“They took our land, they imprisoned our queen, they banned our language, they forcibly made us a colony of the United States. America says they are democratic, that is a lie! They have never been democratic with Native people! They have never been democratic with Indians! They have never been democratic with Hawaiians!”
Dr. Haunani Kay-Trask (Kānaka Maoli)
“The United States of America is a death country. It gives death to native people.”
An Actual Real Person my Dad knew. Pretty sure he worked as a bush guide. When someone asked the time he’d pull off his hat - some kind of broad brim - and use to take a few measurements of the sun’s position relative to the horizon. Then he’d declare the time.
He was accurate to the minute.
Fvvdvddsfdssdhnvfh you get back here and say this to the rest of the crew
it’s not that I need a quiet day or a day off exactly; it’s that I need a pocket of time that exists entirely outside of linear time as we know it that would allow me to get things done without time passing in the real world, and frankly, I don’t think that’s too much to ask.
(For your easy reference: “The Star Beast” aired on 25/11/2023 on BBC One, and the trans character is called Rose.)
Please note that the complaint form asks for your UK postcode, so only UK folks can join in with this - but if you suspect you might have any UK-based followers, maybe give us a reblog to boost the signal?
Edit: I’m told that you can fill in the form even if you’re outside of the UK, because the BBC provide service to many countries other than the UK, including the USA! Go for it. :D
Reply to confirm that you’ve done it, so I can keep a count!
Here’s my complaint:
ALT
I recommend:
Avoid sarcasm or irony. Assume your post will be taken literally. If you are clearly joking or being mean you will be ignored or misunderstood.
Include some gratitude/appreciation. It’s pretty great that they included a trans woman in a positive way, and they should know that they have explicit support for that.
Edit again: I’m seeing some concerns in the replies/reblogs that the BBC might not distinguish between “less trans people, please” complaints and “more trans people, please” complaints. Rest assured, this is nothing to worry about - the BBC publish fortnightly complaint reports, and they do pay enough attention to know when a complaint is in favour of or against trans inclusion. In fact, their 20 November – 3 December 2023 report is where the various news articles are getting the 144 complaints figure; that report says there were precisely 144 complaints that they have categorised as “Anti-male / inappropriate inclusion of transgender character”.
That means the next complaints fortnight window is 4 December - 17 December. We have 8 more days to beat 144. By my count, over Tumblr, WhatsApp, the Fediverse and Telegram, we have 85 so far, which is well over halfway there.
Also, when you’ve done it, please reply to confirm you have done it, so that I can count us!
Most people in the LGBTQIA community don’t appreciate cishets using the F word.
If we were in the same house in the same room, I’d be dragging you by the ear “old mama style”and making you eat a bar of ivory soap.
Don’t fuck with me, Poppin’ Fresh. You’ll find that as an ally, I don’t take kindly to ANYONE using that word.
who are you talking to
the funniest thing about this is that person who said the word seems to be not cishet (idk i’m guessing) so i can’t tell if it’s a joke or if it’s an ally trying to be like “hey i get to say what you say not yourself even tho it’s your word”
If I’m cishet I want my money back cause I’ve been paying for estrogen for 13 years.
reminder that ken penders once wrote an issue of archie where knuckles asked if he could just be gay and his dad said “no no son we don’t do that here”
US lone dissenter in all of these UN votes is obvious and unsurprising but also still so fucking wild… literally the only purpose of the UN at this point is to demonstrate how wildly extreme the US is in its thirst for war, standing completely and utterly alone against the entire rest of the planet. this crumbling husk of empire needs to fucking fall
discord is adding parental surveillance. as nerdskii’s tags pointed out its a ridiculous measure that doesnt help anyone because apps like Signal exist for actual illegal/sketchy activity and this just hurts lgbt teens looking for somewhere to be themselves and have resources especially with conservative parents
I use android. this is my secure folder, which was built into my phone. it has a customize option, so I’ve made it look like some bland fitness app. when you open it, it asks you to enter a password or unlock it in any other way you’ve set it to unlock before it lets you in
inside of this folder is like a 2nd phone almost, I can hide apps in here or have different accounts on apps I’ve already installed. I have a separate discord and tumblr inside of my secure folder (which I moved this blog to recently)
there are similar third party apps, usually disguised as a calculator that you set a certain number or calculation as the password to unlock. that’s a lot more inconspicuous if opened, but also more well known, and parents might be looking out for any suspicious calculator apps
also, be careful what 3rd party apps you download, especially when it’s concerning things like your accounts and data! make sure you’re downloading something safe and secure
this isn’t foolproof, depending on how far your parents are going to track you. if they’ve installed anything or had you install anything on your phone or computer, or had the chance while you weren’t there, be careful for spyware. some apps report how long you look at each app, or can record sound from your phone on demand
also important: a good VPN can secure what you’re looking at from the router, which parents may be able to access information from, but this also isn’t guaranteed to work if the parental controls are set to block VPNs
another one, if your parents are tracking your location but not your app usage: download a GPS spoofer. you don’t necessarily need to root your phone for this, as long as it’s supported in developer settings. a lot of them are branded as tools for pokemon go, which can be helpful for plausible deniability
parents reading this: these are things I’ve learned from constantly having my shit taken and looked through as a teen. you aren’t protecting your kids, you’re ruining any chance of them trusting you with anything. if something goes wrong, you’re going to be the last person they tell, because someone who goes to these lengths to see any little thing isn’t going to be chill when something actually bad happens if this is how you act when literally nothing is happening
So I work with domestic violence victims, and these are some great ideas to try if the abuser hasn’t made a clone of your phone or engaged in other advanced tracking methods. If they have done that, your best bet is to research options at the public library.
And for parents reading this: this kind of surveillance is considered domestic abuse for adults, and frankly it should be for kids too. There’s necessary supervision and then there’s… this.
I saw this on FB today and I wanna try and express something about it. Like, you know the curbcutter effect? Where when curbcuts are put in it benefits everyone (bicyclists, people with baby strollers etc) and not just disabled people?
There is also whatever the opposite of the curbcutter effect is. And this is that.
This isn’t just anti-adhd/autism propaganda… this is anti-child propaganda.
Kids have developmentally appropriate ways that they need to move their bodies and express themselves and sitting perfectly still staring straight ahead is not natural or good for ANY CHILD.
Don’t get me wrong, I was punished unduly as a kid for being neurodivergent (and other types of kid will ALSO be punished unduly for it… Black kids come to mind) and thus UNABLE to perform this – but even the kids who ARE able to perform this type of behavior are not SERVED WELL by it. They don’t benefit from it.
This is bad for everyone.
The idea that bc some kids may be capable of complying with unfair expectations, those expectations don’t hurt them… is a dangerous idea. Compliance isn’t thriving. Expectation of compliance isn’t fair treatment.
The image above expresses the attitude towards children I grew up with, in a fairly conservative United States suburb in the 1990′s. Expectations for children’s behavior were strict, and when children failed to meet them, their parents were blamed publicly and privately, to a traumatizing degree.
When I went to the Kids R Us, Toys R Us, even the supermarket I constantly heard parents yelling and nagging at their kids over virtually nothing, and telling them not to cry. Kids had their own segregated food (unhealthy, tasteless fast food and pizza), clothing, and activities (full of plastic junk toys and meaningless crafts that would get thrown out the day they were made).
Parenting advice was everywhere, in grocery checkout aisles and doctor’s waiting rooms, with the format “push button, receive behavior” and the goal of making kids do what you wanted easily, without conflict. It drove my mom frantic that it never worked for neurodivergent kids like hers.
In school, we had to get permission to go to the bathroom. I’ll never forget nearly wetting myself for a half an hour waiting for the kids with the passes to return. I learned that even my most basic basic bodily needs were unimportant and unacceptable.
No one seemed to think kids were actual people, and the segregation and contempt pissed me off even when I was young enough to use a kid’s menu. The anger and hurt are still there, under the surface.
And yes, I was one of those kids who couldn’t focus on busywork or stand in line for a long time. I’d wander off to dance or draw or I’d just let my imagination wander, “zoning out.” It’s the same old story everyone in neurodivergent communities hears ad infinitum.
Meanwhile, I was told, and I believed, that school was designed for all the other kids, who seemed to do what was expected without struggle. Many of them even seemed content with school and life. It made me feel even worse about myself. I didn’t understand that they were suffering, too, until I saw my generation and then Gen Z going through the resulting mental health crisis.
Somehow, I never realized that strict expectations that require kids to go against their own needs, that teach kids their basic needs don’t matter, are a reverse curb cut effect.
“Even kids who ARE able to perform this type of behavior are not SERVED well by it…the idea that because some kids may be capable of complying with unfair expectations, those expectations don’t hurt them, is a dangerous idea.”
Yes. All kids deserve better.
Neurodivergent ones are just the canary in the coal mine. Things that hurt neurodivergent kids, tend to be bad for everyone.
If you need context, earlier this year, CorridorDigital put out an “AI-made anime,” where an AI filter was used to convert live action footage into “animation” (for the record, this is NOT animation. Animation is not a look, it’s a process. By this logic, anyone using that Pixar Snapchat face filter is a Pixar animator). They touted themselves as “revolutionizing animation.”
They were met with considerable backlash and criticism from the animation community. For one, they were taking frames from the real anime Vampire Hunter D to feed the AI. For another, the video was essentially a proof-of-concept for how “easy” and “inexpensive” it is to reduce animation to an automate-able process.
Well, Corridor did not learn anything, because they released a sequel… In the middle of a strike against the use of AI to replace/exploit/profit off of the labor of workers in the film industry. Corridor assured they hired their own artist to train the AI, but remember that industry discourse like this is interconnected. They may not be stealing art, but any studio that sees this and goes ‘wow, it’s that easy’ will. Corridor’s also boasting about AI democratizing animation-making. Now anyone can make animation in their bedroom with nothing but a camera and a free software! Except, anyone could already make animation in their bedroom with nothing but a camera and a free software. I made animation in my bedroom with nothing but a camera and a free stop-motion software when I was 10 years old.
Anyways, work like this is exactly what studios hellbent on exploiting workers want to see. It doesn’t matter if it’s cool or fun. Remember that AI discourse is currently the frontlines of the labor crisis in the film industry. Corridor putting out this video as “fun education” in the middle of an strike is so incredibly irresponsible and disrespectful.
DreamWorks’ Shrek was first released on May 18th, 2001.
The song “All Star” by Smash Mouth, heard in the opening credits, was only placed in the film for test audiences until a new song could be found. But test audiences loved it, and the producers kept it in. When the producers decided to keep “All Star” they decided to let the band sing the last song in the movie, “I’m a Believer.” (x)
The flight test was the first for Starship mounted atop the company’s new Super Heavy rocket, and the first launch ever for that lower-stage booster, which SpaceX has touted as the most powerful launch vehicle on Earth.
Even though the two-stage rocket ship made it less than halfway to the edge of space, climbing to just under 25 miles (40 km), the flight achieved a primary objective of getting the new vehicle off the ground at liftoff despite some of its engines failing.
While SpaceX officials were heartened by the outcome, the mission fell short of reaching several objectives.
The plan was for Starship to soar into space at least 90 some miles (150 km) above Earth before it would re-enter the atmosphere and plunge into the Pacific near Hawaii.
But SpaceX said in a statement afterward that the spacecraft “experienced multiple engines out” during its ascent, then “lost altitude and began to tumble,” before the “flight termination system was commanded on both the booster and the ship.”
The two-stage rocket ship, standing taller than the Statue of Liberty at 394 feet (120 meters), blasted off from the company’s Starbase spaceport on the southern tip of Texas along the Gulf Coast east of Brownsville. SpaceX hoped, at best, to pull off a 90-minute debut flight into space but just shy of Earth orbit.
A live SpaceX webcast showed the rocket ship rising from the launch tower into the morning sky as the Super Heavy’s Raptor engines roared to life in a ball of flame and billowing clouds of exhaust and water vapor.
But less than four minutes into the flight, the upper-stage Starship failed to separate as designed from the lower-stage Super Heavy, and the combined vehicle was seen tumbling end over end before blowing apart.
The pad and surrounding area were cordoned off well in advance of the test, SpaceX said. Any debris from the explosion should have landed over the water in areas placed off-limits by the U.S. Coast Guard.
they keep the silverware in the same place. you forget about it a little bit when you move out, but during the holidays, it comes back. the way you smooth over your life for them, a gentle reckoning.
for a while, you tried to find yourself by being wild. throwing your body at the emergency exit. finding comfort in the sharpness of a held breath. you used to write wake up on the inside of your wrist. you couldn’t calculate the weight of your own sorrow, only that nobody was looking at the anchor of it. you tried maladaptive coping mechanisms like catnip. got caught half-in half-out of them. felt, weirdly, like you should be embarrassed of all of it.
but it does get better. mostly it’s just that you become a priority to yourself. it turns out that lending yourself the ragged edge is just cutting open more marrow. for a while, it felt good to see a physical representation of inward agony. but who was that punishing? you learned, slowly (so slowly it was almost invisible sometimes) that you could put love into the wound instead. that the floor was comfortable because it was certain - but it was cold, and unwanting. instead there is a warm bed. you learn to treat yourself like a kid again. gentle-parent yourself into the shower and over breakfast and into laughing without effort. you do wake up.
but then you come home again, and it is like everything is a strange kaleidoscope of childhood moments. here is how you inherited your mother’s anxiety. there is the same music playing, and you can’t sit down without worrying you forgot to do something. your mother’s clipped words and hovering hands - are you sure? are you sure? birdlike, you find yourself seeing unwell and still end up repeating.
here is your father’s anger. you are 16 again. there was a moment where you remember thinking - holy shit. i am so much more emotionally mature than you. how you have to talk him down from minor inconveniences, how you parent him like an errant and spoiled toddler who can’t be told no, and i mean it. you feel the warp of you. why you can’t be in the same room as people having a completely normal conflict. why your skin crawls if there’s ever a hint of a fight. why you live with your hands up, placating. and god forbid you get angry. you feel that little spoiled kid rage against the iron will of you. not you, not your hands. you would rather cut your own tongue out of your head, no matter how valid her argument is.
and you’re so fucking far from where you were as a kid. you’ve done so much healing. and there’s this little sad part of you that can see the shadow of your past, and your hands wrapped into each other so tightly you made your knuckles white. and how much your parents are just people, and haven’t changed much, and still keep the spoons in the drawer to the right.
there is a long dark tunnel here, and it has a name, but you haven’t learned how to process that kind of speech yet. close the cabinet. make a note to go get more oat milk. close your eyes.
You’re given two job offers. You can only accept one, and you can’t get a second job or a have side hustle.
The first offer is your dream job, your passion project doing what you love, the career you’ve always wanted more than anything else, the job you would sell your soul to be able to have. However, you will never make enough to support yourself, and you’ll be completely reliant on government assistance.
The second offer is to sit in an empty room naked Monday through Friday, eight hours a day. The only details you’re given are that you are allowed to bring entertainment, and you get a break for lunch. The job pays one million dollars (or whatever the equivalent would be where you live) per month.
I find it fascinating that people who choose not to have children are generally assumed to feel really strongly about not having children (or even to feel really strongly against children, anyone’s children, in general). I am probably not going to have children, not because I REALLY REALLY HATE the idea of having children, but because I don’t really really love it. Out of all the major decisions I will make in my life, this one is the only irreversible one. I can sell a house, quit a job, divorce a spouse, whatever. I cannot unhave a child. I cannot opt out of being a parent once I become a parent. I can’t even take a step back for the sake of self-care or whatever, or else my child will suffer.
So for me, having children is fuck yes or not at all. The default will be to remain childfree. Having children should be an opt-in decision, not an opt-out one. Until/unless I develop really strong feelings about wanting to have children, I won’t have them, even if that means I never end up having them at all.
Sometimes you just come across something that puts into words what you have yet been unable to.
OP (mangolence) actually redid this himself! Here’s his comic and his description:
“I’ve been wanting to make this post for quite some time. Working through internalized transphobia is hard, but it’s worth it. In my country, being transsexual is classified as a mental illness. If you are trans, you are treated as sick by the court system and by the healthcare system. The idea that transmedicalism helps trans people is false, and unconventional trans and nonbinary people aren’t why transphobia exists, ignorance and bigotry is why transphobia exists.
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If you want to learn more about this topic, I highly recommend Brennen Beckwith’s three part video series, starring with “Breaking My Silence On Kalvin Garrah | Part 1” , and Contrapoints video "transtrenders”. Big thank you to @krougrin for encouraging me to make this post!
Just realized that the reason I love making friends on tumblr is because it’s exactly how you make friends on the playground as a six year old. No, I don’t know their name but they love mermaids too and built this awesome sand castle. No, I don’t know their age but their imaginary cheetah is friends with mine. You like this show? You like this character?? You can sing the theme song really loud??? Here is a flower crown. Here is a juice box. You can share my time and I might never see you again but part of you stays in my soul forever. In my mind we’re still on the swing set and the sky is blue and nothing will ever be wrong again.
I saw this on FB today and I wanna try and express something about it. Like, you know the curbcutter effect? Where when curbcuts are put in it benefits everyone (bicyclists, people with baby strollers etc) and not just disabled people?
There is also whatever the opposite of the curbcutter effect is. And this is that.
This isn’t just anti-adhd/autism propaganda… this is anti-child propaganda.
Kids have developmentally appropriate ways that they need to move their bodies and express themselves and sitting perfectly still staring straight ahead is not natural or good for ANY CHILD.
Don’t get me wrong, I was punished unduly as a kid for being neurodivergent (and other types of kid will ALSO be punished unduly for it… Black kids come to mind) and thus UNABLE to perform this – but even the kids who ARE able to perform this type of behavior are not SERVED WELL by it. They don’t benefit from it.
This is bad for everyone.
The idea that bc some kids may be capable of complying with unfair expectations, those expectations don’t hurt them… is a dangerous idea. Compliance isn’t thriving. Expectation of compliance isn’t fair treatment.
The image above expresses the attitude towards children I grew up with, in a fairly conservative United States suburb in the 1990′s. Expectations for children’s behavior were strict, and when children failed to meet them, their parents were blamed publicly and privately, to a traumatizing degree.
When I went to the Kids R Us, Toys R Us, even the supermarket I constantly heard parents yelling and nagging at their kids over virtually nothing, and telling them not to cry. Kids had their own segregated food (unhealthy, tasteless fast food and pizza), clothing, and activities (full of plastic junk toys and meaningless crafts that would get thrown out the day they were made).
Parenting advice was everywhere, in grocery checkout aisles and doctor’s waiting rooms, with the format “push button, receive behavior” and the goal of making kids do what you wanted easily, without conflict. It drove my mom frantic that it never worked for neurodivergent kids like hers.
In school, we had to get permission to go to the bathroom. I’ll never forget nearly wetting myself for a half an hour waiting for the kids with the passes to return. I learned that even my most basic basic bodily needs were unimportant and unacceptable.
No one seemed to think kids were actual people, and the segregation and contempt pissed me off even when I was young enough to use a kid’s menu. The anger and hurt are still there, under the surface.
And yes, I was one of those kids who couldn’t focus on busywork or stand in line for a long time. I’d wander off to dance or draw or I’d just let my imagination wander, “zoning out.” It’s the same old story everyone in neurodivergent communities hears ad infinitum.
Meanwhile, I was told, and I believed, that school was designed for all the other kids, who seemed to do what was expected without struggle. Many of them even seemed content with school and life. It made me feel even worse about myself. I didn’t understand that they were suffering, too, until I saw my generation and then Gen Z going through the resulting mental health crisis.
Somehow, I never realized that strict expectations that require kids to go against their own needs, that teach kids their basic needs don’t matter, are a reverse curb cut effect.
“Even kids who ARE able to perform this type of behavior are not SERVED well by it…the idea that because some kids may be capable of complying with unfair expectations, those expectations don’t hurt them, is a dangerous idea.”
Yes. All kids deserve better.
Neurodivergent ones are just the canary in the coal mine. Things that hurt neurodivergent kids, tend to be bad for everyone.
I saw this on FB today and I wanna try and express something about it. Like, you know the curbcutter effect? Where when curbcuts are put in it benefits everyone (bicyclists, people with baby strollers etc) and not just disabled people?
There is also whatever the opposite of the curbcutter effect is. And this is that.
This isn’t just anti-adhd/autism propaganda… this is anti-child propaganda.
Kids have developmentally appropriate ways that they need to move their bodies and express themselves and sitting perfectly still staring straight ahead is not natural or good for ANY CHILD.
Don’t get me wrong, I was punished unduly as a kid for being neurodivergent (and other types of kid will ALSO be punished unduly for it… Black kids come to mind) and thus UNABLE to perform this – but even the kids who ARE able to perform this type of behavior are not SERVED WELL by it. They don’t benefit from it.
This is bad for everyone.
The idea that bc some kids may be capable of complying with unfair expectations, those expectations don’t hurt them… is a dangerous idea. Compliance isn’t thriving. Expectation of compliance isn’t fair treatment.
The image above expresses the attitude towards children I grew up with, in a fairly conservative United States suburb in the 1990′s. Expectations for children’s behavior were strict, and when children failed to meet them, their parents were blamed publicly and privately, to a traumatizing degree.
When I went to the Kids R Us, Toys R Us, even the supermarket I constantly heard parents yelling and nagging at their kids over virtually nothing, and telling them not to cry. Kids had their own segregated food (unhealthy, tasteless fast food and pizza), clothing, and activities (full of plastic junk toys and meaningless crafts that would get thrown out the day they were made).
Parenting advice was everywhere, in grocery checkout aisles and doctor’s waiting rooms, with the format “push button, receive behavior” and the goal of making kids do what you wanted easily, without conflict. It drove my mom frantic that it never worked for neurodivergent kids like hers.
In school, we had to get permission to go to the bathroom. I’ll never forget nearly wetting myself for a half an hour waiting for the kids with the passes to return. I learned that even my most basic basic bodily needs were unimportant and unacceptable.
No one seemed to think kids were actual people, and the segregation and contempt pissed me off even when I was young enough to use a kid’s menu. The anger and hurt are still there, under the surface.
And yes, I was one of those kids who couldn’t focus on busywork or stand in line for a long time. I’d wander off to dance or draw or I’d just let my imagination wander, “zoning out.” It’s the same old story everyone in neurodivergent communities hears ad infinitum.
Meanwhile, I was told, and I believed, that school was designed for all the other kids, who seemed to do what was expected without struggle. Many of them even seemed content with school and life. It made me feel even worse about myself. I didn’t understand that they were suffering, too, until I saw my generation and then Gen Z going through the resulting mental health crisis.
Somehow, I never realized that strict expectations that require kids to go against their own needs, that teach kids their basic needs don’t matter, are a reverse curb cut effect.
“Even kids who ARE able to perform this type of behavior are not SERVED well by it…the idea that because some kids may be capable of complying with unfair expectations, those expectations don’t hurt them, is a dangerous idea.”
Yes. All kids deserve better.
Neurodivergent ones are just the canary in the coal mine. Things that hurt neurodivergent kids, tend to be bad for everyone.
Ok but Sidenote I was gonna tag this as something but I decided not to but weird I found is that if you put “I us” in the tag bar the first thing it recommends is “I use my baby as my fast track ticket”.
i know we’re both just messing around pretending to be whole but look at me. if the train was coming would you move. if the ground was falling from under your feet would you even notice or would it just be another tuesday for you. if somebody stabbed you could it hurt worse than you already do. what i’m saying is that i love you but i think we both drive over the speed limit when it’s raining. what i’m saying is that i want to hold your hand and i understand about how you sometimes have to sit down in the shower. what i’m saying is that i’m here for you and if the train comes please move.
i wrote this 7 years ago, somehow. every day someone else finds it and whispers to me - oh, i understand this. something always turns in the wash of my stomach: i am so, so glad you feel seen. i wish you had no idea what this post was about.
i wrote this while working in a program for new writers. on wednesdays, two of the teachers would be contractually obligated to read our writing aloud to the group of 300+ teens. i had never read my work in public before. i had something like 6k poems and was panicking about it. none of them are good enough. sometimes the train is howling. it is hard, actually, sometimes, even as an adult.
and then i thought - what is one thing i wish i could tell all of them. each of these 300 kids. what did i need to hear, at 16?
i wanted to tell them about the day you wake up, and the sun feels warm finally. i wanted to tell them about carving a life out of soapstone, your hands turning bloody. i wanted to tell them that sometimes yes - it actually does feel easy. i wanted to tell them about weddings and cookie dough and long road trips. about albums of new music and old friends laughing and the sound of snow falling.
you will learn the pattern of the train. you will learn to close your eyes when you hear the engine rumbling. you will learn to let yourself have the grey days in their lily-soft numbness. sometimes it will feel like life is wet paint, and god has smeared your canvas across a sewer grate. sometimes it will be so boring it isn’t even pronounceable - the tenacious, soundless blankness. survival isn’t just ugly nights and wild mornings. it is also the steady, unimportant moments. it is just driving with your seatbelt on. it is calling a friend on the way home. it is burying your face into the fur of your dog.
when i had finished reading this poem aloud, the auditorium was silent for a solid minute. someone stood up to take a picture of where it had been projected onto a screen, and then three more people followed the action, and then - like a bad internet story, people remembered they were supposed to be clapping. kids came up to me after it - thank you for writing that. i think i hear a train coming.
i would write this differently now, i think, but it has been 7 years. i still live by the tracks. i also haven’t picked up a blade in over 10 years. the scars are still there, but these days i only pick up scissors to cut my hair. i know why you can’t tell your mom about it. i know how the numbness slips over everything, a restless horrible cotton. i know how when you dropped the dish, you weren’t crying about the broken glass. i know about feeling like all the roads have closed their exits, that you aren’t supposed to still-be-here - and yet.
i am still here, and still yours, and i haven’t forgotten. what i’m saying is if any hope is calling to you - i know it’s hard, but you have to listen. i’m saying keep driving, but slow down the car. sit down in the shower, i’m not judging you. we can stay in the dark with the good hot water and do nothing but stare. notice the stab wound. make it through another tuesday.
i know what it is like to miss yourself. do what you need to. come home to me. i am writing to you, my past self, from the future. i’ll be waiting for you.
You’re a reasonably informed person on the internet. You’ve experienced things like no longer being able to get files off an old storage device, media you’ve downloaded suddenly going poof, sites and forums with troves full of people’s thoughts and ideas vanishing forever. You’ve heard of cybercrime. You’ve read articles about lost media. You have at least a basic understanding that digital data is vulnerable, is what I’m saying.
I’m guessing that you’re also aware that history is, you know… important? And that it’s an ongoing study, requiring … data about how people live? And that it’s not just about stanning celebrities that happen to be dead?
Congratulations, you are significantly better-informed than the British government!
So they’re currently like “Oh hai can we destroy all these historical documents pls? To save money? Because we’ll digitise them first so it’s fine! That’ll be easy, cheap and reliable – right? These wills from the 1850s will totally be fine for another 170 years as a PNG or whatever, yeah? We didn’t need to do an impact assesment about this because it’s clearly win-win! We’d keep the physical wills of Famous People™ though because Famous People™ actually matter, unlike you plebs. We don’t think there are any equalities implications about this, either! Also the only examples of Famous People™ we can think of are all white and rich, only one is a woman and she got famous because of the guy she married. Kisses!”
Yes, this is the same Government that’s like “Oh no removing a statue of slave trader is erasing history :(”
You have, however, until 23 February 2024 to politely inquire of them what the fuck they are smoking. And they will have to publish a summary of the responses they receive. And it will look kind of bad if the feedback is well-argued, informative and overwhelmingly negative and they go ahead and do it anyway. I currently edit documents including responses to consultations like (but significantly less insane) than this one. Responses do actually matter.
I would particularly encourage British people/people based in the UK to do this, but as far as I can see it doesn’t say you have to be either. If you are, say, a historian or an archivist, or someone who specialises in digital data do say so and draw on your expertise in your answers.
This isn’t a question of filling out a form. You have to manually compose an email answering the 12 questions in the consultation paper at the link above. I’ll put my own answers under the fold.
Note – I never know if I’m being too rude in these sorts of things. You probably shouldn’t be ruder than I have been.
Healthy relationships are clearly better in real-life but fucked-up ones are way more dramatically interesting in fiction. In much the same way–indeed, in exactly the same way–that feudal monarchy is a hell of a lot of fun in fantasy and historical fiction novels, but complete shit to actually live under.
Feudal monarchy is so hilarious because it’s just like: “What if we based our entire sociopolitical structure on fucked-up family dynamics?”
[IMAGE ID: text reading “Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating.
I really think they need to start teaching kids in schools that most blind people can see a little bit, most deaf people can hear a little bit, and most wheelchair users can walk a little bit. And they are still disabled.
once again just preserving the insane takes here on tumblr dot com. Like yeah the specific guy you’re talking to who’s been harmed by this shit in some way personally created the last several thousand years of gender relations. girl i think you might be talking to a vampire, you’re in danger, run!
Me when a woman tells me I created the patriarchy:
I went to a pro-Palestine protest and I later saw that one of the local newspapers had written about it calling it a “pro-Hamas” rally. I left a lengthy comment on the article telling off the author for journalistic malpractice because not one of speakers at the rally ever said that they supported Hamas. He also conveniently omitted the fact that Jewish Voice for Peace was a major organizer of the event to try and make it seem like every single person at the rally was a Muslim. A few days later, the article got taken down. Keep calling out the mainstream media on their hypocrisy and dishonesty - your advocacy DOES make a difference!
Though it can seem daunting, a range of noted thinkers from Karl Marx to Ice T agree that in such scenarios it is necessary to hold your friend to account for their misdeeds. Both for their own sake and for society writ large.
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