rating the ways my family members have referred to me to other people since coming out as nonbinary
my secondborn (my parents)
7/10
sounds vaguely historical but in the way that I'm going to be sent off to war to prevent a succession crisis
potentially confusing to the listener bc the average conversation has little relation to birth order
my sister's, [name] (my aunt)
9/10
direct and to the point!
still very clear about what our family relationship is. I think we can do away with many nouns if this is any indication
my young adult child (my mom)
4/10
it's giving "20 year old minor"
I promise you can just say my kid. it's ok I don't mind strangers thinking I'm like 5 bc that would make me a prodigy for doing stuff like my laundry and dishes in one day and honestly I could use that kind of support
my liberated one (my grandma)
10/10 THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT
completely unclear what my relationship actually is to her. her personal oracle perhaps?
made immensely funnier by her immediately following it up with referring to my brother as her grandson.
people are like you just need to apply to 10 jobs a day meanwhile each of the jobs want you to write them 1500 words of uniquely tailored sycophancy & then manually input your cv into their custom application form 3 different times
all i want for 2026 is that gigantic rancid AI bubble to finally burst in such a catastrophic way that the consequences will be so good and i'll never have to see another AI generated image ever again
Here are the 2024 vaccine recommendation schedules. They’ve already been wiped from the cdc site. Save them and share widely, especially to your friends with kids.
terfs would lose their minds if they were exposed to 2000s-2010s "a girl can do anything a boy can do, including beating them at sports" messaging like why are you all acting like nobody has ever said this and that it's radical to think that women aren't inherently worse at things. open your mind. read some feminist theory. touch some grass. the most basic banal middle-class white woman feminism of the 2010s looks fucking radical and visionary compared to the misogynistic victimization complex y'all are peddling
part of what pisses me off so much about AI is how confident all pro-AI people are that it can do basically anything when there's literally no evidence that it can do anything even remotely well. it really feels like the only thing keeping this industry going is the refusal of anyone with any amount of money and power to hit these losers with a [citation needed]
i don't want to self-declare myself to fit in a specific box. i want to undeclare myself. it's none of your business. why does anyone need to know that
i don't think a third option / specific undeclared opt-out works in a hostile society, either. like, oh good, i've given myself the Freak label, that won't cause any problems. i think we need to rethink why gender is considered basic identity information that has to be included anywhere. what purpose does this serve. why should ANY of us be providing this to strangers. i don't want a different gender marker on my ID i want there not to be gender markers on my ID in the first place
ICE raids are set to start as soon as tuesday (JAN 21, 2025) in Chigago so make sure you know your rights, your community, and your plan.
ICE MUST have a warrant to search/enter any property. they will lie and manipulate you to allow them on the premises but if they arent holding a valid document in their hands they cannot legally do anything
They may say something like "our warrant is in the truck," tough shit, have them bring it to you, DO NOT FOLLOW THEM ANYWHERE. Do not leave your property if confronted.
If you are taken, say nothing until a lawyer is present. The exception is if there are bystanders present/filming, then you should shout your name and whats happening
If you are witnessing a raid in your community, wait to warn others via phone as the cops may be monitoring nearby communications and may use that to select their next targets. Warn by code or word of mouth
escape if the opportunity presents itself, but dont be stupid.
Reminder that it has been confirmed by ICE director Thomas Homan stated in his interview that Chicago will be ONE of the cities targeted Tuesday. If you live in a blue sanctuary city, consider either evacuating temporarily, finding a safe place to hide out, or stay home and DO NOT open your door for ICE. Stay strong and stay safe. And remember “LA MIGRA”
my earnest hope for 2025 is that everyone embraces being a little weirder and freakier and less judgmental bc we will all be better off for it like to charge reblog to cast
guy who wins at poker not by being stoic but by bursting into tears every time he looks at his cards, just full hysterical breakdown every round and you gotta peer through the void of theatre kid problems to figure it out
no, spotify, i don't want to use ai to "turn my ideas into playlists". i already fucking do that with my brain and hands and i do it for fun. what, should i get ai to pet my cat for me? to play my silly games for me? to spend time with my beautiful wife for me? how about i rend you asunder
(There is a lot more. Rather than give you all the images, I've copied the full text below.)
Meredith Rose @mrose.ink
November 8, 2024
This is not going to be a repeat of 2016-2020. It will be better, it will be worse, but most of all it will be different. Here are things I want every single person to keep in mind as we head into round 2 of a Trump admin.
My credentials: I’m a queer female public interest attorney working on tech policy in DC. I’ve been doing this for a decade--longer than some, not as long as others. I had to navigate three different administrations, as well as Congress, regulatory agencies, courts, and the advocacy world.
FIRST: don’t let despair override your media literacy.
The left has grifters, just like every other movement. If you’re able and compelled to donate, give to orgs with established track records. Avoid giving to individuals, especially anyone who emerges overnight with a one-weird-trick “plan.”
The left is not immune to misinformation, and everyone—EVERYONE—falls for it sometimes, present company included. There is no shame in it. When (not if) it happens to you, you should acknowledge it; delete or retract the post to reduce the spread; and move on.
If a source consistently shares half-truths or outright misinformation, it is not trustworthy, no matter how much “their heart is in the right place.” Unfollow and move on.
Prediction, analysis, and reporting are three fundamentally different things. Learn to identify them for what they are. Reject attempts by amateur “analysts” to predict the future. They know as much as you do.
Real subject matter experts know and acknowledge their limits. They’re also (usually) hesitant to try and predict the future. The best frame their predictions in terms of a range of possible outcomes. Subject matter experts may also disagree with one another! It happens!
SECOND: What we know for sure about how the Trump, how he operates, and how that will impact the next four years.
Trump is a narcissist who avoids reading and doesn’t care about details. He cannot be persuaded by argument or logic; he’s moved mostly by flattery, and will agree with the last person who flattered him. He can and will upend his own administration’s work without warning, often by tweet.
As a result, most policy experts—even those "on his side"—dread him taking an interest in their field. Ask any Republican staffer who worked in Congress during the last administration, and most of them will confirm that their greatest fear was Trump tweeting about anything related to their work.
As such, people who are serious about their work will do everything to make it as invisible and boring-seeming as possible. This is the policy equivalent of defensive camouflage. Lots of “normie” work will continue in silence. (The lion’s share of tech policy ends up in this bucket.)
If you have a niche issue that you care about, now is a great time to donate to orgs that work on it. Lots of money will be funneled to big legacy orgs working on headline issues: ACLU, climate change orgs, etc. Consider sending your donations where they matter most: local, niche, established.
Trump runs his cabinet like the Apprentice. He thrives on chaos and making people compete for his approval. Not only does he not reward collaboration between his subordinates, he actively undermines it.
Moreover, everyone who works with him knows that they’re vulnerable to being thrown under the bus at a moment’s notice, for any reason (or for no reason at all). His cabinet is going to be scorpions in a bottle. They will not be able to coordinate, for good or ill.
One scorpion can still do a lot of horrific damage. But large scale inter-agency coordination is unlikely, particularly after the first few months, by which point he will likely (prediction warning!) have gone through a handful of cabinet secretaries already.
FINALLY: The view from inside civil society heading into 2025.
In 2016, Trump was a largely unknown quantity. The left and establishment right alike wasted a lot of time trying to read tea leaves and make sense of this guy, because he was completely outside the realm of what anyone had dealt with. That’s not happening now.
He did us a favor by broadcasting his plans in advance (aka Project 2025). Civil society has spent the last 2.5 years strategizing around it. We’re not starting off flat-footed.
The Biden admin did a good amount to future-proof its own achievements. Folks can speak to their own areas of expertise, but clean energy and CHIPS and Science Act (investing in domestic semiconductor production) have benefitted from huge sunk investments. That money’s not getting clawed back.
OVERALL TAKE-AWAYS:
It's going to suck. But civil society and the political left have some advantages we didn't have last time. We know him, we know his angles, and we know who he's bringing in--none of which we had in 2016.
We'll get through this. It will be grim, but we'll get through it.
John Cutting @johncutting.bsky.social
Thanks Meredith. I really valued your analysis over the past few years, and I think this is a reasonable, actionable framework to think about the upcoming storm
Meredith Rose @mrose.ink
I really cannot overstate how much time was (necessarily) wasted in 2017 trying to figure out this guy and his influences. The fact that he's not only a known quantity, but ran the most over-studied administration in this nation's recent history, makes this a very different game.
John Cutting @johncutting.bsky.social
I bet we can weaponize his narcissism. Let's say some ghoul starts making progress with a mass deportation effort, if we start calling that ghoul that "shadow president" en masse, Trump would fire him in right away and appoint Hulk Hogan or something
Meredith Rose @mrose.ink
This is exactly why I don't think Musk will last very long. Trump is very clear that he's the only one in the room allowed to have an ego or any kind of brand name.
This is actually the most hopeful thing I've read since the election. It's hard to believe we'll all be okay just because we're full of spite or we're on the right side of history. It's easy to believe Trump and his administration is a pile of venomous bucket crabs in clownshoes.
Take that part about grifters and amateur analysts on the left seriously. Scam artists take advantage of panic and desperation, and a lot of us are feeling panicked and desperate. Also, when people are panicked and desperate, their critical thinking skills suck and they don't necessarily come to logical conclusions even when doing their best. God knows I've fallen for scams and dramatic worst case scenarios. The most important thing is to check your sources and be suspicious of dramatic appeals to emotion (though dramatic appeals to emotion don't mean something is false, either).
Isolation fries your brain. I know there are lots of ways to wind up trapped in an isolating situation, but reach out to other people- preferably multiple groups of other people- any way you can. Volunteering is a good way to do this.
I will not Jodie Foster this kind of behavior @karenfrom-finance - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
