im college student

I think that explains enough

[olderthannetfic]

A New History of Fandom Purges

On November 24th, 2018, I posted a list of major deletions of sites or of content on sites that stripped fandom of its history. A bunch of pro-shipper blogs had just been deleted, and people were nervous. I suppose I was thinking “All this has happened before…”

On December 3rd, 2018, Tumblr’s Department of Irony announced the NSFW ban. Thanks for providing this salutary lesson to The Youth and a billion reblogs to me, I guess.

Today, we have AO3 for writing. Audio, images, and video are in as much danger as ever, yet fans attack AO3 every donation drive. For those of you who forget our past…

HERE IS WHAT HISTORY HAS TAUGHT US!

1992 - Chelsea Quinn Yarbro forces a zine to be destroyed

1995 - Viacom/Paramount goes after fansites

1995 - Anne Rice gets IWTV fic deleted everywhere

1997 - Fox and Lucasfilm go after fansites

1998 - AOL goes after X-Files fansites

2000 - Warner Brothers goes after Harry Potter fansites

2000 - Anne Rice anne rices again

2001 - Tripod Massacre

2001 - Anne Rice goes after IWTV fic on FFN

2001 - The Bronze shut down as Buffy changes networks

2002 - FFN bans porn

2002 - FFN bans RPF

2003 - Gryffindor Tower implodes

2004 - FFN bans script format

2005 - FFN bans CYOA, Readerfic, 2nd person, Songfic

2005 - Sheezyart bans adult content; y!gallery founded

2005 - Viacom/Paramount goes after fansites again

2006 - Sakura Lemon Archive suddenly closes

2007 - Strikethrough, Boldthrough on Livejournal

2007 - Youtube institutes Content ID, deleting many fanvids

2008 - Slash Cotillion closes, taking much historical m/m with it

2009 - GeoCities shuts down, taking old fannish websites

2009 - Greatestjournal shuts down; RPGs deleted

2009 - Marvel gets scans_daily deleted

2009 - imeem, major vidding hub, closes suddenly

2010 - FFN forums purged for inactivity

2010 - DeviantArt purges adult fanfic

2010 - Literate Union goes after Twilight fandom on FFN

2011 - Delicious destroyed by Yahoo’s incompetence

2011 - China arrests women for writing m/m; destroys danmei.org

2012 - major FFN crackdown on porn

2012 - Megaupload deleted for piracy; also destroys vids, podfic

2013 - Max-Dan-Wiz.com purged of fan-generated content

2014 - Quizilla shuts down

2014 - China purges m/m story websites; arrests female authors

2014 - Blip.tv deletes vids

2014 - Viddler deletes vids

2015 - Journalfen’s servers become fully robust, deleting Fandom Wank

2016 - y!Gallery deleted

2016 - Elfwood goes offline

2016 - Audiofic Archive corrupted; major blow to podfic

2017 - Chinese author jailed after being ratted out over fandom drama

2017 - Parents get queer Warrior Cats fic purged from Wattpad

2018 - Tumblr deletes pro-shipper blogs

2018 - Tumblr announces NSFW ban

2018 - Wattpad deletes accounts/fics without warning

2019 - China purges weibo of m/m; more women jailed

This is only a small taste of the many times that:

Fannish moderators got bored, ran out of money, or had a falling out, deleting a site/list/forum along the way.

Sites got bought out and closed for being unprofitable.

Fandom got hit as governments targeted piracy or political dissidents.

Fans grudge reported each other.

Official forums got deleted when the canon finished.

It’s not always malicious. It’s not always about us. But we lose every time.

Some of these purges hit everyone. Many of them hit m/m content specifically or female gaze-y material in general. This is why antis are dead wrong. This is why anti-fujoshi policies end up being anti-m/m policies. This is why we need clear labeling, not content restrictions.

This is why we need AO3.

And it’s why we need a solution for audio, visuals, and video too.

[totallysilvergirl]

So grateful for the historical memory and the long view on a phenomenon many of us have come to late, and/or take for granted.

And this is why AO3 generates twice its goal amount in just a few days: they are irreplaceable.

[squeezemetillipop]

RIP Chadwick Boseman. A video of him speaking about communicating with kids who had cancer. Unknown to the public, he was already battling his fight with cancer.

You were a rising star! This generations league of great Black Actors! You had so much ahead of you! And I appreciate all you have done for cinema! I hope your family finds peace and consolation. You will never be forgotten.

[weonsinnombre]

[morkitten]

sitting with these pants on is probably the worst experience in the whole world

[randomitemdrop]

Item: the Uncomfortable Pants, worn as penance by knights

[gettingvetted]

ik that not all grain free foods are amazing, or even good, but what's going on with them and petco? i'm sort of out of the loop. ik they did their whole taking 'unhealthy' foods off of shelves, but that's all i know

Petco is taking all foods off their shelves that use artificial preservatives. The artificial preservatives found in dog food have never been proven harmful to animals, which is saying something considering that the main companies that use them (Purina, Hills, Iams/Eukanuba, and Royal Canin) all perform constant lifetime feeding trials on all their diets and employ veterinary nutritionists (i.e., those with ACVN certifiation or a PhD in animal nutrition) as opposed to literally every other food company that does not. More on that later. But essentially the only food companies left after removing those big 4 are boutique companies producing grain-free diets.

Basically it’s a huge marketing scam. People are afraid of big words they can’t pronounce and anything that’s “artificial” and not “all-natural.”

The problem is not with grain-free foods, exactly. While there are some examples of animals that truly need a grain free diet, they are few and far between. The only dogs that have ever been confirmed to have Celiac Disease is a very specific line of spaniels, and even they don’t need to be grain-free, just wheat-free. In some animals, being grain-free might help with IBD, but at any rate, the reasons for going grain-free with a pet are all scientific, rather than a non-scientific view that dogs and cats, as carnivores, should not be eating corn or other grains. But that non-scientific view is why the grain-free market has become so large and prevalent.

The issue is that no company other than those 4 mentioned above (Purina, Hills, Royal Canin, and Iams/Eukanuba) perform feeding trials. The foods made by other companies are formulated to meet AAFCO standards (the national scientific board that keeps standards of what nutrients pet need and how much), so technically they do include everything the pet would need, but they never test this out. Not every nutrient contained in an ingredient is going to make it into the animal’s body in a useful form, so just saying that you have a certain amount of blueberries in your food and this provides a certain amount of XYZ nutrient, doesn’t mean that the animal is going to get every bit of that nutrient. You can’t know how much nutrient is going to be derived from that ingredient until you perform feeding trials. Combine this with the fact that many of the rest of the food companies out there do not employ veterinary nutritionists. As a result of both these items, your pet is their guinea pig.

This horrible realization is currently rocking the pet world in the form of dilated cardiomyopathy - this means that the heart becomes large and weak and unable to pump blood well. Eventually it is fatal. Some breeds of dogs are naturally prone to this disease, but vets and veterinary cardiologists started noticing that breeds which are not predisposed were starting to have issues more often than what you would consider random chance. It turns out that they were all on B.E.G. diets - Boutique (a small company, often recently formed), Exotic (exotic proteins such as kangaroo, rabbit, alligator, etc), and Grain-free - and this includes commercial raw diets and homemade diets. The FDA has launched an investigation into it and are taking reports from any vet who has a case. They are currently in the beginning stages of performing clinical trials with BEG diets to see what exactly it is that allows for this condition, but the current thinking is that even if the diet contains enough taurine, it is not bioavailable enough (see above: “just saying that you have a certain amount of blueberries in your food and this provides a certain amount of XYZ nutrient, doesn’t mean that the animal is going to get every bit of that nutrient”) or that the presence or absence of another ingredient in the diet prevents the animal from using the taurine in the food, which is shown by the fact that adding taurine to the BEG diet of a dog that has the issue will often not solve the issue.

Right now the main recommendation to avoid this issue is to only use foods that fit the World Small Animal Veterinary Association guidelines - and these companies include? You guessed it: Royal Canin, Hills, Purina, and Iams/Eukanuba. These are the only 4 companies in America that run feeding trials *and* employ veterinary nutritionists. There exist other food companies that do employ veterinary nutritionists (although they are few) but none of them run feeding trials, so they still don’t fit the guidelines. If your dog does need a grain-free diet (or you really insist on the non-scientific reasons for feeding it), both Hills and Purina produce a grain-free diet that has not been shown to cause any issues. If your dog needs a hypoallergenic diet (as many people choose one of the BEG diets to have a novel protein - one that won’t cause allergy issues) there are novel protein and prescription hypoallergenic diets with these companies as well.

That Petco is getting rid of the only known safe diets and promoting pseudoscience is why I will not shop there anymore and will recommend my clients go anywhere but there, at least for pet food needs but ideally for everything. The BEG diet manufacturers are remaining mysteriously silent on this as well, pretending that it’s not an issue and instructing their reps to tell vets and consumers that the whole thing is a scam by the 4 mentioned companies to try to drive smaller companies out of the market (because FDA involvement and epidemiologic studies are totally scams and not evidence…)

My question is, what do BEG diet manufacturers have to lose by running feeding trials and employing experts? They can prevent hundreds if not thousands of health issues with their customers’ furbabies - but perhaps they would get results telling them that their “all natural” grain-free diets are actually unhealthy for pets.

If you’re interested in learning more, including records of which foods have recorded instances of nutritionally-deficient DCM, I recommend joining this group, which has an incredible amount of knowledge and information and is moderated by veterinarians who constantly answer questions and update the records. For my vetblr followers, if you indicate that you’re a vet student or other veterinary professional when you answer the group’s admission questions, they will invite you to the veterinary professionals version of the group too, which has discussion above layman’s terms.

[13shades-of-purple]

This is going to be focused on cats since that is what I have and what I’ve researched and had experience with.

My cat was hospitalized a few years ago (he was about 8 at the time) because he couldnt urinate due to crystals in his urine blocking his urethra. I almost lost my best friend. I fed him a purina kibble for most of his life and had switched to a smaller brand that had no by product meal or peas (just oats) because he stopped eating it. When he was released, the vet recommended Hillls so I bought some from his office. This might seem like I’m supporting the decision but thats the farthest thing from the truth. My cat would NOT touch it. And what he did eat from hunger was immediately thrown up.

In desperation I looked up what the root causes of urine crystals in cats was (which my vet, one of the best rated in my city, did not tell me). It turns out to be rooted in moisture content. CATS SHOULD NOT EAT KIBBLE. PERIOD. Not just because of the low moisture content, but because it is incredibly prone to mold and mildew. If you must feed your cat kibble I am BEGGING you to break it up into smaller bags and store it in your refrigerator!

Anyways, using this information I decided to supplement my cats food with wet (budget issues prevented me from switching entirely at the time) and switch back to the dry food he liked. He has had no problems for over 2 years with the increase in water.

Now, I’m switching him to homemade food. This is not something I would recommend to everyone since it is a lot of work and a lot of science and costs about the same as an entirely wet food diet. The reason I’m switching him is because I HATE the ingredients of manufactured cat food. Cats eat meat. End of story. The reason peas are in cat food is to raise the protein content on the label but they aren’t able to digest or get anything out of them since their stomachs just don'thave the microbes to do so. They also do not need grains in their diet. (Ever wonder why your cats poop stinks? Or gets constipated? It’s the grains.) They also do not need vegetables or fruit or fish (except an incredibly small portion of fish oil for heart health.) In fact, a primarily fish protein diet can also cause urine crystals because of the heavy elements present in fish meats, especially large fish like salmon.

The food my cat is getting now is entirely chicken and/or Turkey ground with vitamins (recommend and tested by a different vet) and water. Cats naturally eat small rodents and birds and sometimes other little creatures when available. That’s it. They dont need anything else. My cat is now 10 and thriving because of the changes I’ve made. No more puke. No more smelly poo. Regular urination. The food I feed my cat is also human grade, not leftovers.

Now you want to know why vets and animal nutritionists would reccomend foods that large companies produce even though they contain gross amounts of species inappropriate ingredients? They are PAID to do so. Hills, Purina, all of them have contracted to vets offices to give them a cut of the sales. Additionally, they are contracted to universities for the student research and provide almost all textbooks and articles for their programs so no one can contradict them with any reputation. Honestly it all boils down to money. Fresh meats cost a ton more then the by product meals and grains and peas they pour in. Partially those savings are passed to you as the consumer, but with how expensive Hills and Royal Canin are in particular, I’m guessing they just make out like fat rats like any other corporation. Additionally, and I’m guessing here, but I bet the reason they want to denounce and discredit all the other brands is because they would loose sales if people found out how poor their food actually is. Like, do they even test the comparison between only fresh kills and their food? Or just their food against more of their food?

Who would’ve thought that feeding an obligate carnivore vegetables and grains would mess up their digestive system? It should be obvious.

[gettingvetted]

Hey sorry (not sorry), none of this is true. Like, at all.

“In desperation I looked up what the root causes of urine crystals in cats was (which my vet, one of the best rated in my city, did not tell me). It turns out to be rooted in moisture content.” Nope! It is actually a result of genetics and the acidity or alkalinity of the urine. Struvite stones are the most common stones we see and can be dissolved by acidifying the urine with a proper diet, such as one of the prescription diets from Hill’s, Purina, or Royal Canin. Cats that are prone to other types of stones unfortunately cannot be dissolved in this way, but we can help prevent them from forming stones by putting them on a urinary diet (again, prescription) that alters the type of protein and minerals they receive that help reduce the body’s total content of the minerals in their specific stone type. And of course there are the “stress” or “calm” diets that provide tryptophan and other calming amino acids for cats that are prone to sterile stress cystitis which can lead to crystals if left untreated. While it is true that adding wet food or soaking the dry food with water will help dilute the crystals making it less likely for them to form stones, it is absolutely untrue that feeding dry food is the source of urinary stones.

“CATS SHOULD NOT EAT KIBBLE. PERIOD.” Nope! There is currently no consensus as to whether cats should eat only kibble or only wet food. Take it from the board-certified veterinary nutritionists at one of the top vet schools in the country (which 13-shades-of-purple is NOT): “In the end, in the absence of health concerns, either dry or canned food or a combination can be fed to cats or dogs and you should make this decision based on your pet’s individual needs, and your lifestyle, budget, and other factors.” 

“The reason I’m switching him is because I HATE the ingredients of manufactured cat food. Cats eat meat. End of story. The reason peas are in cat food is to raise the protein content on the label but they aren’t able to digest or get anything out of them since their stomachs just don'thave the microbes to do so. They also do not need grains in their diet. (Ever wonder why your cats poop stinks? Or gets constipated? It’s the grains.) They also do not need vegetables or fruit or fish (except an incredibly small portion of fish oil for heart health.)” Nope! This is just… completely untrue. Cats can absolutely get nutrition from peas, grains (including corn), vegetables, and fruit. Constipation is not a result of grains… as an FYI, carnivores do not really use microbes to aid in protein or carbohydrate digestion, or much digestion at all. We use enzymes. A healthy gut microbiome is essential especially in the large colon where they help to pull moisture and final nutrients out of the food before it is excreted as feces, but the majority of digestion in carnivores happens in the small intestine using, you know, acids and enzymes, which you would know if you had any veterinary education whatsoever.

“The food I feed my cat is also human grade, not leftovers.” Again, straight from the board-certified veterinary nutritionists at one of the top vet schools in the country: “Also beware of companies using the term “human grade” to describe their ingredients, as to use this term, all of the ingredients, as well as the final product, must be “stored, handled, processed, and transported” in ways that meet federal regulations for human foods. If the entire food isn’t human edible, then companies should not be claiming that individual ingredients are. Once an ingredient is destined for inclusion in pet food, then it is no longer fit for human consumption by definition, unless it never leaves the human food chain and the pet food is made in a human food plant. More importantly, ingredients sourced from the human food chain are not necessarily any more nutritious, wholesome, or safe than ingredients initially destined for pet food. Therefore, manufacturer’s claims of “human grade” ingredients should be taken with a grain of salt at best (as a side note, pet foods containing “human grade” ingredients that may sound more appealing to us, such as “fresh angus beef”, can increase the number of animals that need to be raised to feed humans and pets and have a negative impact on the planet in terms of sustainability).”

“Now you want to know why vets and animal nutritionists would reccomend foods that large companies produce even though they contain gross amounts of species inappropriate ingredients? They are PAID to do so. Hills, Purina, all of them have contracted to vets offices to give them a cut of the sales.” Umm, literally no?? Just like LITERALLY every other thing we sell in the clinic, we purchase the product from the company and sell it on a markup. If what you’re saying is true, we also get “a cut of the sales” from drug manufacturers, candle companies… heck, even syringe and needle manufacturers! Do you see yet how silly this sounds? Are we… not… supposed to make money from selling things?

“Additionally, they are contracted to universities for the student research and provide almost all textbooks and articles for their programs so no one can contradict them with any reputation.” Umm, what? Where were these dollars that would have paid for $200 per textbook per class for me? Where were these programs that would have paid for my lung cancer research projects? Get this: not a single one of my textbooks or articles were provided by Hill’s or any other company. Hill’s does offer a free nutrition textbook, but it is not written by them - it is written by the Mark Morris Institute. In vet school we got free lunch once a semester where we could learn about new products, but we also get free lunch once a semester from literally every company that wants to offer this. I went to lunch-and-learns from Rayne, Orijen, Blue Buffalo, Zoetis, Pfizer, Boehringer-Ingelheim… usually these are spent studying for your exam next period or Facebooking, not paying attention or being brainwashed. This comment is where you reveal that you have literally no veterinary training whatsoever, lol.

“Additionally, and I’m guessing here, but I bet the reason they want to denounce and discredit all the other brands is because they would loose sales if people found out how poor their food actually is. Like, do they even test the comparison between only fresh kills and their food? Or just their food against more of their food?” You’re right, what a WAG. You do realize that it has NEVER been any of these big companies trashing other companies? It has literally been Blue Bufflo and co. saying “OTHER brands use byproducts, we would NEVER!” (byproducts are completely harmless and an excellent source of nutrients, btw) “OTHER brands use grains, we would NEVER!” (grains are completely harmless and an excellent source of nutrients, btw) It has always been the smaller companies using marketing to make themselves seem better than the companies that actually employ board-certified veterinary nutritionists and the ones that do lifetime feeding trials. I have been to the testing facilities of Hill’s and they do not do comparisons to other companies’ foods. They only test their own foods, which is literally all that is necessary. The animals get extensive bloodwork, radiographs, and ultrasounds every 6 months and are individually examined for problems daily by staff members. Pets with ailments such as sensitive stomachs, kidney failure, heart failure, etc are randomly placed into groups of “regular diet” (such as a standard senior diet) vs “prescription diet” and the differences in their labwork results is compared to ensure that the prescription diet is doing its job. This is how they measure that their foods and it is extremely thorough. Why measure their diets against an incomplete diet (fresh kills or other pet foods) when they can just continually test that their own foods are still complete and are able to maintain a healthy dog or cat? That’s like saying that a company making an anti-cancer drug should also test another company’s anti-cancer drug for them. No… you don’t need that. You just need to know that your own drug cures 75% more cancer over the placebo and if the other company does their own studies you can know that their drug only cures 25% more cancer than the placebo… it’s just in this case that the other companies are too money-hungry to perform studies for their own foods.

“Who would’ve thought that feeding an obligate carnivore vegetables and grains would mess up their digestive system? It should be obvious.” It doesn’t, and it’s not. Why don’t you leave the ranting about nutrition to someone who has a modicum of veterinary training?

[philosoverted-deactivated202006]

Do you ever lie awake wondering how the heck Gimli knows what a nervous system is

[systlin]

Clearly dwarves have medical knowledge far more advanced than that of the other races.

[gallusrostromegalus]

His Majesty Dr. Gimli, son of Gloin, Neurosurgeon, M.D.

[filthyprotozoan]

gimli trying to explain his studies to legolas, a flat-earther

[hubris-i]

#*scroll down* #*remember that middle earth is canonically flat for elves and round for everyone else* #*scroll back up & smash that reblog button"

[fridge246]

tired: legolas took gimli to valinor with him because they were bffs/in love/etc. 

wired: legolas took gimli to valinor to prove the world was flat after arguing with him about it for decades

[jemthecrystalgem]

Sorry it’s what to elves

[dvandom]

So, in Tolkein lore, the world was originally flat, with most of the land in the middle (hence Middle Earth).  But the Numenorians (men who were rewarded with their own Atlantis-equivalent island for service in the first big war against Melkor, but eventually Power Corrupts etc) tried to invade the uttermost west which was basically Elf Heaven.  To put an end to that sort of thing, the creator of the world Bent The World and made it a sphere…but left elves able to treat it like a flat disk.  So elves can sail west and reach Elf Heaven, but a man or dwarf or hobbit who sails west will eventually wrap around to the east coast of Middle Earth.

[moomoobooboo-deactivated2020102]

This is why Legolas can see for such great, almost impossible distances. The Earth does not curve for him.

[endreal]

Legolas said fuck the horizon

[notedchampagne]

digital ghosts

[becausebirds]

[iwishitwas1983]

I’m crying.

[floacist]

LMAOOOOOOOOO the screaming in the beginning “mr. owl” “oh jesus christ” “please don’t give me that look” “please don’t fly” DYING omg

[alrightalrightalrightalyssa-dea]

That owl is 30000000% done

[sasstrid-and-dorkcup]

every time this video graces me with its presence i feel obliged to reblog it

[bygrabthars-hammer-deactivated2]

This gives me great joy

[missymalice]

“young adult dystopian novels are so unrealistic lmao like they always have some random teenage girl rising up to inspire the world to make change.”

a hero emerges 

[inkgut-deactivated20180603]

And just like in the novels, grown men and women are going out of their way to destroy her. Support our hero.

[freifraufischer]

And it’s not even like it doesn’t happen regularly.  

Teenage girls are amazing.

[queen-of-the-merry-men]

Sometimes they’re not even teenagers

[maveragical]

Reblog every time a girl is discredited/ignored

[thecaboodale]

[spacemonkeyg78]

[itssammray]

[disgusting-enby]

Who they are:

Emma Gonzalez

Malala Yousafzai

Ruby Bridges

Greta Thunberg

Mari Copeny

Autumn Peltier

Afreen Khan

Sophie Cruz

Charlottesville Black Students Union

Naomi Wadler

DAPL protestors (names not found)

Ahed Tamimi

[adultprivilege]

This isn’t a coincidence. Revolutions almost always happen when the population of a country is at its youngest and that’s a lot more true nowadays with social media.

[2am-theswifthour]

Claudette Colvin was actually the first one to refuse her seat in Montgomery, Alabama to a white passenger. The movement chose to promote Rosa Parks as the figure for that form of protest because Claudette was a pregnant 15-year-old girl.

Barbara Rose Johns was a 16-year-old who organized a student strike protesting segregated schools. This strike, after gaining support of the NAACP, became a lawsuit that turned into Brown vs. The Board of Education and resulted in the desegregation of U.S schools nationally.

7th-grader Mary Beth Tinker, disturbed by the Vietnam War, decided to wear an arm band with a peace sign on it in protest. Her school suspended her. Her family filed a suit, Tinker vs. Des Moines, which reached the Supreme Court and ruled in her favor, ensuring that students and teachers maintain their right to free speech while in school.

Freddie & Truus Oversteegen were sisters who joined a Dutch resistance movement in WWII in their teens. They lured, ambushed, and assassinated Nazis and Dutch collaborators. They also blew up a railway line, transported Jewish refugees to new hiding places, and worked in an emergency hospital. 

Our history books may like to showcase male figures, but behind every movement is a young girl ready to make a change. It was true then, it’s true now, and future generations of teenage girls will go on to inspire progress, whether they’re credited or not.

[johnnyjoestarrelatable]

hey what’s up i *submits to the grain*

[johnnyjoestarrelatable]

[wrinklycat]

One of my uncles succumbed to the grain via the grain silo exploding as soon as he walked in and now he cant move any part of his body and can barely eat on his own but its okay because he was in the kkk and tried to invite my dad to join everytime we visited

[johnnyjoestarrelatable]

[heckyeahponyscans]

Hey folks, I live in Seattle and up till a couple years ago I lived on Capitol Hill. I still have friends living there.  So I thought I’d provide some local insight into the CHAZ (Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone).

There is a lot of misinformation out there, especially from Fox News, which photoshopped a gunman into pics, wow.

First, the best resources to find CHAZ info are local to Seattle: The Seattle Times, Capitol Hill Blog, and the CHAZ livestream where you can see the streets for yourself.

Capitol Hill is a very densely populated neighborhood full of apartment buildings and bustling restaurants and bars. If you work there, you live there (because it is hard to navigate by car, like NYC), and if you live there, you are probably super liberal. It’s also the center of counter-culture and LGBTQ culture in Seattle.

Are the protesters terrorizing the locals?

No, the protesters ARE the locals. They live in the many, many apartment buildings on Capitol Hill.  Having lived there for years, believe me when I say “fuck the police” is a prevalent opinion there even when there isn’t a nationwide protest.

Is there looting?  How are businesses protecting themselves?

The local businesses are not being looted; they are open and are doing a booming business.  Also, a lot of workers / business owners ARE protesters.

I saw a picture of Seattle on fire!

Actually you saw a picture of a protest in Minnesota that Fox News pretended was Seattle because they are frauds and shills.

How big is the Autonomous Zone?

Six square blocks.

How did this situation come about?

There was a peaceful march.  The mayor abruptly set a 5 pm curfew.  The protesters ignored it and marched anyway.  Then the police set up barricades to stop the march.  The cops started using tear-gas and flash-bangs and the situation devolved from there. (You can find videos of this on Capitol Hill Blog.)  What prompted the tear-gas was … one of the protesters thrust a pink umbrella over the barrier.  Yes, really.

The situation deteriorated for several days/nights running until the police abandoned the East Precinct on Capitol Hill. The violence was very one-sided: the police attacking the protesters.

Then the police left.  From what I heard the mayor ordered them out due to rumors or fears that the police station would be burned down? Which didn’t happen.  Anyway, they abruptly left.  As in, hired a literal moving truck and emptied out their headquarters, in almost a comedic beat.

Do you have to show your ID to enter the Autonomous Zone?

No.  People come and go freely.  City services are also allowed to come and go (and I presume delivery trucks but I haven’t looked into that.)

What’s with the physical barriers if people can come and go freely?

They’re to keep vehicles out. 

Backstory:  While the protests were ongoing, a guy (whose brother was an East Precinct cop) tried to ram his car into a crowd of protesters.  A brave man eating a hot dog threw himself at the side of the car, grabbed the steering wheel through the open window, and stopped him. Whereupon cop-brother-car-man shot him with a gun.

Personally I think cop-brother-car-man was planning a mass shooting because he had extra ammo taped to his hoodie sleeve. You can see the blue tape on his arm in the pic above. (The protester who was shot thankfully survived.  Check out those brave medics tending him while an ACTIVE SHOOTER is standing feet away!)

But anyway, that’s why there are barriers. I believe they move them aside for approved vehicles, like emergency vehicles or deliveries.

Are there people with guns roaming around?

Not on a regular basis, although I’ve heard a local gun club had some members there one night when it was rumored the Proud Boys (a Nazi group) might show up.  (They didn’t.)  But in general, no.

Is it scary??

No.  The neighborhood is fully on board and overall there is a festive atmosphere.  There are speeches about BLM, about discrimination, about what people want for the neighborhood.  There are first aid stations, medics and counselors, and people offering free pizza.  If you watch the livestreams, you can see people walking their dogs, out with their kids, etc.

Where will this all end?

I don’t know.  The barriers can’t stay up forever and I think everyone knows that.  The “Autonomous Zone” name is tongue-in-cheek, the protesters aren’t actually trying to secede from the United States.  Basically, this is a boiling over of frustration.  The police have never been good-faith neighbors on Capitol Hill.  Also Seattle police have always been pretty racist and had a problem with excessive force.

Look at this whole situation.  All the police had to do was stand back and let the protesters march; they would have marched and gone home and that would be that.  All the police had to do was nothing.  Instead they turned a neighborhood into a warzone.

By the way, did you know that yesterday (6/12) in a different Seattle neighborhood 60,000 people marched to support BLM?  And because the city had learned its lesson about dumbass curfews, they let everyone march and nothing bad happened.

Weird how the national news didn’t report on that march, huh?  Almost like they cherrypick the protests that will appear “scary” to their audience.

[250m]

Visit Original Link

[spookihope]

2020 vibes

[cyprith]

“not all cops”

I work in a non-restraint facility for special needs kids (21 and under) with extreme behavioral issues. I’m talking real violent stuff. Sixteen and twenty-one year old boys who can (and do) home-run swing desks at your head.

As a non-restraint facility, we are trained to respond to these outbursts in the most non-threatening, non-confrontational way possible, while still protecting both the bystanders and the person currently attacking us.

We are monitored every second of our shift to make sure the safety and dignity of our clients is maintained, especially–and just let me emphasize this–the safety and dignity of the person attempting to hurt us. Their right to be treated fairly and with empathy is not forfeit just because their brain chemistry fucked them up today.

We have to be calm, regardless.

We have to be gentle, regardless.

We can never respond with any kind of force, ever.

Those rules apply to all the staff, all the time, no matter what.

So when I hear bullshit about how somebody “reached for their waistband” or they were “resisting,” when I hear yet another police officer got off because the situation was “scary” or he “feared for his safety” or whatever the fuck, I lose my shit.

You wanna talk about how you were frightened for your safety, walking up to someone in the middle of a psychotic episode? Yeah, well, I’ve been there. Pretty regular–probably twice a week, at least–no gun, no taser, with guidelines that state I cannot even use my fucking thumb because that’s considered “grabbing” and therefore a “restraint.”

And you know what? I’ve walked away from every one of those. I haven’t died. I’ve never even been seriously injured. We defused the situation in ways that didn’t involving riddling the other participant with bullets and at the end of the day, everyone went home. Go fucking figure.

And yet–and fucking yet–I keep hearing “not all cops.”

“Not all cops” are bad. “Not all cops” shoot innocent people .3 seconds after rolling up on the scene. “Not all cops” are racist fuckbags, misusing power for a personal joyride. “Not all cops” rape people at gunpoint (and get off scott-fucking-free).

Yet, at my place of employment, somehow everyone is calm in a crisis. Somehow everyone responds to violence with non-violence. Somehow everyone is always able to act like a goddamn compassionate human-being in the middle of the worst kind of street fight–

but you’re telling me that cops, people paid to protect, can’t all do what I do?

You’re telling me that cops, trained to respond to crises, can’t all respond to the same crises, with the same skill, that I do?

And you’re telling me that cops have to stick together in the face of these “potentially false” accusations. That cops have to support each other, no matter what, because their job is dangerous or whatever. That yeah, some cops, but ~actually, sweetie, not all cops~

Fuck that noise. My job is dangerous, too. But you better believe that if anyone sees a member of our staff breaking regulation, their ass gets reported immediately. That person loses their clearances; they can no longer be hired in the field, anywhere. There’s no moving to another district. There’s no finding another location. We make it stop.

So until every cop is cleaning house, until every cop stops this strategically blind bullshit, until every cop refuses to stand by and watch the rampant abuse and corruption inherent in this system, until all the bad cops are weeded out and unemployable–

Until that moment, then yeah, all cops.

[cyprith]

I wrote this in 2015. Five years ago, I thought we’d have made some sweeping changes by now.

[jaubaius]

A bird explaining to a hedgehog crossing so it doesn’t die.

[serialreblogger]

!!! ok but that’s legitimately what it’s doing!! That’s a corvid right there (looks like a hooded crow, to be precise), which means it’s intelligent enough to recognize, a) cars are dangerous and streets should be treated with a certain degree of caution, b) this car’s slowing down for them–cars do that sometimes–which means they’re not in imminent danger, so it doesn’t have to fly away just yet, c) that hedgehog’s still gonna get killed if it doesn’t MOVE, FAST (cars can change speed very quickly and the hedgehog’s still in the way), and almost certainly also d) if the bird does nothing it gets a free lunch.

Y’all, Y’ALL. This bird is consciously deciding to put itself in danger in order to save the life of a very stupid creature. A creature which, if the bird did nothing, could be free food. 

i can’t - look if you follow me you know I have a thing for corvids, but this is - like!!! People are always saying “ah yes they have sub-human intelligence and don’t consider anything that isn’t immediately necessary for their own survival/pleasure,” but! Whether or not it can do philosophy, this crow is clearly demonstrating compassion. Even if it’s just the kind of compassion a toddler shows to a snail, a social creature that instinctively recognizes the potential for emotion in other beings, that’s still huge and cool and important and corvids!!! are! neat!!! 

[pg-chan]

Also, by the car stopping for them, that hedgehog has two other species actively working to help it stay alive for no gain of their own. 

[portentous-offerings]

Reminds me of that professor who said the beginning of civilization was when someone took care of another. The broken thigh bone thing.

“Helping someone else through difficulty is where civilization starts. We are at our best when we serve others.” - Margaret Mead

[cause-boys-dont-cry-deactivated]

why the FUCK is there a big spider on my bedroom wall it doesn't look like any spider i've ever seen in my entire life what the fuck

[2-point-5]

are you sure it's a spider?

[cause-boys-dont-cry-deactivated]

yes i am it looks like this

[2-point-5]

oh that's a wolf spider. they taste like celery and pork and they aren't poisonous.

[cause-boys-dont-cry-deactivated]

why is it in my room

[cause-boys-dont-cry-deactivated]

and why do you know what it tastes like

[cause-boys-dont-cry-deactivated]

@sicklythiasus why do you know what a wolf spider tastes like

[2-point-5]

nom nom.

[cause-boys-dont-cry-deactivated]

what

[2-point-5]

yummy yummy in my tummy tummy

[cause-boys-dont-cry-deactivated]

when and why did you eat a wolf spider

[2-point-5]

band camp, 2019. there was an infestation. i started eating them to get rid of them. i have since eaten cockroaches, crickets, grasshoppers, and those little green grass spiders.

the greenies taste like vegetarian sausage.

[cause-boys-dont-cry-deactivated]

why was your solution to eat them

[2-point-5]

i mean, no one else was gonna.

[celtic-pyro-deactivated20230725]

[aberrantemotion]

Do you guys think they were drawing porn of a humanized black plague girl hundreds of years ago, or is corona chan a new occurance

[normal-horoscopes]

THEY ABSOLUTELY DID HOWEVER CONTEMPORARY ART DEPICTED THE PLAGUE AS EITHER THE ANGEL OF DEATH OR APOLLO SO WHILE IT WASNT AN ANIME TITTY GIRL IT WAS A TWUNK HOLDING A SNAKE

[ahsadler]

[gardevoir]

hi i'll never get over the few golden times pokemon games have used in-game mechanics as incredibly subtle yet effective storytelling techniques. like the fact that in gsc/hgss silver uses a zubat/golbat for a majority of the game until the end when it's evolved into a crobat which is only possible through max friendship meaning he finally learned to love his pokemon. or the fact that team bosses like maxie, archie, and cyrus all have a crobat, showing that despite their evil they very much do bond with their pokemon (this being especially telling for cyrus). and yet despite so many team bosses being so horrid to the world, they at least are loving toward their pokemon, which makes ghetsis all the more revolting and terrifying when you realize that his hydreigon (which is underleveled, implying a forced early evolution) knows the move frustration, a move which gains power the more the pokemon hates the trainer, and it has maximum power

shit like that just makes me go fuckin wild

[pervocracy]

Me in history class: Wow, humanity has been through some fascinating times!  I wonder if I’ll ever live through major historical events!

Me now: NO NO NO NO NO I WANT TO GET OFF THIS RIDE

[sunmied]

it was supposed to be space travel. it was supposed to be space travel. it was supposed to be space travel. it was supposed to be space travel. it was supposed to be space tr

[bundibird]

I imagine this post sees a significant surge in attention every time something New And Horrible happens, but I’d wager a bet that Covid-19 has caused the biggest surge yet.

[llamabeansforllamas]

This existed BEFORE the Coronavirus?

[midnight-spectrum-again]

Yes

[queerpyrate]

Some may say this post isnt aging well, but I’d say this is aging perfectly

[midnight-spectrum-again]

It went horribly right