. This is not minor, every little bit counts.

Resources I used underneath the read more

Alfonseca, K. (2023, February 10). DEI: What does it mean and what is its purpose?. ABC News. https://abcnews.go.com/US/dei-programs/story?id=97004455

D’innocenzio, A. (2024, November 26). Walmart becomes latest - and biggest - company to roll back its DEI policies. AP News. https://apnews.com/article/walmart-dei-inclusion-diversity-34b06922e60e5116fe198696201ce4d9

Ring, T. (2024, November 26). These 9 major companies caved to the far right and stopped dei programs. Advocate.com. https://www.advocate.com/news/companies-abandoning-dei#rebelltitem9

[dolce-tenebra-toscana]

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Join the cult lovelies, don't be shy 👀👀

[roastthesadidiot]

I had an opinion on the internet and people thought it was OK to ridicule me for it.

The opinion:

I was a fan of the 2024 Eurosong line-up.

Let's not go further into everything else that happened this year. The organisation of Eurosong 2024 was abominable. No contest.

I really did like a vast majority of all contestants who participated. Love Nemo of Switzerland as a winner. Baby Lasagna of Croatia was a personal favourite. Gåte of Norway should have received more points. Silvester Belt of Lithuania I have massive respect for to perform under his circumstances. Bambi Thug of Ireland gave us one hell of a act....just to name a few.

Regrettably the internet has become a place where people find a need to react about anything they don't like. No venom is spared when something they don't like gets praised or enjoyed by someone else. I have received many laughing and hate reactions just for saying I liked the music brought on Eurosong 2024.

People feel a need to say I have no taste in music (even though they didn't even see the show). Conservative people who will forever claim that Eurovision is no more than a circus with clowns of performers (the crowd that's scared of diversity). People who call me a baby for still enjoying Eurosong (at least I don't bully people like a toddler if they enjoy something I don't).

It is shameful to see that the pretence of these bullies and trolls allows them to get away with apathetic childish behaviour. They never learned to have the dignity to let people be who just enjoy things and don't hurt others. Is this a failure of parenting? Is this the message influencers give to people to make themselves feel better?

No wonder people are becoming more reclusive to things they love. The world still thinks that somebody loving something is a free ticket to bullying.

[sherdnerd]

I am so fed up with hard binaries. A think must be wholly one way or wholly another. There is no grey. There is no "sorta". There is nothing in between. I fucking hate it. Things are complicated, you're not going to be able to look at anything meaningfully until you accept that

[sitting-on-me-bum]

Historic Petition Filed to Reintroduce Jaguars

Since placing jaguars on the endangered species list 50 years ago, the Fish and Wildlife Service hasn’t done much to help them. It’s time for that to change — so this week, the Center filed a historic petition asking the agency to reintroduce jaguars to New Mexico and protect more critical habitat in the Southwest.