Living in the Land of La

Bios really aren't my thing - I feel like I am older than at least half of you and have been in fandom for almost 1/2 my life. I'm Poly, married and in a long term relationship with my sweetie. I have ADHD...

[fairytale-villain]

A good thread on whether “queer” is a slur and if it should be used or not.

[quarterinthequeerjar]

“If I am unashamed of being queer, you do not get to give that word BACK to the fuckwits who made it a slur.”

[dani-kin]

you do not get to give that word BACK to the fuckwits who made it a slur

[brinconvenient]

EVERYBODY WHO CAME OUT BEFORE YOU HAS TAKEN THE ROCKS AND BOTTLES AND MADE THEM INTO SHIELDS AND WINDCHIMES

Holy motherfucking shit. Don’t fucking come at me about Queer is a slur. I FUCKING KNOW IT IS. It was hurled at me like a fucking spear all through my youth. I know it’s a god damn slur. And it’s mine. You don’t get to take it away from me because you can’t take also away the scars it gave me while I was standing in front of my younger queer siblings in this community. 

[jenroses]

always, always reblog this one.

[kyraneko]

If my enemy swings a sword at me and I take that sword away from them, it’s my sword now. And the person telling me I can’t use it because it belongs to my enemy and I have to give it back to them sounds quite a bit like an enemy themselves.

[excalibelle]

^^ god that analogy

[serakosumosu]

@deadcatwithaflamethrower

[deadcatwithaflamethrower]

Yesssssssssss.

[dkgwrites]

This came around again, but it’s worth sharing and remembering.  You have the right to only accept certain words be used to describe you, but so does everyone else.

[aqueerkettleofish]

I have this bookmarked to through at people who DM me about using the word Queer.

[mayastormborn]

The rallying cry when I was but a baby Bi was

We’re here

We’re Queer

Get Used To It!

And that has stuck with me ever since.

[this-is-not-a-slow-burn]

Goddamn this is beautiful. Queer is above all my #1 label and I find untold amounts of strength in it. It’s a word that absolutely defines me, and feels like an armor of gratitude for those who fought battles so that we could stand.

And I say this as someone who first came out in the early 90’s, who marched in many dyke marches, who lost a friend to AIDS, who has been to so many dyke softball games it isn’t funny… I could go on all day.

The Lesbian Avengers were a political action group, and one of their actions was to literally eat fire while chanting

“The fire will not consume us. We take it and make it our own”

it was a message that not only said that we were reclaiming and therefore defusing the things that can harm us but that the fire was also a fuel.

Oh and their slogan? “We Recruit” This was a partly tongue and cheek and partly defiant statement referencing a strong homophobic view at the time that we were sexual deviants that were preying on and recruiting vulnerable people.

Queer is a slur and you are not going to take it away from me.

[the-haiku-bot]

“The fire will not

consume us. We take it and

make it our own”

Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.

[ruffbotspawsomelife]

^^ haiku bot making actually beautiful shit here, love this thread and the people in it

[serial-unaliver-deactivated2024]

[boopsloop656]

[sapient-simian]

Light Pollution: The Overuse & Misuse of Artificial Light at Night

Light Pollution: The Overuse & Misuse of Artificial Light at Night

[fazedlight-deactivated20251111]

The Dark Site Finder map lets you get a good sense of where near you might be good for stargazing.

[theunvanquishedzims]

[cedarwool]

being an everything crafter is great but also sucks. like i want to get my watercolors out but i need to put away my microcrochet first. i want to do some leatherwork but my oil paints are on the table. i want to whittle but i'm using the bucket i catch wood shavings in to hold my papermaking mush. i want to write my book but my hands are too busy knitting a sweater. i want to code another video game but i'm too busy studying nalebinding. do you see my problem. the problem is that i need more hands

[wander-without-cause]

This is how I realized i was neurodivergent. My diagnosis of ADHD shocked no one.

[landofla]

Not only more hands, but more time too ... the dilemmas of the ADHD polycrafter

[odyver]

alright I've got to do some quick math to explain attitudes towards AI to my boss.

we're looking to create an AI policy, and when we were talking about this, my boss (older millennial) was genuinely shocked to hear that younger people do not (seem) to view AI positively (a la the recent commencement speakers being booed)

please rb for larger sample size!

Question 1/3

What is your age, and do you feel AI is a net positive or net negative in our lives today?

under 18, AI is a net positive

under 18, AI is a net negative

18-29, AI is a net positive

18-29, AI is a net negative

30-45, AI is a net positive

30-45, AI is a net negative

46-60, AI is a net positive

46-60, AI is a net negative

over 60, AI is a net postive

over 60, AI is a net negative

Remaining time: 6 days 9 hours

[odyver]

Question 2/3

How often do you visit or interact with museums/archives (whether in person or online)?

Frequently (multiple times per month)

Often (multiple times per year)

Occasionally (a couple times per year)

Rarely (once every couple of years)

Never :(

Remaining time: 6 days 9 hours

[odyver]

Question 3/3

If you saw a museum was using AI in exhibits, marketing, research, etc., would you be more or less inclined to visit that museum?

under 18, more inclined

under 18, less inclined

18-29, more inclined

18-29, less inclined

30-45, more inclined

30-45, less inclined

46-60, more inclined

46-60, less inclined

over 60, more inclined

over 60, less inclined

Remaining time: 6 days 9 hours

Thank you for helping with this data collection. Please rb for as big a sample as possible!

🫶

[partywithponies]

Strange racists and homophobes on the internet seem to have access to an alternate way cooler version of TV than me. "every white character on TV is in an interracial relationship" "every show has a gay couple in it" "main characters keep having to secretly be bisexual and nonbinary" "every show has gratuitous full frontal nudity" like damn promise?? What channel???

[urlocalpyshcopan]

as a black gay person real like where y'all be finding this stuff pass the name

[brainsforbabyjesus]

for real though, those DO NOT WATCH OR YOU'LL CORRUPT YOUR CHILDREN lists put out by conservative christian family groups is where I find all the stellar tv shows. Like, shit I didn't know half of those existed, thanks for finding them for me, gonna go watch 30 hours of gay tv now!

[infamousbrad]

I think I know how this works.

For personal context, before I went to the '98 Burning Man festival, one of the things I'd read from a couple different journalists was that "everybody" runs around naked. Which, fine by me, I'd already spent a lot of time in clothing-optional spaces, I'm not fanatic about it but it's nice.

So I got there early and set up a public shade structure on one of Black Rock City's main roads and spent most of each afternoon just watching the crowds go by. I don't remember seeing more than one actually naked person the whole week. I think a topless woman passed by my intersection maybe every half an hour, sometimes once an hour. So why in the hell were people, normally pretty smart and observant writers, coming away with the impression that everybody was naked?

Then I remembered an unrelated passage from Joel Garreau's great book about the history of the outer-ring suburbs, Edge City. Mall developers told him flat-out that they tried to keep the crowds in their malls less than 5% black. Not because they themselves were racist, but because they had determined, experimentally, that if more than 5% of the people in the mall are black, the median white shopper will wrongly describe the mall as at least half black, as mostly black. And not a few of them would describe it, at 6% black, as a mall where "only black people go." Why?

Because, emotionally, they were still upset over the last one when the next one came into view.

Same as the journalists describing Black Rock City as all naked. Same as the right-wing religious culture warriors describing television as entirely mixed-race and gender non-conforming. Not because it's even vaguely true, we know that, but because they haven't gotten over their discomfort over the last one by the time the next one comes along. The anger, not the stimulus, is the part that's continuous, so their mind lies to them that it's "all" the thing they can't get over.

[kagedtiger]

Similar effect for the presence/proportion of women in things, by the way: https://health.howstuffworks.com/mental-health/human-nature/perception/how-17-equals-496-the-amazing-multiplying-women.htm

[jayalaw]

What’s the solution then? Or if there’s no solution, should we make things even queerer and more diverse?

[destiel-news-channel]

because someone decided to drop the word 'ethostate' in the comments of a post about israel again, i thought we could play around with some numbers.

According to a 2023 statistic Jews make up about 73 % of Israel's population. Let's compare that with some other countries. (While ethnostate actually refers to racial or ethnic groups and Judaism isn't 'just a religion', I will also give examples for the demographics of religions in countries)

Let's start with the EU: According to statistics from 2019 about 64% of the EU's population were Christian, a decline from 72% in 2012. So what? In 2012 the EU was actually a Christian ethnostate? Or at least consisted of ethnostates? I mean if we think about it, we have to follow the Christian calendar, Christian holidays are mandated by the state while other religious groups have to fight every year to be able to observe their most sacred days. Hell, where I live (in Germany) one of the currently ruling parties is called the Christian Democratic Union and our Grundgesetz (basic law) is built upon Christian roots. They even invoke God in the preamble!

Here some further statistics about Religion in Europe.

As you can see even just looking at individual Christian denominations, there are about 6 countries for which the religious majority makes up more than 3/4th of the population. IN THESE COUNTRIES ONE DENOMINATION OF CHRISTIANITY HAS A HIGHER POPULATION PERCENTAGE THAN JEWS IN ISRAEL. So I hope this shows that 'Israel is an ethnostate cause there is just one religion determining everything' is utter bullshit not just because Judaism is not just a religion but also because I can name 6 countries in Europe alone for which there is a higher percentage of people of a certain religion.

So now to actually look at specific countries. Ireland especially seems to have an antisemitism problem, so how about we focus on them.

As of 2022 the amount of Catholics in Ireland has decreased so that they actually make up 69.1% of the population as opposed to the over 75% from 2019. But the definition of ethnostates actually specifically looks at ethnic or racial groups. Let's see. As of 2022 the largest ethnic group in were White Irish, making up a whole 76.5% of the Irish population. Including other white people in this, this number increases to 87.4% of the population. That is 14% more than the 73% that Jews make up of the Israeli population. The next largest group in Ireland are Asians with 3.7% (or depending on how you'd like to spin it, the 6.16% who did not state their ethnicity. This still doesn't make Ireland an ethnostate though.

And some more examples:

China: 91.11% Han Chinese (2020)

Russia: 71.73% ethnic Russians (2021)

Saudi Arabia: 90% Arabs, 10% Afro-Arabs (2021)

USA: 57.84% White (2020)

Canada: 69.8% White (2022)

Germany: 71.3% Germans (2022)

Democratic Republic of Congo: no dominant ethnic group

South Africa: 81.4% Black

Just so it is completely clear: It is not my intention to call any of the countries listed here an ethnostate, rather I want to detail the absurdity of calling Israel an ethnostate, when you can look at demographics and see many other countries with similar or higher percentages of ethnic (or racial or religious) majorities.

[shofarsogood]

Poland's ethnic makeup today: 99% white, with 98% being ethnic Poles

Poland in 1931, before the Holocaust: Polish, 69% of the population, Ukrainian, 15%, Jews 8.5%, Belarusian, 4.70%, German, 2.2%, Russian 0.25%, Lithuanian, 0.25%, Czech 0.09%

Please explain to me why Poland isn't blamed for their massive ethnic cleansing and the fact that their country is nearly homogenous.

That's an ethnostate to me!

[cheaphalloweencostume]

“be gay do crime! but sex is yucky and crime is wrong!” ass website

[cheaphalloweencostume]

okay, we managed to get through the “you can be gay and not have sex” part, and im feeling charitable and i wanna talk about the “do crime” part

so many responses of “its nice that you’re privileged enough to be able to steal from Target willy nilly!” and that’s not at all what this is about. like, yeah, shoplifting and loitering and graffiti and breaking the rules is, obviously, part of “do crime”. but they’re not parts you have to do.

would you help someone get an abortion where it was illegal?

would you help a trans friend get healthcare that had been criminalized?

would you shelter someone fleeing persecution, even if the law said not to?

would you help a gay couple stay together when the state decided their relationship was unlawful?

instead, would you report someone else for breaking the law? will you snitch on your hungry neighbors for stealing food? on your homeless neighbors for sleeping where they’re able?

would you break laws to protect someone you love? a community you love? yourself?

[soberscientistlife]

Do Not Let HR do this to you. It is not illegal to talk about wages in the work place. I did and got a 12% raise!

[katsdom]

True info. Now let me add something: The power of documentation. (I was a long time steward in a nurses union.)

Remember: The "'E" in email stands for evidence.

That cuts both ways. Be careful what you put into an email. It never really goes away and can be used against you.

But can also be a powerful tool for workplace fairness.

Case 1: Your supervisor asks you to do something you know is either illegal or against company policy. A verbal request. If things go wrong, you can count on them denying that they ever told you to do that. You go back to your desk, or wherever and you send them an email: "I just want to make sure that I understood correctly that you want me to do xxxxx" Quite often, once they see it in writing, they will change their mind about having you do it. If not, you have documentation.

Case 2: You have a schedule you like, you've had that schedule for a while, it works for you. Your supervisor comes to you and says "We're really short-handed now and I need you to change your schedule just for a month until we can get someone else hired. It's just temporary and you can have your old schedule back after a month." A month goes by and they forget entirely that they made that promise to you. So, once again, when they make the initial request, you send them an email "I'm happy to help out temporarily, but just want to make sure I understand correctly that I will get my old schedule back after a month as you promised." Documentation.

[can-i-make-image-descriptions]

[Image ID: Text reading: In the middle of a busy clinic at our practice, I got pulled in by my manager to speak to HR, who must have made a special trip because she lives several states away, and told I was being 'investigated' for discussing wages with my other employees. She told me it was against company policy to discuss wages.

Me; That's illegal.

Them: (start italics) three slow, long seconds of staring at me blankly (end italics) Uh...

Me: That's an illegal policy to have. The right to discuss wages is a right protected by the National Labor Relations board. I used to be in a union. I know this.

HR: Oh, this is news to me! I have been working HR for 18 years and I never knew that. Haha. Well try not do do it anyway, it makes people upset, haha.

Me: people are entitled to their opinions about what their work is worth. Bye.

I then left, and sent her several texts and emails saying I would like a copy of their company policy to see where this wage discussion policy was kept. She quickly called me back in to her office.

HR: You know what, there is no policy like that in the handbook! I double check. Sorry about the confusion, my apologies.

Me: You still haven't given me the paper saying that we had this discussion. I am going to need some protection against retaliation.

HR: Oh haha yes here you go.

I just received a paper with legal letterhead and an apology saying there was no verbal warning or write up. Don't even take their shit you guys. Keep talking about wages. Know your worth. /End ID]

[noping-out-deactivated20241117]

At one of my old (shit) jobs my boss would continually come have these verbal discussions with me and would never put anything in writing I took to summarizing every discussion we had in email. Like “just to confirm that you asked me to do X by Y date and you understand that means I won’t be able to complete the previous task you gave me until Z date - 2 weeks later than originally scheduled - because you want me to prioritize this new project.

The woman would then storm back into my office screaming at me for putting the discussion in writing and arguing about pushing back the other project or whatever. At which point I would summarize that conversation in email as well. Which would bring her storming back in, rinse and repeat ad nauseum.

Anyway I cannot imagine how badly that job would have gone if I hadn’t put all her wildly unreasonable demands in writing. Bitch still hated me but she could never hang me for “missing deadlines” because I always had in writing that she’d pushed the project back because she wanted something else done first.

Paper your asses babes. Do not let them get away with shit. If they won’t put what they’re asking you to do in writing then write it up yourself and email it to them.

[cockbiteindustries]

Does anyone have that one story of the lady who worked at a bank or something and management tried to can her, but she had evidence or something that ended up having her win a lawsuit? If I recall that story had both evidence, and the importance of employee communication as a co-worker tipped her off so she made sure she had an evidence papertrail

[orcboxer]

honestly "oracle that nobody believes" is such a solid trope. imagine trying to convince anybody in 2006 what the next two decades was gonna look like

[digitaldiscipline]

Everyone who remembers Bush v. Gore and 9/11 is looking at the camera like we're in The Office

Nobody believed us when we said it then, either.

[creatingblackcharacters]

so, i noticed that in “sinners,” remmick is portrayed as playing a banjo when he performs. that piqued my interest because i know somebody, hannah mayree, who runs something called the “Black banjo reclamation project” which aims to educate people about the banjo’s african origins and history in Black music, accepts donations of banjos to be distributed for free to Black folks who are interested in playing, and offers shows and events oriented toward helping Black people reconnect to their roots through this instrument.

there’s a campout that starts tomorrow, june 4th, and an online study group that starts this weekend, june 6th, and some events and shows this summer that look really fun. there’s also a newsletter for any future events!

looks like i can’t put the link to the website, but it’s just the name of the project dot org

I have always loved a good banjo. It's crazy bc it's from Africa, but it always gets a bad rap as a Southern White Hick stereotype. Which, interestingly enough, is probably why they gave it to Remmick. A sort of sign that even in this, he's trying to use Our Music to get Inside to Us. But anyway, somebody shredding on a banjo is 🤌🏾🔥

I'd actually love to participate in something like that, because I gave up on this guitar 😭 I don't have the memory and focus anymore to teach myself music.

[rockatanskette]

This seems like a great place to plug the full-length documentary about the all-Black old-time string band Carolina Chocolate Drops:

They formed at a Black Banjo Gathering in North Carolina in 2005 and have been a big influence in the revival of Black traditional/string band/old-time/folk music in general but also from the Piedmont region of the Carolinas.

I especially like this documentary because they talk about how you take a style of music that's been whitewashed/repressed and bring it back for a modern audience, while repairing its ties to and honoring the Black ancestors who played it first. The origins of the banjo are a huge part of that and a huge part of the documentary.

[duckprintspress]

Pick up your ticket for Pride!

💙

💚

💛

🧡

❤️

💜

💗

🤍

🤎

🖤

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Remaining time: 2 days 17 hours

Pick a heart then pass it on!

[marz-rm]

"He imagined Shane would be similarly unforgiving if Ilya took his own life. Not that Ilya ever would. Unless he couldn't help it".

[rozrozhollander]

But you know me. I'm lazy, so... I don't know that side of you at all.

[fibromyalgicaf]

Edited to add: Since a lot of people are reblogging this original post, I'm adding the updated version I did that incorporates the intersex circle...

I know intersex people are still getting excluded in a lot of LGBTQIA+ spaces (let alone wider society) and I think it's crucial to show this group is included in the statement that we all deserve equal rights.

[mangled-by-disuse]

in happier pride news i actually found this deeply heartwarming

that's solidarity baybeeee

[lgbtlaughs]

Further context: Durham city council (Reform UK) cut funding and support for Pride. The Durham Miner's Association and other trade unions raised enough money for Durham Pride 2026 to go ahead - a direct call back to when Lesbian and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM) raised money for mining communities when Margaret Thatcher seized union funding during the miner strikes of 1984-85.

At the 1985 Labour party meet, the motion to support LGBT rights as a party was passed due to a block vote from mining unions.

Stephen Guy, the chair of the Durham Miners’ Association, said that when it became apparent Durham Pride was under threat, he took it upon himself to “encourage the trade union movement to step up and do the right thing, and stand shoulder to shoulder with the LGBT+ community […] They not only raised funds for us, but came to our communities, uplifted our spirits when they were down, and showed their solidarity.”

[capybaralovers]

[rettaroo]

In case you're wondering what raising a kid in a polyamorous family looks like, our kid just has. Zero concept of monogamy. Like we've explained it to her many times but she just like. Forgets it's a thing and the assumed cultural norm. We're showing her Lord of the a Rings and she was very confused when Aragon rejected Eowyn.

"Wait, I thought they liked each other??"

"She likes him but he's already with Arwen."

"So?? He could just be with both??"

Anyway enjoy this meme I found about it