when i see people express sentiments like this, my thought is pretty much “who exactly are you trying to prove a point to?” the democrats? if trump gets elected, they’re going to be completely sidelined if not worse and will be entirely focused on trying to get back in power and i can tell you they will NOT be moving further left. netanyahu? it’s a BETTER outcome for him if trump wins since trump is SIGNIFICANTLY more pro-israel than biden has ever been. the people in gaza? they need a ceasefire which has been rejected by both the israel and the hamas sides multiple times and a trump win WILL NOT make that a stronger possibility.
While this tweet feels suspiciously like psyops, this kind of perspective is growing more and more common. It comes from the belief that it is more important to punish sinners for their crimes than it is to care for the innocent.
It is there in the voices who want Israel to burn more than they want Palestinians to have their freedom. Who want to attack public figures for using politically incorrect words more than they want to help people that those words describe. Who want Biden to lose the presidency more than they want safety and freedom for Americans (or Palestinians).
It is not, ultimately, an effective perspective. Punishments are far less of a deterrent than people think they are. Protesters know they may be arrested, maybe even beaten or shot, but they protest anyway. Criminals are well aware of the justice system, and yet crime persists. If someone genuinely believes that they must do something, then the threat of punishment does very little.
But more importantly,punishment is not justice. Sometimes punishment can help to bring about justice, but that does not make them the same thing.
Voting out Biden will not create justice. At its absolute best, it would punish Biden. But it would also punish millions of other people who are vulnerable and in need of our assistance.
Rather than taking the action that best punishes the perpetrators, we must try to find the paths that best support the victims. Sometimes, if we’re lucky, the same action will do both.
This is not one of those times.
In the 2000 election, a bunch of people wanted to send a message. They wanted to send the message that the environment was important and climate change was real and the US needed to do something about it.
So they voted third party for Ralph Nader and the Green Party.
They cost the Democrats the election. So instead of noted environmentalist and climate change activist Al Gore, we got George W. Bush.
But they sent a message right? They made a stand for their cause right? Surely it helped their cause, right?
It ENDED the Green party single-handedly as well as Ralph Nadar’s career, because they were blamed for splitting the vote and getting a moron nepo-baby oilman into power.
Bush was able to stall for eight years on even admitting climate change existed, while making tons of money for his friends in the oil industry. AND he started two decades of wars that are still ongoing to this day. Literally millions died.
Next time it might be birth control rights. It might be nuclear war.
The genocide? Will escalate. More will happen in other parts of the world. Maybe here, who fucking knows.
I voted for Nader in 2000. It was my first Presidential election vote. It was my friends who went into warzones at the order of the man who took office as a result.
Your elders are SCREAMING at you to please learn from history.
I’ve been told that the “Nader split the Democratic vote” narrative is overstated, but I was there and I remember. It absolutely happened.
when i see people express sentiments like this, my thought is pretty much “who exactly are you trying to prove a point to?” the democrats? if trump gets elected, they’re going to be completely sidelined if not worse and will be entirely focused on trying to get back in power and i can tell you they will NOT be moving further left. netanyahu? it’s a BETTER outcome for him if trump wins since trump is SIGNIFICANTLY more pro-israel than biden has ever been. the people in gaza? they need a ceasefire which has been rejected by both the israel and the hamas sides multiple times and a trump win WILL NOT make that a stronger possibility.
While this tweet feels suspiciously like psyops, this kind of perspective is growing more and more common. It comes from the belief that it is more important to punish sinners for their crimes than it is to care for the innocent.
It is there in the voices who want Israel to burn more than they want Palestinians to have their freedom. Who want to attack public figures for using politically incorrect words more than they want to help people that those words describe. Who want Biden to lose the presidency more than they want safety and freedom for Americans (or Palestinians).
It is not, ultimately, an effective perspective. Punishments are far less of a deterrent than people think they are. Protesters know they may be arrested, maybe even beaten or shot, but they protest anyway. Criminals are well aware of the justice system, and yet crime persists. If someone genuinely believes that they must do something, then the threat of punishment does very little.
But more importantly,punishment is not justice. Sometimes punishment can help to bring about justice, but that does not make them the same thing.
Voting out Biden will not create justice. At its absolute best, it would punish Biden. But it would also punish millions of other people who are vulnerable and in need of our assistance.
Rather than taking the action that best punishes the perpetrators, we must try to find the paths that best support the victims. Sometimes, if we’re lucky, the same action will do both.
This is not one of those times.
In the 2000 election, a bunch of people wanted to send a message. They wanted to send the message that the environment was important and climate change was real and the US needed to do something about it.
So they voted third party for Ralph Nader and the Green Party.
They cost the Democrats the election. So instead of noted environmentalist and climate change activist Al Gore, we got George W. Bush.
But they sent a message right? They made a stand for their cause right? Surely it helped their cause, right?
It ENDED the Green party single-handedly as well as Ralph Nadar’s career, because they were blamed for splitting the vote and getting a moron nepo-baby oilman into power.
Bush was able to stall for eight years on even admitting climate change existed, while making tons of money for his friends in the oil industry. AND he started two decades of wars that are still ongoing to this day. Literally millions died.
Next time it might be birth control rights. It might be nuclear war.
The genocide? Will escalate. More will happen in other parts of the world. Maybe here, who fucking knows.
I voted for Nader in 2000. It was my first Presidential election vote. It was my friends who went into warzones at the order of the man who took office as a result.
Your elders are SCREAMING at you to please learn from history.
I’ve been told that the “Nader split the Democratic vote” narrative is overstated, but I was there and I remember. It absolutely happened.
when i see people express sentiments like this, my thought is pretty much “who exactly are you trying to prove a point to?” the democrats? if trump gets elected, they’re going to be completely sidelined if not worse and will be entirely focused on trying to get back in power and i can tell you they will NOT be moving further left. netanyahu? it’s a BETTER outcome for him if trump wins since trump is SIGNIFICANTLY more pro-israel than biden has ever been. the people in gaza? they need a ceasefire which has been rejected by both the israel and the hamas sides multiple times and a trump win WILL NOT make that a stronger possibility.
While this tweet feels suspiciously like psyops, this kind of perspective is growing more and more common. It comes from the belief that it is more important to punish sinners for their crimes than it is to care for the innocent.
It is there in the voices who want Israel to burn more than they want Palestinians to have their freedom. Who want to attack public figures for using politically incorrect words more than they want to help people that those words describe. Who want Biden to lose the presidency more than they want safety and freedom for Americans (or Palestinians).
It is not, ultimately, an effective perspective. Punishments are far less of a deterrent than people think they are. Protesters know they may be arrested, maybe even beaten or shot, but they protest anyway. Criminals are well aware of the justice system, and yet crime persists. If someone genuinely believes that they must do something, then the threat of punishment does very little.
But more importantly,punishment is not justice. Sometimes punishment can help to bring about justice, but that does not make them the same thing.
Voting out Biden will not create justice. At its absolute best, it would punish Biden. But it would also punish millions of other people who are vulnerable and in need of our assistance.
Rather than taking the action that best punishes the perpetrators, we must try to find the paths that best support the victims. Sometimes, if we’re lucky, the same action will do both.
This is not one of those times.
In the 2000 election, a bunch of people wanted to send a message. They wanted to send the message that the environment was important and climate change was real and the US needed to do something about it.
So they voted third party for Ralph Nader and the Green Party.
They cost the Democrats the election. So instead of noted environmentalist and climate change activist Al Gore, we got George W. Bush.
But they sent a message right? They made a stand for their cause right? Surely it helped their cause, right?
It ENDED the Green party single-handedly as well as Ralph Nadar’s career, because they were blamed for splitting the vote and getting a moron nepo-baby oilman into power.
Bush was able to stall for eight years on even admitting climate change existed, while making tons of money for his friends in the oil industry. AND he started two decades of wars that are still ongoing to this day. Literally millions died.
Next time it might be birth control rights. It might be nuclear war.
The genocide? Will escalate. More will happen in other parts of the world. Maybe here, who fucking knows.
I voted for Nader in 2000. It was my first Presidential election vote. It was my friends who went into warzones at the order of the man who took office as a result.
Your elders are SCREAMING at you to please learn from history.
I’ve been told that the “Nader split the Democratic vote” narrative is overstated, but I was there and I remember. It absolutely happened.
getting horror movie vibes from the trip your friends were planning, you decided to simply stay home.
It had been a joke, mostly, when you said you were getting horror movie vibes to your friends. They laughed, you laughed, but you still had a point. A little cabin, in the middle of the woods? During summer? That was practically screaming “We’re in a horror movie!”
You had wanted to go, honest, but really, if you had to deal with bugs, no AC access during the middle of summer, and spotty at best cell service? You would’ve laid prone on the ground and wait for the earth to reclaim you.
Your friends go off with promises of awesome pictures and cool looking rocks, and you stay behind, with promises to check up on their places, make sure any pets are alright and no break-ins have occurred.
Their first night there, they all get on a call with you and tell you about the car ride to the cabin, all the stupid songs and weird snacks and silly stories they shared with each other. You laugh along with them, and tell them in excruciating detail about the delicious pizza you are eating that very moment, as they whine and complain halfheartedly.
Their second night there, they complain about the bugs, and tell you about the lake that’s just a 15 minutes walk away from the cabin, how beautiful it is. You all joke about catching fish with bare hands, and a couple of your friends seem to genuinely consider it.
Their third night there, they tell you about the strange sounds at night, the tracks that don’t seem to be made by wild animals, how the woods will fall eerily silent at times. You think about your horror movie comment a few days prior, and you worry.
Their fourth night there, they tell you about these strange rectangular pits they found not far from the cabin, several feet deep and seemingly freshly dug. There are six holes, they tell you, and you think about how there are five of them there, and how you almost went with them.
Their fifth night there, they don’t call, and they don’t pick up. You don’t sleep well.
Their sixth night, only one friend calls, panicked and crying, and tells you that the holes are graves, that something, someone, killed the others. They’re the only one left. You have to help them, they beg of you. But you’re too far away, too powerless, and the call ends soon after.
You call the authorities, leave them an anonymous tip that there’s a group of people out in the woods, dead. You don’t sleep that night.
The seventh day you spend worried, for your last remaining friend, for yourself.
The seventh night you spend paranoid, because there were six graves, and you’re the only one left.
By the eighth night, there is something in your house, and even as you call the police, you know they will be too late.
You lock yourself in your bathroom and cry as the footsteps get closer to your door, as it gets smashed open, wood splintering under the blade of a bloodstained axe.
“I don’t understand,” you manage between your sobs. “I did everything right.”
The killer tilts their head at you, almost pityingly.
It’s really important when you’re at work to go out there and really give it your 60%. Maybe 35%.
One time my boss told a whole story about how if a person who made parachutes didn’t give their job 100%, people would die.
I made the point that
There’s probably a whole quality and compliance process for parachute assembly and it’s not just one bloke in a factory making and distributing them.
We get a 30 minute lunch break and no company benefits.
We don’t make parachutes.
I had a disciplinary meeting and then went back to giving them as much as they gave me.
No one died.
There’s something all us old heads tell to new hires: Hard work is rewarded with more work.
Don’t kill yourself for a company that’ll gladly replace you by week’s end
As a newbie in an office environment, I noticed the laser printer was flashing a Low Toner warning message and reported it to my supervisor.
“Oh, we’ll call IT when it fails completely,” I was told.
Thinking that was stupid and knowing where the replacement toner cartridges were stored (in a stack next to the printer) I showed some initiative and did it right then.
Guess what happened next?
I was forever after “toner cartridge guy” and my job duties expanded to replacing the toner when it died.
“your honor, this hard working phd student was simply resting her head after a long day at work. the evidence presented by the prosecution was already present when she arrived at the table. it’s an anime convention, people lose and forget things all the time. there is no connection between her and the yaoi paddle”
cisformation: make a bunch of super saiyan sounds and walk away
cisubstantiation: by the power of god this bread has remained bread
idk its just neat
cisformers: they’re just cars
ciscontinental railroad: one of those little track rides they have at the seaside where there’s a little western-style train that goes around in a loop
When we’re new to adulthood, it doesn’t immediately occur to all of us that you’re almost always allowed to leave a situation, because growing up we’re forced to stay in situations until someone dismisses us and/or takes us home, or if we do leave on our own accord there’s someone waiting at home to say “we don’t quit in this family!” Boring party? You can leave. You don’t like the lecture? You can walk out. New doctor not working out? You can end the appointment, you don’t need to wait for them to dismiss you. Bad date? You can just go home. Leaving a situation prematurely might have consequences, but unless you’re under arrest or serving prison time, it’s pretty much always allowed.
A while back, I called for a Lyft ride home from the airport. The lyft pulled up, he called my name, and I opened the door and climbed in. While I was climbing in he was getting out, which I didn’t realize until he opened the back door on the other side.
Him: I’ll put your bag in the trunk. Me: Oh, there’s no need. Him: I’ll just put it back there. Me: I prefer to keep my bag with me.
I was also still holding onto it so he couldn’t just grab it, and when I said “I prefer to keep it with me” this cloud of rage crossed his face.
Him: Then get out. Me: Excuse me? Him: Get out, I don’t want your bag fucking up my upholstery.
Now, this was a weekender – essentially an upscale duffle bag. Small, almost brand new, easily fitting on the middle-seat beside me. I don’t know if he was just really intense about his upholstery or if he was running some kind of scam, but either way I now DEFINITELY was not going to let him separate me from my bag.
So I said “Okay,” and I picked up my bag and got out, took out my phone, and cancelled him as my driver.
He looked at me like I’d grown a second head. There was this moment of total disconnect in his face, and then he started ranting about how someone had damaged his upholstery and they needed to put their bags in the back and he wasn’t going to have me getting his upholstery dirty.
I said, “I’m out of your car. Drive on, I’ll get another,” and held up my phone.
This had clearly never happened before – it looked like plenty of people had thought “This guy is crazy” but went the “so I’d better let him do what he wants” route instead of “so I’m getting out of his car”. Which is totally normal! We’re socialized to prioritize “not making a scene” over personal safety. But when you do call that bluff, when you defy the social convention that the other person is counting on to make you do what they want you to do, they don’t know how to react, which gives you time for a clean getaway. And maybe he thought I was a dickhead but what do I care what an asshole thinks of me?
Anyway the moral of the story is yes, you should know that you can almost always leave a situation and often it’s in your best interest to do so.
(Right after I called for another car he picked up a fare using Quick Match or whatever it’s called, peeled out of the Lyft lane, and hit another car well nigh immediately.)
[ID: The Benefits of walking away. (Illustration of the back of a person walking away. ) 1. Makes bad things disappear quickly. 2. Gives everyone optimal view of your back. 3. Answers question, “I wonder what would happen if I just walked away”]
Ok but like. What the fuck is there to do on the internet anymore?
Idk when I was younger, you could just go and go and find exciting new websites full of whatever cool things you wanted to explore. An overabundance of ways to occupy your time online.
Now, it’s just… Social media. That’s it. Social media and news sites. And I’m tired of social media and I’m tired of the news.
Am I just like completely inept at finding new things or has the internet just fallen apart that much with the problems of SEO and web 3.0 turning everything into a same-site prison?
ALSO you should consider browsing Virtual Pet List and seeing if there are any pet sites you might be interested in playing. There is a whole genre of browser games right under your nose
Another one that I just found recently is this, which is a whole collection of blogs, organized by topic!
Look guys the real internet IS STILL THERE I’m going to cry
My site’s hosted by neocities too and it’s literally just $5 a month (!)….that’s a site now 22 years old, I have some 60,000 files on it constituting several gigs. Other site hosts are like $40 a month to host a quarter what I have. Everybody get a neocities account and keep rebuilding the internet
me explaining my gender to a cishet person: “I don’t really mind what you call me or what gender I am just decide whatever you think fits”
me explaining my gender to a queer person: “I am a man who’s a woman and a woman who’s a man and a nonbinary person who’s a woman and a nonbinary person who’s a man and a man who’s a nonbinary person and a woman who’s a nonbirary person. I am also not nonbinary or a man or a woman but I’m also a man a woman and nonbinary”
Just an FYI for those in the US with insurance issues
Important information! Insurance coverage decisions are made by medically ignorant bean-counters. Until we can dismantle the whole shitty system, know how to scare them into submission.
This is like that procedure Mr. Incredible told that old lady
Reblogging for visibility
[Image Description: Text: Medical Hack: So, your doctor ordered a test or treatment and your insurance company denied it. That is a typical cost saving method. Okay, here is what you do:
Call the insurance company and tell them you want to speak with the “HIPPA Compliance/Privacy Officer” (By federal law, they have to have one)
Then ask them for Names as well as Credentials of every person Accessing Your Record to make that decision of denial. By law you have a Right to that informantion.
They will almost always Reverse the Decision very shortly rather than admit that the committee is made of low paid H.S. Graduates, looking at all “criteria words,” making the decision to deny your care. Even in the rare case it is made by medical personel, it is unlikely that it is made by a board cerified doctor in that specialty and they Do Not Want You to Know This!
Any refusal should be reported to the U.S. Office of Civil Rights (OCR.gov) as a HIPPA violation. Description ends]
I was looking at this thinking “that’s odd phrasing, ‘whinging little fuckers’ would be how you’d normally say it”, and then I realised, wait, “Little Whinging” is a direct reference to Harry Potter. David Tennant does not miss.
It’s apparently sexual assault to masturbate to the idea of someone without getting their permission first. I’ve been suddenly thrown back into 2015 Tumblr
I keep seeing people genuinely having this take and I am just…aghast is probably the right word? At the idea that if you want to jerk off while thinking about someone you need to have their permission. Do people genuinely not understand how much more invasive and unwanted bringing that question to someone would be?
In what world is thinking about someone while you masturbate without their permission sexual assault, but it’s fine if you approach someone who almost certainly does not want to know if you think about them like that, make that knowledge available to them, and then put making the decision on weather you are allowed to jerk off while thinking about them entirely on their shoulders? In what world is that second thing not a hundred times worse?
To be very clear:
✅ jerking off thinking about whoever you want, for any reason, without permission. Don’t tell them unless you are in a relationship with them and it seems like something they would like to hear! You are fine, you are not hurting anyone! This is nobody’s business but yours, period.
🚫 walking up to a platonic friend or acquaintance or co-worker and saying “hey I really want to jerk off while thinking of you, but it seems creepy to do that without your permission, so can you tell me it’s fine to do that?” This is sexual harassment no matter who you do this to, and if you are doing this to a co-worker this is grounds for you being fired. If you do this to someone who is working at their job, but you do not work there (like a barista or a waitress), do not be surprised if you get kicked out of that establishment for creep behavior! And if you do this to a friend or acquaintance or even a near-stranger, do not be surprised if they 1) never talk to you again, 2) warn mutual friends or acquaintances that you are a creep and/or 3) fucking deck you because you have just made the conversation awkward at best and fucking scary for them at worst, and they would be justified to rely on their fight or flight to get out of range of you.
I am begging you to think. Just think, for a second. You might off handedly agree with the statement “I wouldn’t want someone to jerk off while thinking about me without my permission” but if someone came up to you and asked you that, you would absolutely lose your shit in one direction or another.
Nobody wants this. Nobody should do this. If anyone, for any reason, jerks off while thinking about me and I haven’t made it clear to them beforehand that I would love to hear all about that? Then I don’t want to know about it. I hope they’re having fun, but I also hope they never tell me about it, or involve me in conversations about it to receive my permission to continue.
I don’t want this, and you, generic puriteen, don’t want this either. You just don’t.
They know it’s an insane, inappropriate question. They do not actually want you to ask your coworkers permission to put them in your spank bank.
They want you to stop fantasizing about people who aren’t already your romantic partner.
would much like to point out that the people publishing these articles are trying to needle millennials into treating gen z with the same disgusting vitriol we were treated with.
don’t buy it.
our younger brothers and sisters might eat a tide pod and get us blamed for it, but we have more in common with them than we ever had with boomers or gen x.
they are terrified of the things we can do together. remember that.
This goes for Gen Z too. Don’t buy into bullying gen Alpha, they are literally kids. I know most of you probably don’t but I’ve unfortunately seen it a few times and it makes me sad.
closing statement from an article about being intersex & the possible connection of gender expression and sexuality in intersex individuals, published in The Gay Liberator,
I’m so extremely tempted to answer this with “well yes but the pills only really affect external features so people who take them just end up looking like their skin’s fallen off, and that’s the operating mechanism behind Pills That Make You Blood-red” but I’m not going to do that because it’s horrifying.
when are we going to talk about the epidemic of lesbians and bisexuals who don’t know how to pursue other women like it’s an actual real problem in our communities born out of misogynistic and homophobic socialisation and not some cutesy uwu I can’t talk to women type thing
when are we going to stop acting it like it’s normal to view our love lives solely through the lens of yearning or feeling inadequate or like a predator for simply wanting to get with women
when are we going to address the deep running, widespread shame that leaves so many of us paralysed by our natural desires. too many of us are soaked with shame and we need to talk about it.
Please add tips on how to talk to women
open your mouth and say words like normal person who is trying to make friends
introduce yourself
ask them about themselves
say interesting stuff that’s relevant or tangential to the context
try to steer the conversation towards something you can bond over or something you’re (both) passionate about
make jokes if you think of a good one
try your best to have a good time talking to them, make having mutual fun your objective, engage positively or inquisitively towards anything personal they express to you, this will make you both seem fun to be around and make them feel like they’re interesting and fun to be around too
try to make the conversation enjoyable for them by thinking about how it would be in their shoes talking to you
do an activity together, invite them even
if you have feelings/intentions/thoughts about the person then be open about them, there’s never anything wrong with politely telling someone how you feel about them or asking if they’d like to do something (with you) given it’s reasonable in that social context
literally the only way anyone is going to like you back is if you meet up regularly for the purpose of enjoying each other’s company and express that you like them a lot at some point
accept the fact that any form of rejection is ultimately harmless to you, no exceptions
never compromise on who you are for someone’s affection
