Liz! @lizardonatoadstool - Tumblr Blog

assignedmale

smoothjazzdigit

Have you guys seen that clip

Go off Kermit

juliathefacesofevil

we're just normal men

oddjoblin

Why the heck is this dude trying to confirm if the frog puppet is hetrosexual???

karnalesbian

assessing the situation before he shoots his shot

defilerwyrm

Happy Pride to Kermit the Frog, questioning king

youth-rights

I am continuously astounded by how much pro-homeschooling rhetoric flies in youth rights circles.

Homeschooling (yes, that includes unschooling) consolidates massive amounts of power into the hands of parents. Homeschooling causes horrific abuse and isolation.

The homeschooling movement is far-right and blatantly pro-abuse. The HSLDA called a man who kept children in cages a “hero.” They has helped to block the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child AND the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, has backed legislation banning both same-sex marriage and civil unions, and helped kill a bill that would define isolation as abuse, among countless other offenses. Its founder, Michael Farris, wrote in his dramatized narrative of CPS “stealing” children from their Christian homeschooling parents that hitting children to the point of bruising is not abuse.

Libby Ann has extensively documented HSLDA’s support of abuse, including praising abusers and attempting to block all bills that define abuse more strictly, even if “more strictly” simply expands the definition to include bruises and welts.

You can’t be pro-youth and pro-homeschooling.

thefiresontheheight

I grew up in a household that donated to the HSLDA and was homeschooled and all that.

HOMESCHOOLING IS THE BEST POSSIBLE WAY TO ENABLE CHILD ABUSE.

You know how we on the left are opposed to nuclear families because they are a historical outlier from the larger multigenerational households humans have largely had across history? Because nuclear families isolate kids so that if one or two adults in their life fail them they have no recourse?

Modern homeschooling is that turned up to eleven. It is a life where if your parents are guardians are abusive you literally have no way out. No help. No one to turn to. It is ENTIRELY opposed to children’s rights as autonomous individuals.

cardassiangoodreads

A lot of very ignorant reblogs going on about “but disabled kids!” like there aren’t numerous cases of homeschooling parents using it as an excuse to neglect and abuse their disabled children, including just not educating them at all. And unlike abuses in school, they tend to go much longer undetected, because no one is checking in on them.

Schools can be regulated to be better to disabled children. Much better solution than funneling disabled children out of the reach of authorities.

I say this as an autistic kid who often had issues at school. The assumption from some here that those of us who are anti-homeschooling aren’t considering disabled kids is insulting (on this website?) and dangerously ignorant. Disabled kids are all the more reason to protect kids from the rampant abuse that homeschooling enables, and instead to have them in places where their education is regulated by laws designed to look out for them, they are being educated by trained professionals and more importantly, there are so many more adults keeping an eye out for them if anything bad does happen.

stripedroseandsketchpads

So, on one hand most kids are not homeschooled for disability reasons, but for “moral” ones - 75% of parents want to provide “moral instruction”, 53% explicitly state it’s religious. Comparatively only 15% of parents cite health special needs (which encompasses any health or developmental condition lasting longer than six months) as a reason for homeschooling. So they’re creating a straw child with this argument in the majority of cases.

With that being said…

Disability rights activists fought for decades to be allowed equal rights and access to public schooling and IDEA, which was only passed in 1979, is under threat of repeal by the Trump administration because they believe parents should “handle kids themselves” or better yet just institutionalize them. This combined with threats to Section 504 and other laws which mandate accommodations mark concerted efforts to force disabled children out of public life entirely and is part of the right-wing anti-social safety net agenda homeschoolers push specifically because they actively want parents to have absolute legal and practical authority over their children—which means, in reality, impunity to abuse.

It is absolutely spitting on the legacy of disabled activists like Judith Heumann, many of whom got their start as young people self-advocating for their own rights to be educated to condone the prioritization of homeschooling.

A bit more info/stats but it is, obviously, related to child abuse of all kinds so cut for that.

lizardonatoadstool

So, I was homeschooled and grew up in a household that was abusive. Three of my siblings have disabilities. Most of my friends growing were neurodivergent and a significant portion had physical disabilities, especially as a young adult. Many of my friends were abused. Many of my friends were homeschooled. I have a lot of complex thoughts on this.

Homeschooling absolutely forces children to spend more time with their families, which compounds abuse. The education homeschoolers receive is also far less regulated than public schools (though depending on the state, not necessarily much less regulated than private schools). I also take issue with some of the claims here. First, I want to say that “The Homeschool Movement” is considered niche and radicalized even among homeschoolers, at least in blue states. Everyone hates them and with good reason. Anti-homeschool-movement is different than anti-homeschool. The second thing I want to say is that I think there is an assumption that going to school means access to help, which I think is rarely true. We don’t really have good systems to find and help abused children, regardless of whether they are homeschooled, except sometimes in cases of extreme physical abuse. Kids rarely directly say they are being abused, and if they do, that still doesn’t guarantee help. I don’t know anyone who got out of their abusive household because of help from adults at their school. I know several people who were abused both at home and at school. I know several more who started homeschooling as a way to escape abuse at school. For those people, homeschooling vastly improved their lives.

For some people homeschooling is profoundly helpful. I know many people who had really good experiences, and who struggled in public school and were unable to afford private school, or who tried private school but found it still didn’t accommodate their needs. A lot of the options that exist for people with cognitive disabilities, especially publicly funded ones, are also rife with abuse.

Better regulation and systems of enforcement to protect children, especially disabled children, is necessary in all spheres of education. Welfare checks, proof of academic rigor, proof of enrollment in activities outside the home, etc. are all regulations that I think should come with homeschooling. But I think that homeschooling can sometimes be an important and useful option for families who are failed by existing systems.

lizardonatoadstool

To be clear, unregulated homeschooling, which is the norm in much of the US, does way more harm than good. “Homeschool rights” as a slogan is always used to advocate horrible things. But it’s sometimes a really big good for people, and I just wish that it wasn’t dealt with so terribly.

youth-rights

I am continuously astounded by how much pro-homeschooling rhetoric flies in youth rights circles.

Homeschooling (yes, that includes unschooling) consolidates massive amounts of power into the hands of parents. Homeschooling causes horrific abuse and isolation.

The homeschooling movement is far-right and blatantly pro-abuse. The HSLDA called a man who kept children in cages a “hero.” They has helped to block the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child AND the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, has backed legislation banning both same-sex marriage and civil unions, and helped kill a bill that would define isolation as abuse, among countless other offenses. Its founder, Michael Farris, wrote in his dramatized narrative of CPS “stealing” children from their Christian homeschooling parents that hitting children to the point of bruising is not abuse.

Libby Ann has extensively documented HSLDA’s support of abuse, including praising abusers and attempting to block all bills that define abuse more strictly, even if “more strictly” simply expands the definition to include bruises and welts.

You can’t be pro-youth and pro-homeschooling.

thefiresontheheight

I grew up in a household that donated to the HSLDA and was homeschooled and all that.

HOMESCHOOLING IS THE BEST POSSIBLE WAY TO ENABLE CHILD ABUSE.

You know how we on the left are opposed to nuclear families because they are a historical outlier from the larger multigenerational households humans have largely had across history? Because nuclear families isolate kids so that if one or two adults in their life fail them they have no recourse?

Modern homeschooling is that turned up to eleven. It is a life where if your parents are guardians are abusive you literally have no way out. No help. No one to turn to. It is ENTIRELY opposed to children’s rights as autonomous individuals.

cardassiangoodreads

A lot of very ignorant reblogs going on about “but disabled kids!” like there aren’t numerous cases of homeschooling parents using it as an excuse to neglect and abuse their disabled children, including just not educating them at all. And unlike abuses in school, they tend to go much longer undetected, because no one is checking in on them.

Schools can be regulated to be better to disabled children. Much better solution than funneling disabled children out of the reach of authorities.

I say this as an autistic kid who often had issues at school. The assumption from some here that those of us who are anti-homeschooling aren’t considering disabled kids is insulting (on this website?) and dangerously ignorant. Disabled kids are all the more reason to protect kids from the rampant abuse that homeschooling enables, and instead to have them in places where their education is regulated by laws designed to look out for them, they are being educated by trained professionals and more importantly, there are so many more adults keeping an eye out for them if anything bad does happen.

stripedroseandsketchpads

So, on one hand most kids are not homeschooled for disability reasons, but for “moral” ones - 75% of parents want to provide “moral instruction”, 53% explicitly state it’s religious. Comparatively only 15% of parents cite health special needs (which encompasses any health or developmental condition lasting longer than six months) as a reason for homeschooling. So they’re creating a straw child with this argument in the majority of cases.

With that being said…

Disability rights activists fought for decades to be allowed equal rights and access to public schooling and IDEA, which was only passed in 1979, is under threat of repeal by the Trump administration because they believe parents should “handle kids themselves” or better yet just institutionalize them. This combined with threats to Section 504 and other laws which mandate accommodations mark concerted efforts to force disabled children out of public life entirely and is part of the right-wing anti-social safety net agenda homeschoolers push specifically because they actively want parents to have absolute legal and practical authority over their children—which means, in reality, impunity to abuse.

It is absolutely spitting on the legacy of disabled activists like Judith Heumann, many of whom got their start as young people self-advocating for their own rights to be educated to condone the prioritization of homeschooling.

A bit more info/stats but it is, obviously, related to child abuse of all kinds so cut for that.

lizardonatoadstool

So, I was homeschooled and grew up in a household that was abusive. Three of my siblings have disabilities. Most of my friends growing were neurodivergent and a significant portion had physical disabilities, especially as a young adult. Many of my friends were abused. Many of my friends were homeschooled. I have a lot of complex thoughts on this.

Homeschooling absolutely forces children to spend more time with their families, which compounds abuse. The education homeschoolers receive is also far less regulated than public schools (though depending on the state, not necessarily much less regulated than private schools). I also take issue with some of the claims here. First, I want to say that “The Homeschool Movement” is considered niche and radicalized even among homeschoolers, at least in blue states. Everyone hates them and with good reason. Anti-homeschool-movement is different than anti-homeschool. The second thing I want to say is that I think there is an assumption that going to school means access to help, which I think is rarely true. We don’t really have good systems to find and help abused children, regardless of whether they are homeschooled, except sometimes in cases of extreme physical abuse. Kids rarely directly say they are being abused, and if they do, that still doesn’t guarantee help. I don’t know anyone who got out of their abusive household because of help from adults at their school. I know several people who were abused both at home and at school. I know several more who started homeschooling as a way to escape abuse at school. For those people, homeschooling vastly improved their lives.

For some people homeschooling is profoundly helpful. I know many people who had really good experiences, and who struggled in public school and were unable to afford private school, or who tried private school but found it still didn't accommodate their needs. A lot of the options that exist for people with cognitive disabilities, especially publicly funded ones, are also rife with abuse.

Better regulation and systems of enforcement to protect children, especially disabled children, is necessary in all spheres of education. Welfare checks, proof of academic rigor, proof of enrollment in activities outside the home, etc. are all regulations that I think should come with homeschooling. But I think that homeschooling can sometimes be an important and useful option for families who are failed by existing systems.

orteil42

given the current climate this pride especially i feel i must mention that i love my trans friends, i stand with trans people in the fight against transphobic legislation and those who would enforce it, and this blog is not a good place for you to be if you do not vibe with that

ihni

Tell me an inside joke between you and a friend, without context.

ihni

I beg of everyone to read the tags to this post, as they are all random and hilarious and read kind of like a poem, if the poem was written by someone who was on a lot of drugs.

#RMHBH #(Real Men Have Big Hips)

youngerfrankenstein

To put it very bluntly.

You will always make a better impact helping people who need it than trying to hurt people you think deserve it.

meangirlnurse

tbh i think the phrase "no ethical consumption under capitalism" has done some irreparable damage

meangirlnurse

like, it's true in that you are extremely unlikely to attain a perfectly ethical lifestyle in our current circumstances

but the way people have applied it seems to finish the sentence by saying "...and therefore there's no reason to even attempt to behave ethically here"

meangirlnurse

which of course dovetails nicely with the broader "leftist" principle that if something is less than perfect, it's not worthwhile at all

meangirlnurse

it is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you at liberty to neglect it, etc.

shinraalpha

i am losing my mind over discovering that there's a species of jumping spider (Pellenes nigrociliatus) that builds nests in empty snail shells and makes little silk webbing curtains to close off the entrance

look at her!! she is so cute!!! i want to cry!!!!

crowns-of-violets-and-roses

Discussions of trans women in sports often focus on elite/professional sports which honestly I find it hard to care about but the more common scenario of “we’re going to legally ban a high school girl from playing sports with her friends because she’s trans” is just profoundly evil

zzzucker

i remember when utah's (republican) governor ended up vetoing a law banning transgender students from playing high school sports when he looked at the numbers, and there were only four trans students in the state playing sports at all. he released a clumsily worded but surprisingly compassionate statement about the decision.

I must admit, I am not an expert on transgenderism. I struggle to understand so much of it, and the science is conflicting. When in doubt, however, I always try to err on the side of kindness, mercy, and compassion. I also try to get proximate, and I am learning so much from our transgender community. They are great kids who face enormous struggles. Here are the numbers that have most impacted my decision: 75,000, 4, 1, 86 and 56. 75,000 high school kids participating in high school sports in Utah. 4 transgender kids playing high school sports in Utah. 1 transgender student playing girls sports. 86% of trans youth reporting suicidality. 56% of trans youth having attempted suicide. Four kids and only one of them playing girls sports. That’s what all of this is about. Four kids who aren’t dominating or winning trophies or taking scholarships. Four kids who are just trying to find some friends and feel like they are a part of something. Four kids trying to get through each day. Rarely has so much fear and anger been directed at so few. I don’t understand what they are going through or why they feel the way they do. But I want them to live.

of course, it didn't amount to much. they overrode his veto. it's just so cartoonishly evil. an entire state's political body so desperate to terrorize this one little trans girl.

quasi-normalcy

So what I think is that there's this default belief in patriarchy that men are superior to women and therefore the "masculine" sphere is superior to the "feminine" sphere. And so, as feminists have fought to expand the number of allowable female activities, men (on the aggregate over generations) have retreated from those activities because they're now seen as "feminine", and so partaking in them is incommensurate with their belief in their own superiority. And, unfortunately, as this has progressed, this has resulted in a lot of men sectioning themselves off from, frankly, everything that actually makes being alive worthwhile. It's a misery spiral, and the only way out is to abandon male supremacy.

quasi-normalcy

#men gave up deep friendships and reading and poetry and colourful fashion#all things that used to be considered manly in the 19th century#they're currently giving up on studying law and medecine#it's so stupid and sad

(I mean, the colourful fashion was more of an eighteenth century thing, but yeah)

quasi-normalcy

#more women in higher education meaning fewer men is incredibly depressing to me. funny in a sad way#what happens when women will finally get into trades? will they just stop working

sherryzade

spectacular tags from @luesmainblog

embraceweird

✨sandy dildo vodka bath✨

#Believe it or not these words convey a deep reverence for the beauty of life and experience #wbn #wbn solari

anancientheart

Sister Corita Kent: Immaculate Heart College Art Department Rules, 1965

gentlier

Image I.D.

Immaculate Heart College Art Department Rules

Rule 1: Find a place you trust and then try trusting it for a while.

Rule 2: General duties of a student -> pull everything out of your teacher [&] pull everything out of your fellow students.

Rule 3: General duties of a teacher -> pull everything out of your students.

Rule 4: Consider everything an experiment.

Rule 5: Be self-disciplined. This means finding someone wise or smart and choosing to follow them. To be disciplined is to follow in a good way. To be self-disciplined is to follow a better way.

Rule 6: Nothing is a mistake. There’s no win and no fail. There’s only make.

Rule 7: The only rule is work. If you work, it will lead to something. It’s the people who do all the work all the time who eventually catch on to things.

Rule 8: Don’t try to create and analyse at the same time. They’re different processes.

Rule 9: Be happy whenever you can imagine it. It’s lighter than you think.

Rule 10: “We’re breaking all of the rules. Even our own rules. And how do we do that? By leaving plenty of room for X quantities.” —John Cage

Helpful hints: Always be around. Come or go to everything. Always go to classes. Read anything you can get your hands on. Look at movies carefully, often. Save everything. It might come in handy later. There should be new rules next week.