Paying consumer debts is basically optional in the United States

The vast majority of America's debt collection targets $500-2,000 credit card debts. It is a filthy business, operated by lawless firms who hire unskilled workers drawn from the same economic background as their targets, who routinely and grotesquely flout the law, but only when it comes to the people with the least ability to pay.

America has fairly robust laws to protect debtors from sleazy debt-collection practices, notably the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), which has been on the books since 1978. The FDCPA puts strict limits on the conduct of debt collectors, and offers real remedies to debtors when they are abused.

But for FDPCA provisions to be honored, they must be understood. The people who collect these debts are almost entirely untrained. The people they collected the debts from are likewise in the dark. The only specialized expertise debt-collection firms concern themselves with are a series of gotcha tricks and semi-automated legal shenanigans that let them take money they don't deserve from people who can't afford to pay it.

There's no better person to explain this dynamic than Patrick McKenzie, a finance and technology expert whose Bits About Money newsletter is absolutely essential reading. No one breaks down the internal operations of the finance sector like McKenzie. His latest edition, "Credit card debt collection," is a fantastic read:

https://www.bitsaboutmoney.com/archive/the-waste-stream-of-consumer-finance/

If anyone wants to be shitty about this you can go through me first.

I hate that people call it transphobic to align this way, because, truthfully? What I see as transphobic is the insinuation that a flat chest and/or a penis is antithetical to femininity or womanhood. If you can't accept cis women that feel more comfortable with a flat chest, or having a penis, or whatever other instance of gender nonconformity you're gonna be shitty about, then not only is that real fucked up, but you're also a hair's breath from transmisogyny.

OP is absolutely right. People should be allowed to do whatever they want with their own bodies if it isn't harming anyone. That's just what bodily autonomy *is*.

Transphobia is an interesting term, because one of the core principals it revolves around is the destruction of bodily autonomy. So if you don't believe people like OP deserve that right to bodily autonomy, you're essentially stating that you only care about the fundamental bigotry that transphobia runs on if it has the "trans" prefix attached to it.

Leave people like OP alone.

When are we gonna get to the point where we stop looking for an "acceptable" queer target to bully? Cause this happened with bi people, then trans people, then pan people, then ace people, then aro people, then poly people, so on, so forth, and im sick of it.

I'm a non-op binary transgender man. I have a vagina! Given all the money in the world, I would still have a vagina. I'm a binary man who likes having a vagina. It's not a fetish, it's just a male vagina. Sometimes men have vaginas. Sometimes men *want* to have vaginas, and they are still men. Sometimes women *want* to have a penis, and they are still women. People should have access to whatever gender-affirming care that damn well pleases them.

This might be a hot take but also if it was a fetish, I don't think that should matter in the slightest. It's not like having a fetish is a big boogeyman that makes someone wrong. You can be trans or cis or kinky or vanilla or whatever about gender and it doesn't matter.

Nai but make him more *vague hand gestures*

YOSHIDA WHAT DOES THAT MEANNNNNNN

Im personally voting for bo staff/staff :O

A collection of theories I’ve seen so far:

- They’re green, so Green Mage

- They’re ninjas, so it will have the same scouting gear

- They’re named after four famous artists, so Painter/Pictomancer

- They’re mutants, so … mutants

- Hooded WoL, magic enchanted sword(?), Master Splinter combined is like Thunder God Cid, so Sword Saint

- pirates vs ninjas, so Corsair/Pirate/Buccaneer

And my personal favorite:

- Turtles -> “I like turtles” boy -> zombie makeup -> necromancer finally

Can i throw this out there......

Mutineer!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Mutant Mayhem

Corsair but renamed, scouting gear.

I love how a good majority of the Trigun fandom has collectively agreed that Vashussy is real and canon. I always come across Vashussy fanart like 90% of the time. Anything else is a jumpscare. /hj + lh

I started T 👍

Save a horse ride a cowboy!

will you just let me be silly for a sec. there's this dread so ancient in me

As someone who identifies as nonbinary, Allan was my favorite character. He was described as how I see my gender. He's not Barbie, nor is he Ken. Allan is just Allan, and there's only one of him. I always describe my gender as "I'm not a boy or a girl, I am me, and there's only one me. I'm one of a kind." Allan just gets me fr.

A recap of my Trigun art!

cowboys be like "nah that feller is just a companion to keep the trail a bit less lonely & a lot less dangerous" & then ride funny in the saddle the next 2 days

I’ve legitimately been laughing about this tag all night, well done @sponsoredbyadhd​

i neglected to post one of my greatest works on here im so sorry

barbie was insane. there was a snyder cut justice league joke, greta gerwig acknowledged her white feminism during the narrative i choked on my drink when they said let ken play guitar At you (for four hours), as is traditional during cishetro relationships allan was nonbinary. Ken Discovered Patriarchy and Recreated it in Barbieland. i was briefly sexually attracted to ryan gosling and there was a homoerotic fight scene accompanied by a musical number