To expand on my last point about the irresponsibility of debating genocide: the thing is, after more than 80 days of this genocide being literally televised and widely shared, we just cannot be having the same old discussions about Palestine.
How are we going to have the same conversation about “Hamas this, Hamas that”, “Israel’s right to exist this, bullshit that” when we have lived through the past 80 days watching a tally of an ever increasing number of Palestinians killed by Israel, now reaching over 21,000? We have seen so many instances that many had originally thought “how can Israel recover from this?” and yet here we are after numerous hospitals being bombed, refugee camps shelled, entire residential blocks levelled to the ground, men and women stripped and tortured and executed in football fields.
Not only are these discussions futile in nature as you discuss your humanity with your oppressor, but they had clearly not done anything to stop the bloodshed caused by Israel in the past 75+ years, let alone the past 80 days. These “discussions” are simply Zionists’ favourite pastime to distract from the actual hell we are witnessing and deflect from being held accountable for enabling a literal genocide.
Simply put, conversations about Palestine can no longer centre the aggressor and go through their talking points first to finally be able to discuss the ongoing genocide they’re committing against Palestinians. For a start, shift your focus and make telling Zionists to shut the fuck up an integral part of your daily routine.
the US dropped more than 7.5 million tons of bombs on vietnam, laos and cambodia from 1965-75. they destroyed our land, used agent orange, slaughtered villages, separated families, the list goes on.
but we’re. still. here.
indigenous people are still here. black people are still here. colonized people are resilient. even if you kill our people, ban our languages, destroy our homes, heritage sites and artifacts, we will always find a way to keep our cultures alive and that has always been true
so much of the west and isntreal’s tactics and actions are hauntingly familiar to me as a viet person. its a colonizer’s rinse and repeat. and so that’s how i know palestine will be free. we’ve seen this film before]
Whenever I see people try to differentiate what is “Israel” and what is the “Palestinian state” I always have a very awkward feeling - which is why I think a lot of people need to reevaluate how they speak about Palestine and Israel, specifically what they define as occupied Palestine.
My father’s family is from a village in Jaffa (the district), which is now part of what most people define as “mainland Israel” or an “undisputed” part of Israel - like that land was acquired legally or ethically and an unequivocal part of what is Israel vs what is considered (at least to some) Palestine (the West Bank & Gaza).
My father’s family had the choice to flee or die and to this day cannot return home to Jaffa. It leaves me with a strange feeling when people discuss a hypothetical “two state solution” as if that land is inarguably Israel and the West Bank and Gaza is inarguably Palestine - my family is not from the West Bank or Gaza, they’re from Jaffa. Proudly Palestinians from Jaffa - they’re not Israeli and never be Israeli, they predate the modern colonial state of Israel.
When people talk about occupied Palestine, they’re usually referring to the 1967 borders and the increasing settlements in the West Bank, when Palestinians talk about occupied Palestine, we’re talking about all of it - every corner of what people define as “mainland Israel” there is a story of Palestinian dispossession - It includes my family and thousands of others.
When I was young, I never really understood my parents insistence to only use olive oil imported from Palestine. It took a long time and a great distance in a process that was neither cheap nor convenient. The oil came in old beat-up containers that did not look appealing to me at all. In my head, if they wanted to support distant family back home, they could just send them money and save us and them a big hassle. We could just use the nice looking olive oil containers from the nearby store. Yet, this was never an option in our household. The only olive oil we used at home was from Palestine.
As I grew up and started a student part-time job, I worked with olive oil a little. I knew all about olive oil imported from Spain, Italy, and other countries. I knew which ones were better and more expensive. I also learned to tell, based on the pungent taste, which ones were extra virgin. I was tempted to use my employee discount to bring home one of the fancy bottles and use at our kitchen. I could not get myself to do it, and I did not exactly know why. I felt like it would be disrespectful to my parents even if it didn’t make sense to me. It did not feel right. It was not an option.
After living in Palestine for a year during the olive picking season, something changed. The olive picking season in Palestine is holy.
Palestinians relate to the weather based on how it would benefit or harm the olives. There is well-known unspoken rule about treating olive trees with respect. There is a day off from work just to pick olives. On public transportation, it is not unusual to hear someone on the phone telling their friend to stop by for their share of this year’s olive oil stored in what used to be a Coca-Cola or a liquor bottle. A driver will stop in the middle of the way to give his brother- in- law a jar of olives that are so close to one another that they start to crush showing their insides.
In Nablus, the owner of the Nabulsi soap factory takes pride in how picky he is about getting his olive oil. He insists on filling a cup to let me smell how authentic it is and smirks as he sees my diasporic facial expressions transform in appreciation of its strong smell running through all of my brain cells.
I started noticing how olive oil is an essential part of so many dishes. “Palestinians drink more olive oil than water” I would jokingly say and they would laugh in agreement. Olive oil is truly an everyday ritual.
They fantasize about its color when it’s fresh and remind me that it starts to change as it reacts with oxygen over time. They dip their bread into olive oil, just like that and without any additions, and enjoy it more than the sweetest of all foods. I can guarantee that every lunch invitation (عزومة) I received during the olive-picking season was a chance for my hosts to share their olive oil using Msakhan (a traditional Palestinian dish).
I now have a deeper understanding of the psychology behind the burning of olive trees by Israeli soldiers and why farmers moan at the scene as if they lost a loved one.
Wherever you are, if it’s accessible to you, make sure your olive oil is Palestinian. Your ancestors would want that.
Porn bots on here are trying out new pick up lines, I see
This has to be adaptive learning. A line like this wouldn’t work on any other goddamn site or its userbase aside from this godsforsaken one and it knows that
Men and masculinity are not inherently bad or untrustworthy things and I don’t mean that in a ‘misandry is real and a problem’ way, I mean that in a 'I think some of you might have contracted minor TERF poisoning’ way
I hate how when you add ANY amount of new liquid to a boiling pot it immediately goes dead silent like…. Oh. You’re here 😐. The water molecules looking at you like
You want more minority representation in media but if they have flaws its problematic and if theyre perfect theyre a patronizing mary sue. If they crack under the pressure of the conflict the author thinks that minority is weak and if they overcome the adversity they must be a neoliberal bootlicker who thinks real world bigotry is a matter of personal attitude. You want minority characters but if theyre a villain its violently problematic and if theyre the protagonist then we circle back to the very first sentence. If theyre a side character theyre being sidelined and the author is once again bigoted, and don’t you know that every single minority character death is unilaterally bigoted, without exception? You want more minority characters but if their identity is a big part of their personality or struggles then they’re problematic and if their identity has nothing to do with their personality or struggles then the author is tokenizing that identity for clout. You want more minority characters but every time theres a minority character who doesnt have every single experience that you have then you tell the author to kill themselves on twitter. You wonder why not even minority authors will write minority characters.
I would ask you to read Catch-22, but you’d just call the military base problematic.
Is there any more authentic bisexual experience than thinking that your personal experience of being Bi doesn’t count so you have to consult a more authentic Bi person?
“what use is it to be an illustrator of children’s books when the world has sentenced the children of your country to the death penalty, to vanish, to genocide?”
some of baraa’s illustrations:
this is an illustration for youssef, whose mother is remembered running desperately into the hospital asking if anyone had seen a “small white boy with beautiful curly hair, his name is youssef,” a description which was remembered by millions when she finally identified his body:
this illustration is for young omar, who was hugging his little brother and teaching him how to repeat the shahada after him (a prayer spoken by muslims before their death) as he lay on his hospital bed:
“we want a new year that doesn’t kill us or our children, we want it a year without blood, without screaming, without pain, we want a new attempt to get our lives back, or something that resembled our life, even if life is a lie we still cling to it, return life to us—a new year’s card unlike any other year:”
baraa is currently fundraising to get her family of 12 out of gaza. she is a friend of mine and this is a reputable fundraiser, so please donate if you can. the egyptian government is currently charging upwards of 5,000 USD per person to get to cairo through the rafah border:
don’t know a thing about 3d printing!! but one day i’ll make a whale skeleton that’s small enough to hang from my ceiling like they have at museums and it’s going to be sick as hell
What I miss about 90s comedy films is that they didn’t feel the need to justify real adult men operating according to cartoon physics.
Like, does he have magical powers? Is he some sort of mystical ninja? No – he’s a regular human man who just got thrown twenty feet through the air by an exploding microwave, tumbled out the window and over the balcony, fell two stories and landed flat on his back on solid concrete, and he’s gonna lay there for a few seconds all cross-eyed and making a noise like “EeEeEeUuUuUuHhHhHh”, and then next scene he’s going to be fine. This is how it works.
Accidentally plugs himself into an electrical transformer, gets shocked so bad he’s visibly singed and his hair is all standing on end, exhales a cloud of smoke and keels over, is back to normal after the next cut.
Actually, people were just more durable in 90s.
This man lives through the entirety of the film. If I recall correctly, this occurred after being hit in the face repeatedly with red bricks that had fallen at least forty feet.
I love how cheaply it was all done, too. Like, the special effects technology to do a proper Looney Tunes style skeleton-showing-through-the-flesh bit existed at the time, but they didn’t budget for it – they just fucking replace him with a classroom model skeleton for one shot. The body falling off the roof is clearly empty clothes stuffed with rags. It looked like shit even by the standards of its time and nobody cared. This film made four hundred million dollars.
I AM SO ANGRY AMETHYST IS RESISTENT TO THE OCCASIONAL BATH BUT THE GEODE CRUST CERTAINLY ISN’T LITERALLY MINERALS BREAKING DOWN BY BEING PULVERIZED WITH HOT WATER IS HOW GEODES FUCKINGCRYSTALIZES IN THE FIRST PLACE AND YOUR TAKING A GEODE THAT BIG AND TURNING IT INTO THE PERMANANT WATER CONTAMINATE AND BACTERIAL CESS POOL THAT IS A SINK WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU NEVER GONNA USE TOOTHPASTE OR FUCKING SOAP SO IT DOESN’T EAT A HOLE THRU THE BOTTOM OF YOUR FUCKING SINK YOU GODDAMN GOON WHY DON’T YOU JUST MAKE A STOVE OUT OF CARDBOARD OR A DOOR OUT OF TISSUE PAPER??? WHY DONT YOU MAKE PIPES OUT OF FUCKING SMARTIES CANDY OR TABLE LEGS OUT OF PLAY DOUGH FUCK YOU BUDDY IF I WALKED INTO A PLACE AND HAD TO CLEAN A BATHROOM AND SAW THAT SHIT I WOULD BREAK YOUR FUCKING SKULL OPEN WITH A STEEL PIPE
Never before has an art installation spoken to my very being like this.
The “text added by an anonymous artist” part is throwing me. Did some unidentified person just go in and add words below the installation and they decided “well, this is part of the art now” or what
Neoliberalism kills working class arts because when your rent eats up 80% of your income and you have to put more hours (or jobs) in to make ends meet, you just don’t have the time or money to be creative. The property laws that have more or less killed off the squat scene play a big part too.
The UAW in particular is a union that’s been a pretty popular punching bag in the American public consciousness in my lifetime, so it’s hard not to see stuff like this and think there’s just been a fundamental shift in how the general populace views unions and strikes in the past half-decade
Little girl was part of a county fair agro-educational program where they raise an animal for a few months and at the end it’s slaughtered. Supposed to teach them about the economics of farming and stuff.
But the little girl loved her goat so much she was crying on the day her goat was supposed to be taken away, so her mom sent the county fair people an email saying “I’ll pay for the goat and any expenses. We’ve had several deaths in the family in the past year, I don’t wanna take away one more thing my little girl loves.” Technically the goat had already been sold at auction, so the mom was on the hook for about $1000, only about $70 of which would have been profit for the county fair.
The county fair people were irate and got law enforcement involved, over this “breach of contract”. They literally got a fucking judge to sign a search warrant, authorizing them to go to this little girl’s house and search every room and every cabinet or box “large enough to contain a small goat”. The sheriff’s deputies seized the goat, and whoever they gave it to immediately slaughtered it, though they were supposed to wait until some kind of agreement had been worked out.
In the county fair’s initial email correspondence with the girl’s mother, they made it clear that they were pissed off because the story of the little girl who loved her goat was circulating on social media making them look bad, and they felt the girl needed to be taught a lesson about keeping your promises or whatever. So they refused the mother’s offer to pay for it, and insisted they get the goat. Even if it meant sending the fucking cops into her house lmao.
the congressman who bought the goat didn’t have any objections to the family saving the goat from slaughter either! it’s fucking insane that the cops were so eager to play act their swat commando fantasies that they played stooge to the benefit of no one except some self important local organizers!
Alternate link, LAtimes locks their stuff behind paywalls sometimes
Don’t forget the part where the goat wasn’t where they had a warrant to search, so they drove 500 miles, leaving the area they have legal jurisdiction in, then searched a farm they didn’t have a warrant for ans seized the goat. The fair then had the goat slaughtered, even though a court had ordered them to keep it alive until ownership was resolved and despite the fact that both potential owners of the goat had decided to keep it alive.
They broke multiple laws in order to “teach” a little girl the “lesson” that “everybody has to follow the rules”.
I sure hope all of the complaints sent to Shasta District Fair CEO Melanie Silva, whose decisions these were and continues to defend her actions, are polite and don’t waste too much ink. I’m certain nobody would take advantage of the fact that the Sasha District Fair and Event Center’s contact page lists their phone and fax numbers, not to mention the email form below that.
Would be a shame if that information was to circulate far an wide, and ruin that despicable woman’s easter holidays
I found the lawsuit filing. It is a work of art, brief and to the point. If you read nothing else, check out page 2, the section headed Nature of the Action. Magnificent.
One of the things that bugs me in the notes is a bunch of people being like ‘it’s a livestock animal, it’s her fault for getting attached’ and.
My dudes, I cannot emphasize enough that the little girl’s emotional attachment to the goat is in fact the least of the issues with this story. The main issue in this story is the fact that a bunch of cops broke multiple laws, including the unlawful entry to the property the goat was being held, the unlawful seizure and destruction of said goat, and the unlawful use of a criminal search warrant in a civil dispute case, just to start with.
The little girl owned the goat. At no point in the proceedings - and indeed at no point in the proceedings in the course of the normal auction-purchase-slaughter of a livestock animal in this program - did the fair own the goat. At no point in the proceedings did the person who successfully bid on the goat actually own it - he had made the winning bid to purchase rights to the meat. He hadn’t even done that yet! The goat legally and incontrovertibly belonged to the little girl. The very worst that should have happened in this story is a brief property ownership dispute in a civil court.
The fair CEO decided to unlawfully force the auction of the goat, and, when the girl’s mother began to dispute her actions, to make a false claim of theft, with precisely ZERO legal basis, calling the cops on an already emotionally fragile child, and then had the temerity to be angry with the child’s mother because the story was making them look bad on social media.
Regardless of your opinion on the meat industry, livestock slaughter, or 4H, 'cops drive 500 miles, perform an illegal search, seizure and destruction of an American citizen’s property, on the word of a biased 3rd party with zero legal rights to the property in question’ should make you angry. Because it is a violation of civil rights, and also had no motive besides needless cruelty to an already grieving child.
Like, please read how unhinged this is. Cops literally went all vigilante with getting deputies to go break into someone’s home, 500 miles out of their jurisdiction, to kill a goddamn goat the fair didn’t own. Authoritarians are so eager to hurt people at all times. This is fucking terrifying.
so i noticed that graph is based on data collected in 2011, and i got curious. the most recent one they have now is 2016.
also the website is a wonderful resource i’ve been exploring. it breaks down the intimidating complexity of US politics to help busy folks who want to understand better but don’t know where to start. and as someone who is neurodivergent, the charts and graphs they use are so helpful for comprehension!
The problem with the Democratic party is that they have no spine, and when someone like Hunt actually makes a stand they won’t back her. But now that she’s made headlines they want to claim her for publicity’s sake.
She’s fighting for her kid’s life and all the DNC can think about is how they can use her in ads instead of doing anything to stop this wave of bigoted laws.
The Salt Lake Tribune reports that the parent, who remains unidentified for privacy reasons, submitted their challenge on Dec. 11 along with an eight-page list of passages from the Bible that they found to be offensive and worth reviewing.
“Incest, onanism, bestiality, prostitution, genital mutilation, fellatio, dildos, rape, and even infanticide,” the parent wrote in their request. “You’ll no doubt find that the Bible, under Utah Code Ann. § 76-10-1227, has ‘no serious values for minors’ because it’s pornographic by our new definition.”
In their request, the parent goes on to say: “I thank the Utah Legislature and Utah Parents United for making this bad faith process so much easier and way more efficient. Now we can all ban books and you don’t even need to read them or be accurate about it. Heck, you don’t even need to see the book!”
id like to nominate Unidentified Utah Parent for president of their local school board and also Congress
AGES is asking for people to spread awareness by retweeting the above tweet and signing the petition to Sega management, which can be found here.
Please note that they also say “Continue playing the Sega games we all love.”THIS MEANS TO NOT BOYCOTT SEGA OR ITS PRODUCTS.
[plain text: “Oh, so the Sonic Superstars announcement was a distraction from the fact Sega is actively union-busting.” /End plain text]
[ID: Screenshot of a tweet by @/takesAEGIS that reads; “We are disappointed that Sega management has decided to interfere in our democratic right to organize leading up to the NLRB mailing out our ballots on June 16.” Below it is an image of a white gloved fist inside a circle, with all caps text on its outline that reads; “Allied Employees Guild Improving Sega”, “CWA Local 9510”. /End ID]
[plain text: “AGES is asking for people to spread awareness by retweeting the above tweet and signing the petition to Sega management, which can be found here.” /End plain text] https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/supportsegaworkers/
[plain text: “Please note that they also say "Continue playing the Sega games we all love.” This means to not boycott Sega or its products.“ /End plain text]
Short explanation: if Sonic’s clone is a girl it means that sonic could be afab
Long explanation:
In Sonic The Hedgehog 2 there was a glitch were Sonic’s palette would turn green and black, the fans named it evil sonic/ Ashura the hedgehog
Archie’s artist Ken Penders turned this concept into a character named Scourge The Hedgehog, aka anti-sonic; a sonic from a parallele universe, bizzarro style
He was a fan favorite but Penders wasnt really the best (Google Ken Penders lawsuits to check) and gived a lot of problems to Sega and in the end the Archie comics had to stop because of him, and now IDW pubblish sonic comics, and due how messy Archie sonic was, now Sonic Team has put a lot of rules of what the writers can or can not put in the comic.
Since they cant use Scourge anymore; IDW made a new character based on the green sonic glitch:
Surge the Tenrec; a clone of sonic made by Dr Starline! And since she is a clone and a girl; accidentally implies that sonic may be afab
btw since i am actually homeless now and the holidays are over i guess i should put a donation link here. you don’t have to give me any money! i know how to live for free. it would just help me be more comfortable
things i’ll spend money on in priority order:
- gas for my car (this will keep me from getting towed and get me to therapy and case management appointments)
- food and water (only if i run out of food stamps, or the occasional hot food treat)
- extra blankets and clothes for the winter (it’s pretty warm so i might not need this)
- laundry
i don’t really like the idea of asking for money since i do in fact have plenty of experience with this situation. i’ve lived in my car for two and a half years total now, and i know if i’m lucky i can survive this way for a long, long time. a little extra cash will just keep me sane and for sure safe without needing to get lucky. so, if you do throw something my way i will appreciate it! it will make my life easier for sure. but, if you’d rather give your money to someone who needs it more (including yourself), i don’t mind at all.
there’s no monthly rewards or anything, but for a bit of fun bonus, anyone who donates will get to see my face reveal
anyone know that reddit post about a girl who’s gf washes her hair and it talks about non sexual intimacy
found it :)
My heart..
This reminds me of this post;
Forgive me guys as I do not remember where the screenshot is from, but I have it here and I wanted to share with you.
I have had guy friends cry because I enthusiastically asked to do their hair in plaits. I have shave my head out of hair frustration a lot but I loved braiding my own hair. like, crown braid casually during a test instead of a ponytail when I needed my hair off my face type speed braiding. and I have a lot of guy friends with that long flowy Viking hair. gal friends love me doing their hair, paid me to do it for prom and shit, so I started asking my male friends to plait their hair like a viking. I stg, some have cried. some freeze like a internet explorer tab.
and this is a thing we just DID at sleepovers to each other as girls! I am used to this level of “let me get uncomfortably close and bond with you” monkey type grooming. it breaks my heart when I compliment a man or offer a sincere “that’s fucked bruh” bear hug and they hesitate or seem to look for a trick. y'all be touch starved and get shit when you try and seek it from anyone in a non sexual context, how is this not a set up for unhealthy thoughts about self worth?
How many times do I have to say this, the first post’s OP is a GUY. Stop erasing men’s experiences with intimacy.
ALSO HE MADE ANOTHER POST ABOUT MAKING HIS GF PANCAKES!!!!
transcript:
My girlfriend had a really long week and was tired. I know she likes pancakes and chocolate so I wanted to surprise her with chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast in bed on her day off. I snuck out of bed early and I followed the directions on the box exactly, but i was worried the batter was going to be too thick with the chocolate chips so I added a bit more milk. Then it was too runny so I had to add more flour, then it was way too thick. So I didnt want to water it down anymore and said fuck it, but then they werent cooking properly. I also tried to make a heart with the chocolate chips but between the thickness of the batter and geberal spatula fuckery they came out more like scrambled pan muffin egg cakes and there was no heart.
You guys, her face just lit up and she was so happy with my pancake mess. She kept putting her fork down to kiss me and the way she looked at me… like its weird to type but I really feel like im something, or like im SOMEBODY you know. It was that same feeling where, I guess I felt really proud of myself for doing something like that, I mean I was pretty shy cause they weren’t nice pancakes but she said I made her happy….
I’m sorry for posting this here again. I just really dont have an outlet where i can talk about romantic stuff like this, people around me arent about that kind of thing but really, being with her and doing these nice gentle things…
anyone know that reddit post about a girl who’s gf washes her hair and it talks about non sexual intimacy
found it :)
My heart..
This reminds me of this post;
Forgive me guys as I do not remember where the screenshot is from, but I have it here and I wanted to share with you.
I have had guy friends cry because I enthusiastically asked to do their hair in plaits. I have shave my head out of hair frustration a lot but I loved braiding my own hair. like, crown braid casually during a test instead of a ponytail when I needed my hair off my face type speed braiding. and I have a lot of guy friends with that long flowy Viking hair. gal friends love me doing their hair, paid me to do it for prom and shit, so I started asking my male friends to plait their hair like a viking. I stg, some have cried. some freeze like a internet explorer tab.
and this is a thing we just DID at sleepovers to each other as girls! I am used to this level of “let me get uncomfortably close and bond with you” monkey type grooming. it breaks my heart when I compliment a man or offer a sincere “that’s fucked bruh” bear hug and they hesitate or seem to look for a trick. y'all be touch starved and get shit when you try and seek it from anyone in a non sexual context, how is this not a set up for unhealthy thoughts about self worth?
How many times do I have to say this, the first post’s OP is a GUY. Stop erasing men’s experiences with intimacy.
ALSO HE MADE ANOTHER POST ABOUT MAKING HIS GF PANCAKES!!!!
transcript:
My girlfriend had a really long week and was tired. I know she likes pancakes and chocolate so I wanted to surprise her with chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast in bed on her day off. I snuck out of bed early and I followed the directions on the box exactly, but i was worried the batter was going to be too thick with the chocolate chips so I added a bit more milk. Then it was too runny so I had to add more flour, then it was way too thick. So I didnt want to water it down anymore and said fuck it, but then they werent cooking properly. I also tried to make a heart with the chocolate chips but between the thickness of the batter and geberal spatula fuckery they came out more like scrambled pan muffin egg cakes and there was no heart.
You guys, her face just lit up and she was so happy with my pancake mess. She kept putting her fork down to kiss me and the way she looked at me… like its weird to type but I really feel like im something, or like im SOMEBODY you know. It was that same feeling where, I guess I felt really proud of myself for doing something like that, I mean I was pretty shy cause they weren’t nice pancakes but she said I made her happy….
I’m sorry for posting this here again. I just really dont have an outlet where i can talk about romantic stuff like this, people around me arent about that kind of thing but really, being with her and doing these nice gentle things…