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Misplaced Lens Cap
Three Goblin Art
Sade Olutola
Stranger Things
Jules of Nature
if i look back, i am lost
Today's Document
Keni
he wasn't even looking at me and he found me
"I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas"
$LAYYYTER
pixel skylines
I'd rather be in outer space đ¸
Kaledo Art
Product Placement
YOU ARE THE REASON
trying on a metaphor
cherry valley forever
#extradirty
seen from United States
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@meg-an-ace
This is easily the most interesting take I've ever seen discussing why the older generations seem to struggle so much with the discussions and changes with gender identity, and I think it's absolutely worth reading.
Obviously it doesn't cover 100% of intolerant people, but I think it explains a decent chunk tbh.
Tornado season has violently started in the u.s already so take it from a hardened Midwesterner who has been on the highways and interstate when the radio starts doing the RRRRRRRNGH. RRRRRRRNGH. RRRRRRRNGH. BEEEEEEEEEP thing:
DO NOT TAKE SHELTER UNDER AN OVERPASS. EVEN IF YOU CLIMB UP THE HILL THING. CONGRATS YOU JUST ENTERED A WIND TUNNEL DURING A TORNADO. DON'T DO THAT
Most farmhouses out in the middle of nowhere have windbreaks, aka, a long line of trees. Use this to your advantage. Head towards the trees, see if there's a house. People will let you shelter there in a tornado. It's the Midwest. We're nice.
STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM ELECTRICAL POLES AND SHIT THAT CAN FALL ON YOU. TREES BAD IF NO HOUSE. TREES SO BAD IF NO HOUSE. TREES ARE SHRAPNEL GENERATORS. IF YOU DON'T SEE A HOUSE STAY AWAY FROM THE TREES.
Stay the fuck away from pivots, while we're at it. You can get electrocuted from yards away.
If you're heading out of a town and the sirens go off, turn the fuck around. Go to the nearest building or business or house. Shelter with them.
And remember, a large percentage of tornados are rain-wrapped. This means that the sky doesn't even get dark. It just looks like a rainstorm. A normal one.
If the sirens are going off, that means there is a tornado that is on the ground in your immediate area. Go to fucking shelter. I don't care if it doesn't look like a tornado outside.
If there is a warning, that means there is a tornado on the ground in your county. Go to shelter. I don't care if it doesn't look like a tornado outside.
If there is a watch, this means that there is no tornado right now, but they're expecting some. Go about your business, but keep your phone charged and on you, and listen for sirens.
If a tornado looks like it's standing still, it's coming towards you. Down stairs. Now.
If the sirens suddenly cut instead of winding down, if the drains start sucking, if your ears pop, or if you hear a train, dive for cover like your life depends on it because it does.
A downstairs bathroom without windows, in the bathtub, covered by a blanket from head to toe, is the best place to be. On the ground, away from windows, covered by a blanket, with as many walls as you can between you and the outside, is good enough.
Can confirm, if there's a tornado bearing down my basement is for everyone. I'll shove it full of strangers if I have to. Just knock and look panicked and we'll Get It.
Wait what's a buildings fire evacuation plan if you aren't supposed to use the elevator to get down
You go down the stairwell/fire escape. Is that weird?
But what if you have a walker or a wheelchair??
in america at least, in this situation, there isnt one. either your loved ones or the firemen can get you out using the emergency fire escapes or stairs, or you dieÂ
That's fucking horrific, thank you
âfunâ little story:
last summer my friend who is an amazingly talented artist and i were in this super tall building, and sheâs in a wheelchair and iâm pushing her around the room. itâs an art exhibit and some of her art was chosen to be showcased there and so itâs all fine and dandy until suddenly an alarm starts going off
a FIRE ALARM
everyone starts running for the stairs and my friend just looks at me with this forlorn look on her face
âi canât go down the stairsâ
but iâm a stubborn bitch âiâll carry youâ
âwhat about my chair? itâs too expensive for me to be able to get another one if i canât get this one backâ
âiâll carry that tooâ
and i did. we went to the stairs (by then most people from our floor were gone) and i lifted her up in a firemanâs carry over my shoulder and then lifted her chair up and used the ridiculous amount of adrenaline that was coursing through my veins to make it down approximately 20 half-flights of stairs until we met some people exiting lower floors, one of which who kindly took the chair. I changed positions so i was holding my friend bridal-style which was, somehow, easier and the person who took her wheelchair (with her permission to handle it of course) accompanied me to the ground floor and then out the doors
basically there is no real protocol for people who canât use the stairs in an emergency. itâs up to the people with them, if anyone, to help them or the person to somehow make it down the stairs alone, unassisted
thank fuck that it was just a faulty alarm system, because if i was unable to carry her down those stairs and the building was on fucking fire???? then i donât know what would have happened to her, but i donât think it would have been very good.
itâs fucking ridiculous and ableist to the absolute max.
I use a cane. When I did a day-long fire safety training at my northeast American university (UMass Amherst), I asked that exact same question: âwhat am I supposed to do if the fire alarm goes off and Iâm in my lab on the twelfth floor?âÂ
the fire marshal hemmed and hawed for a while and then said to take the elevator- youâre supposed to leave it free for the fire department to use and they want able-bodied people out fast not waiting for elevators. if the fire alarm has just gone off the building probably hasnât suffered enough structural damage to make using the elevator dangerous, and modern elevator wells are heavily reinforced. many large and high-trafficked buildings on my campus have fire rated elevators that link in with the fire alarm system so they wonât let you off on a floor with a possible fire.Â
if the elevator isnât working, wait in the stairwell and call the fire department to let them know where you are. modern stairwells are also heavily reinforced- it might not be pleasant but modern building code usually requires fire-resistant stairwell doors in office and big residential buildings, also to help firefighters get in and out safely. older buildingsâ stairwells may or may not be retrofitted with fire-resistant doors but a stairwell is generally the safest place to wait if you canât get out.Â
what happened to your friend was horrible, and iâm very glad you were there to help her out, but you can absolutely use the elevator to evacuate if itâs not shut down. those donât-use-the-elevator rules are for abled people. Â
This is GOOD TO KNOW. why do they not tell people this??
Okay, firefighter here. If you are not physically able to use the stairs, and the elevator is NOT compromised, use the elevator. But you MUST be ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN that the elevator is NOT compromised before you get into it, because there is always the chance that once you get into it, you may not exit it. Power could go out. The elevator may actually BE compromised and you just couldnât tell from where you were until you were in there, and it suddenly shuts down on you. Something else could happen.Â
Understand that once you enter the elevator, you could POTENTIALLY be taking your life into your hands there.
It is NOT LIKELY, to be perfectly honest. Itâs only in a pretty catastrophic scenario - think the Twin Towers, USA, on September 11th - that the elevators will be compromised and out of service. But there is a NOT ZERO PERCENT CHANCE and you need to understand that and accept it.
As for leaving the elevators free for the firefighters, okay, hereâs the deal. Unless your nearest fire station is literally right next door? Your first on scene fire truck is NOT likely to be there on scene and needing that elevator before you get to the ground. It takes us TIME to find the address, gear up, and drive to the building. Then we need to hoof it into where the elevators even ARE, so YOU HAVE TIME to use the elevator to get down to the ground floor... BUT ONLY IF THEREâS NOT A RUSH ON THE ELEVATOR! And THAT is WHY we donât tell people this shit. Thatâs WHY we tell people to NEVER USE THE ELEVATOR... because every self-entitled asshole will use it because they donât feel like walking, and then put YOU in danger by delaying the elevatorâs arrival to you.
IF, however, the elevator IS compromised, or you just canât get it to come for you, or whatever, and you either donât have anyone with you who has the adrenaline fueled BALLS to be able to toss you over their shoulder and hoof it down the stairs with you - because, letâs face it, that is RARE AS FUCK, then HERE IS WHAT YOU DO:
You call 911 and tell the call taker that you are in the building that has a fire alarm going off, and you are not able to evacuate because of a physical disability, and you tell them what floor you are on, and EXACTLY what stairwell you are waiting at. And the very FIRST thing that the firefighters are going to do once they arrive, if it is, indeed, a REAL emergency, and not a false alarm, is come get your ass and bring you down. Whether that means carrying you down the stairs, or whether that means locking out the elevators so that no one else can override them and coming to get you themselves, they WILL come get you FIRST THING if it is a real event. And if it is a false alarm? You will probably be the first person who is not involved with the building to know, because the call-taker is going to stay on the line with you until you are under someoneâs care and out of danger, or until the scene has been sorted out as real or false, and you are out of danger that way.
These are pretty standard operations in the fire service throughout the United States. There may be some minor variations based on specific municipalities, but, for the most part, this is pretty typical: LIFE BEFORE PROPERTY. So, as long as SOMEONE knows where you are - hence why you call 911 - Firefighters will come get you. You are NOT alone, and you have NOT been abandoned. I PROMISE. Itâs like, our whole reason for doing the shit we do: to save lives and to break shit. Sometimes, we get lucky enough to do both at the same time.
High rise fires suck ass, and I always hated them. But the very FIRST thing I asked anytime we got one was if we had âany entrapmentsâ - which is what we call anyone who could not self-evacuate for ANY reason. We ainât leaving you behind. And yes, your friend who doesnât have the stamina to carry you down can stay with you, too. Because I would never ask that of someone, honestly.Â
Also, just a little FYI... MOST fire alarms are false alarms. Not to make anyone complacent or anything, but, yeah. Most of them are either system malfunctions, someone accidentally hit a pull station, or someone burned popcorn in a break room. So donât let a fire alarm freak you out until you need it to - by smelling or seeing smoke or flames.Â
i have had multiple nightmares about this very thing because NOBODY BOTHERS TO ACTUALLY TELL WHEELCHAIR USERS THIS STUFF
I am loving these additions!
If you're disabled, this is worth the time and focusing energy to read through!!!
Short version:
If disabled and the fire alarm is just happened, you're allowed to take the elevators down but there's a small possibility you could get stuck if the elevators are compromised.
If you can't use the elevators or don't want that risk, go to the stairwell which is reinforced against fire, close the doors, and call 911 to let them know you are in that particular stairwell and can't get down.
Fire will strongly prioritize finding and rescuing people who might be still in the building during any actual structure fire. This is a major component of their job.
Fire people won't arrive in the course of one elevator run and actually half the deal with "don't use elevators" is supposed to be "leave it for people who need it in the emergency" which is both fire AND disabled people.
a fire is my worst nightmare as a disabled person, thank you to everyone who helped put this post together
i think the key difference between george lucasâs star wars and disneyâs star wars is that lucas is a man with an ideology. someone with a point of view, and all that entails. which comes with ideas of revolution, anti-imperialism, challenging the status quo, cultural appropriation and racist stereotypes. complex and contradictory ideas because thatâs how artists are: complex and complicated people. disney is not. disney is a corporation. a corporation canât have ideology, because ideology defeats the purpose of profit. and when the only thing you do is to turn on the movie manufacturing machine before you sit down and plan what ideas are you trying to convey to the audience, then your results are going to be washed out corporate garbage. and because when youâre a giant corporation who only cares about selling to the widest audience possible, you canât take sides. you canât decide on an idea. because you want to sell your product to people who are on the entire political spectrum. which results in movies without ideology, without purpose, without soul.
I have been looking for this post for years after I came across it and itâs finally here and I need to reblog this because it is absolutely and entirely accurate.
#as I always say: lucas was making a samurai film and a ww2 flying ace film and a western film and adding laser swords#because he fundamentally LIKED samurai films and dambusters films and westerns and 40âs adventure serials#but disney are making a âstar wars filmâ and adding nothing because it already had laser swords and they have nothing else to say#xerox of a xerox baybeeeee (via harrietvane)
it starting to make more sense as to why disney canceled swtcw. like âA SHOW THAT SHOWS CONFLICTING IDEALS BETWEEN PPL AND THE CRUELTY OF WAR??? OH GOD WE CANT SHOW THAT ALL OUR SHOWS MUST HAVE A BLAND LESSON ABT âFRIENDSHIPââ
@trikusta
This is the first time in my life when it's actually fair to criticize the President for gas prices. I've spent so many years explaining to people that Presidents have pretty limited influence over the price of oil and that they do not have a magical lower-gas-prices button on their desk, I almost forgot that the President does actually have a raise-gas-prices button on their desk called "start a war with Iran for no reason"
i'm begging you guys to start pirating shit from streaming platforms. there are so many websites where you can stream that shit for free, here's a quick HOW TO:
1) Search for: watch TITLE OF WORK free online
2) Scroll to the bottom of results. Click any of the "Complaint" links
3) You will be taken to a long list of links that were removed for copyright infringement. Use the 'find' function to search for the name of the show/movie you were originally searching for. You will get something like this (specifics removed because if you love an illegal streaming site you don't post its url on social media)
4) each of these links is to a website where you can stream shit for free. go to the individual websites and search for your show/movie. you might have to copy-paste a few before you find exactly what you're looking, but the whole process only takes a minute. the speed/quality is usually the same as on netflix/whatever, and they even have subtitles! (make sure to use an adblocker though, these sites are funded by annoying popups)
In conclusion, if you do this often enough you will start recognizing the most dependable websites, and you can just bookmark those instead. (note: this is completely separate from torrenting, which is also a beautiful thing but requires different software and a vpn)
you can also download the media in question (look for a "download" button built into the video window, or use a browser extension such as Video DownloadHelper.)
if the "Complaint" links are not visible for you:
Option 1: try the DuckDuckGo search engine instead (bonus: dedicated to privacy! doesn't track your data!)
Option 2: go directly to LumenDatabase.org (the website that collects the complaints--and therefore the removed links) and search for the title you want. look for results titled "DMCA (Copyright) Complaint to Google" featuring the media you're looking for. Proceed to Step 3 (above).
personally, i'm a huge fan of r/FREEMEDIAHECKYEAH. they keep their links up to date and they also rank them, basically. they also have all kinds of little pages explaining how to safely pirate shit.
^^^^what they said. I'm surprised people are still reblogging this post now that google's flushed itself down the toilet. so here is your
2026 UPDATE:
just go to r/FreeMediaHeckYeah and r/Piracy. it's easier, more reliable, and will take care of all your piracy needs!
using "what were YOU doing at the devils sacrament" to mean "yeah i made an embarrassing reference but you understood it which is also embarrassing" is very funny to me
my favorite part is that absolutely nobody says this except here. so if you use it in public, it's a dead giveaway that you spent the last ten years on tumblr. but then again, they recognized it, which means they were at the devil's sacrament
I tested this theory in the wild the other day at work. I was on a call with my department lead and a few other folks and I replied to an email the DL had sent me, thinking that, because he was on this call, he wouldn't notice when I sent it and would not catch me multitasking.
However, he replied to said email within five minutes, asking a question that required an answer. So I answered and was like "Also, I was going to apologize for answering emails during this call, but I see we're both here at the Devil's Sacrament, so I don't think an apology is necessary."
I watched him read that on screen and try not to laugh. And then at the end of the call as everyone started saying goodbye, he goes, "Hey, MJ, I meant to tell you. I like your shoelaces."
And I looked straight into my camera, stone cold serious, and said, "Thanks. I stole them from the president."
And the rest of the team was like, "What...the fuck...?" before he abruptly ended the call for everyone.
So now my DL and I know this about each other. He could be any one of us.
it's healthy for academics to have professional feuds. enrichment activity
Holy shit. "The demese ef the Ne'enderthels: Wes lengege a fecter?" published in the Science magazine
short but sweet
My account is still blocked from searching/tags/etc on my business blog @foundfamilyadventurecrafts so I'm posting this here. There's something very bad happening with Small Business, Tech, and Amazon. What else is new?
Links: Bobo Design Studio for Updates & Submitting Information
Arrows Aim Greenhouse + Chroma Rex are putting together a complaint with WA State Attorney General's Office + Templates for complaints / opt out
Articles:
Amazon's Buy For Me Information Page
Reuters Article
Ars Technica Article
Business Insider Article
Hey, that's us and a bunch of our friends! This whole thing SUCKS so bad and we're pissed. We've intentionally not listed our products on Amazon for the 15 years we've been in business. We're ready to join a class action lawsuit and kick some ass.
im laughing so hard because no matter what song you listen toÂ
spiderman dances to the beat
no matter what song ive been testing it and lauing my ass off for an hour
hey guys do you want to circulate the heirloom dancing spiderman again i feel like we could stand to do that
I loved this era of Steven universe discourse
Reblogging again with tags a follower added because they are correct. No you are not insane for reading that deeply into the overall reaction to SU and im glad you said it.
This sort of problem runs deep and i see it fucking everywhere.
everyone did this with avatar aang the same day that finale came out. old heads remember
#THIS DRIVES ME INSANE the diamonds weren't even redeemed steven still resented them#the diamonds are USEFUL when their powers work in reverse#especially yellow diamond. white and blue are kinda mid#killing them would be shooting urself in the foot
Sometimes I still see people being like "Steven shouldn't have forgiven the diamonds" and I'm like did we watch the same show?? He didn't forgive them???
This is also telling to me for folks who watched SU: Future vs Not That.
In SU: Future he avoids going to the diamonds until almost the end of the season, out of sheer desperation. And despite everything â despite healing all those gems, despite helping gems on homeworld, despite doing their best to help and love and care now that they understand it a bit more â they still canât fix what they did.
As a traumatized individual who has been undergoing targeted EMDR and trauma therapy due to abuse, this is so, so relatable, compelling, and gut wrenching. Because the people in my life who hurt me werenât trying to. They were doing what they thought was right, and they fucked it up royally. They hurt me in ways they canât even comprehend, because itâs so far out of their depth to understand it.
SU: Future highlighted that. It really came out and said, âYou have experienced severe trauma, and the people who were supposed to help you, love you, and protect you didnât do it the way you need.â And it did this with ALL OF THE CHARACTERS! It went into how Garnetâs behavior affected Stevenâs anxieties with uncertainty, and how Amethystâs growth made Steven feel inadequate, and how Pearlâs own fear of inadequacies make it so Steven canât open upâ everyone in his life fucked up!! Not just the diamonds!
And then SU: Future came out and said, âYou donât need to forgive them. Youâre allowed to be angry and upset with them. Youâre allowed to leave.â The ending of the series may have all of them pull him out of his spiral, but he doesnât go back to the diamonds; he doesnât suddenly forgive them once they start supporting him in a way he needs. They donât fucking show up again!! And it doesnât even have him explicitly forgive the crystal gems, either; it shows that he still loves them, but youâre allowed to love people whoâve hurt you!!! Youâre allowed to hope they grow and change.
And youâre allowed to leave.
⌠and then people come out and say Steven shouldâve killed the Diamonds. And I justâŚ
Steven is a traumatized kid. The story was never about the gem war, or the crystal gems survival, or even about the diamonds and homeworld. The story was always about trauma (strongly about generational trauma) and learning to accept who you are â bruises and all.
If this was a story about justice and redemption, then sure, maybe something wouldâve happened. My theory is that the diamonds would be corrupted in a story like that.
But thatâs not what the story was about. And Steven would never end up processing that trauma in that case; the bad guys would just be bad guys. Removed from the story.
The fact is, the Diamonds were doing what they thought was right. And people donât like to acknowledge that The Bad Guys arenât sitting there and thinking about all the Horrible Evil Things theyâll do that day. Theyâre thinking about all the Good Wonderful Things theyâll do that day.
And thatâs reflective of real life. And people hate a mirror. They want a world where the Bad Things disappear, not a world where the Bad Things are acknowledged, accepted, and societally worked on slowly but surely, and thereâll always be a bit of bad with the good, and learning to accept that is the way toward progress.
ÂŻ\_(ă)_/ÂŻ Sorry for the ramble. I really love how SU tackles trauma.
Baby-Doll Batman: The Animated Series
This is one criminally underrated Batman villain.
SERIOUSLY THOUGH SHE WAS MY FAVORITE BATMAN VILLAIN
Her physical condition didnât allow her to age
No one took her seriously as an actress
And even when she was trying to get into a happy romantic relationship (albeit with another villain) he still couldnât take her seriously as a consenting, sexually active and romantically interested adult
Thatâs a lot of blows to someoneâs psycheÂ
and Babydoll is both a sympathetic villain and a formidable one
I remember this episode fucked me up a a kid.Â
And man, do I wish we could see this Batman again: the Batman that consoles his villains, because the majority (if not all) of them are mentally ill people. And Batman knows this and wants them healthy again, not punished and GOD definitely not dead.
Baby Doll is so underrated as a Batman villainÂ
but her episode was perfectÂ
Batman: The Animated Series The story of one fucked up, traumatized little boy, doing his best to help other fucked up traumatized people.
#this show is the only batcanon that matters to me #dc can burn everything else down but theyâll never pry the dcau from cold dead clawed hands
The Batman that cares about the inmates is my favorite. He doesnât put up with their shit, but he does try to reach out here and there and heâs as human as he can be to them.
When Harley was re-institutionalized, he got her that dress she wanted.
In the comics based on B:tAS, there was a time during Christmas that there was snow and it was Mr. Freezeâs fault, and he was making it snow because Christmas was his anniversary with Nora and she LOVED it when it snowed on Christmas, so Batman let him finish mourning before calmly taking him back to Arkham.
He never, ever gives up on Harvey possibly recovering.
Sure, Batman is going to throw punches and do what it takes to take these guys down when theyâre hurting or threatening people. And heâs not going be a complete bleeding heart; he has to protect the innocent. Heâs going to take them down and take them back to Arkham, but it doesnât mean heâs incapable of being a bit human to the ones who deserve it.
Batman needs become human again
Because it needs to be here:
Remember that time a young girl with near god-like psychic powers threatened to destroy reality and the only one that could stop her was Batman because he had a previous encounter with her and was tasked with killing her to restore reality.
But instead, Batman sat with her on a swing and kept her company as the girlâs psychic powers slowly killed her.
No?
Fuck you people making me emotional
The. Batman.
This is MY Batman, not the murderous fascist theyâve made him into.
Itâs ridiculous to think that this isnât what studios want from our heroes. This is dark and sad without being grim-dark. We need our heroes to be compassionate. Thereâs enough darkness in the world already. Give us our heroes who care and truly fight for justice.
Itâs like they forgot that batman is, at his core, a Noir character. Â
And what makes Noir a good style, is that the protagonist never gives up and allows themself to wallow in the darkness around them. The world is dark, and bleak, and cold hearted, yes.Â
But the protagonist fights against that.Â
Fights for their humanity.Â
Claws their way out of that muck, and even if the ending is as dour and bleak as the world around them, the Noir Hero shoulders that burden and carries on.Â
A battered lantern with a flickering light inside them. Refusing to let it burn out.Â
Thatâs what Batman should be.Â
Clip of Lucy Dacus on the Las Culturistas podcast.
I love talking to kids about disability bc
1. they often just Get It, and
2. they have 0 concept of disability as a tragedy or something pitiable.
I've watched kids get into an argument with a teacher bc they thought wheelchairs were cool. I told a kid that I can't stand for too long sometimes and they replied, "That's okay, I can't do cartwheels sometimes, but I just do other stuff then. You can sit down with me if you want". Today a girl asked me what the headphones on a classmate's desk were for and I told her that headphones are important for some kids because noises bother them, and she said she wished she had headphones at home, because her baby brothers make a lot of noise and it makes it hard to think. The idea that different people could use tools at different times is intuitive and simple and when accessibility aids are explained neutrally, kids don't see them as bad or unfortunate, they're just things that are useful.
Even mental disability!! In Kindergarten the other day one of the kids asked me why his table partner got stickers when nobody else did. I started off by saying, "Well, when you do your work well, it feels good, right? That's your brain giving you a reward," and the kid just right away went, "Oh, and the stickers are like his reward?" YES! You are 5 and have a better grasp on ADHD than most adults! Kids blow me away every day.
You donât say.
For the record, she actually abandoned the movement BEFORE they all got whooping cough, but abandoned it too late. Thereâd been a breakout of measles in her area that caused her to reassess, and she and her doctor had already drafted and started a catch-up vaccination schedule, but her kids caught whooping cough just before it could be started. Then she wrote a blog post for The Scientific Parent explaining how she and her husband had come to wrong decisions in the first place, how they changed their mind, the consequences they suffered as a result, and asking other parents to please vaccinate their kids. And now sheâs an activist for destroying the misinformation of anti-vaxxers, and reaching out to anti-vaxxers because sheâs understands their fears but knows their kids deserve better.Â
She was trying to the best for her kids and just didnât know how to interpret the validity of information or its sources, an actual skill that can be actually difficult and that is under-taught and a necessary first step to being able to trust vaccination research, so chose no action over taking an action she wasnât sure of. She kept looking into it with family and friends and even eventually came to the right conclusion before her kids became sick, but it was still too late.
Honestly it was pretty brave of her to publicly admit she was wrong. She could have just quietly vaccinated her kids and not become a national news story, but instead she spoke out, even saying âIâm writing this from quarantine, the irony of which isnât lost on me.â and also âI am not looking forward to any gloating or shame as this âdefectionâ from the antivaxx camp goes public, but, this isnât a popularity contest.  Right now my family is living the consequences of misinformation and fear.  I understand that families in our community may be mad at us for putting their kids at risk.â
She understood the consequences and still put herself and her story out there.Â
You know what, it does take a big person to admit they were wrong so publicly and work to undo the harm. I believe I made fun of her in the past, but timemachineyeah changed my mind.
âI never thought leopards would eat MY face, until I realized they totally would, and they will eat your face, too!â warns defector from the leopards-eating-faces party
donât hide this in the tagsâŚ.
#really important actually#like. itâs so important that we allow people to STOP voting for leopards eating faces#because if you attack anyone leaving the leopards eating faces party when they realize itâs bad#the only support system theyâll have is the people who want them to come back to it#you have to make it possible for people escape instead of considering them forever tainted and impure and inherently evil
The #1 trait of anti-vaxxers is not âtheyâre stupidâ or âthey fell for propagandaâ but âthey donât know whoâs safe to trust.â
The movement is pushed by women, especially suburban moms, because they know damn well you cannot trust doctors. You cannot trust the medical industry, the billion-dollar corporate zone of âyou should lose some weight and maybe the pain will stop.â Cannot trust the ones who keep changing diet advice - is it no sugar? No carbs? No fats? Is it dangerous to let kids eat things in wild colors? Food pyramid: good or bad? They cannot trust the BMI chart that says they should lose 75 lbs to be âhealthy.â (Whether or not they âshouldâ lose 75 lbs, they know damn well that âhealthyâ does not describe any part of the journey to getting there.) Cannot trust the ones who keep giving them incomplete and sometimes incorrect information about contraception. The ones who said âthatâs false labor; you have two weeks moreâ 12 hours before they gave birth. And so on.
So they have their kids, and they want so much for their kids to be safe, and the doctors and nurses say: Get them vaccinated.
So they ask: What about if thereâs complications? An allergic reaction? Side effects?
And the doctors and nurses say: Get them vaccinated.
This is⌠not reassuring.
And they ask, My sister-in-lawâs cousin had a really bad reaction to the MMR shot and I want to know how I can tell itâs safe for my kids.
And the doctors and nurses say: Get them vaccinated.
Throw in the right-wing/libertarian faction yelling YOU CANâT TELL ME WHAT TO DO and the insurance companies saying âhey um you need a specific type of coverage for that; we probably cover those vaccinations but youâll need this special paperwork to be sureâ - and then you have the actual anti-vax propagandists yelling some combination of cherry-picked statistics and outright lies, and you get a whole lot of moms willing to say BUGGRE ALL THIS FOR A LARKE.
There is no amount of facts that can fix this. Theyâre swamped with facts from 300 directions. What they need to fix this is empathy and the kind of connections that lead to trust.
They need to trust that, even as the medical industry dismisses a whole lot of womensâ concerns, in this particular area, theyâre right.
Add in the consequences of having a significant portion of your social support network tied up in a particular worldview, leaving it, much less openly condemning it, is really hard and means losing your community support. In a world where the system canât be trusted to pick up that slack, Moms canât afford to risk the change - until the cost of staying clearly outweighs the coat of pushing back, not just in general, but for their kids.
Kindness doesnât just matter because itâs more ethical - it'salso a more effective strategy.
Donât normally do this but
Kindness doesnât just matter because itâs more ethical - it'salso a more effective strategy.
Get this into your fucking heads. Kindness and compassion and one might even say âlove,â are strategies, not just vague fluffy inoffensive emotions. Cruelty will never save us.
Gods damn I wish there was an option soâs you could see the latest addition to a post when it swims across your dash instead of the first.
KINDNESS IS A MORE EFFECTIVE STRATEGY. CRUELTY WILL NEVER SAVE US.
my ducks? in a row. the elephant? addressed. my goose? cooked. my eggs? in several baskets. the bigger fish? fried.
Your monkeys ?
those arenât mine.
Dare I say....Maomao doesn't hate herself but doesn't believe she has inherent value as a person. Jinshi hates himself, but does believe he has inherent value as a person
in this essay I will-
