LETTERS TO THE FUTURE ME

Mostly gay with a side of politics, No apologies. No regrets.

[letterstothefutureme]

ROE YOUR VOTE

Find your polling place

Know what's on your ballot

Know your rights

IF YOUR RIGHT TO VOTE IS CHALLENGED. DO NOT LEAVE.

CALL (866) OUR-VOTE

[theconcealedweapon]

[nightingalesighs]

Let these be the photos that mark tonight.

This evening, Rep. Al Green of Texas was forcibly removed from the joint session of Congress by the sergeant-at-arms for standing up and yelling “You have no mandate to cut Medicaid.” during the president’s address.

“He is a person who has consistently used incivility against civility,” Green said. 

“I’m willing to suffer whatever punishment is available to me,” he continued. “I didn’t say to anyone, ‘Don’t punish me.’ I’ve said I’ll accept the punishment, but it’s worth it to let people know that there are some of us who are going to stand up against this president’s desire to cut Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security.”

“This is about the people who are being punished by virtue of losing their health care,” he added. “This is the richest country in the world, and we have people who don’t have good health care.” (Per HuffPost)

[depsidase]

[chaser]

Boss is asleep, cannot stop me from frogposting

[chaser]

First like and this has already found its intended audience

[chaser]

uh oh

[itsmyturnonthegender]

[lilsansphil]

[king-emare]

Oh shit. I never realized this.

[divine-noire]

This is a depressing reality every 4th of July.

[nabulus]

So they go around the world bombing and killing people and then expect us to feel sorry for them?? Nah son, you deserve it.

[easternmediterranean]

me if i ever find out any of my neighbors are veterans

[eearth-deactivated20180601]

Hmmm. I mean, just because the army as an institution is flawed and damaging doesn’t mean everyone in it is a terrible person. To paint every single veteran with the same brush is reductive and to make light of the debilitating mental disorders many have just seems wrong. Like yes, fuck the military as an institution completely 100%, but blaming disabled ex-front-line infantry maybe isn’t the best direction for our anger, perhaps.

[erniebilko]

A lot of veterans are poor people who were intentionally targeted by scouting programs coming to their schools starting at age 13, and most of them are worse off coming back than they were to start with… let’s be courteous to folks with PTSD

[nativepeopleproblems]

Don’t be an ableist fuckface. Intentionally triggering someone is disgusting.

[tikkunolamorgtfo]

I thought people on this godforsaken website at least understood this one basic principal, but apparently not, so let me make it crystal clear: 

IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO BE SELECTIVELY PROGRESSIVE 

You can hate Ann Coulter. But if you suggest that she deserves to be raped, you are a misogynist.

You can hate Woody Allen. But if you say he’s part of a Jewish conspiracy or joke about putting him in an oven, you are an antisemite.

You can hate Michael Vick. But you call for him to be lynched or call him the N-word, you are an anti-black racist. 

You can hate Caitlyn Jenner. But if you misgender her, or make comments about her genitalia, you are a transphobe. 

And you can hate the military. But if you deliberately try to trigger veterans with PTSD, you are an ableist piece of shit. 

You do no get to pick and choose which people to treat fairly when it comes to acknowledging and combatting prejudice. 

Not liking a person is not a free pass to disregard anti-prejudicial words and actions. Either you respect marginalized peoples as a whole (even if you don’t like an individual), or you don’t respect them at all. There is no middle ground. 

[letmeleadyoufromsolitude]

If anyone really like, agrees with harassing veterans with PTSD or anything similar, unfollow me right the fuck now. I don’t want you following me.

You don’t have to like the military, it’s massively fucked up but y'all needs understand that most people in the military are victims of propaganda and are usually poor or part of a minority who are taken advantage of in order to join.

[eearth-deactivated20180601]

^^^ All of these comments tbh

[etherealharlot]

Mhmm

[fox-bright]

They offered the ASVAB at my HIGH SCHOOL. They CAME INTO MY SCHOOL and said “If you guys take the military aptitude test, you get free donuts and you miss the first half of the day.” They brought in hot dogs. They brought food to a place where half of us were in poverty if not more, and they said, all you have to do is take a little test and you’ll get a snack, you don’t have to come in to school on time (an extra full hour of sleep that morning!). So we did. By the hundreds. My younger brother, a year behind me in school, scored “the highest we’ve ever seen in the whole damn state, son,” and for the next. Three. Fucking. Years. They harassed him. He got phone calls from every goddamn branch of the military. People would show up at our house at random, trying to recruit him. They’d tell him horror stories about how much better it is to enlist than be drafted (as if there’d been a draft in our lifetime!). They called our Mom at work. They sent recruiters to talk to our stepfather, who’d been in the Army, to try to get a handle on my brother’s weak points. THREE FUCKING YEARS OF THIS. My brother is the second child of six. My brother was thirteen by the time he had his own pillow for the first time. My brother was hungry all the time, dizzy from hunger some days–and oh, sidenote, my mother, stepfather and father are all abusive assholes who’d as soon hit you as look at you. Guess what year my brother graduated? If you guessed “May, 2002,” or “almost immediately after 9/11,” ding ding ding ding! The ONLY REASON my brother didn’t join the military, in the end, is that his girlfriend at the time said “If you enlist, I will never speak to you again.” Her dad was a military man, and he was also an abusive shithead, so in her head the two were inextricable. But if she’d said “go for it?” Or if she hadn’t said anything at all? Something like half of the males in my fucking graduating class enlisted. It was better than starving. And a great number of those are dead now. I hate the US military industry. I’m disgusted by the things our military does. But by god I don’t blame our veterans for what was done to them. Rich people don’t enlist. The ones who join the military are the ones who are hopeful that for once they’ll know that they’re getting a meal, not just today but tomorrow too.

[garrettauthor]

Every damn point of the thread.

[lynoth715]

The soldiers are, by and large, as much a victim as anyone else.

[baelpenrose]

I cannot believe anyone would think deliberately triggering veterans is funny or ok. If you’re one of those people, please actually unfollow.

[metalheadsagainstfascism]

The military is notorious for praying on poor and and underprivileged communities (mostly BIPOC communities) with promises of college education for them or their children (which these communities can’t afford) or a job when they get back.

Remember these kids that they pray on are STARVING and can’t afford college or higher education. Not to mention their schools are underfunded. Do you think these kids can go to college? Get a decent job when they complete high school? Graduate high school? They were about to enter a world with no hopes for a career forced to live their entire life in poverty knowing full well even that the conditions they grew up end was the BEST case scenario because at least they had a roof and sometimes food.

And then they come back with PTSD and pain from dozens of injuries and the government just throws them away.

Veterans are just as much a victim of our fucked up government as anyone, and we WILL NOT publish them for being that.

We ESPECIALLY won’t be spreading abelistic bullshit.

Let me give you a comparison. Just because a trans person is racist doesn’t mean you can start misgendering them. All that indicates is it’s a huge red flag to all the other trans people that you never really respected trans people in the first place.

Similarly even if we were gonna consider our military shitty people, what will your disabled friends think if they see you running around, “YAY! LET’S TRIGGER DISABLED PEOPLE!”?

-fae

[araccoonthatlikesmurder]

Don’t trigger veterans you fucking ableist scum. They’ve been through the worst nightmare of their lives for many, many years day by day and came out alive with heavy physical and mental damage. Don’t trigger people on purpose.

[night-dragon937]

also not to mention that there are veterans still alive that were drafted. not every veteran chose to serve and even if they do technically sign up, it’s not like they choose where to go or what to do. the structure of the military is to shut up and do what you’re told

[headspace-hotel]

I have heard people on here post that people who were drafted should have just dodged the draft.

Right. An 18 year old who may not even have completed middle school, who might have barely left the town they were born in, is supposed to “just dodge the draft.”

Because of course at 18 you’re supposed to have already developed the idea that all war is unjust and wrong, because the Google that doesn’t exist yet is free…

…or the library you don’t have access to might have a book that doesn’t slather every action America has ever undertaken as either glorious or inevitable, like the entirety of your education up to that point…

[letterstothefutureme]

How do I feel about the Cultural Revolution happening right now?

TikTok’s Great Leap Forward is probably going to go about as well as the first one.

[letterstothefutureme]

On morality and murder

An Astonishing Level of Dehumanization

There is no defense of those who celebrated the murder of Brian Thompson.

There have been so many hot takes on this that it’s superfluous for me to add mine. I just wanted to comment on this article.

The author states “there are other ways to make the lives of CEOs miserable” and that’s the part missing in the discussion.

The reason for the apathy or outright jubilation over Thompson’s murder is precisely because Americans don’t have other options.

We can’t simply boycott healthcare companies or negotiate the terms of our contracts.

Our healthcare plans are largely chosen by Human Resource departments at our jobs or from a few private plans largely constrained by how much coverage we can afford.

There is little recourse for malfeasance by insurers. Thompson faced no consequences for his adoption of the cruel AI that denied claims.

At best, we might get congressional hearings which amount to political grandstanding with some finger wagging by legislators more interested in advancing their own careers than actual policy changes.

Luigi Mangione will spend life in prison but not one member of the Sackler family will ever spend a day in prison. Nor will anyone responsible for denying the claims of UHC customers.

People aren’t overcome with blood lust, they want healthcare companies to be held accountable. While murder is not the ideal solution, it does provide the one thing the legal system hasn’t - consequences.

[pusheen]

[thebibliosphere]

Hey, US citizens who are eligible to vote, today is National Voter Registration Day!

As someone unable to vote in the country I live in, I’d like to take a moment to encourage everyone who is eligible to vote to check their voter registration.

Deadlines are coming up fast in many states, and many states have been purging their voter rolls to try and suppress the vote. Don’t let them take it from you.

You can use this link below to check your voting status, and remind your friends/family/followers to do the same; it only takes a couple minutes.

I Will Vote

Be a voter. Find everything you need to vote in your state's next election.

And remember, if you’re vote didn't matter, the bastards wouldn’t be working so hard to take it from you.

[letterstothefutureme]

Every single one of those registrations was a single person deciding to register. When you think you're just "lil ol me" and your voice doesn't matter that much: Remember this. Your actions have impact, your voice and your vote matter.

Get Registered and VOTE

Find out when/where/how at:

VOTE.ORG

[letterstothefutureme]

It’s National Voter Registration Day!

Get Registered or check your registration:

VOTE.GOV

Register to vote in your state | Vote.gov

Find the information you need to make registration and voting easy. Official voter registration website of the United States government.

[letterstothefutureme]

Credit: Social Goods Instagram

VOTE.GOV

[everkings]

oh god I have zero points, I am pointless and ancient and gentle 

[letterstothefutureme]

I’m very old so I have done all the things on this list.

The last time I used a rotary phone was kinda funny. I had to call customer service for something; a rotary phone was the phone available.

Back in the day, the automated phone system would say “if you’re calling from a rotary phone, please wait on the line.” This company had removed that option. I had to go find a pay phone.

I still own a corded retro (not rotary) phone.

[modern-politics111]

I can never tell which of my posts are going to explode (it is never ones I put work in) but I pray to God this one does

The past few weeks I have seen an explosion in doomerism and defeatism about Trump. Some people seem to have just decided to call the election for him for reasons that don't even make much sense

(He was almost shot and that always helps! Look at Reagan and Teddy Roosevelt! Reagan was already president and incredibly popular, and the shooting happened 2 months into his first term; Roosevelt was shot when he was campaigning in 1912....in an election he lost)

Trump has never been popular, he has never won the popular vote, and he has never had popular support. For the past 3 years, especially post Roe V. Wade, Democrats have increasingly overperformed especially in special elections. There were so many polls predicting 2022 would be a Red Wave, that turned out to be false due to faulty and biased polling. I'm not saying a Dem loss is impossible, but it is a lot less of a sure thing than the doomsayers are making it out to be

How does Trump win? Apathy. Despair. Low Turn Out. While many of the "Trump is guaranteed to win" posters I'm sure are real people who are justifiably scared, I think we underestimate just how many are people at home and abroad, who want a lower turnout, who want Trump to win.

I used to hear a joke growing up that "If voting did anything, they would make it illegal" Well considering how hard Republicans are trying to discourage voting and making it hard to do, it must do something.

Don't despair. Don't panic. Don't retreat. ACT

So what can you do?

Are you registered to vote? 🗳

You can register to vote here! ☑️

Do you know what/ who will be on your ballot? 📄

Do you know your state voting requirements? 📥

Do you know your polling location? 📍

Can you vote early? 🖊

Can you vote by mail? 📬

Do you need disability services for voting? ♿️

Do you need to know your voter’s rights? 🧑🏽‍⚖️

Do you need a ride to register/ vote?

Spread this far and wide. Tell your friends and your family. Make clear to them what is at stake if Trump wins.

Additionally, here are two volunteer organizations that I help out with

Vote Forward - write letters to encourage turnout

Working Family's Party - an organization working to help progressives win in primaries and general elections. I particularly like working in their text bank program. Want to help in a phone bank but don't like talking on the phone? this is perfect as you send texts to encourage support and voting

Spread this far and wide. Tell your friends and your family. Make clear to them what is at stake if Trump wins. Feel free to add other resources and organizations that

[jomiddlemarch]

Postcards to Swing States (now includes Swing Districts!) https://www.turnoutpac.org/postcards/

Activate America (lots of actions to take, including postcards, phonebooks, canvassing): https://www.activateamerica.vote/

Pizza to the Polls: all about donations but their efforts are fantastic! https://polls.pizza

Blue Wave Postcards: https://shop.bluewavepostcards.org

[letterstothefutureme]

This is a really good list. A couple of things.

This organization specializes in rides to the polls. https://rideshare2vote.com/ride2vote-program/

I can vouch for them and their work.

Working Families Party is one of numerous organizations doing work.

There are local voter engagement organizations in literally every state. I work every day with over 1k. Here you can find voter outreach volunteering near you.

Local orgs are doing great work and they don’t have the kind of support WFP does. You can make a really big impact in your community and continue to do so after the election.

Volunteer Opportunities, Events, and Petitions Near Me · Mobilize

Create change in your community. Find events, petitions, volunteer opportunities, and fundraisers in your local area, organized by charities

Texting is great, so are postcards but Nothing beats knocking on doors. Volunteer to go canvassing in your area. It’s not as scary as you think it is. The lists are curated and it’s usually fun. You also end up with some epic memories to add to your lore.

Vote early. Vote often. Vote Local.

[nerdymouse]

[letterstothefutureme]

I have worked in electoral politics for nigh on 15 years. I cannot emphasize this enough.

THIS THIS THIS THIS

[thedisablednaturalist]

Kinda fucked up that we all coo and sympathize with "former gifted kids" but never talk about the students who had to stay late after school or over the summer for remedial classes/clubs, who struggled to get above a C, who were given up on or punished. Who tried so hard to understand or just couldn't. Who were grouped with the "stupid kids" (a classmate called us that in remedial math btw)

Autistic kids and adhders who can't relate to their gifted peers and are constantly alienated by them. Kids who struggled in school due to dealing with a chronic or mental illness or physical/learning/developmental disability. Those of us who have had to drop out of highschool or college. Kids who worked so hard and wanted to be seen as smart, but never were. Who watched as their peers seem to fly by them in school, while they were left behind. Who were bullied and put down by those in the gifted and honors classes. Whose confidence was absolutely destroyed by education.

I love you all and I'm so sorry the school system failed you. I'm sorry you weren't properly accommodated and given the education you deserved. I'm sorry people put you down for something that they never had to fight for.

[us-the-voices-and-more-voices-2]

this, where is the posts for all the strugglers. the people who failed brutally.

[letterstothefutureme]

One in five people are dyslexic. Without remediation dyslexics will struggle their entire lives with the ability to read.

It’s only a disability in so far as we don’t teach kids the way dyslexic people learn. When dyslexic people receive appropriate instruction, their leaning potential is the same as everyone else.

This is just one of many ways the education system fails kids who are not typical.

To all the people who struggled in school, who felt less than because of their academic abilities, I want you to know that I see you.

Your value as a person is not equal to your GPA, your education level or your ability to perform well on a test. All of these measure your ability to contribute to capitalism.

We measure the meaning of our lives by how we live, whom we share our lives with, and what we do with the time we have. Your contributions to your family, community, and the world are what matters.

[my-midlife-crisis]

[letterstothefutureme]

Vote.org