The Ink-Well

Hello. Keelan here. (he/him|they/them)  

[miraculouslumination]

Can I say by the way that one thing I have continuously noticed is the rampant erasure and/or ignorance of asexual, aromantic, aroace, and otherwise acespec/arospec/aspec trans men in all of this? Especially when it comes to trans radfems fearmongering about how all trans men (sorry, "TMEs") are just these sexual predators to every and all trans women and transfems.

Like. Trans radfems posting about how trans men are more likely to be sexual assault perpetrators. Trans radfems saying that testosterone makes you sex obsessed. Trans radfems creating this boogeyman tidal wave of trans men who are locking trans women in a relationship with them and preventing them from transitioning, or only being misogynistic about their transition.

I'm sorry but. That whole idea of this being an INHERENT part of trans manhood and/or transmasculinity falls apart because. Hi. Hello. I'm a sex-repulsed, romance-repulsed aroace trans guy. I get icked out of the idea of ever touching someone in a sexual way. I get repulsed at the idea of kissing anyone.

I am not saying these trans men aren't out there. They absolutely are. And I am genuinely sorry, from the bottom of my heart, if you have ever been the victim and survivor of something traumatizing like that.

Trans men are people, and people will find ways to hurt their fellow people, for whatever reason. However, this is not something unique to trans men, and to act like it is betrays reality in such a horrible way. Stop treating gender identity like it is a prescription or diagnosis. Gender identity doesn't determine anything of any person, but especially their morals and ability to respect consent.

And again. Asexual and aromantic trans men exist. Trust me, for some of us, the last thing any of us want is to interact with any sort of naked body, but especially one that isn't consenting. Like. Come on y'all. Do better.

[flipclock]

And unfortunately, being asexual or on the ace spectrum does not prevent bigots from accusing us of being sex pests/sexual predators/etc. After I broke it off with a transphobic ex, she started spreading lies about how I was a sex pest, sexually inappropriate/abusive, etc during the relationship despite that being the furthest thing from the truth. Being sex repulsed and on the ace spectrum don’t matter because I am transmasc… Anyone hearing the allegations would just assume it’s true because I am The Man and thus must be a creep. Of course, like you said, there’s definitely abusive creepy transmascs. But when someone is painted as a sex pest because they are transgender/transmasc, that’s a whole different story.

When someone has a bigoted bias against you, it doesn’t really matter what the reality is; they will shove you into that box and use it as a bludgeon against you and your entire group.

[penny-anna]

The contest descended further into chaos on Friday as Jeremy Corbyn’s conspiracy theorist brother and a man dressed as a fish finger joined the race.

(the telegraph) sorry, what now??

[penny-anna]

His “manifishto” includes pledges to change the lyrics of the national anthem to Cod Save the King and replace the statue of Admiral Lord Nelson in Trafalgar Square with a statue of Captain Birdseye.

what???

[penny-anna]

there was also briefly a professional psychic in the race but i gather she dropped out to avoid splitting the vote

[mls-classics]

[natoraptor]

“Tour Guides”

-2026

[afairyheart]

Royal Society reveals best nature pictures of the year

Photo taken by biologist Bert Willaert

[kuttithevangu]

On a more productive note, since Sold A Story came out there have been campaigns in at least 40 US states to establish science-based literacy curricula

How the ‘science of reading’ is reshaping literacy education

Stanford Professor Rebecca Silverman discusses a transformative movement backed by research that is changing literacy instruction in schools

The Reading League, a nonprofit dedicated to the project of science-based literacy education, has chapters in 46 states and have collected materials on reading-education science here:

Find science of reading resources, recommended books, and professional development videos to build your professional knowledge.

[julpernulper]

parents will be like “you’ve changed” and it’s just you started doing the things that make you comfortable that you always wanted to do but was too scared to express your wants and needs

[foone]

the annoying thing about the privacy nightmare that is age verification is that this is 100% doable with double-anonymity: The verifier doesn't know what site/app you're verifying your age on, and the site/app doesn't need to know your personal information.

The fun part is that you could do this extremely easily by just bundling a key with an item you can't buy unless you're 18. Like a beer that includes a PGP key, or a pornographic magazine with a page that's a randomly generated key.

The site/app doesn't need to know WHO you are, only that you have access to something you can only get by being 18. This way they're putting the burden of verifying your age onto someone else, someone else who is already legally required to do exactly that.

But no one is interested in developing this because the point of age verification has never been age verification. it's always been governments trying to tie a real-world ID to internet identities, and companies trying to get more private information on users so they can sell it to advertisers.

(and also, it's not like this would be a good system even if it'd work and do what it says it'd do: We shouldn't be blocking minors off of large parts of the internet just for the sin of being underage, especially when "mature" labeling gets applied to more than just pornography. Queer teens shouldn't be separated from their support groups by parents who don't think they're mature enough to learn about that, for example)

[vampurrring]

I’ve got that neglected dog stare

[theweirdwideweb]

[thatnordicguy]

anchorage lol

repeat urgent request more diphtheria antitoxin lol

nome in grave danger lol

please help lol

[tpwrtrmnky]

Tbh I think the "but data centers are important infrastructure, not just AI" talking point misses that like

Ok so roads are important infrastructure. A lot of stuff that's important happens on roads. Now, let's imagine that quadrillionaire Matt Stench has decided that the next big tech innovation is the Wide Car. It's a car that takes up six lanes despite seating only one passenger.

The Wide Car is supposed to be the future, and everyone's going to be driving Wide Cars, even though nobody who makes Wide Cars is turning a profit. Employers are offering Wide Cars as an employee benefit, and getting "nah." Some employers are going as far as demanding their employees drive Wide Cars, and the result is that people take time out of their workdays to get in the mandatory gas usage for their Wide Car before driving home in a regular car.

In spite of the fact that the Wide Car is clearly set to fail, there's an enormous push to expand to twelve-lane roads to accommodate a bunch of Wide Cars that simply will not materialize. This is not an organic response to demand, but a speculative investment that amplifies the existing issues with road development for no good reason.

That is the problem.

[lowpawly]

people foolishly dismiss desserts and treats as having no nutritional value when they actually are necessary for refilling your sanity stat. to prove my point please observe the emotional stability of the next person you meet who doesnt let themselves ever eat any form of dessert

[owlet]

you need to get it out of your mind that psychosomatic illness is just “making up symptoms” when it’s actually much more like your body is being actively poisoned by chemicals released from your brain

[owlet]

if you’re so stressed that you’re puking your guts up every morning, are unable to eat or keep anything down, you can’t look at light without feeling infinitely worse and feel exhausted and in pain all the time (or whatever your particular stress induced symptom set is) you’re not just feeling like that because you’ve willed it into being. your body is begging for relief from the constant barrage of stress hormones and it requires the fundamental source of stress to go away, not just distracting yourself from the symptoms

just because the root is psychological doesn’t mean the result isn’t an entirely physical process.

[headspace-hotel]

This and also "your body is desperately trying to alert you to the fact that stress is killing you"

[katherynefromphilly]

Doctor, looking at my neck x-ray: “The muscles of your neck are in such spasm right now that your spine has lost its curve. No wonder you’re in such pain. What the heck did you do to yourself?”

Me: “I work on a computer all day.”

Doctor: “Ah. That will do it. Right, so here’s a script for anti-inflammatories and a muscle relaxer. Also try hot and cold on it, 15 minutes each, and then gentle movements between each round. You’ll feel better in about a week.”

Me: “In a week I’m still going to need to work on the computer.”

Doctor: “And here’s also a script for 6 months of Physical Therapy.”

Me: “In 6 months I’m still going to need to work at a computer.”

Doctor: “And take breaks and do stretches between meetings?”

Me: “They book me in back to back meetings where I work. I eat lunch at my computer. I have to excuse myself to go pee.”

Doctor: “…”

Me: “…”

Doctor: “Um… it sounds like this job is actually, literally, killing you? Can you possibly work someplace else?” *

———

*note: It wasn’t said as flippant advice, and the doctor was 100%. right. After I got a different job — which took a WHILE — it was in a different corporate culture, one that didn’t believe in filling the day with meetings. I was able to do the stretches I was supposed to do, and also walk at lunch, and my neck is much better now. Not everyone has this choice. But maybe, if your job is killing you too, start thinking about an escape plan. Your body will eventually turn you into a pretzel otherwise. Nothing psychosomatic about that.

[detectivehole]

unless its egregious, i'm not embarrassed to be fooled by ai. "oh i got lied to via something made by the Lying Machine the machine we made to Lie really well" like it's gonna happen it's no egg on your face. just be chill about it

[detectivehole]

don't get me wrong. it's always devastating always humbling. no one wants to fall for the lying machine it just sounds bad. but you can't dwell

[shirtsthatgohard]

[fionn-o-nassus]

Not gonna lie this makes me a bit irritated. Here's the real version of this photo:

Instead of a cutesie reference to film censorship it was an explicit statement of defiance of Maryland's criminalization gay sex, which was not repealed until 2002. This wasn't a guy saying "Oh they can't put what I do in the movies according to a completely voluntary industry code" he was saying "The State of Maryland wants to put me in jail for being gay and having gay sex."

It wasn't a guy being cheeky about sex in an ambiguous, cute way. It was a man stating, in no uncertain terms, that a whole state of the United States considered him a criminal for being homosexual.

[parkchanwoohoo]

[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!

[strictlyquadrilateral]

so many trauma resources assume that your trauma is from a specific person or people who treated you in a way that society deems unacceptable. if your trauma doesn't fit that profile then you're left sitting there like. idk i dont think most of this stuff applies to me. where are the resources for people like me.

[strictlyquadrilateral]

if you were ever scared or in pain and were told that you had to grin and bear it because it's necessary for you to do the thing that scares and hurts you, you are allowed to say that that was traumatic. you are allowed to say that you were scared and in pain and that even if this was the least bad option, even if it was lifesaving, it still was not okay. something being necessary does not inherently make it okay.

[the-real-seebs]

i think i still have mild trauma from a dentistry-related thing some years back, and it was completely voluntary and i wanted it, just, the experience was actually really upsetting. like, totally worth it in overall outcomes, just. wow, yeah. i do not want to ever do that again.

i have more than one thing that saved my life and traumatized me.

[adaptiveshatterer]

I'm a juvenile diabetic: relatedly, I used to be crippled by CPTSD. it turns out, infants dislike needles, and having your primary caregivers administer them daily can be bad for those relationships. I had no sense of trauma as the etiology of my issues for a while, because I couldn't find any 'abuse' in my history.

I remember talking to a psychologist: guy was like "are you absolutely sure you weren't abused as a child? I am literally a therapist, so you can tell me". when I demurred, he was like "truly? because you really really come across like you were, and I meet a lot of people with that history".

it was only after a parent mentioned that I'd go quiet and waxy during injections (tonic immobility, in retrospect) that I started to consider whether the lifesaving medical care I received had negative psychological effects.

[fittingoutjane]

This is a common gateway to pseudoscience. People experience trauma from receiving, or from seeing a loved one receive, lifesaving medical care and aren't able to find the space to process that it was necessary, the alternative was worse, AND it was really and truly awful. People who are afraid to go back. People who need accommodations to make necessary medical care less stressful and scary, and can't get them.