Do your part - use literally anything other than Google Chrome
Reminder that switching to Firefox is incredibly easy and takes just a few minutes, you WILL be able to copy over all your cookies, browsing history, logins etc, as well as change the look/layout so it feels like what you’re used to.
Really. Just do it. Haven't used anything but Firefox for years and years now... and the longer it goes on, the better the reasons get. :)
Folks have got to understand that they probably aren't messed up by some Secret Big Trauma that they just can't remember; but rather by a million tiny microtraumas that they do mostly remember but don't even register as traumatic because nobody actually understood that these things would cause trauma, much less stack on each other over the years.
Whether you're carrying one big rock or a big ol' bucket of sand, it's going to weigh on you just as much.
This is why psychologists have started taking more of an interest in CPTSD in the last 10-15 years. What most people know as PTSD is a response to a single, intensely traumatic event (or even a series of events). However, CPTSD (chronic post-traumatic stress disorder) is caused by living for years in a situation where your nervous system cannot catch a break. Even if nothing huge ever happened to you, you always had to be on guard for a thousand little things that could and did happen.
After years and years of this, your nervous system gets "stuck" in an activated threat response. It never really lets you rest, and if this started when you were a kid, you may not develop a lot of neural pathways that you should have, because your brain was too focused on keeping you safe to bother with little things like "genuine human connection" and "interpersonal attachment."
No lie, Complex PTSD/CPTSD is HUGE.
If you are disabled, if you are queer, if you are chronically ill, if you are the survivor of a toxic but not abusive relationship, if you grew up or lived under the threat of harm but no "actual" harm (or "very little" harm) was done, you may have CPTSD that isn't getting caught because CPTSD looks different from PTSD.
This is a problem the writers of the Simpsons have had to deal with - the Simpsons are late 80s, early 90s poor. They have two clunker cars, they live in a house that's old-fashioned and has crappy furniture because they can't afford to redecorate. Their TV is ancient. Their neighbors have visibly better stuff than they do, and when they shop they have to buy the bargain brands.
But their lifestyle now seems wildly out of reach to most modern kids! They have two cars! A big three bedroom house! Only one of the parents has to work! They have 3 whole children who they can afford to feed and clothe on a single income! It's an impossible dream life for most people today.
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fun fact: any policy on drugs that isn’t harm reduction is going to cause addicts to suffer and die
fun fact: Drug addiction is a public health issue, and approaching it as if it were a law enforcement issue is prejudicial to addicts and will result in their suffering and death
if you just assume addiction is a method of self-medicating, you’ll pretty much never be wrong.
now, not everything people self-medicate for actually has a proper treatment. i’m pretty sure the reason my uncle made sure to be slightly drunk at all times ‘to round the sharp corners off of things’ was sensory processing disorder. i have that too, and i just kind of accept that i’m going to randomly get my brain sandpapered from time to time. there is no medication for that. all you can do is dull your senses. i’ve chosen not to, but i can’t blame him for his decisions. when a ringing phone feels like getting hit upside the head with a frying pan, liver damage sounds like a fair price to pay.
anyway, it seems really self-evident to me that people don’t enjoy living the life of an addict, they do it because the alternative looks worse. people don’t get addicted to substances just for funsies. they start making a habit of taking something because of insomnia, or grief, or headaches, or depression, or seething undirected rage and terror they can’t put a name to – something that they can’t ignore or shrug off. and for whatever reason – lack of access, lack of knowlege, lack of money, or it just plain doesn’t exist – they aren’t able to apply the Approved Correct Remedy. they use what they can get.
addicts aren’t some weird otherfolk who inexplicably just Do Drugs because they’re Bad. addicts are you with a problem you can’t solve.
these facts aren’t fun but they are pretty important
Even funner fact: the entire public health field has been full throat screaming all of this for decades, and yet law enforcement priorities have clotheslined change at every turn.
YOU HAVE BOOK??????????
Every time I think I post too much about my work, I get messages like this, lol. Hold up, I'll get my marketing hat on.
Hunger Pangs: True Love Bites is the first book in the Hunger Pangs series, a queer, polyamorous, paranormal slow-burn romance featuring vampires, werewolves, and various other creatures that go bump in the night.
It started out life as a Tumblr shit post and became an international bestseller. No one was more surprised than me.
It features Nathan, a deaf, disabled werewolf newly returned from war, and Vlad, a neurodivergent mad scientist vampire trying to unionize the workforce of the island he governs when he's not tripping over all his various ongoing projects. The other main character is Ursula, an all-powerful [REDACTED] working to save the world from imminent ecological disaster. The main romance arc of book one focuses on Vlad x Nathan, with Ursula being alluded to in the next book.
No love triangles here. Just three highly competent bisexuals sharing the same brain cell the closer they are to each other.
The world is set in a pseudo-regency meets fake Victorian Gaslamp Fantasy world, complete with gothic castles, enchanted forests, and just a smidge of industrial coal dust.
One of my favorite reviews ever described it as "the queer, goth love child of Terry Pratchett meets Jane Austen," so if that sounds interesting to you, you can check out my links below.
Why are there two versions, and what's the difference between them? Glad you asked! You can also find content tags on my website at www.joydemorra.com if you want to find out more.
I'd put them on the book itself, but Amazon would pitch a fit.
Anyway. Yeah. I wrote a book. I'm writing several more. I'm just... slow, lol.
While the giant bill was fake, it represented a very real accomplishment. The group raised more than $17,000, which purchased more than $1.6 million in medical debt owed by Philadelphians, according to their nonprofit partner RIP Medical Debt.
This is a great way to undermine the system that we are trapped in
The fact that this can be done at all shows how utterly bullshit the entire system is. There was literally no reason for that medical debt to exist in the first place.
Let's say you owe a private hospital ten thousand dollars, but you have very few assets, so they're pretty sure they're never getting any of that back. There's ninety nine other people who also each owe the hospital ten thousand dollars. (It doesn't have to be a hospital; any debt can be sold this way.) The hospital has shit to do and the low chances of you paying them mean it's an unnecessary drain on their time and resources to hound you all for it. But they can get *some* money, by selling your debt to a third party.
Let's say the sell each ten thousand dollar debt for ten dollars (I'm making all these numbers up for simplicity). So a third party gives the hospital one thousand dollars, and now all hundred of you owe that third party ten thousand instead! You're in the clear with the hospital, you owe it to these guys now! And their job is to hound and harrass you for the money you owe. If one of you pays up more than a thousand dollars, you've covered their initial investment. These guys are gambling on the likelihood that enough of you can pay your debts that you make it worth the time they spend tracking you and harrassing you.
Or, instead of trying to get the money out of you, they can just... decide you don't owe them. Why not? They own the debt. They can fork out a thousand bucks, buy a million in debt, and forgive it. That's what these guys did. (This is also a favourite move of John Oliver; if you ever see headlines about John Oliver forgiving debt, this is what he's doing). A small payment can take a massive weight off the shoulders of a lot of struggling people.
Again, I made up the numbers to simplify the math. But this is how the process works.
seventeen thousand dollars to buy SIXTEEN MILLION DOLLARS OF DEBT. Absolutely FUCKED at how cheap our misery and servitude is.
thing is, the debt companies *hate* this, because it means that it gives hope to people saddled with unimaginable debt that someone will come along and buy that debt and cancel it. So more people don't pay their debts, and they lose money. Debt buying companies do their *damnedest* to keep people like these philadelphhians and john oliver from doing exactly this.
you can do this too! Follow OP's link to https://ripmedicaldebt.org/ and donate whatever you can. For every $1 you donate, they buy $100 of debt and cancel it. I donate $10 each month just to get that amazing email that says I've been personally responsible for cancelling $1000 of medical debt - it's genuinely the best $10 I spend each month 😊
seventeen thousand dollars to buy ONE million six hundred thousand Still impressive, but I really needed to correct that before it passes through my dash to my followers. It's an entire order of magnitude, so it's kinda a big deal to me.
Been slowly scrolling back through my inbox and queuing up answers. Finally got back to two weeks ago when I mentioned the hospital gave me fentanyl, and the number of "alarmed" messages I got from non-followers lecturing me about taking such a "dangerous drug" has me rolling.
Like c'mon. First of all, it was a one-time dosage to knock me out for a procedure that didn't even knock me out, and second of all, I'm not a fucking cop <3
Just so we're clear, anyone can get addicted to drugs, and it can be devastating. This post is not making fun of addicts.
It's taking a knife-swipe at people who swallow copaganda and spout all kinds of anti-medication rhetoric at me and people like me any time we mention managing our pain with anything other than "positive vibes" and exercise.
I've lost so many friends to the opioid crisis -- not from opioid use, but because the response to the opioid crisis was to start denying people (like me) adequate pain management, and they ended up seeking out other means to manage their pain. Non-legal means that killed them.
Me talking about being given fentanyl in a medical setting in an OR should NOT have resulted in as many people as it did, telling me I'm a bad person for "using drugs." (I kept scrolling and found even more, just like wtf)
And also, people who misuse substances are not bad people. They're sick. Usually in immense amounts of pain, be it physical or mental, and they deserve compassion and help.
Do not believe copaganda. Do not send people these kinds of weird moralizing messages about their healthcare because you've swallowed the copaganda. Use your heads.
A bunch of folk are commenting on the post about a sanctuary feeding a bear Twizzlers with something along the lines of “well if the sanctuary is preferred by PETA it’s immediately sus.” There’s a lot more to that relationship worth knowing about.
What a lot of people aren’t in a position to be aware of is that while PETA’s public facing advocacy is really inflammatory and offensive, it’s almost a smokescreen for how much they’re investing in widespread and effective lobbying and litigation. They’re heavily involved in very serious work to advance more restrictive animal-based legislation across federal and state governments, and are taken very seriously because they have very, very good lawyers who know animal regulation and oversight and everything related inside and out. Litigators associated with them are pretty much cornerstones of every animal law school I know of in the US.
The reason this matters is that when PETA sues over animal care - like under the Endangered Species Act - as part of the relief granted by the court if they win, they generally get to say where the animals go. And the animal welfare matters, but those animals also represent millions of dollars in fundraising and advocacy narratives for both PETA and the receiving sanctuary. The lawsuits that took animals from Tim Stark and Jeff Lowe from Tiger King and put them at the iffy Colorado sanctuary? PETA. The lawsuit against Dade City’s Wild Things that put their tigers (and some of Joe Exotic’s) at the same place? PETA. They’re using those court ruling to change the law via bench precedent one case at a time, all towards making it easier to remove animals from (even good) zoos or shut them down.
Similarly, having lobbying powerhouses in places allows them to use the narratives of those animals and the beautiful photos from the sanctuaries to convince legislators to pass new / more restrictive laws, and to listen to PETA even more (because look what good we did the last time we collaborated on a bill!) . The Big Cat Public Safety Act was a big thing PETA lobbied for in collaboration with Carole Baskin and the Big Cat Sanctuary Alliance (which has two current/previous influential PETA lawyers on the advisory board). If you’ve got a representative voting on bills that restrict animal use or care, they’ve probably got a pretty favorable view of PETA, because they’re being approached by really professional powerhouse litigators who are totally removed from all that vile stuff the PR side spews.
And you know what PETA is doing with that lobbying? Pushing for more ways to be able to confiscate animals or go after captive animal facilities in court. They’ve been talking for years about adding a provision to the Animal Welfare Act that would allow them to sue facilities for any potentially harmful violation, just like they’re doing with the Endangered Species Act. The zoological industry and probably many other related animal industries could not survive the financial cost of all the lawsuits that would open the door for, regardless of merit. I first heard a PETA litigator raise the topic years ago at a meeting - a bill introducing that amendment is currently active in Congress. (They’re also exploring avenues for using consumer fraud laws to allow “true” sanctuaries to sue other sanctuaries whose practices they don’t agree with philosophically and say are scamming the public.)
To sum up: in animal industry world, PETA isn’t this offensive obnoxious entity you can eye-roll and ignore. They’re a seriously scary, heavily funded, incredibly influential lobbying group with some of the most intimidating lawyers I’ve ever met. They invest money in things they know they can win, and by the time they’ve started a visible campaign, their target is so underwater - whether there’s a real issue or no - that it’s rare to come back from it. So when I say “this sanctuary is PETA’s favorite for placing animals”, what that means is “this facility has been chosen to be a philosophical partner for PETA’s legal and legislative goals and is receiving animals worth millions of dollars in fundraising revenue in return.”
They’re not going to pick a partner that is a liability to their work, which is why most people in the animal world seem to be assuming that the sanctuary is at least fairly decent. You’d think they wouldn’t risk that level of reputation damage if the place got its own expose. And yet, it seems like that sanctuary is actually pretty yikes, and nobody who has any power has taken a close look. Such is the seduction of heavily moralized sanctuary branding.
im always thinkjng about that one time i was on register for like 4 hours straight and said over mic "someone blease take over register i am about to become the joker." and they came to relieve me faster thab ive ever seen anyone relieve me before
this has become a Thing at my place of work. I described this post to @ziracona and we started to look out for signs of one another “turning into the joker” and then started checking on everyone else we work with. The procedure is, if you notice that your coworker is turning into the Joker, you send them to the back to drink water/sit down/ take meds for a little while.
This not only spread to the rest of the staff, but the staff developed a complex sliding scale of jokerficiation to gauge how well one’s coworkers are and how likely they are to lose it on a member of the public. Possibilities include Alfred, Gordon, Catwoman, Harvey Dent, Big Bad Harv, Harley Quinn, etc with The Joker being the worst spot you’re gonna get in.
On one memorable day, @ziracona asked a coworker where she was on the jokerfication scale, and was told: ‘I’m in Ace chemical plant, looking down at the vats’ which naturally caused Zira to send this girl to the back to rest. Later, when this girl reappeared, Zira asked where they were now and the girl responded ‘now I’m swimming around in the chemicals’ Chilling
Anyway, I hope OP gets to know that they’ve affected a whole nonprofit workplace ecosystem and contributes to people trying to take care of their coworkers and having shorthand for it
If you send someone to rest you tell them to go to Arkham. I’ve told someone before “I’m sending you to Arkham because you’re the Joker right now and I don’t want to work with him.” 10/10.
The sliding scale helps to know how to deal w it. Because there are two factors: evil, and stress. If either reaches 100, you become the Joker, and if both reach 70 or above, you also become the Joker. Stress is physical pressure, and can be fixed by rest only, but had a faster recoup time. Evil is hatred of people you’re forced to interact with and can be fixed by taking a task that gets you away from them, but has a longer cooldown. So if someone says they’re at a Harvey Dent they need stress relieved immediately, or he’s turning into Two-Face, but a Mr. Freeze needs to get away from The Enemies immediately or he’s going to straight up become the Joker.
The state had to prove to a jury that feeding the homeless is a criminal act and in doing so, probably convinced a few members of the jury to sign up for food not bombs lol.
This is a great time to remind everyone on here about Jury Nullification
you can tell a lot about someone based on their phone background. it shows what’s most important to them
Reblog this and put what your phone background in the tags
I find this amusing because my phone background is literally just a picture I find visually appealing. It’s not super important to me at all.
So poor people don’t deserve to have money?!
THEY’LL JUST WASTE IT ON SURVIVAL!
Also, if you’ve taken more than a high school economics course taught by someone who has never stepped foot in a college economics class,
Giving $500 to poor people multiplies it REALLY FAST. That $500 immediately goes into the economy and ripples more purchases until it hits a rich pocket.
Giving $500 to a billionaire takes $500 out of the economy permenantly. You could have set it on fire and made no difference.
That is such an important part of the conversation that rich people seem to purposefully misunderstand whenever it’s brought up
Money exists to be spent, not hoarded. Yes, people should have saving, but no one should be sitting on a pile of money too big to spend in a single lifetime. “The economy” as a concept only works if people are spending money, and the people hoarding the money are so quick to blame the people who barely have any when the economy starts to fail
Having a big string of numbers in an offshore account doesnt make you an economic genius, it makes you a parasite that is ruining the economy for everyone else
ROC is going to be at the WGA strike in Hollywood, CA!
Oh I didn’t post this but hello yearly xena drawing
This is my new favorite gif. When I watched this movie recently for the first time, and this scene made me laugh for a ridiculous amount of time.
The hardest part of making this was choosing which picture of Kit to use
Also while we’re here I want everyone to appreciate that This
This wild, wonderful, beautifully animated and heartfelt queer story started here
Here, on tumblr, by an art student who was wrestling with his identity, mental health, and religious trauma
Tell your stories, kids, you never know how many people will thank you for it
Hey! As a member the LGBTQ group, I always had the headcanon that Miss Spink and Miss Forcible were a couple. Thoughts?
As the author, so have I.
Actually, let's clarify this one, a little more. They are obviously a couple, and were always written to be a couple. What else would they be? (No, they aren't sisters, they have different names.)
"We never married, so we're undivorceable," they sang in the Stephin Merritt musical of Coraline...
(They were based on my long ago elocution teacher and her partner.)
Yet another. I appear to have answered this one many many times on Tumblr alone (and on Twitter, alav ha-shalom, and even on my blog, before that).
And what I find oddest about it, is if it had been an elderly man and an elderly woman as neighbours, who had been living in the flat downstairs for the past thirty years or more, you'd just assume they were a couple, and would not be writing to the author to find out if they were a brother and sister or perhaps roommates.
