nope
very interesting to take outrage over a more inclusive flag at its word lol and by βinterestingβ i mean question this shit
i love these pictures even more knowing the flyers paid specifically to use this flag for gritty
@catsnuggler / catsnuggler.tumblr.com
nope
very interesting to take outrage over a more inclusive flag at its word lol and by βinterestingβ i mean question this shit
i love these pictures even more knowing the flyers paid specifically to use this flag for gritty
the life expectancy of americans has dropped significantly for two years in a row from covid, especially for indigenous americans (ndn life expectancy dropped by 6.6 years) and y'all are still out here pretending covid isn't causing people to drop like fucking flies. you're sick in the head and an utterly deplorable human being with no regard for your community, neighbors, friends, and family if you continue to deny the loss of life covid has brought ESPECIALLY towards marginalized people in this country.
not to be like "millennials vs Gen z" ageism but I don't think it's possible for a human child to develop normally without having even played leaf stick and rocks? Never made a mud pie or carved sticks into walking staves? Never played with a June bug in a mystery stream all afternoon, or pulled out the hose to make the mud clay softer to build with?
Something has to be weird about the first generation of kids to have almost 100% tactile outdoors play replaced by almost exclusively 15 second meme videos. And that's not even to say anything about the total disappearance of the middle grade chapter book genre.
of course I had my desktop PC and nintendo and a TV and cell phone but it was impossible to ONLY do that for day. I also had a ton of art supplies, science kits, toys, a bike, a violin, a backyard with a swimming pool, and a library to occupy the entire rest of the day, but it seems like kids just.... don't like any of that anymore. and the ways that kid tech is used is entirely devoid of creativity and coding.
WHAT???
god this is so depressing
this is terrible
Access to natureβto sticks, rocks, leaves, mud, trees, fresh air, insects and creaturesβis and should be a human right!!
Can confirm, I worked in the education department for a while working with particularly vulnerable children, and this issue is MASSIVELY over-represented in kids from lower income backgrounds, minority groups (including the children of refugees and the children of LGBTQIA+ parents as queer parents are less likely to make an income equivalent to straight cis parents), and other cohort groups of at-risk kids.Β
Itβs not just a lack of nature, but a lack of money for appropriate toys or other things that could help development.Β
Obviously this was also an issue that appeared more commonly in urban/city-dwelling children, compared to their rural counterparts within the same age groups-- This is likely related to a more typical lack of access to nature in urban areas, but the problem has way more than just one single cause, so itβs worth pointing out theΒ
Please note: Iβm aware not all of these will be options for everyone, but I want to provide a range of suggestions because this is a real issue and itβs not too hard to help prevent this if you get a little creative!Β
Remember: The goal is TACTILE, PHYSICAL INTERACTION WITH OBJECTS.Β
While some of these things may be easier, cheaper, etc. to do on a screen, and there are real economic concerns that make apps etc. more appealing to parents, it is important to seek out financially doable physical activities, tasks, and toys.Β
Not all of these suggestions are appropriate for all children, so use discretion as necessary. For example, a neurodivergent child might find textile textures to be overstimulating or uncomfortable, and thatβs OK-- Try something else, there are lots of things you can do! :)Β
Follow any age recommendations and safety info that might accompany any materials, toys, etc. and be safe!Β
Drawing, painting, sketching. Finger painting with young kids is a great way to develop grip/motor skills/hand-eye coordination. Even just slapping paint around on a paper is more tactile than opening a sketchbook app on an iPad or similar device.Β
Crafting with dry spaghetti shapes, pom-poms, or other tactile materials are fantastic and often very cheap.Β
Guitar, piano, accordion, and violin in particular are great for developing fine motor skills and muscle tone, but any instrument is fantastic.Β
Instrument toys can be excellent for developing strength in the hands, coordination, etc. for kids who may be too young to deal with a real instrument, or if a real instrument/lessons may be cost prohibitive.Β
Light up piano keyboard toys are great for this, and can provide additional audio/visual stimulation as well, if this might be extra-helpful for a given kid!Β
Transformers are particularly great, because theyβre basically just puzzles which also involve lots of thinking, instruction following, pattern learning, and other complex thinking which kids find appealing because itβs easy to remain motivated even if they might get a little frustrated because the reward is having a cool ass robot and/or vehicle toy once they figure it out.Β
Help them if needed, but also be careful not to interrupt their exploration of the toy. Let them try a few times and experiment with trying to transform it without using the instructions at first, for example.Β
Rubikβs cubes are also great for this. Any toy that involves touching, twisting, pulling, placing parts together, or physical manipulation of the toy itself is good.
If appropriate, LEGO are famous for being good for this, as are Lincoln Logs and other building block type toys.Β
Using fabric scraps, you can find tons of tutorials on making no-sew rag dolls with kids.Β
This is great, because textures and fabrics are a great tactile experience for young kids, and knotting threads/ribbons/etc. encourages the use of fine motor skills and grip development.Β
Use different types of fabrics as scraps for the rag doll. For example: Corduroy, denim, cotton, velvet, nylon.Β
Use different ribbons, like ones with flat edges, ones with loopy edges, ones with embroidery, etc. to add even more texture stimulation.Β
If it is appropriate for the childβs age etc., using different size buttons can be a fun way to build on this: Oversize buttons can be less of a choking hazard and encourage more grip development, for example, but again, this may not be appropriate for all kids so use discretion and be safe while crafting! <3Β
Even a little lightweight plastic inflatable ball is great to bop back and forth with a young child to encourage grip and arm/wrist/hand strength (catching and throwing the ball), etc.Β
If a child is resistant or unwilling to let go of an iPad or digital device for a moment, itβs likely that this is because information and stimulation is obtained faster via digital means, and non-digital means may already feelΒ βslowerβ to them, to some degree.Β
To show that non-digital play can be engaging as well, it helps to do something like play ball, as this takes at least two people and also introduces in-person interaction with another human being, so this can help increase face to face exposure to other people and social/shared play as well.Β
---
Obligatory disclaimer: Iβm not a child psychologist, child behaviour expert, physical therapist, or any other type of paediatric health professional! I worked in education with many kids who had this type of issue, so Iβm only speaking from my own personal experiences from when my team had to get involved in certain cases like this. In the cases we were involved in, these types of suggestions or activities tended to be helpful, although of course, each kid is unique etc. so none of these are universal fix-its!Β
The above are just some very broad suggestions, but my point is that doing things that involve physical tactile engagement and interaction with physical things of a variety of dimensions and properties is almost certainly going to help avoid this type of issue in a lot of kids.
Itβs not universal, nothing is universal, but I hope these suggestions are at least helpful for thinking about ways to potentially prevent or address this kind of concern. <3Β
Cats. Written by Laura French. Illustrated by Mel Crawford. 1976.
...[P]ower corrupts. When you are in charge of a multi-million dollar company, people are less likely to tell you βnoβ and have no real way to hold you accountable. Price had theΒ powerΒ to call a meeting to βridicule an underperforming employee.β The employee did not have the power to call a meeting to ridicule Dan Price. One of the ways that human beingsβ worst instincts can be kept in check is by making sure they do not have the power to abuse others without consequence. We maintain a pattern of moral conduct in part by being called out by others when we act like assholes. If nobody is able to tell the guy at the top that heβs acting like an asshole, he will probably continue to think of himself as kind and benevolent. The same dynamics occur in dictatorshipsβpeople who may have begun life as normal or idealistic are simply given too much unaccountable power and are never contradicted.Β
This is one reason why capitalism is not going to βhave a heart.β One problem with a system in which workers sell their labor to capitalists is that the capitalists have too much power over the workers. They might bump wages up, but ultimately the world needs not to be ruled by men who can get away with anything. According to the accusations detailed in theΒ Times, based on dozens of interviews as well as police reports, Dan Priceβs fame allowed him to get away for years with acts of physical assault.Β It is a familiar story.Β The idea of capitalism with a heart is indeed a fairy tale. It wonβt happen, because capitalism is predicated on a division between a class of owners and a class of workers, and the difference in power allows abuse to flourish. We do not need generous and caring rich people who maintain their decision-making power. We need to redistribute that decision-making power. The Dan Price story provided the illusion that all we need are better bosses. WhileΒ it is true, and important, to note that the rich could redistribute their wealth if they chose, and their high status is a choice rather than a product of the laws of economics, it is also the case that βmore Dan Pricesβ will not make the world better. As we have seen, such people are often simply self-aggrandizing and even abusive in private. The only solution is to expropriate them.
I'm sorry but I gotta unfollow. Idk what the hell got into you lately but your aura is super toxic. It's killing birds and insects that fly too close to you, it's poisoning the water you swim in and the dirt you walk on, it's making the sky around you a hazy greenish yellow. I just can't support that level of uncontained biohazard.
Being irresistibly sexy is such a burden π
haha i got vivaldi just for this
Sorry but ur browser is still cringe
konqueror
Where the fuck do u find these browsers
Okay I respect the commitment to Firefox. And I include Firefox in the list of browsers that I use. But I really need yβall to learn about what Chromium is and *how* itβs different from Chrome bc there are a lot of Chromium based browsers that are cool, actually.
Basically, when Google introduced Chrome, they also made a lot of the code publicly available in the experimental browser Chromium. This is free and has no data sharing with Google necessarily. Think of it as being akin to an open source program. They donβt get anything from Chromium being used as a browser base, and most importantly, they canβt take it away because itβs all free for download. Why they did this, I assume, is to incentivize third party browsers to use the same base as Chrome, and therefor encourage exclusive website compatibility.
Point of all this being, just because a browser is Chromium based doesnβt mean itβs bad or supporting Google. If Google was getting something out of it, Microsoft wouldnβt have their official browser, Edge, be Chromium based. There are other, more important things to look for: most notably, what protections are in place for your data. And this will vary from browser to browser. Firefox is good about this, but so are some Chromium based browsers like Brave, as well as Vivaldi which came up in the post. And, while there are few of them left nowadays, other non-Chromium based browsers can sell your data.
Personally, I mostly like to use Brave, because I like the extension library available for Chromium browsers better. But I appreciate the Firefox propaganda as well. Letβs just not get confused on what the enemy is here.
We really do need to learn exactly what Chromium is to understand the issue with it. Chromium is open-source, but it is inextricably linked to Chrome. It is indivisible from Google and their Chrome browser. The enemy here is really Google and Google Chrome, but due to Google being the developer and creator of Chromium, which is the engine they actively use for their Chrome web browser, Chromium becomes persona non grata. Googleβ as creator of the Chromium code-base, decides what goes into it and what gets taken out of it. The more browsers, then, that adopt Chromium as their engine, the more control Google has over ALL browsers, and by extension, the web itself. So, if Google were to disable a key feature in Chromium or enable a largely undesirable feature in Chromium for use in Chrome, because Chromium serves as the base for Braveβ Edgeβ Vivaldiβ Operaβ etc, those changes would eventually manifest themselves in these browsers, and there wouldn't be much the browser developers could do to circumvent these changes, because they would have been made at the core level. The devs could stall the next update, but that's just delaying the inevitable. At the end of the day, the one who controls the browser engine has the most control over the browser itself. And Google controls Chromium.
This isn't a hypothetical situation. As it stands, with the wide adoption of Chromium, Google has developed something of a monopoly in the browser space. It's a monoculture of Chrome Clones, with Firefox Quantum Browsers being the last holdouts (alongside Safari, but we don't talk about her because she isn't open-source). And due to this, websites can choose to only work on Chromium-based browsers, and if you are using anything else, they tell you to go download another browser to properly access their site/functions (and in the age of virtual learning and video conferencing, the sheer number of sites I've come across that just don't work outside of Chromium-based browsers is staggering). It's anti-competitive and further solidifies Chromium's hold on the world wide webβ Google's hold on the world wide web. That's exactly the kind of problem we had back when Internet Explorer had a total monopoly on web browsing back in the day.
In fact, just recently, Google announced plans to update the way Chrome handles extensions, and the change would essentially gut the ability of many extensions to block ads, block data tracking, and prevent browser fingerprinting, etc. The big problem here is that the change is being made at the CHROMIUM level. Meaning that this change will affect every Chromium-based browser. Including their unique extension library (if applicable). This link goes into great detail about just how insidious this situation is, and how privacy advocates and extension devs are reeling over this decision, which Google has no intention to change.
βWhile Google is pushing a βprivacy by designβ message on the surface, itβs still asserting a monopoly over the entire ecosystem by stifling digital privacy companies that are already working to give users back control of their data...
Ad blocker developers are also concerned because the impacts of those changes will reach far beyond the Chrome browser. The MV3 spec is part of the Chromium project, an open-source web browser created by Google that forms the basis of not only Chrome but also Microsoft Edge, the privacy-focused Brave, lightweight browser Opera, and many others. Since Chromium underpins these projects, browsers that depend on it will also eventually have to migrate to the MV3 extension format, and extensions for those browsers will then no longer be able to do ad blocking using Web Request...
Once Manifest V2 support ends in June 2023, changes in functionality will become more apparent to users of any Chromium-based browser.β
Google gains a lot from browsers adopting Chromium, including being able to influence how websites function (''exclusive website compatibility''), which is a BAD thing, as it allows a single entity to essentially dictate how the web works, as well as being able to literally exert control over it's competition via the Chromium engine. Google has even gone into the Chromium code-base more than once in the past to cut off non-Chrome Chromium browsers from certain APIs and Features, making them Chrome-exclusive to the detriment of those Chromium browsers. This continues to exemplify why allowing all browsers to be beholden to Chromium and it's creator, Google, is a negative thing. They are capable of using their power over Chromium to engage in anti-competitive behaviour across all Chromium browsers, any changeβ positive or negativeβ that they make to Chromium will trickle down to Chromium browsers, even if it was a change primarily targeted at their Chrome browser. So Google does gain from the use of Chromium in browsers, and while Chromium browsers don't necessarily support Google by virtue of being Chromium-based, they ARE bad by virtue of being Chromium-based for all the aforementioned reasons and more.
This is what a browser monopoly looks like. And it is exactly why Chromium is the bad guy. Chromium is inextricably linked to Google and Chrome, no matter the desires or intentions of the devs using it for their browsers. At the end of the day, Chromium will always be another flavour of Chrome. Some of the different flavours taste really good, but at their core, they're still Chrome. And thus, they will always carry the issues and baggage that come with Chrome/being Chromium.
Mozilla made a blog post lamenting the loss of the original Microsoft Edge, EdgeHTML, when Microsoft switched to Blink (Chromium-based Edge) in 2019, and they put all of this a lot more succinctly than I could:
βMicrosoft is officially giving up on an independent shared platform for the internet. By adopting Chromium, Microsoft hands over control of even more of online life to Google.
This may sound melodramatic, but itβs not. The βbrowser enginesβ β Chromium from Google and Gecko Quantum from Mozilla β are pieces of software that actually determine a great deal of what each of us can do online. They determine core capabilities such as which content we as consumers can see, how secure we are when we watch content, and how much control we have over what websites and services can do to us. Microsoftβs decision gives Google more ability to single-handedly decide what possibilities are available to each one of us...
Making Google more powerful is risky on many fronts. If one product like Chromium has enough market share, then it becomes easier for web developers and businesses to decide not to worry if their services and sites work with anything other than Chromium. Thatβs what happened when Microsoft had a monopoly on browsers in the early 2000s before Firefox was released. And it could happen again.β
hey uhhh but fr the concept of fallen angels existing but risen demons being an impossibility is kind of a great summary of sin in christianity
holy shit
no, no, come back here and tell me how stupid it is to talk about how the power dynamics inherent to christianity are built upon the rhetoric that failure is unavoidable and there is never enough you can do to make up for it
Being a mom and an anarchist and trying to figure out the whole "parenting" song and dance from that perspective makes me think 8-year-olds have about got it figured out. I hate school. I hate tests. I hate bedtime.
No like hereβs the thing: children are an oppressed class. I mean that 100% sincerely. Children m are an oppressed class. They quite literally do not have the right to be free human beings.
Reposting from my twitter here, but: you wouldn't prevent an adult from speaking to their friend or eating when they were hungry. In your personal life that's abusive behavior, in the work sphere a suppression of workers' rights. Other places these rights are violated include: prison.
In Education and Peace, Maria Montessori describes the culture of war and identifies it as originating, on a personal level, in the struggle between the adult and the child that begins as soon as the child is born. This is the very first conflict. The adult subjects the child to their own wants and needs and completely disregards the needs, development and personhood of the child. This struggle continues throughout childhood, between both parents and children and other adults and children:
βBoth the adult and the child are unaware of their own characteristic natures. They fight one another in a secret struggle that has gone on for countless generations and is becoming more violent today in our complicated and nerve-racking culture. The adult defeats the child; and once the child reaches adulthood the characteristic signs of the peace that is only an aftermath of warβdestruction on one hand and painful adjustment on the otherβremain with him for the rest of his life.β
This conflict positions children and adults relative to each other as two distinct classes, one with power and one without. Of course, there are other conflicts at play hereβrace is a huge one, gender another. And thatβs not to say children canβt have power over parents, etc. But one of the most fundamental class conflicts is between adults and children.
Children exist in a state of war from day one. Their environment is completely unsuitable to them; theyβre treated as if thatβs their fault. Theyβve literally been alive for less than a decade. Any action they take is done as a result of class conflict.
I vibe so hard w/ this
I work in childcare and multiple parents have been MYSTIFIED that Iβm able to handle their βdifficultβ children (this includes both neurodivergent children and children who are just rude/mean/violent) and itβs impossible to get them to understand that 90% of the average kidβs behaviour βproblemsβ are just frustration at having a lack of autonomy in their own lives. Some kids do have complicated problems, yes, but so many parents are confused by perfectly understandable reactions! Of course your child is acting out; they have no self-determination or right to their own resources and itβs the only avenue they have left to assert themselves! Of course your child just yelled at you and stormed off -- you were just bullying them! I heard you doing it! They were responding extremely reasonably to being bullied!
I swear half the people in this world -- including those who live with these kids 24-7 -- somehow manage to forget or conveniently ignore that kids are, in fact, people, and will act like people in response to situations.
there is no reason a child should not be able to eat when theyre hungry and not eat things they dislike. if they dont like vegetables then teach them how to make it a way they do like. if you wouldnt yell at and hit your grandparents for not finishing their plate why would you do that to a child. they learn from you, not from what goes through your head while you punish them.
I gotta say the notes on this post have been really heartening b/c "Children are people and not property" has historically been one of my more controversial opinions
For the record, people absolutely do treat elders that way. It reinforces your point, though, because bullying Grandma to eat her broccoli is called what it actually is: elder abuse.
That said, one of the greatest mindfucks in my entire life that I needed to utilize my cultural ownership of my daughter, the idea that I own her and she is my property and therefore I am the final sole arbiter of all things with her, to defend and protect her right to self-determination vis-a-vis her transition as a teenager. Literally at one point I had to use it to bar my relatives from insisting on deadnaming her, or even speaking to her until they could respect her chosen name and pronouns. (I can't make them respect her identity, but I could tell them "you can't talk to her unless you address her as she asks to be addressed, and you agree not to say anything negative to her or in her earshot about her transition, her gender, any of it."
It was the only thing they respected. They didn't respect her, they only respected it when I said it, and when I threatened to use that power to withhold her from them, because I owned her in their minds.
A million and a half people replied with this, which I appreciate:
You don't need to justify yourself all the time. It's okay to be weird. It's good enough. You deserve to be loved, and the people who understand you will gravitate towards you, and they won't find you strange at all - they will find you authentic. Be honest about who you are so you won't waste so much energy pretending to someone you're not. It will be freeing to release yourself from other peoples expectations and from your own. You shouldn't feel like you need to be someone else, don't pressure yourself to be something other than authentic.
clip studio paint is switching to a subscription model in 2023, so hereβs your reminder that pirating is moral
i really encourage people to read the actual article, but to be completely clear;
if you have a csp license now, you wonβt have to pay for a subscription unless you want to upgrade to csp 2 in 2023. csp will no longer receive major updates after the release of csp 2. however, you cannot purchase csp once csp 2 comes out, so after 2023 all new csp licenses will be subscription-model only.
if you have csp now, you wonβt need to stop using it !!!
September being bisexual awareness month and suicide prevention month is actually really fitting because bisexuals (especially bisexual women) are at the highest risk of suicide.
45% of bisexual women and 35% of bisexual men have considered or attempted suicide. those are horrifying numbers. now consider that more than 54% of the community is bisexual, and take into account that 40% of LGBT POC and about half of all transgender people are bisexual, and among those communities the risk of suicide is even higher.
suicide prevention is a bisexual issue. this is undeniable. you cannot claim to care about suicide prevention, especially among LGBT people, while denying the existence of biphobia and its impact both outside the LGBT community AND inside it.
