this too shall pass

this is a way better model... you'll still get transphobic & intersexist drs of course but i prefer this to male / female or even having separate questions for gender & sex.

[we can't see the full form, but i'd suggest having a "something else" option and dominant hormone question too.]

as a cis woman who's had a hysterectomy and partial oophorectomy, this would be helpful for me, too! it'd be pointless to try to diagnose me for disorders that affect organs I don't have anymore, after all.

being inclusive helps us ALL. 💖

Wild things I have learnt in therapy:

29 BILLION?!?!

The IRS has collected more than $500 million in back taxes from delinquent millionaires (MarketWatch)

How a Maneuver in Puerto Rico Led to a $29 Billion Tax Bill for Microsoft (ProPublica)

IRS Free File (btw your taxes are due THIS MONDAY!)

You know what I hate about modern mice? how pointlessly anti-repair they are. I have had plenty of mice break over time, and often it's just that some fluff or skin-flakes got wedged in the mouse wheel or under the buttons. You just need to open them up and clean them. Except.. where are the screws?

OH THERE THEY ARE. under the little skid-pads, which cannot be put back on once you take them off, because the adhesive has been ruined! You have to buy replacement pads, if they're available, and maybe cut them down to size, as well as clean off the residue of the previous pads.

You know how this problem could be fixed? JUST DON'T PUT THE PADS ON TOP OF THE SCREWS!

Then you'd have no problem. Easy to disassemble and clean.

But then it'd look 5% uglier because apparently people are scared of seeing screws, and also people might not just throw it out and buy a new one!

It's the terrible sort of weird planned obsolescence that happens as an almost accidental side effect of improving the product. Like, ball mice? They were designed to be disassembled. You didn't even need a screwdriver! Because you had to clean them regularly, or they'd gunk up too fast. Modern optical mice? They still get gunked up, the buttons and wheel still die eventually. They can be cleaned and repaired. But now that it's not required for all of them to be cleaned regularly, that function has been removed. they're designed to be disposable.

The same thing happened with TVs way back when. If you open up a TV from the 50s (or just look at the back, honestly, many of them were designed to be always-open), you'll find a schematic showing where all the tubes are and what models they are. Was this because the 1950s was a golden era of reparability? NO! it's because they burnt out all the time and you had to replace them! As soon as TVs got reliable enough that replacing tubes was no longer needed, the schematics became hidden behind paywalls and for authorized-service-personnel-only.

It would be only a minor change in aesthetics to make your mouse repairable/cleanable. Hell, most of the time when it's not simply fixed by cleaning it, it's because one of these broke:

This is an Omron D2FC-F-7N microswitch, used in a bunch of mice. It's designed to last about a million clicks. With a soldering iron and some solder (like 25$ on amazon) you can trivially replace it. New switches cost between like 10 cents and 2 dollars, depending where you buy it and how many you want. A couple bucks of parts and half an hour's worth of work, you can repair a 40$ mouse that's "died".

But they make it unnecessarily hard with the slide-pads being unreplacable. You have to find ones that match, you have to carefully clean off the old residue with IPA, or the new ones you just bought will fall off. All to make it look SLIGHTLY better (how often are you looking at the aesthetics of the bottom of your mouse, exactly? (no furries are allowed to answer this question!)) and maybe, just maybe, to push it over into "not worth it". You could do all that, but you have to buy new switches, new slide-pads/mouse-feet (SHUT UP FURRIES), and can you remember where your solder even is? you last used it when you were trying to fix that keyboard...

Basically one thing that is maddening to anyone with the very basics of electronic knowledge (seriously: the amount of skill you need for this is the kind you can get in less than an hour from watching a youtube tutorial) that we're surrounded by all this electrical nonsense that will break and have to be thrown out, but is mostly breaking in ways that could be fixed in a very short amount of time with relatively little work.

It's infuriating to go on amazon to buy another damn mouse and it pop up "hey you last bought this in 2021, you fool" and you're like I KNOW, IT SHOULD STILL BE WORKING TODAY!

I have computer parts from the 80s in my room right now that are still working when stuff made in the last 5 years is already dying! There's no reason it should be this way. It's an endless waste of time and money and resources and it's just to make some logitech or whoever executives slightly richer.

It's deeply bullshit. The modern day is going to be identifiable as the geological layer where most of the trash was generated. We're living in the middle of the quisquiliarumferous period: the layer of garbage.

Yeah, it's infuriating.

Just a note, every time I've opened a mouse with these annoying pads, the adhesive got messed up but the pads themselves were intact, so I was able to just glue them back. I don't remember what glue I used, but, you know, don't use superglue, the point is to be able to do it again.

the authors of the report were deliberately chosen to have no lived experience with trans healthcare

the report considers figuring out "why" people become trans to be equally important as research into improving trans lives, and references the social contagion theory uncritically

the professionals surveyed by the study were allowed to self select (i.e. transphobic doctors would be extremely likely to jump at the chance to take part), and 32% of them stated that they do not believe a child can be trans

wow i love this

One of the truest things I’ve ever heard is that people who say they’re “brutally honest” are more interested in the brutality than the honesty.

You know what, that’s an insightful point, because it doesn’t take much to be tactful and kind.

I think it’s been glamorized because of people sometimes needing bluntness and frank truth, due to being in denial, but that still doesn’t call for brutality

Every time I advocate for voting people are like "no you shouldn't vote! Read this literature, it'll totally change the way you view voting!" And every single time it's the same fucking "you shouldn't vote because both parties are exactly the same so it won't make a difference who wins" bullshit wrapped up in some fancy language

"OP you need to read 'Voting is not Harm Reduction" OP has read Voting is not Harm Reduction. It opens with the acknowledgement that for the most vulnerable people, even a tiny degree of harm reduction can mean life or death and then continues to advocate for not participating in that harm reduction lest you "participate in your own oppression". Pardon me for not finding "vulnerable people should die for my ideology" very convincing.

I'm just gonna leave this here:

I really don't know how to explain to people that supporting gender liberation (liberation for trans people, liberation for gnc people, liberation from all oppressive gender roles) means you have to be able to see someone you think is cis "crossdressing" and be cool about it. You have to be able to see someone presenting in a way that doesn't make sense to you and not interrogate them about their identity. You have to be able to hear someone express a gender identity you don't understand and go "Huh! Neat," and go about your business. If you truly want gender liberation for all then you have to stop trying to exert control over other people's genders, period.

Also it’s fine if they do it for horny reasons actually

U.S. Counties where the African American population is 25% or more

Remember this map next time some liberal starts talking about just writing off the entire south.

Hey guys maybe before you call a trans man ‘fem-presenting’ check to see if they are actually purposefully being gnc. Because if you call me ‘fem presenting’ just because I am visibly trans and visibly have boobs I’m going to maul you.

Hey guys maybe before you call a trans women ‘masc-presenting’ check to see if they are actually being purposefully gnc. Because if you call a trans women ‘masc presenting’ just because she is visibly trans and has facial/body hair I’m going to maul you.

the fact that "eco" and "ethical" are two separate concerns in the global north, and that "eco" is a much more popular concern, with many "eco" products being made in actual sweatshops, is a big part of why i am The Joker

if you think this is an exaggeration or splitting hairs where it doesn't matter:

i used to work at a Local Organic Produce store that's popular with the lefties in my city who are interested in food justice. i quit for a lot of reasons, mostly the boss, but something i will always remember is one of our suppliers coming in to drop off produce, being told her check wasn't ready, and her laughing and responding it didn't matter -- even a low bank account was more than enough to pay the migrants who picked her produce. i am not filling in any blanks here. she said this.

after quitting, this was a common story i told people about my time there. some then became annoyed at me, acting like i was a wokescold trying to undermine the store's "eco" mission with unrelated "ethical" concerns. but, like -- if food justice isn't for the people making food, who the fuck is it for?

like, don't get me wrong. my contention here is that the things go hand in hand, and that something which is unethical isn't actually eco. after all, humans are a part of the fucking ecosystem, and if a product can only be made by unsustainably exploiting humans, then it's unsustainable. doesn't matter which chemicals were used in making it, or whether or not animals were factory farmed.

they *cannot* be separated. a product cannot be either eco or ethical — it must be both. a product that is made through human suffering cannot be eco for the reasons you said; a product that causes human suffering by contributing to the destruction of the ecosystem cannot be ethical. it must be both and we must insist on both

I feel like it's a lot easier to find organic labels than it is to find fair trade ones (and both come with major credibility issues). And I've complained before about being able to find "no GMOs" foods much more easily than "no labor violations" foods. Fuck Monsanto's business practices, obviously, but GMOs are not dangerous and I don't give a shit. I want to know if you underpaid workers in unsafe conditions.

Via @danacea at Bluesky.

i think the worst thing about the whole “anti-woke” culture is how it’s not only dumbing down people (folks are literally forgetting pronouns are an actual word class, an inseperable part of grammar and everyday speech) but also praising meanness and insensibility above all. it has managed to make malice and unkindness synonymous with factfulness and reason as if intelligence didn’t stem from emotions. as if feelings weren’t the very core of human beings. as if knowledge wasn’t achieved through passion, sympathy, and open-mindedness. as if the whole crux of this entire anti-wokeness movement wasn’t rooted in pure unadulterated emotion of hatred and hostility.

[Image description:

A screenshot of a reddit post with the title:

My ovulation tracker suddenly asked what state I live in

And flared: "burn the patriarchy" in all caps.

The body of the post reads:

It said telling them was required to continue using the app

The fuck it is.

I deleted it immediately. Like I'm gonna risk police showing up to my door if I miss a month due to non-pregnancy reasons.

Update: I just went to the tracker's spot in the App Store to leave a review warning other potential users. According to the last few reviews that were written, I am not the first user since the last update who noticed and immediately deleted. [the word "not" is in caps]

I have no problem naming and shaming the app, but I'm unsure if it's allowed. If a moderator could let me know if I'm allowed to name the app or not, I'd really appreciate it!

Edit #2: I've gotten permission to name the app as long as we don't go brigading. The app is called Ovia. Avoid it like plague! [The word Ovia is bolded]

/End image description]

Do not use any app to track your cycle! This could happen with any of them at any time!

I wish we treated gender-affirming surgery with the excitement periodicals gave it in the 1950s. This November '58 article is so thrilled that doctors had finally invented effective genital surgeries that the editors dedicated several pages to the breakthrough. Read the full Tempo Magazine article here.

I am truly just booping everything I see. idc if I know them, idc if we are mutuals. if I perceive them they get booped. if I was actually a cat I would be insufferable.

Make that make sense. People have to quit blaming the poor for being poor.

it’s literally sooo much more expensive to incarcerate people than it is to house and feed them. In my state it costs $90,000 to incarcerate a single person for one year. $90,000. Other states are even more expensive. for comparison, my rent is $1,050 a month. The annual cost of my housing is $12,600.

A word of advice for people advocating for criminal Justice reform to republicans and people who literally do not care about human rights: use these numbers. Republicans and conservatives and even moderate Dems don’t actually care about moral appeals of why it’s wrong to criminalize homelessness. They do however care about how much tax money this would cost to enforce. It makes financial sense to NOT incarcerate people. (Obviously it makes moral sense too, but most people don’t actually care about that)

It's so much more expensive to put people in jail. If they are in the custody of the state (jail or prison), they have to be given food, clothes, heating, and healthcare. Most of the people who are homeless have health problems--either problems that caused them to lose their homes, trauma from being on the street, substance abuse disorder, anything. The average person experiencing homelessness is much sicker than the average American.

At this point, the largest healthcare provider in the U.S. is the Department of Justice. And legally speaking, they have to provide care. (Granted, a lot of places will avoid that as much as possible, but ideally, they get what treatment they need.) There is a giant prison in Rochester, MN, because it's next to the Mayo Clinic. It's where people with rare and serious illnesses go. My old psych prof worked there part time, providing counseling. He saw people who committed horrendous crimes getting surgeries and chemo. To be clear, prisoners should be getting surgeries and chemo. They deserve healthcare. But it's jarring to hear that a murderer got a tumor taken off his lung while his victims' families have to pay out of pocket for therapy.

I also need to point out that if you're giving people housing, you're just giving them housing. Maybe you include heating, water, and electricity. You aren't giving them clothes (uniforms). You aren't paying guards. You aren't installing metal detectors and cameras. You are just giving them a place to live. That's obviously much, much cheaper than prison.

I am horrified that I have to resort to spelling this out, but yes, this is the only argument Republicans will listen to. Give them the cost-benefit analysis

“Who hired and was paying her in the case that she was being deposed about? The foster parents, she answered. They wanted to adopt, she said, and had heard about her from other foster parents.”

If only there were a name for the sort of person who accepts payments to take children away from their non-consenting parents. Something to do with children or kids, and perhaps nabbing.

Have the guts to look them all in the eye and warn them first.

Voting as Fire Extinguisher

When the haunted house catches fire: a moment of indecision.

The house was, after all, built on bones, and blood, and bad intentions.

Everyone who enters the house feels that overwhelming dread, the evil that perhaps only fire can purge.

It's tempting to just let it burn.

And then I remember: there are children inside.

-Kyle Tran Myhre