GUYS GUYS GUYS WE'RE GONNA HAVE AN AROMANTIC VISIBILITY DAY!!! IT'S BEING CREATED NOW !! IM SO EXCITED AHHHHH

my toxic trait is that I think those uwu trans girl memes that 19 year olds on reddit make are pretty funny

this is comedy gold to me

you're right and you should say it

Not sure how many people will see this but the person who went on the whole “postminors” thing realized that they were saying some really bad stuff

Most people dunked on them for having said something that’s worded in a bad way and I completely understand the concerns they have for the different age groups.

However, this person actually mentioned neurodivergence later on and very few people have pointed out the actual issue: eugenics.

I know in this case we’re not talking about an “anti” but I think it’s important to let people know how harmful, wrong and ableist it is to imply people who are neurodivergent aren’t able to consent or that they have the mentality of children.

It goes without saying though that being ableist to OP is also the wrong call. Don’t call them slurs, but educate them.

(This is not targeted at anyone specific)

The first post spread like wildfire after I reblogged it so I wanna reblog this too. It’s good to see that they understand they had a bad take and are learning.

alright so i absolutely hate doing this, but, i need money, i am moving to a different city in a month, have a massive bill to pay and potentially have some legal costs coming up soon. and i currently don't even have enough to cover that one invoice :/ i am glad about any money i can get via ko-fi or merch sales (profit margins are temporarily raised a bit) to help through this significantly more expensive coming month

ah, i’m so bad at posting here. acknowledging this Day of Mourning from the lands of Kiikaapoi, Peoria, Potawatomi, Myaamia & Ochethi Sakowin people, aka Chicago, derived from a native word for garlic (mmm…) which is really suitable for me because I live here now 🌱🧄✨

whose.land are you on? talk about it over dinner this weekend with your fam & what it means to give the #landback. considering everything, listening & learning from indigenous people is the least you can do.

This is the university as it exists now, "Where Badass Bachelorettes & Boss Babes Have It All."

Here's the archive.

This is killing me. I was just going to talk about how her (pollyannawrites on tiktok) writing advice is shit and predatory and how no one should give her money and I've ended up reading all of this. What the fuuuuck.

This is the person responsible (under the name P. K. Mancini) for the now-infamous and deleted (but preserved by others...) TikTok in which she encourages independent authors to force reviewers to sign contracts guaranteeing they will review the ARCs they've been sent...or be sued.

Foz Meadows over at Twitter has been looking into what she's been up to, and (as far as I know) has done the deepest dive so far. I heartily recommend Foz's long and detailed Twitter thread for more info.

Let's talk about this woman's grift. What are her influences? Who is she targeting?

First, let's take a look at some screengrabs from the links so kindly provided above.

Already we've got new-age revival imagery. Not the new age proper, but it's late 2000s child. This version of the new age is stripped of it's bizarre orientalism and appropriative native American imagery in favor of a sleek, ultra-marketable apple-store cleanliness. It's spiritual enlightenment for the on-the-go information age. We've got distant flavors of Hellenic polytheism and vague feminist imagery. Just from this title card we know that this woman is aiming for upper-middle-class women.

This third bullet caught my eye. "6 or 7 figure business" is an important brick here. The New Age Revival has a massive amount of influence from the rise of the pyramid scheme, and multi-level marketing scams.

Fun fact, most of the people who stormed the capital on January 6th had declared bankruptcy from at least one failed small business. People like this woman prey on boostrappers; people with enough spare income and time to start a small business. This language, however, is specifically targeting women.

You can see this same flavor of occult-grifter language in things like prosperity gospel, and the parallel evolution of spirituality and late capitalism.

This wasn't terribly useful to me, but I thought it was funny that this was how the image was cropped on the website. This image is unedited. Money Magi for female entrepreneu.

I also appreciate any use of "quantum" in info-age occult nonsense. It's like how occultists used "electro" back when electricity was first discovered.

Now this was fascinating for me. You see extremely similar language in product listings for Gweneth Paltrows GOOP. The playful, almost saccharine, yet paradoxically chaste use of sexual language is a common theme when you're shooting for upper crust women to grift. You want to portray yourself as socially liberated, pleasure-loving, free, but without any of the wonderful sweat, dirt, and grime inherent to human sexuality.

"Raise your rates without guilt, fear, or persecution" is a perfect example of the same dynamic. The type of person this grift is intended for is someone who with the means and ability to start a small business, but who cannot let themself become aware of the inherent need for hard-nosed decisions inherent in a small business.

The occult language is a smokescreen. This is a grift targeted towards upper middle class women who want the freedom of a small business, but none of the responsibility or messiness that comes with it.

Case in point.

girl, the matrix is the lesbian matrix

okay i don't mean to be dramatic but it's downright evil how doctors (don't) treat people with chronic headaches

and i am purposely saying "chronic headaches," even though MOST chronic headaches are migraines, because i know it took me a loooong time to realize i had migraines. and ultimately the distinction doesn't matter insofar as people in chronic pain deserve access to safe, effective treatment. and this is (needlessly, cruelly) not the case for so many people with chronic headache/migraine, many of whom have to jump through hoops for insurance companies before they can get the treatment that actually works.

there's been a recent proposal to redefine chronic migraine as anyone who gets more than 8 headaches per month, because that was found to be as disabling as the current criteria (more than 15 per month). and it's just so upsetting at how many people are just. suffering without treatment.

based on the tags this post is getting! hi hello it's me the migraine fairy, here to tell you that if you're getting headaches most days of your life without any underlying injury/cause etc, these are most likely migraines. not headaches. despite common perception, migraine does not mean "extremely painful headache." it's a neurological condition that includes many symptoms, of which pain (mild to severe) is one. you may be having these other symptoms (fatigue, sensitivity to sensory input like light/sound/smell, nausea, auras, brain fog, digestive upset, etc) without necessarily linking them to your headache, and these symptoms can start before the pain and last for hours/days.

if at all possible, please see a neurologist! despite the crankiness of my original post, there ARE amazing treatments and preventatives available. you will probably have to jump through some hoops, as the op suggested, but. it's worth it to find some relief.

Here’s an article I wrote to educate white people. I’d appreciate if you read it and reblogged 🩵🤍🩵

also, I need 100 followers on Medium to start monetizing!! Need the money bc I’m terminally ill and have medical equipment to pay for I.e. a monthly rental of a bed

There's a lot of anti-Romani racism in Dracula, and today's entry marks the start of it.

So I thought it might be a good opportunity to highlight some organisations that are working to promote Roma rights, and some ways, alongside donating, that you might be able to support them.

The European Roma Rights Centre carries out strategic litigation to support Roma rights, as well as doing advocacy and research. You can sign up to volunteer for them here; one volunteer-run project currently live is called Challenging Digital Antigypsyism, and focuses on identifying and reporting hate speech on social media platforms.

On a similar theme, Minority Rights Group International has a campaign toolkit on countering cyberhate against Roma. The focus of the campaign is Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia.

In the UK, Friends, Families and Travellers works to end racism and discrimination against Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people and to protect the right to pursue a nomadic way of life. If you're in the UK, you can ask your MP to sign their pledge card. And if you witness discriminatory comments in politics, you can report that here.

The Roma Support Group, based in London, works with Eastern European Roma refugees and migrants. They have a number of volunteer roles for people with regular time to offer.

Boss's wife upon hearing I'm a medieval scholar: Isn't it crazy all the things medieval people thought would stop the plague?

Me: *Fighting all my devils & angels not to bring up that she drank horse antiparasitic last year.*

You’re a better person than I

Can't squirt? Can't fuck for hours? Worry that you're not up to pounding someone 'til their brain turns to mush? Can't orgasm easily? Like the idea of dirty stuff but always end up doing vanilla? Inexperienced? Worried about the way your body looks when you're contorted during sex? Feel like you're bad at getting a rhythm when you're on top? Worried your dick isn't big enough? Worried your pussy isn't pretty enough? Not wet enough? Too wet? Are you nervous because everyone else seems to be amazing at deep-throating and you might gag? Haven't been with someone that isn't a different gender to you, but you feel bi/pan? Worried you can't fuck someone again immediately after cumming?

Don't stress yourself. All these feelings are normal. In fact, they're typical. I'd say these anxieties are more common than they are rare.

A lot of people talk in such a way (especially on Tumblr) where they're not clear that they're talking about their fantasies, rather than real and lived experiences.

They're not showing off to you. You're not bad at sex because you feel worried about things or haven't had the courage to try them or suggest them. They're just saying "I like the idea of this thing".

I've had a lot of experience. I've been in long term relationships. I've been promiscuous. Largely speaking, I'm very confident about my sexuality and my sexual prowess. However, the anxieties we have about sex are always there - I've just learned to manage them a little better.

The pressure to perform is a lot. The pressure to know everything and be up for everything is real. A lot of sexual fantasies don't translate into real life at all, but it's fun to fuck around and try. A two second gif of someone getting railed isn't someone getting railed for 3 hours - their hips and knees would give out first - it's all smoke and mirrors.

A three second quickie where you both laugh at the end is always better than some overly dramatic roleplay, trust me.

Just remember that everyone is in the same situation, it's just not very cool to say it out loud. I'm saying it out loud because I don't care if someone thinks I'm uncool because of it.

You're more beautiful than you think. You're better at sex than you think. You're allowed to learn on the job too.

You're doing great, honestly.

This is SO important 🥺

Really needed that tysm this is so important for a lot of people to hear

what the libcucks fail to understand is that this is a small price to pay for the end goal: an embedded HUD with unskippable advertisements in the margins of your eyesight

this screenshot is a headline edit/joke, about a real USA Today article (which is far more praising) and is spreading around twitter and here. The real number of primates they've killed is lower, but I think it's important to understand why.

Neurallink is a fucking awful company whose marketing materials and CEO are outright lying as to their products' supportable potential. But they're not big enough to actually have killed 3,000 primates. Most significantly, we know that the the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine filed a lawsuit against a UC Davis lab for invasive and deadly brain experiments on 23 intelligent primates.

The reason it's important to point out that it's less than 3,000 is that this kind of work is very often done at university laboratories, which gives us more leverage to slow it down or keep it out of this dude's hands.

Holy...okay. 3000 non-human primates might not be the correct number, but even 23 primates dead in this experiment is horrifying from a science perspective.

I worked in a neuroscience lab that did work with one (1) rhesus monkey. His name was Beckett. Beckett had better healthcare than a university undergraduate. Hell, it took less hoops to get some experimental studies involving undergrad volunteers up and running than it was to do one experiment with Beckett wherein he got to sit in a chair and eat grapes.

See, the paperwork regarding experiments with animals was intense. I spent three days filling out the forms and going back and forth with the ethics board to let us do experiments on terminal mice wherein they'd peacefully be put under anesthesia and never wake up from surgery. As in we were putting a sick mouse to sleep and had to be 100% sure it would not be in any pain or distress. Screwing up and causing a mouse harm or killing it outside of these exact bounds? You'd be lucky if you ever got to work with a mouse again.

Not only that, but since an animal was expected to die in the experiment, we had to report how many we needed in the experiment and then how many actually died. And if the latter number was higher, you better believe the ethics board would be on our case demanding to know what the actual hell happened.

(There's a plaque, by the way, in the labs, in remembrance of all the animals whose lives we ask for in the pursuit of science. It's right there when you walk in.)

The paperwork and restrictions get more and more complex and strict the higher up the "evolutionary chain" you go up. If you MUST use an animal model, you use the lowest one on the chain that can meet your requirements. As in, why use frogs if you can use zebrafish? Why use fish if you can use fruitflies? Why use a living creature at all if your computer simulation is good enough? And if you can't give a good answer, your proposal should be denied.

Back to the monkeys and Beckett. Monkeys, or "non-human primates" as they're often known as, are usually at the top of this chain. Ideally, you treat them like humans who are unable to consent for themselves. Which means they need advocates for them. Beckett pretty much had a vet assigned just to him. If he so much as had a sniffle, the vet had the power to veto any and all experiments he'd be involved in until he was feeling better.

This was important because if your lab had a monkey and that monkey died for reasons other than "natural causes" that the ethics board did not okay? There was going to be an investigation and if they didn't like what they found, not only would your lab never get another monkey again, but there was a damn good chance you'd be barred from working with any and ALL animals.

So from this perspective, "23 monkeys dead" should be read a very specific kind of shock and disgust. One dead should have made any kind of ethics board hit the breaks on this shit and start asking pointed questions as to "why".

(Oh, and in case you're wondering, there is an answer to the question of "what happens to monkeys who can't be used in research anymore?"

They're sent to the farm.

No, really. There are legit primate sanctuaries specifically for retired research primates. Where they get to live out the rest of their days in peace and safety in as close to a natural environment as possible. Beckett was a cranky old guy, and when I left the lab he was still there, but the plan had been for him to retire to one of those. I hope he got there and ate as many grapes as he could sucker the researchers into giving him as he could.)

Fellow researcher here, and I can 100% concur with the above. It takes SO much work and paperwork to get approved for every animal you get your hands on. We have hundreds of documents that will state essentially the same 5 things over and over because we HAVE to have a paper trail.

Having almost two dozen non-human primates dead? That's horrifying. Someone was bribed and the ethics board should be at all of their throats, shutting down this project forever.

Production houses: but if the writers stay on strike we can't guarantee the future safety of your favorite shows 🥺🥺😭😭

Viewers who 1, have already lost their favorite shows because they were cancelled in spite of good ratings and good reviews or 2, have stopped watching new content entirely until the entire series has aired and concluded as a result of so many good shows getting cancelled on cliffhangers and thus leaving said viewers unable to gain closure with those characters and with a hollow viewing experience, so they've begun a, watching older shows they know came to a planned conclusion or b, revisiting their old favorites and enjoying the nostalgia or c, reading new books or fanfic instead: YOU ALREADY CAN'T GUARANTEE THE FUTURE OF OUR SHOWS SO GET FUCKING WRECKED AND PAY WRITERS WHAT THEY DESERVE!

Part of what the WGA is asking for is residuals prior to season 3. Netflix especially keeps canceling shows before they hit season 3 because they want to avoid paying residuals.

The WGA strike, if successful, will guarantee the future of shows. It will fix the problem. Production houses, if left to their own devices, won’t.

I’m terminally ill, help possibly one of my last wishes come true

Hey guys, it’s Jay. As many of you know from my previous post, I’m no longer eligible for my kidney transplant. Without it, I’ll eventually die. They are going to do the bare minimum to extend my life. Please see my previous post, I’ve called out the hospital for what I believe is negligence.

Anyways, one of my last is to get my grandma here from Johannesburg in South Africa for at least a couple of months. We are all poor. Her flight was paid for by someone I know but we desperately need monthly pledges on Patreon and shop sales to cover expenses. I don’t want to use p*yp*l too much because they limited our last account after an influx of donations

We need help to cover the following things

If you can pledge or buy something from our shop, it’d mean everything 🥹💗

Just an update

Not many pledges or shop sales so we are opening up p*yp*l donations again. This is one of our best friends accounts. Just say “for Jay” in the notes and be sure to send as a “friends/family” transaction, so her accounts not flagged as a business!

Aspec symbols

So I've been trying to gather a list of aspec symbols! Old and new, widely accepted, but also more obscure. Here's my list so far, including links and explanations (in italics) where possible. I've tried also to add in the specific labels that the symbols "belong to" where relevant/possible.

I'd really appreciate if aspecs add in symbols I've missed, sources they may have, and if I've made a mistake then also corrections. So please reblog, or way in, in the comments! Your own things that symbolize your identity to you are very much welcome as well.

Arospec:

* link

Acespec:

some of these are based off this post, and this master post

Aplspec:

based off of this post, explanations are there.

Many thanks to @merely-a-caricature, @the-big-gayheart, @heartless-aro, @arosunflower, @local-aro-cryptid, @crab-in-progress, @aroace-thoughts, @apl-aro-narc, @dateademisexualpersonwho, @legally-x, @askanaroace, and @aroace-people-are-lgtbq I used their posts to compile many of these symbols (and I've linked the posts). If I've missed someone, I apologize, it isn't intentional!

I’m all for going about queerness with the goal of not being able to be understood by outsiders but like. you’ve GOT to be normal about aro & ace people if you do. you can’t go on about being confusing to cishets for fun and then complain about ace & aro people who go about sex and romance and attraction in ways that don’t make sense to you.

supporting queerness that confuses others should include queerness that confuses YOU too even if you’re queer yourself.

anyways reminder that scars of any kind are morally neutral and not bad or harmful to show. if that shit is healed and not a literal open wound it is not fucking bad. it is not okay to shame or trigger warning a normal fucking part of someone’s body, including and especially when it’s a sign of physical or mental illness.

look every single time I make posts like this someone comes on my post like “not self harm scars though! those are triggering!” and fucking. think about what you’re implying for just one second here. you’re saying that if anyone has ever even once hit a mental point where they harmed themself in a way that left a lasting mark they can never show their body uncensored again. this is okay to you? you think this is fucking okay?

also, to expand on this: do not assume you know what are and aren't self harm scars. i have 'traditional self harm scar' looking scars that are not self harm, just that i have a cat and scar easily. i have scars that do not look like self harm scars that very much are. you do not have the right to go up to someone and ask "hey, what are you scars from so i can decide if i can censor your body?", nor the right to assume the origin of someone's scars in order to censor their body. In general, no one's scars or any other part of their body is your business

HEY THIS IS A BANGER FUCKING LINE.

-Amy Fox, "Changed Sex. Grew Boobs. Started Wearing a Tie." for "Persistence: All Ways Butch and Femme"