Titled

[thebibliosphere]

I’ve got my tumblr inbox turned off so I really have to commend the person who actually emailed me to let me know they don’t like the things I’ve posted about the UnitedHealth CEO being murdered on their commitment to their beliefs.

But seen as how you emailed me from a dud email that appears to be bouncing back replies and I really wanted to address something you said to me about violence begetting violence:

My migraine medication, the medication I was given for my debilitating neurological disease that has gotten so bad I spent most of this year actively suicidal, costs $1300 a month.

My insurance covered it. But only because my doctors office went to fucking war for me because I’m a high anaphylaxis risk for the drugs the insurance wanted me to try.

Because that’s the thing.

My doctors knew, based on my documented medical history, I likely wouldn’t be a good fit for the “first line” of preventative migraine drugs, but because of insurance, I had to be given drugs that were contradictory to my other life threatening conditions, because otherwise insurance wouldn’t cover anything else.

I failed them. Spectacularly and with an anaphylactic reaction to one of them. And I was still warned insurance would fight me because I hadn’t tried the remaining drug they wanted me to try.

A drug which I would have to take in an ER waiting room because my mast cell disease is unpredictable but insurance wouldn’t cover in-patient treatment to let me try it safely under medical supervision.

Is that not violence?

Were all the times I was denied coverage for vital and necessary procedures that could have prevented my disabilities from worsening not violence?

Maybe not in the sense you mean. But I assure you it felt very much like violence to me.

Do I condone murder? No, obviously. But I’m also sick and tired of people pretending that what is happening to the American people every day isn’t eugenics through class warfare.

Violence begets violence.

It sure fucking does.

Maybe these insurance companies should have thought of that first.

[liberalsarecool]

A LOT of "inflation" is actually corporations taking advantage of "inflation" to hide profiteering.

[liberalsarecool]

Corporations are lying about theft, lying about inflation, and creating narratives that foment class warfare, ie 'organized theft', 'shrinkage'.

Capitalism is a highly flawed, greedy construct. When someone talks about alternatives to pure capitalism, maybe think more about the changes we need to make, and less about protecting a flawed construct.

[cheerfullygoth]

Men can be feminine and still be men.

Even cis men!

[griseldajane]

Glaze is out!

Tired of having your artwork used for AI training but find watermarks dismaying and ineffective?

Well check this out! Software that makes your Art look messed up to training AIs and unusable in a data set but nearly unchanged to human eyes.

I just learned about this. It's in Beta. Please read all the information before using.

[digitaldiscipline]

Art thieves already hate it:

[fierceawakening]

Dude, if you're stealing, you deserve to have the data poisoned. Because you could have asked and you didn't.

[cheerfullygoth]

My cat has cancer. This is my screaming space.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUGH

[assignedmale]

[assignedmale]

[assignedmale]

[catmask]

just so you know, you have some followers who enjoy/write fanfiction. not saying their urls rn bc i don’t wanna air out dirty laundry in public but if you want them so you can block and report, just say the word and i’ll dm you a list

[catmask]

BRO?

[nkjemisin]

My head hurts.

Fanfiction cannot “degrade” the original artist’s work. That’s not how fanfic works. That’s not how art works.

Y’know what might degrade an original artist’s work? Literally destroying it. Trying to restore it when you don’t know wtf you’re doing. Occasionally banning it, tho usually that just makes a work more popular.

Y’know what doesn’t degrade an artist’s work? Transformational engagement with it. Art thrives when people engage with it -- even to make fun of it. Even to change it. Then the art becomes part of a whole conversation, and everyone who participates in that conversation gains something from it. As a society, we get this, which is fair use doctrine is part of copyright law. And we usually love transformational art in other parts of our society! Weird Al Yankovic! Literary pastiche! Sampling in hip hop (when properly credited)! The Simpsons! Every other Disney movie! So what makes fanfiction so uniquely damaging, when we already understand that all this other stuff is just another way to show love to the original and/or its audience? What is it about an art form that’s dominated by genders which aren’t cis men; that tends to center marginalized people and non-traditional relationships and plot structures/story beats rarely seen in commercial media; that accords power to the audience, rather than the artist? What is it about this makes people go so uniquely batshit, in response?

Gosh. I wonder.

[cheerfullygoth]

I get a teensy bit suicidal every night.

Nothing dangerous or anything, just a wee bit of "life would be better if I were dead."

Then I take a deep breath, shake myself, and remind myself that this is why I'm in therapy and take meds.

I'm sure it's fine.

[soberscientistlife]

Message AF!!

[sexhaver]

trains are to engineering as crabs are to biology. on a long enough timescale, if you optimize almost any system enough, you eventually get some form of either a train or a crab

[literallymechanical]

(Source)

[nostroviadrop]

[cheerfullygoth]

hot take

I think that having a strict line between fruits and vegetables is pointless and counter-productive. Ultimately, there is no meaningful distinction between the two.

A vegetable is any plant. Or, if you want to refine it more, any plant that has a part that can be used for food, or said part.

A fruit is any product of plant growth that is useful to humans. Seriously - that’s the first definition in the dictionary.

We make a distinction out of convenience and rough communication (”fruit salad”) but beyond that? I’ll pass on the intellectual snobbery of tomatoes ACTUALLY being a fruit and not a vegetable or whatever else. 

BECAUSE IT DOESN’T MATTER.

[coureirsix]

LITERALLY some of you don’t fucking know what “disposable income is” like i cannot stress ENOUGH that someone who was able to get animal crossing on day 1 of launch or a ps5 preorder that is still only working minimum wage job and/or cannot pay their rent on a monthly basis is NOT your enemy bruv they are NOT “the rich” like PLEASE cement that in your head. 

[mckitterick]

had to share @rykhafirehand ’s tags:

thank you for boiling off capitalist propaganda to get down to the essence of economics

[roach-works]

i’d like to add: you are SUPPOSED TO HAVE DISPOSABLE INCOME.

you are supposed to have enough money for toys and games and vacations. that is what the citizens of a normal and healthy society should be buying without stressing out about if they’re gonna be able to afford to live the next day. you’re not just supposed to have ‘a little bit’ or ‘if you save up’ or ‘sometimes you can treat yourself’, you are supposed to have disposable income, and plenty of it.

[wilwheaton]

Reagan was the first modern American president to jump through this newly opened door to giving government favors to corporations and wealthy individuals who threw their money at his political party. He installed America’s first anti-labor Secretary of Labor, our first anti-environmentalist in charge of the EPA (Neal Gorsuch’s mother, Anne), our first anti-public-schools crusader as Secretary of Education, and our first end-times “Jesus will make all things new” fanatic in charge of selling off public lands as Secretary of the Interior. He cut the top income tax rate on the morbidly rich from 74% to 27%, and tore the top rate for corporations from 50% down to 25%. To pay for both, he tripled the national debt. He crushed unions, starting with one of only three that had supported his candidacy: the Professional Air Traffic Controllers (PATCO). He gutted federal support to education, kicking off what is today’s student debt crisis. He froze the minimum wage. He cut federal benefits to the poor, pregnant women, and the mentally ill, kicking off today’s crisis of homelessness. He encouraged corporations to send our jobs overseas in an orgy of “free trade.” As a result, money flowed into the GOP like an unending river, continuing to this moment. The result we see today, after a mere 41 years, is stark.

What the Final Stage of Reaganism Looks Like

I hate Reagan so much. I wish hell existed, so he could spend eternity there.

(via wilwheaton)

[wilwheaton]

(via 1utdnzfdns6a1.jpg (JPEG Image, 1170 × 1019 pixels))

[assignedmale]

I’ve dealt with haters come to my talks or try to get them canceled before, but until yesterday, they were never violent or aggressive. What we saw yesterday was truly disturbing. Someone came to my talk and kept interrupting me to angrily ask questions about the content of my comics (“what age is this aimed for”, “do you talk about hormone therapy”, etc). She was recording the whole thing. I answered as nicely as I could, and tried to crack some jokes, but that only made her more aggressive.

When she asked “if we were ok with elementary schools inviting drag queens to teach kids about gender ideology”, it became apparent that her intentions weren’t peaceful, and was kindly shown the door (good thing she didn’t know that I gave talks in 6 different elementary schools since last week). She was kicking and yelling that my work was “brainwashing kids into mutilating their genitalia”. She tried to get back inside, but thankfully, the community managed to keep her out. 

Of course, it’s nothing that I haven’t heard before on the internet. But that these people are now willing to crash my author talks and cause this kind of scuffles is a new low. The participants were shaken. Tears were shed. The owners of the small bookstore where this happened now fear retaliation. It’s a brutal reminder of the current state of trans people’s situation in our society.

I wish to channel the emotions that I’ve been feeling since yesterday as a motivator to keep doing the work that I do. The past few months spent on tour have been exhausting, but so necessary. The violence of the people who want to eradicate us from society cannot be taken lightly. 

I still have a few days left on my Canadian tour - tonight in Ottawa, tomorrow in Halifax, then Fredericton, Edmundston and Montreal - before embarking on my Eastern/Midwest American tour in January. I am looking forward to meet you all and change the world one silly comic at the time. 

Stay awesome,

Sophie

Get this girl a coffee : www.ko-fi.com/sophielabelle

Support her work : www.patreon.com/assignedmale