also since we are all critiquing the discourse right now, it would be awesome if we could keep talking about the inhumane ways the European Union treats those that come seeking asylum even after the Titan leaves the headlines. This has been going on for years and it deserves to be more than a whataboutism

The people who are like "why are you wishing death on these billionaires?!" are not understanding what is going on. It's one thing to wish death on people and it's another thing to have no sympathy for people who died in a situation they were cautioned heavily to not do.

I don't want anyone to die, to be truthful; but here are the facts:

So, no... I feel zero sympathy for those people who should've just been told "no" more often in their life.

USAmericans: This pride month, talk to the queer people who actually live in all those bad evil icky red states and find out what it's actually like, how we actually feel about it, and who here is actively fighting against it. No more telling us to "just leave" or reducing us to innocent victims who are "trapped" here. There are so many of us and we live here for so many reasons, none of which should be justified. We are resilient, we are powerful, and we are fighting against the fascist laws working to eradicate us or scare us away. Being trans in a red state right now is in and of itself an act of resistance. That being said, pay attention to the brave souls on the front lines, pushing against the laws, making good trouble, and refusing to be silenced.

I won't let myself be talked about like I'm stupid to live here.

I won't let myself be talked about like I'm a helpless victim who's trapped here.

If you can't join the fight by standing beside us, then the least you can do is empower us, amplify our voices, and pay more attention to the ones who are FIGHTING AGAINST THESE LAWS than you are to the chucklefucks trying to pass them.

fellow appalachian, I am holding your hand

Hey PLEASE be wary of Dr. Gallagher and spread the word. Rylan (testosteronejew on Twitter) got top surgery from her in August. Here's the thread he wrote about his horrific experience.

He had severe complications that were completely dismissed by Dr. Gallagher. She kept telling him everything was fine, that it was because of his weight, and made a joke about him "menstruating" as he was bleeding from a torn incision. When he was rushed to the ER weeks later, he had over half a foot of dead tissue removed. He could have died from the infection (that she blatantly denied he had).

And in Rylan's own words, "My only desire is to keep our community safe. There are so many trustworthy top surgeons in the world. One of them saved my life. Transition is a beautiful process and we deserve safe access to it. I do not regret top surgery. I regret choosing Dr. Gallagher as my surgeon."

Rylan is also NOT the only one to experience this. I imagine we'll only hear more stories like this due to how popular Dr. Gallagher is.

This doctor is in Miami, FL, United States. She is apparently very popular on TikTok. Also please note that Rylan’s thread describes the infection and surgery in detail and may be triggering to read for some people.

We need everyone's help right now to protect the rainforest and Indigenous People

The Amazon Rainforest is under a massive threat. I know you've heard this a million times, but this is different. There is a piece of legislation that will decimate the rights of Indigenous people of Brazil, who have been protecting the rainforest. It's unfathomably bad. It has majority support. And they're voting tomorrow. As reported here, the Bill allows "the Brazilian government to find energy resources, set up military bases, develop strategic roads, and implement commercial agriculture on protected Indigenous tribal lands, without any prior discussion with the affected peoples."

The thing you can do—and I know this sounds overly simple—is sign this petition—and tell your friends to do the same: SIGN HERE.

As reported here, the Bill allows "the Brazilian government to find energy resources, set up military bases, develop strategic roads, and implement commercial agriculture on protected Indigenous tribal lands, without any prior discussion with the affected peoples."

Again, this bill has majority support. You may be wondering, why will a petition signed by people who don't live in Brazil make any difference? Because it will give those opposing it political air cover. It will show the world is with them.

But we need a LOT of signatures.

Please do this simple act and spread the word.

If you don't judge people for saying "sorry ahdh brain" in public, then don't judge people for saying "sorry schizophrenia brain" in public

If you correct people when they misuse the term "ocd" then you need to correct people when they misuse the terms "psychotic", "delusional", "hallucinating" and "schizophrenic"

If you don't stare, laugh at or fear a stranger in public flapping their hands, then you need to do the same for a stranger in public talking to someone who isn't actually there.

If you give a trigger warning to sensitive topics then you need to give a trigger warning to unreality and false information as a prank.

If you want to normalize medication like antidepressants you also need to normalize medications like antipsychotics.

If you don't like people without your disorder joking about it online and report it as harassment, then you need to do the same for the tons of nonschizophrenics making "schizoposting" memes to make fun of us.

Just please include schizo-spec and psychotic acceptance into your mental illness/neurodiversity acceptance. We are part of your community whether you like it or not. We are constantly stigmatized, misrepresented and made fun of. We do what we can to help you, please return the favor.

Mental illness/neurodiversity acceptance is an ongoing action. We will get nowhere in the long run if we split the community into the "in" group and the "out" group. We could all accomplish so much if we worked together. But you need to include the "weird" people that don't fit into your aesthetic and don't fit the social norms.

Us psychotics and schizo-specs have been struggling for years and have been the only people fighting for ourselves while the people we plead to barely see us as human. If you are nonpsychotic and nonschizo-spec, you can help us more than you realize. Please include us and stick up for us the same way we have been including and sticking up for you.

I feel like nobody on Tumblr knows that the international space station is being discontinued.

Did you know that? In less than a decade it will be gone

CNN Link from above screenshot

More detailed article by Space.com

From the article:

"NASA said that commercially operated space platforms would replace the ISS as a venue for collaboration and scientific research.

“The private sector is technically and financially capable of developing and operating commercial low-Earth orbit destinations, with NASA’s assistance. We look forward to sharing our lessons learned and operations experience with the private sector to help them develop safe, reliable, and cost-effective destinations in space,” said Phil McAlister, director of commercial space at NASA Headquarters in a statement."

Also it's mentioned that China is making their own space station, and that Russia is pulling out of the ISS in 2025 and making their own.

I don't think i'm alone in saying please don't make space subject to the free market. Capitalism doesn't belong in space, let it die here on the earth

I need housing stability or I could die

Hi everyone, I’m sorry I’ve been off for a bit but I got sine extremely bad news. My kidney function is low enough now that I need a transplant. I’m back in the hospital with a persistent kidney infection that greatly effected the function I had.

My best friend and I desperately need an apartment, im currently homeless and I could die. We found a 2 bedroom for $1600/month and that’s cheap considering we live in one of the most expensive cities in the world. They said if we have first and lasts by the 10th, it’s ours. Please help us, our homelessness journey will be over.

0/3200

20/3200

This is time sensitive

Pubic hair removal naturally irritates and inflames the hair follicles, leaving microscopic open wounds. Frequent hair removal is necessary to stay smooth, causing regular irritation of the shaved or waxed area. When that is combined with the warm, moist environment of the genitals, it becomes a happy culture media for some of the nastiest bacterial pathogens.

Dr. Gibson says that whatever method is used on pubic hair – razor blades, electric shavers, tweezers, waxing, depilatories, electrolysis - “hair, like crab grass, always grows back and eventually wins.”

In her practice it is not unusual to find patients with boils and abscesses on their genitals from shaving as well as cellulitis, an infection of the scrotum, labia or penis from shaving or from having sex with someone infected.

Herpes is also an increased risk “due to the microscopic wounds being exposed to virus carried by mouth or genitals.”

“It follows that there may be vulnerability to spread of other sexually transmitted diseases as well,” she says.

“Pubic hair does have a purpose, providing a cushion against friction that can cause skin abrasion and injury, and protection from bacteria. It is the visible result of adolescent hormones and certainly nothing to be ashamed of or embarrassed about.”

“It is time to declare a truce in the war on pubic hair and allow it to stay right where it belongs.”

Honestly amen

Colonizers kill, displace, ignore, traumatize, exploit and oppress the indigenous people who have taken care of the land they lived on for THOUSANDS of years, and then when they see the land degrading around them have the fucking GALL to have all their environmental messaging be like "Wahh humans bad and evil and greedy :("

Like no you dumb motherfuckers you just uprooted the people who knew what they were doing, and when stuff starts to go to shit you decide it must be that humans are inherently awful because it's easier than admitting that YOU LOT fucked up.

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMY5t3uh6/

I'm just trying to boost this :>

here is the link to the petition, i think since it is a parliamentary petition it should only be signed by canadian citizens, but if I am wrong please correct me.

Yes, only Canadians can sign.

If you can’t sign, please reblog to spread the word.

Also make sure that you check your email! Once you've signed, you need to confirm for your signature to be counted.

Listen i have been known to make this joke myself in the past but that was before my Jewish roommate pointed out that "feeling like you have no culture" is just an expression of: privilege

It is *privilege* to have practically the entire world around you be so familiar and wrapped up with your culture as to be boring

It is *privilege* to view your culture as so reduceable to omnipresent background noise as to be considered a blank lack of culture

Believe me, white American, you have a culture. Everyone else in the world is DEEPLY AWARE of your culture and not, generally, by choice. Your culture is just what's dominant. If you don't like it... well, then work to change it

Yes. And:

Giving up specific cultural identities in exchange for the generic but privileged status of "whiteness" and turning specific cultural practices into ubiquitous but intellectually and emotionally shallow observations was and is a particularly insidious part of mainstream American immigrant culture that continues to make white people very vulnerable to white supremacist propaganda.

I, a white Protestant U.S. citizen, grew up feeling like "culture" was something other people had. People with exciting and different traditions, not like my boring "normal" traditions.

I was lucky enough to take a class on intercultural communication in college that demonstrated to me - and I was embarrassed to realize this! - that I thought I "didn't have culture" because, like the fish that doesn't know what water is, I was so immersed in my own dominant (and in many ways globally dominating) culture that I couldn't see it.

I've since leaned harder into the specific traditions of my ancestors and my religion, trying to find a sense of identity that is genuine without making assumptions about belonging where I don't have any actual relationships (that is to say, digging into my heritage without claiming to be English or Swedish or whatever). My ancestors didn't keep their culture when they immigrated to the US in the 1900s and I don't get to pretend that their cultural identities were transmitted to me intact.

But it still felt a little artificial to be adopting some of the trappings of another culture, even one I'm descended from, without having the cultural identity (habits, philosophies, ways of being in the world) that usually accompany those trappings. Maybe that's inevitable when you come from American Whiteness. A teapot and roast beef at Christmas don't make me English in my perspective. The Dala horse on my mantel and saffron buns on St. Lucia's Day don't allow me to understand what it means to be Swedish. I need a sense of my own identity as a United States citizen. Why is it so hard to find?

Recently I've been learning more about the history of white supremacy in the United States, and specifically the way, as I mentioned above, that (especially but not exclusively) European immigrants to the US set aside their own cultural practices for the sake of a privileged identity of whiteness. Just a few minutes ago I reblogged a very long post on white American Evangelical Protestantism and its rampant appropriation of Jewish practices that gave great historical context on why that happens.

These things are not separate from each other. They are two parts of the same problem: the destruction of a secure sense of identity by the hollowing out of cultural meaning when traditions (cultural and/or religious, though those often are intertwined) are abandoned or made generic. This hollowing out makes the almost frantic appropriation of other religions, traditions, and even ways of decorating ourselves and our homes make sense: if our own traditions are only skin deep, then surely "borrowing" someone else's will allow us to access that sense of identity that we are so desperate for, that we can sense we are somehow lacking but can't articulate.

My Dala horse doesn't make me Swedish, but Elf on the Shelf doesn't give me a sense of cultural identity, either (just as well in that case; those things are horrifying). Modern United States white Protestant culture in many ways feels like putting a teapot on my table and declaring that I'm English: an entire nation full of white people desperately trying to recover a sense of identity from the outside in.

What is American (United States) culture? It's not our stuff, but in many cases (T-shirts and jeans, fast food burgers, Santa Claus), for white Americans, our stuff and its commercialized manifestations is all we think of when we think of our culture. It's going to take a lot of individual soul-searching to find the meaning hiding behind that stuff - or in some cases to create meaning, or else get rid of meaningless trappings - so we can feel secure in our identities as human beings existing in the world in unique ways - ways that inform how we live and what we surround ourselves with, rather than trying to make the things we surround ourselves with manifest identities for us.

Cromwell’s brand of Puritanism is also where America’s prosperity gospel hails from, in addition to the Puritans being at least partially responsible for the British leg of the Transatlantic Slave Trade if memory serves.

Also, fun fact, the Pilgrim’s trip to America was actually funded by corporations in Europe, with the understanding that the companies would provide the settlers with ships and supplies, and in exchange the puritans would build a trading settlement and send back X-amount of whatever interesting crops or materials they find/grow as a return on their investment. Again, hardly the tale of a group of honest religious folk fleeing prosperity in a new land.

Similarly, the fact that the Pilgrims moved into an area that had been left depopulated due to a pandemic that had swept the continent (meaning many found crops already planted, homes already built, and graves full of “treasure” like grave goods to steal...) doesn’t get into the narrative either.

Likewise the amount of people sent to America who were indentured servants, criminals, and random homeless people that were rounded up and sent over seas (the idea being the urban poor would be able to find a better, more profitable life growing crops for some rich plantation owner in Carolina than they would living in Southwark)... This likewise didn’t work, as they rarely had the knowledge, experience or desire to become a farmer in a land thousands of miles away, hence why many of them realised that if they just used kidnapped people to do the work instead they could make money while not doing any manual labour.

All of this is 100% true. Another example of rewriting history to make it palatable that has been taught to young children basically since public schools were founded is the Thanksgiving Day story. What we are taught: the pilgrims came to America to escape the Evil Evil Church of England, and they were starving! And winter was coming! But there was a native american named Squanto who worked hard and learned english, then introduced the pilgrims to his tribe. They all became friends and threw a big celebration feast and they lived happily ever after. The end. What really happened: Squanto had been a slave in England, was set aboard a vessel to the Americas in order to help capture more native americans and force them into slavery, but escaped when he got there. He made his way back to the village he grew up in only to find that the entire population had been wiped out by either slavers or smallpox. Since survival had a lot to do with relying on a community, when a ship full of pilgrims arrived he became friends with them - by speaking the English he was taught while a slave. He took them to the (now empty) village, and showed them how to tend the crops that were already growing. The shelter was already build. There was already stored food, and he showed them how to get more. Then he negotiated peace between the settlers and the Wampanoags. Then, yes, there was a feast to celebrate the peace. One time. With one small group of pilgrims, the Wampanoags, and Squanto. Meanwhile, the Puritans were busy coming to America in boatloads. Their entire goal was to take land and resources, capture young, healthy men and women as slaves, and kill everybody else. The second "Day of Thanksgiving" was a celebration of the massacre and capture of over 700 Pequot tribe members. All ages and genders. More were celebrated later for similar reasons. So it went until Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving Day to be a national holiday, and the "official" story was spread across the US in an effort to bring people from the northern and southern states together.... on the same day he ordered the military to march against the Sioux. Womp womp.

Happy Thanksgiving, America....

Tisquantum (Squanto) was kidnapped by the English but sold in Spain where he was bought by a group of monks. He worked his way to England so he could eventually catch a ship to present-day Canada. He then traveled south to his home, where his village had been wiped out by smallpox, and he found the Puritans living there. He was a total badass who determined to gain power in the region and considered them another tribe to use as an ally.

Tisquantum was a soldier, not a farmer, and he taught the Puritans planting techniques he apparently learned in France, where burying rotting food with seed was a fairly common technique. It was not a native practice. He was smart as shit, and he used allies around the region to build his power and establish his own community. We don’t know his actual name— Tisquantum was apparently something he called himself after he got back home, loosely translated as “your worst nightmare,” or “demon from hell.” The Puritans apparently never knew why he spoke English or that he had traveled the world more extensively than any of them.

And the Puritans were weird as fuck. The more that arrived in America the weirder they got. They regulated EVERYTHING. They straight-up killed Quakers or ppl of other religions that moved in nearby. They had bizarre burial practices and would hold kids up against the edge of graves at funerals to know death. It was illegal for Puritan men to live alone without a family; they’d assign one to stay with if they didn’t have their own. Dress codes were enforced by law. Theater, music & gambling were banned. They didn’t laugh or show any affection in public. Long hair was illegal. They hated Christmas, and considered any sort of feast to be a Satanic practice. Not going to church would get you fined, whipped, held in the stocks, tarred & feathered, have your ears cut off, or be burned. So yeah these weirdos probably still have a lot of cultural influence today.

As usual, the real story is probably way more interesting than the fake one.

@sirrah22​

'Cromwell’s brand of Puritanism is also where America’s prosperity gospel hails from" That actually explains a lot.

Tisquantum was apparently something he called himself after he got back home, loosely translated as “your worst nightmare,” or “demon from hell.”

*Literally Cackles*

"Clashes between Iranian security forces and protesters angry over the death of a 22-year-old woman in police custody have killed at least nine people since the violence erupted over the weekend, according to a tally Thursday by The Associated Press.

The scope of Iran’s ongoing unrest, the worst in several years, still remains unclear as protesters in more than a dozen cities — venting anger over social repression and the country’s mounting crises — continue to encounter security and paramilitary forces.

To prevent protests from spreading, Iran’s biggest telecom operator largely shut down mobile internet access again Thursday, said Netblocks, a group that monitors internet access, describing the restrictions as the most severe since 2019.

Read the full piece here: https://apnews.com/article/middle-east-iran-dubai-united-arab-emirates-5897d601151beb0f01353dd83e405d7d

fuck google docs so fucking much

i've just lost hundreds of docs and pdfs and i'm beyond pissed right now

they're all permanently gone

actually they're not holy shit

okay so, gonna tell ya'll something awesome rn

google drive is a mess sometimes with its storage things and if you're unlucky it might delete some of your files and you won't realise until it's well past the point where they won't be in 'trash' anymore and you're fucked

all is not lost however!

if you're on drive via browser, hit the little ? in a circle next to the settings cog and select "help"

search for "file recovery"

it'll show you the ways to try and recover your files on pc, android, and mac etc

these don't matter

you need to scroll down to the bottom and just hit the "contact us"

you'll be logged out automatically

log back in

click the little box to give google permission to attempt to restore your files for that account

click "submit"

give them some time to work but it's an automatic process

i've got most of my files back in less than 10 minutes

all is not lost! rejoice!

I'm gonna reblog this again bc wow but was it helpful to learn!

If your apology involves degrading yourself, calling yourself shit or insulting yourself, its not an apology, try again.

Can someone translate this?

Don’t try to guilt people by saying “I’m sorry I fucking suck.” “I’m sorry I’m just the worst and I should die” Because thats not an apology, thats trying to guilt the other person into dropping the subject.

Yup.  That’s called Weaponized Remorse.  Basically, you’re avoiding accountability by blowing up a big Feelings Bomb at the person you hurt and going “let’s not focus on what I did or what I should do to make amends, let’s focus on how awful I feel about it all, and how you should make me feel better.”

White Woman Crying Syndrome.

Some of the people doing it are just selfish and insensitive assholes.

Some of the people doing it are selfish and insensitive assholes who are specifically trying to train you to think that trying to tell them what they’re doing wrong is going to involve a Drama Bomb and not resolve anything, so you just shouldn’t bother.

“But I DO feel hurt and upset by the situation I’m apologizing for”

Sure, but the person you’re apologizing to doesn’t want or need to hear about it. Go tell a friend who wasn’t involved. Go tell a therapist. Your spouse. DON’T add it to your apology.

So here’s a thing: sometimes people do this not because they’re trying to weaponize anything, but because they were (intentionally or otherwise) taught that they had to preemptively abase themselves as part of every apology or it wouldn’t be accepted.

And it’s still not a good apology, because the purpose of it is not “I understand what I did wrong and I regret it” but “I’m terrified of your disapproval and I will say anything to make it stop.”

So please don’t think you can’t fall into this category if you aren’t consciously doing it to guilt people. You might not be thinking “how can I make this about how hurt I am instead of what I did to you?”, you might be thinking something a lot more like “how can I show my complete surrender so you can win and the fight can be over?”, but that still isn’t an apology. It may not be your fault that you were taught that that’s how to apologize; you still need to learn better.

(And for the record: if you’re with anybody who believes that self-abasement is how you should apologize, and insists on that from you whenever they say you’re in the wrong, that’s a situation you should do your best to get out of.)

I grew up in a household where this was very much the definition of “apology”: the unspoken understanding was that once mom had decided you’d screwed up, then somebody was going to abase and abuse you, and it was much easier – and faster– if you did it to yourself than if you let her do it.

So yeah, I totally understand how one arrives at this habit, and I totally understand how it can feel very very wrong to not to do this. When performing self-hatred is the only thing that keeps you safe, then your brain learns to freak right the fuck out when you fail to do it.

The problem is, you learn this habit when you spend time with someone who doesn’t give a shit about you (or your needs, or your feelings, or your pain). Often, you learn it from someone who actively wants to hurt you. But the rest of the world isn’t like that. Once you get out of that situation (and yeah, let me emphatically second the movement to get out of that situation as quickly as you are safely able to do so), you are surrounded by people who do give a shit, and who very much do not want to hurt you. Friends and partners, especially, but (and this is one of those things that’s hard to swallow), even random people at the bus stop care, at least somewhat, about helping and comforting complete strangers. Humans are pack animals, and distressing other people causes us distress.

So when I say, “Yeah, yeah, I’m worthless garbage, I get it,” that makes the alarm bells in my brain shut off, (which, God, do I need ways to make the alarm bells in my brain shut off) … and it also feels accurate (you can only perform self-hatred for so long before it sinks in)…. but it’s a completely different experience to the sane, reasonable, decent person who hears it. To them, it sounds like they, personally, individually, have completely obliterated my self-esteem, and that makes them, in turn, feel awful about themself. Because no reasonable decent person wants you to feel like garbage.

So yeah, as much better as the degrading-myself feels to me, I’m not smoothing over the issue; I’m exacerbating it. I’m giving them a no-win situation, in which they either have to feel terrible about themself for hurting me, or they have to never bring up anything that bothers them, ever, in any way.

And it doesn’t matter that I was trying to smooth things over, nor that I didn’t want to make them feel awful. The fact of the matter is that I did make them feel awful, and I did put them in a no-win situation. And that’s not who I want to be.

What’s the alternative? I would love to have some feedback from people who are better at this, and had better training, than I. But my template is something like

Examples

To a partner

To a friend

To a coworker

Or even (going meta)

One of the many stupid feelings humans are capable of having is the private, repulsive rage of seeing someone getting support and sympathy for a problem no one helped you with when you were having it, either because you didn’t have anyone or because it never occurred to you that you could ask for help. Suddenly the world seems to split into two – the realm that contains people like them, the connected and loved – and the realm that contains you, the miserable and the alone, who must suffer in solitude. This is sufficiently horrible that you grasp for reasons or world-understandings to make this reality acceptable, and a mentally available one is that it is superior to be in the miserable solitude realm, that the problem is one that should be solved with self sufficiency and dignity. That this other person is pathetic for being aided and loved when you were not. Scorn is more palatable than confronting the notion that you could have received aid (if you had made different choices or been luckier), that you desperately wish you could have been aided but were not. Scorn is more palatable than the howling hunger for things to have been different for you. So your mind chooses scorn.

It is also a bad place to be. Human existence is full of such traps.