the gooseberry and greengage

30s, genderqueer (define self as "agender boywoman", trying out ze/zer pronouns atm), proshipper

[riding-with-the-wild-hunt]

a whole bunch of gazan mutual aid projects and nonprofits. if the decision of which individual fundraiser to give to feels too daunting, or if you just want to help as many people as possible in one go, these are great initiatives to support.

care for gaza - focuses on providing food and essential supplies. donate here or here.

connecting humanity - securing internet access via donations of virtual sim cards (esims). if you can't afford a whole plan yourself, crips for esims is a communal pool that will use your donation to purchase and maintain esims

gaza soup kitchen - provides food, medical care, and classes for children. also has a gofundme

glia gaza medical support initiative - provides medical care through field clinics and tents at hospitals. donations can also be sent through their website.

ele elna elak - provides clean water, food, clothing, and shelter. they also have a gofundme

life for gaza - raising money for the gaza municipality to repair water and waste management infrastructure

taawon - partners with local civil organizations to provide food, water, medical care, shelter, and basic supplies

the sameer project - running various initiatives providing tents, medical care, and necessities. they have their own encampment project focused on sheltering families with children, sick and disabled members, or members in need of perinatal care

islamic relief worldwide's gaza emergency appeal - provides food, water, hygiene kits, medical supplies, and psychological support

baitulmaal - provides a variety of necessities, including food, water, shelter, and medical supplies

gaza mutual aid fund - distributes food, hygiene products, water, and other essential supplies, including financial support. run by @/el-shab-hussein's amazing friend Mona. updates can be found on her instagram.

hygiene kits for gaza - provides hygiene supplies including menstrual products, wipes, and toothbrushes/toothpaste

anera - provides a variety of necessities, including food, water, hygiene supplies, medicine, blankets and mattresses, and psychological care

palestine children's relief fund - provides supplies and support with a focus on children. also has an initiative for lebanon

dahnoun mutual aid - provides water, food, tents, baby supplies, financial support, and other necessities. updates can be found through their instagram

certainly this is not an exhaustive list, so please feel free to add on other projects or organizations that i didn't include. and as always, please take the time to donate if you can and share. it truly makes all the difference.

[prokopetz]

There's a thing in Classics studies where you'll read surviving descriptions of Ancient Greek automata which attribute all manner of near-lifelike behaviour to them – then you look at the reconstructed plans for the automaton in question, and it's a device with roughly the sophistication of a wind-up mouse.

The broad consensus seems to be that the authors of such descriptions are exaggerating for clout. For my part, I look at all the people in the year 2026 who've managed to genuinely convince themselves that LLMs are not only sapient, but smarter than they are, and I think: hmm.

[dragon-in-a-fez]

overheard conversation between two people leaving a party at my neighbour's:

"fancy a Red Bull?"

"to drink?"

"naw, tae ride in the fuckin rodeo. aye tae drink ya daft cock"

[luetta]

canaries were used in coalmines due to their incredibly hard beaks, they could break through stone as well as any pickaxe

[trixterthefloret]

pickaxes, contrary to popular belief, were not actually all that good at breaking stone (that's what the canaries were for)

instead, they were used to tell how flammable the area is, with their long wooden shafts and ergonomic metal handles. if you put fuel into the area and it starts burning, it's filled with flammable gas. hope this helps!

[faggotcowboys]

its always some person with a cute username like "bunnygirllvr4ever" with a blog absolutely painted in cute animals and pastel colors and aesthetic photos and then you scroll down 5 inches and theres an original post saying that its okay when black men are jailed because they would have just attacked a white woman anyways. and blogs like this make up a significant portion of the website

[chelonianmobile]

That's if you can read their pastel-pink-on-pastel-pink text to begin with.

[transfemme-shelterdog]

Crazy how it's cheaper to:

1. Find a Canadian who wants to marry you

2. Plan a wedding and carry it out

3. Fill out immigration forms for a spousal visa

4. Move to Canada, find a new job, and move in with your partner

5. Get a consult for top surgery

6. Save up the money for the additional costs not covered by government insurance (surgery to remove the skin that causes dog ears)

7. Get said top surgery

Than it is to get top surgery in the USA

[creekfiend]

the thing is that I think lots of the time we talk about childhood trauma cycles wrong, because people will frame it as like, "this happened to this person, which is why they act like this" and really it's like, "all children learn social behavior via what is modeled for them by the adults around them and their peers; if what the adults in your life model for you repeatedly, over a long period of time, is that they get their needs met by dehumanizing others, then you will learn that the way needs get met is via dehumanization"

it isn't about how certain things being done to you somehow write Abuse Into Your Psyche, it's about learned behavior. it's about not being shown alternative models. (INTO MY LOUDSPEAKER) IT'S ALL ABOUT NOT BEING SHOWN ALTERNATIVE MODELS

[mxjackparker]

Decriminalizing sex work isn't a fix-all. It's not intended to be. What decrim does is protect sex workers from the harms of criminalization specifically. Poverty and violent clients won't disappear because of decrim, and their continued existence doesn't mean decrim fails.

[not-freyja]

Can everyone who makes video content do a Deaf bitch a favor? Watch your shit with the captions on and the sound off, and then do another round of editing to fix things including but not limited to:

Captions cover the spot on the screen you put the information I need

The dialogue is captioned but not the song you have playing that the dialogue is responding to

You only captioned the person on the screen, not the person off screen who is also talking

No captioning of critical sound effects (alarms, bells, dogs barking, etc)

Speakers are not labelled at moments where it is not clear on the screen who is talking.

Captions cover the spot on the screen that you put the information I need!

Other d/Deaf people welcome to add.

This post brought to you by the fifth video tutorial I could not follow because the bad, auto-generated captions covered what I was trying to watch today.

[chelonianmobile]

That sounds annoying beyond belief. Sorry you gotta deal with that.

[renthony]

I've been seeing a lot of posts lately that tell dropouts "you can always go back!"

And that's not bad! It's true for a lot of people! You CAN go back later! You can apply to university, you can get your GED, you can pursue whatever level of education you want. It's not bad to share that message. If you dropped out and want to go back eventually, there is zero timeline. You can go back at any age, with any life experience. You do not have to graduate by a specific age.

But as someone who dropped out of college over a decade ago, sometimes "you can always go back!" starts to feel a little like an empty platitude. Sometimes it starts to feel grating instead of hopeful. Even when it might technically be true, sometimes it still feels like a hollow sentiment.

I just want to say, to anyone else out there who feels that way, who dropped out and CAN'T go back, potentially EVER, whether it's due to poverty or disability or any other reason:

It's okay to drop out and never go back. It might feel shitty, and you may even feel grief over it. That's real, and painful, and allowed. But you are not lesser. Even if you never go back, you are not a failure or a loser. Academics do not define your worth. You are not stupid. And it is almost certain that the system actually failed YOU.

With love,

A fellow burnout

[strictlyquadrilateral]

and this isn't even getting into harm that's genuinely necessary! i read a book recently that was intended to educate people in healthcare about medical trauma, written by a medical professional who found that there weren't existing resources to help her cope with the aftermath of the extremely traumatic c section that saved her life. the whole tone of the book was "i know you've never thought about this before, but walk with me through this case study" and it's aimed at other medical professionals! it's aimed at the people who are doing this harm, and so many of them think that people aren't allowed to find it harmful just because it's necessary!

ETA: the title of the book is managing the psychological impact of medical trauma: a guide for mental health and health care professionals. it's aimed at medical professionals so it's a little weird to read as a layperson but you can only be so picky in a situation where so little literature exists. elsewhere in the notes someone mentions the very recent book consented by zed zha, md, which i just read and i think is a better choice if you're just dipping your toe into this subject. these are the only two books i am aware of.

[velvetvexations]

I think if someone says "this person is doing a racist Chinese accent," it's not actually a valid defense to go "actually, dumbass, that's a racist Thai accent."

[velvetvexations]

I have this thing where full siblingfucking is fine and actully super hot but step siblingfucking is like very close to being squicky for me. Youll never guess what type of siblings i do and dont have.

see what I mean

[evilwriter37]

I was watching Secret Sleepover Society play the new James Bond game and oh boy, the opening ruined the entire game for me, I think. Bond is in an aerial battle and explosion and lands in water. That's fine. What bothered me so fucking much was that he was unconscious underwater, and woke up okay. If you're unconscious underwater you're fucking dead, especially for the length of time it was shown to be in the game. I'm not sure if this is a weird pet peeve or not but it literally made me yell. He woke up on his own underwater and was fine. I very much give things the benefit of suspension of disbelief, but that just ruined it for me. Agh!

[the-bar-sinister]

It's definitely a little immersion breaking, but i actually took it metaphorically. If you pay attention to the opening, youre going from dragging yourself out of the water, through a suspiciously vagina shaped cavern, and through a hazmat umbilicus. I took it as "we're watching the 'birth' of James Bond'. 😆

[butchfagminotaur]

like in 2026 of all years in this current fucking political climate making a "hey just a reminder!!! don't be a disgusting pervert in front of children at pride!!! :)" post is deeply deeply fucked up

[chelonianmobile]

If you don't want to explain things to your kids, DON'T BRING THEM.

[insomniamamma]

The anon button is not for hate. The anon button is for horny and embarrassed about it.

[miscling]

rb if you want people to be horny and embarrassed on anon in your inbox

[yourfaveisintersex]

if your pride month post doesn't include men + man-aligned folks (while highlighting/explicitly including genders that aren't man-aligned or smthn idk. I realize the following sentence comes off *way* more extreme than I intended and I don't feel like re-writing the post) you are a hop skip jump away from TERFism btw just so you know. hell if you actively exclude men even as a joke I'm just calling you a TERF. we are flat-out not entertaining this shit not this year or any year after that ok? ok

I love u men apart of racial/ethnic minorities I love u disabled neurodivergent and mentally ill men I love u queer men of every flavor imaginable. In fact butches and studs I love u too regardless if ur a man also or not because anti-men talk is often hand in hand with anti-masculinity rhetoric that harms all masculine queers too. Obligatory special message to love intersex men for this blog especially if they're cis men and *especially* if they're a cis man in a way that breaks the norm of what "cisgender" might mean