…and, at the time of his death, he was one of the most hated people in the USA.

The FBI sent him a letter trying to convince him to commit suicide. Don’t let this revisionist bullshit slide. The things they say now about protests, kneeling, etc, are the same things they said about the sit-ins and marches.

respectability politics is a trap.

respectability politics is a trap.

respectability politics is a trap.

Look at this vintage political cartoon. Reactions to MLK and BLM are near identical.

#MedicareForAll

I've said it before, but I'll say it again:

I'm an American living in Germany. I've lived here for four years as of this week (June 2021).

Two and a half years ago, I had a medical emergency in the form of gallstones and an infected gallbladder. I tried to tough it out, like a True American Who Can't Afford Treatment, and ended up in the hospital getting the gallbladder removed. I was brought in on Thursday, had the gallbladder and five gallstones the size of macadamia nuts removed on Saturday, and was home by Tuesday. Total cost, 200 euro.

Back in March, 2021, I saw a visual distortion in my right eye, like an afterimage of looking at something bright for too long. Got seen by the eye doctor that day, got sent to the hospital that day to get a diagnosis--ocular vein occlusion--and spent the following three days getting followup diagnostics, including a full blood panel. I got diagnosed with having elevated levels of homocysteine in my blood, and that turned out to be caused by a genetic disorder that runs in my family (MTHFR-5 mutation) where I can't metabolize B vitamins correctly. And now I'm on modified B vitamins and the difference in my daily life is amazing.

Total cost for the hospital stay and all of the blood tests and eye examinations and other tests?

250 euro.

In my old city in the US--which has a nationally renown hospital--the gallbladder removal costs a year's salary for a minimum wage worker.

US healthcare if you are not wealthy is a bad joke.

The dress he’s referring to. 😍

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.

–commenter Allison @ askamanager

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.)

source

wHY DOES THIS HAVE JUST 308 NOTES???? THE ENTIRE WORLD SHOULD BE SHARING THIS. CHINA IS LITERALLY COMMITTING THE HOLOCAUST, ONLY THIS TIME ON MUSLIMS AND Y’ALL ARE SILENT?

i have 495 people following me right now, including several mutuals. i better see y’all reblogging.

People might not be reblogging this because the first tweet makes unnecessary (and untrue) Holocaust comparisons. Taken from @nat_slay on Twitter (I don’t know the original source):

The “ways to help” info seems good afaik but feel free to correct me if I’m wrong there too.

As a Jewish person, I appreciate those saying that this is not okay and that it is misinformation. No, 6 million Uyghur Muslims have not been murdered.

And, as a Jewish person, I know that 6 million very well could be murdered. This is not another Shoah, but it very well could become another. As a Jewish person, I feel we must say “never again.”

Never again.

“Never again” does not mean “this event was so uniquely horrible, it could never happen again.” It means “this event was horrible, but not unique. We have to make sure it never happens again.”

Never again.

The Uyghur death count isn’t 6 million, that is misinformation. But “never again” means we have to make sure it doesn’t become 6 million.

If you are not Jewish or Romani, do not draw comparisons to the Holocaust. All that provides is shock value and misinformation. What you can do is support Uyghur Muslims.

The link to the original post doesn’t work—here are other sources:

Source from The Silhouette

Source from Business Insider

Source from Middle East Forum

Source from India Blooms

Source #1 from Jewish News

Source #2 from Jewish News

Groups to donate to:

Charity Right’s Food for Uyghurs

Uyghur Human Rights Project

Petitions to sign:

Petition 1

Petition 2

If you have more relevant resources, please share them. Petitions are likely meaningless in contrast to the Chinese government.

For those who are able to, take action. For those who are unable to take action, please share.

I feel like the conversation around "cancel culture" is inherently disingenuous because half the people in it are defining cancel culture as "experiencing consequences for shitty actions" and the other half are defining it as "online spaces dogpiling people for vague hearsay of a vaguely problematic thing they may or may not have actually done fifteen years ago, and may have been entirely made up by people who have personal beef with them." One is good. One is very bad. But they both get referred to by the same term, and that's...an issue.

Like, if I hear somebody complaining about "cancel culture," what do they mean? Did they say something racist and get called out for it, or are they being smeared and called an abuser by a bunch of te/rfs because they participate in BDSM, and nobody bothered to fact check it before hurling around really serious accusations?

Yup. Pretty much.

I have never seen a political cartoon so beautifully and succinctly describe the modern Republican, and I’ve seen some good ones mind you.

Modern conservatives/Christian religion. Then will turn around and say death penalty is good or that if black ppl followed the police they wouldn’t be killed. THEN turn around and say the capital rioter was assassinated when she broke into the capital building.

-yinx1 😑

i’ve been on hold at my library for a book about asexuality for a few weeks and i just read an article about some concepts in the book re: consent. and holy shit. blew my mind. i’ve NEVER read about consent in the context of a relationship with an ace and an allo that resonated so strongly with me, and as a person in such a relationship!! it’s so!!! i’m even more excited for the book now.

for anyone interested, the article is How to Negotiate Better Consent: An Asexual Perspective and the book i’m waiting for is Ace: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society and the Meaning of Sex.

god okay, just to gush about this more, the author suggests using the categories of enthusiastic, willing, unwilling and coerced consent (rather than just “enthusiastic consent” or “no means no”). i really recommend reading the whole article linked above, but what blew my mind is the distinction between enthusiastic and willing consent. it gets broken down like this:

Enthusiastic consent:

Willing consent:

and like!!! it made me realize i may have never actually enthusiastically consented in my life, but like, that doesn’t mean i have never or cannot consent! i almost always fall into the “willing consent” framework and i’ve never seen that….validated anywhere. anyway, it’s just given me this perspective about my sexuality and consent in general and better ways to relate to my partner and!!! idk!!! thank goodness for other ace people, is what i’m saying.

This is very useful and a lot of sex work can also be best understood as willing consent, where the indirect consequences of having sex (getting paid) are what is desired and the direct consequences (having probably-mediocre sex with someone you don’t actively desire) are not considered so negative that they outweigh the indirect consequences.

Which is a definition of consent that gives sex workers agency and sees their consent as a choice made again and again based on the pros and cons, not something that is coerced and also not something that always exists by default simply because they are sex workers.

Recognizing willing consent is probably validating for a lot of people who have consent to sex without meeting the definition of enthusiastic consent. 

tumblr ask me about mlm skeletons

I’m asking

your co-operation is noted and will count in your favor when the Great Tally arrives. Presenting:

straight skeletons

straight skeletons

gay skeletons

three seemingly-similar wikipedia articles, and yet:

(this post is part of a series critiquing biased wikipedia writing. you can request more on ko-fi)

TLDR

*male & female skeleton found in grave*

archeologists: “this is LITERALLY Romeo and Juliet. she died of a broken heart. i am in TEARS”

*male & female skeleton found in grave*

archeologists: “holy shit ya’ll they are SPOONING. they are SPOONING and the boy is the big spoon just as jesus intended.”

*male & male skeleton found in grave*

archeologists: it’s problematic to romanticize these things

The first couple held hands -> love

The second couple was spooning -> love

The third couple was apparently kissing, a hand on the cheek -> no homo though

“humanity is inherently selfish and bad” bbbrrrghuhjfkg. humanity is seeing a stranger’s grocery bag break open on the sidewalk and harvesting fruits and veggies from the branch-like cracks of the asphalt for them, just because you can. humanity is helping a lost child find their mother on a crowded beach, looking for the ladybug-patterned parasol with their hummingbird-small hand in yours. it’s an elder’s fingers wrapped around your arm as you help them up the stairs because the elevator is broken, and feeling like you’re doing exactly what you’re supposed to be doing, like this is what you would’ve been doing had you been alive centuries or even millennia ago. there will always be a heavily pregnant woman who will smile at your when you give up your seat, a nice blind man in the fruit aisle who will ask you to please pick the riper plantain for him, a tired cashier whose face will light up when you compliment their tattoo sleeve. humanity is connection

The “humanity is inherently selfish and bad” trope is yet another iteration of propaganda meant to blame innocent masses for problems that are directly caused by the top percentage of obscene wealth-hoarders. It is born from a probably subconscious rationalization for their extreme greed, ie “anyone would do what i’m doing if they were in my position because it’s just human nature.” Anyway it’s total bullshit and the truth is that human beings are love in motion.

happy pride fuck the police

happy pride fuck the police

happy pride fuck the police

happy pride fuck the police

happy pride fuck the police

happy pride fuck the police

happy pride fuck the police

happy pride fuck the police

happy pride fuck the police

happy pride screw the police

happy pride, fuck the police

Happy pride fuck the police !!!

Happy pride fuck the police

Happy pride fuck the police

Happy pride fuck the police

Happy pride fuck the police

happy pride fuck the police

happy pride fuck the police

happy pride fuck the police

happy pride fuck the police

happy pride fuck the police

happy pride fuck the police

Happy pride ,fuck the police

Happy pride fuck the police

happy pride fuck the police

happy pride and fuck the police

Happy pride fuck the police

Pride is almost here so I think it is good to remember pride isn't here thanks to world wide companies who "dress in rainbow" just for a month. Pride is here because trans women, butch lesbians, gay men, queer people of color and every other memeber of the LGBTQ+ community fought in the past and still fighting today. There are still a lot of things to fight for. So keep fighting until we are sure each one of us is safe and happy. Have a great pride month.

Also trans men. Because posts like this always mention trans women but not trans men. It is possible to support transfeminine people without perpetuating the myth that trans men have never been involved in our own history. Thanks.

Jamison Green, born in 1948. He was a pioneer for trans men after Lou Sullivan's death. He's still alive.

Carter Brown, a victim of workplace transphobia, and the founder of Black Transmen Inc.

Robert Eads, 1945-1999. Pictured with his trans female partner, Lola. I recommend watching Southern Comfort, which follows him throughout his final year of life. His story is a beautiful one, but also a tragic example of medical transphobia.

Loren Cameron, born in 1959. A photographer and artist, who curated exceptional and groundbreaking collections of trans photography.

Willmer Broadnax, 1916-1992. A black gospel singer who never medically transitioned, but lived his entire life as a male, in public.

Lucas Silveira, born in 1979. He is the first openly transgender man to have signed with a major record label. He is still alive.

Billy Tipton, 1914-1989. He did not undergo a medical transition, but raised multiple children, and had a successful musical career.

Jim McHarris, a black trans man born in 1954, who you can read more about here.

Reed Erickson, 1917-1992. You can read about his insanely important contribution to LGBT+ progress here.

Stop erasing trans male stories by leaving us out of Pride Month posts.

Trans men are not a footnote in history.

Trans men are not an afterthought.

We have always been around.

Erasure of trans men, and transmasculine people more generally, perpetuates the myth that queerness is inherently feminine. Butch lesbians, male impersonators, and trans men have always been central to LGBT+ progress and pride. I'm tired of people defaulting to anti-FTM mindsets, or at the very least, erasing trans men as their first instinct. I'm sick of the invisibility that we suffer. I'm sick of masculine lesbians, like Stormé DeLarverie, being treated as irrelevant. I feel so much solidarity with butches and lesbians who have been cut out of history, because the same thing is happening to trans men.

This Pride Month, when you see a post claiming trans women are the only ones who ever contributed to progress, remember to critically think. Remember all the work that trans men have done. Remember the masculine people, and men, who died so that we could live. Who stood alongside drag queens and trans women.

Ancient lock mechanism

Oh that’s great! There are many pictures of this type of lock around, but when it comes to locks, you need a video/gif to illustrate how it works, right?

This is ye olde pin tumbler lock, an Egyptian (c.2000 BCE) improvement of an older Assyrian (c.4000 BCE) design:

It spread out from Egypt and it was used for thousands of years. The modern ubiquitous Yale lock is also called a pin tumbler, since it’s an elaborate (and tubular) version of the same basic concept.

Cool!

I’d seen the last gif, but I get it so much better after seeing the simpler larger and older version first.

The mashup you never thought would work

Congratu-fucking-lations.

I would pay so much to have this as a ringtone I’m not even joking.

Why?????

The face I made while listening to this was so visceral I had to draw it before reblogging it

How…dare…

I literally hate everything about this fucking website but especially this

My mouth legitimately just dropped open….

I didn’t ask for this

This is a bop actually y'all just have no tastes 😔

Sighhhhhh guess this is what I’m listening to for the next ten hours

…. i suppose I have no choice then… does my love of the Phantom song outweigh my embarrassment of liking the instrumental of Anaconda??

uh. kinda. yeah.

I...ummm...what?

I think my brain is broken. Thanks.

i hate when ur in public somewhere and something goes mildly wrong/something inconvenient happens and the nearest baby boomer tries to get you to complain with them

what does this even mean

EXAMPLE:

you are in line at mcdonalds. its really busy and the employees are overwhelmed. it’s taking a long time. you are minding your own business. the old man in line next to you says to you, “boy, this is absolutely ridiculous, isn’t it? these kids working just dont know what they’re doing. Or they just dont care…” you awkwardly nod and take a step to the side

This has probably been said a million times before but:  Defend the employees.

Really, you’re never going to see Karen from Stubenville again in your life, so side-eye her real good and say:

“It’s not thier fault they’re understaffed. Having worked retail before, they’d love to have another three or five people back there helping out.  But since the whole ‘downsizing’ craze of the ninties, companies try to get as much out of thier employees as possible without regard for thier welfare, or the effect on service.  You should really get on McD’s website and complain about the chronic understaffing and tell them you’re willing to pay more elsewhere for better service.  They LISTEN to people like you.”

People love to complain, especially entitled people.  The good news is that they’re easily redirected with mild praise and a shiny new target.  Butter the elders and aim them at the bourgoise.

aim them at the bourgeoisie

this is why demanding flawless representation from every piece of media, and trying to police who writes what based on identity is a huge fucking mess

source

they do know it’s… LGBT, right?

Water springs out of the Mulberry tree at Dinoša, Montenegro. For the last two decades, during the spring floods, the water has been running out of this old mulberry tree in a village of Dinoša in Montenegro.

I know everyone’s like “hahaha the tree is peeing” but if I saw that in a fantasy setting, that water is either going to make you immortal, crumble to dust, or age back into a zygote.

This is amazing, and I just had to look it up. Sounds like there are underground springs that can be put under significant pressure during those floods – a lot of water running really fast – and it’s just enough pressure to send that water rocketing up through a hollow tree. 

So that’s the science. But yeah it’s totally magic too. 

I think I’m gonna restart blogging my own shit.

WRITERS. ARTISTS. EDITORS.

REBLOG YOUR OWN WORK.

THERE IS NO SHAME IN IT.

And still there'd be people who'd not REBLOG this post

More details about Aphrodite: I met her and her girlfriend in line for an LGBT club the Christmas before the pandemic. She was so stunning. She was tall, her bone structure was like that of a Greek statue, and she had this gorgeous long curly hair that just looked so healthy and shiny. I've never seen healthier looking hair in my life. Her makeup was subtle but unmistakably glittery. She approached me to tell me that my eyeshadow was gorgeous and asked me where I got it. Inside the club she then told me I was the most beautiful woman on earth and vanished into the night.

I don’t think you just met a trans woman I think you met the actual fucking Aphrodite

And I will never forget her.

This means Aphrodite is a trans woman

She's Latina too since I'm Brazilian and this happened near my hometown!

Aphrodite also spoke just.. so calmly. Like she knew without a shadow of a doubt that eventually everything was gonna be ok. She gave me a feeling of peace.

When she told me I was beautiful she didn't just go "OMG YOU'RE SO PRETTY". Instead, she approched me at the bar inside the club, looked at me for a few seconds, smiled fondly, twirled a piece of my hair not flirtatiously, but like a grandmother who hasn't seen their grandchild in ages, and said to me in Portuguese "você é linda de parar o coração" (aka, "you're beautiful enough to stop a heartbeat"), gave me another smile, and then disappeared- never to be seen again.

No you literally met Aphrodite