*gathers all of the people in the world who write the number 7 with a little dash in the center of it so I can study them like little critters and find out what makes them do that*
There’s actually a lot of history regarding the development writing systems and why there are different visual representations of numerals,
but the short answer is: it’s regional, and you probably picked up how to make your numbers look based on your parents or your primary school teachers
I do it out of spite because in grade school a kids detective story identified the culprit by saying NO American wrote their sevens with a line and I thought that was super flimsy evidence and it made me so mad I started putting a line through my sevens so the fictional detective would be wrong and then kept doing it for several decades since.
i do it because i had to fill out order forms manually and 7s would sometimes be mistaken for 1s. every number got its most distinctive form. now it's just a habit
protests in serbia have been going on since november 2024. what started as a student movement has turned into a nationwide fight for reform and the rule of law. the government refuses to meet the demands, responding instead with police brutality and mass arrests. please spread the word.
Everyone: Please please please don't write your books in Google Docs. Frankly don't use Google Drive for personal stuff.
Their terms of service say they take down stuff like content related to terrorism and trafficking, but this Google Sheet was literally a list of movies I'd watched this year and books I'd read.
Holy smokes, guys. It's way worse than I thought. Google actually took away access to every single file of fiction writing I'd made on that account. BUT I backed it all up on Scrivener yesterday by coincidence. So I haven't lost my work, but I could have just lost the 12,000 words I've written this month after a year of really intense writer's block. I honestly don't know what that would have done to my psyche.
That is awful! If you're looking for a gdocs-like replacement, Ellipsus @ellipsus-writes is a queer friendly, anti-AI equivalent with online syncing and sharing - I've been using it for almost a year now as a replacement for gdocs and absolutely love it.
I do still back up all my work to local storage on LibreOffice too though, thank goodness you backed up to Scrivener OP!
my coworker told me hes "straight but maybe demisexual" and i explained that a man who is only sexually attracted to women he personally knows is still, by all definitions, heterosexual and he seemed a little disappointed by the news
by tumblrs calculations its queer for a straight man to fuck no strings attached but its also queer for a straight man to like a woman before he has sex with her so if you think about it the real faggots are cishet guys. we should start yelling it from cars
i cant directly respond to this commenter or their dozen tumblr badges because they blocked me immediately but i love that in this persons world its a dire threat to the lgbt community for a trans bitch to complain that straight cis men arent marginalized just because they found out about microlabels
Finding math challenging and frustrating does not make you stupid on its own, but asserting that mathematicians must all be wrong and that mathematics as a whole does not matter because you can't understand it does make you stupid. You can struggle with math without asserting that it's all pointless and wrong like a child
my gnome oc ellimist darkberry he was kicked out of the enchanted mushroom grove for being too fucking badass and his dad is a demon and his big secret is that revenge is his favorite ministry song
in november last year, a wave of what may be the largest student protests in the history of serbia began, with universities in serbia being blockaded by students for more than 2 months. it all started on november 1st in novi sad, when the canopy at the main train station collapsed, killing 15 people. just three weeks later, there was a violent attack against students at the faculty of dramatic arts. since then, the violence has not stopped. participants in the peaceful protests have been victims of brutal assaults, including being run over by cars, with some suffering serious head and jaw injuries. all of these attacks have been orchestrated by the ruling party.
on december 22 last year, over 100,000 people gathered in protest at slavija square. numerous mass protests, with thousands or even tens of thousands of participants, followed after slavija. on january 27, autokomanda—a road junction in belgrade—was blocked by tens of thousands of protesters for 24 hours.
yesterday, several hundred students set off on foot from belgrade to novi sad. they had to spend the night under the open sky because someone refused to let them use a sports hall.
the students are determined to keep fighting until the authorities fulfill all their demands, which are: the publication of the complete documentation related to the reconstruction of the railway station in novi sad, the publication of the findings of the investigation on those responsible for the attack against students of the faculty of dramatic arts and all later attacks, the immediate release of all citizens who had been detained during the non-violent protests, a withdrawal of all legally unfounded criminal and misdemeanor charges against citizens and a 20% increase in funds for state universities.
As someone who attended most of these protests and blockades I also wish to note that the vibe within this mass of people is so much different than what happened during previous mass protests in Serbia. You genuinely feel the connection of the students and people around you and its clear that they all want the same thing.
Our opposing gov party is absolutely useless and in some ways very similar to our current government, so its very refreshing to see the way the students have completely separated themselves from them or any other party. They repeatedly state this on their social media and interviews, despite still dealing with comments that they are funded by this and this party or this party is actually leading them. Go to any protest here and you will see they are leading themselves, funded only by donations from the citizens via food and blankets (as they are also sleeping in their universities often)
That is why its also amazing that every protest you see in these pictures were self organized by students, with them acting as the peacekeepers and “living walls” between the masses and streets or important buildings. This is because, most of the time a protest happened in the past in our country some random people with caps, hoodies and masks would show up to start smashing government buildings and fighting with police. Everyone is aware this is a tactic by our government to try to make the protestors look aggressive, but the students are smart. As an example you can see that in this picture after students in Novi Sad organized a protest, protecting the place they came to protest in front of as its owned by our government leading party:
It genuinely gives me hope for people my age in this country, to see that my generation is done with this bullshit and that they wont live by the fear and manipulation that is affecting the older generations here.
For the first time in years, I may actually wish to continue living here because of the hope these young people put in me and others.
So there’s been very little coverage on this especially in non-Balkan online spaces, especially with the full breadth of context provided, so I feel compelled to add some stuff here. Plus I think this whole moment is genuinely inspirational in spite of the godawful circumstances and that it’s worth sharing right now for several reasons.
OP’s got some more recent posts you can check out, but I’m reblogging this one specifically because the addition from prev perfectly puts into words why these protests seem so different from the disappointing decade-long wave that came before, and I’d just like to expand on why that feels like such a big deal.
More context, sources and photo/video under the cut.
These protests have largely been characterized as anti-corruption in foreign media—and while that is one of the main things they stand for, I want to mention the wider context and background. This part might get a little long, so if you really wanna skip it I get into the protests themselves after that first video:
Serbia’s had the same party—the Serbian Progressive (LOL) Party or SNS—in power since 2012. The guy you might hear about in conjunction with it is the current 2nd term president, de facto party leader, resident puppet master and populist egotistical, hate-mongering dickhead supreme, Aleksandar Vučić. We’re decidedly not here to talk about him, although there’s unfortunately a lot to say; however he’s constantly angling for everyone to think that he is in fact our primary focus all of the time and that we all just want his head on a platter despite all his hard work or whatever, so. Fuck that. That’s all you need to know for now.
During SNS rule over the past 13 years, under the cover of economic growth and efforts to meet wider European standards in order to maybe-possibly-someday enter the EU, Serbia’s already precarious institutions have been steadily eroded behind the scenes—perhaps most notably the judiciary, which is supposed to function independently but has been widely recognized as corrupt, fragmented and inefficient (here’s an article on how that reflects on this current investigation into the Novi Sad canopy collapse);
political rights have been in sharp decline, our electoral framework is a shitshow and we face snap elections every other damn minute, mostly as a diversion and disruption tactic and to cover up the fact that most of our elections are highly irregular and unfair;
nepotism, corruption, and backroom deals run rampant, and are infuriatingly transparent to boot—this includes the govt’s ongoing cooperation with various criminal figures and orgs;
infrastructure integrity is constantly undermined by negligence, incompetence, and rigged public tender bids that prioritize profit over expertise, while services such as healthcare education & transportation suffer from slashed budgets, increasingly deteriorating and dangerous conditions and overworked and underpaid employees;
public (and often private) sector workers are bullied into joining the party and expressing support for the government, risking losing their jobs if they don’t;
journalists, activists and anyone expressing dissent in general is either dragged through the mud by state-controlled media—which is, and I cannot stress this enough, the overwhelming majority of the media available, resulting in a near constant state of censorship—or they’re outright threatened financially, legally, w/ retribution from the police, etc;
we’ve witnessed incident after incident after incident (I could keep going for literally a page) where people have been injured or killed, the rule of law ignored and civil liberties violated, all under hastily obscured circumstances and with little followup or any accountability;
we’re being pummeled by crass, violent, hateful rhetoric 24/7 from our key officials—and this, along with the completely unconstitutional overreach that our president has flaunted every day for over a decade now and the lack of any other viable political alternative, has become entirely normalized;
this rhetoric also plays a key part in govt efforts at strategic division, both within the country along fabricated lines and between us and our closest neighbors, in what can only be described as a perpetual rehashing of—and refusal to mend the wounds caused by—the 1990s regional wars;
our land, resources and state-owned services are increasingly being sold off to foreign investors and companies, always in the name of “boosting the economy” with money that never reaches the actual state budget nor the citizens. Some of the many current hot topics: a protected landmark that was recently de-classified as such without due process in order to be handed over to Jared fucking Kushner (yeah, that one) with plans to, surprise surprise, turn it into a luxury compound + the ongoing issue surrounding the highly controversial Rio Tinto lithium mining project in the Jadar region which people have been fighting against for years now due to the widespread ecological and exploitation concerns;
despite constantly being used as examples of our apparent progress, these and many other projects lack transparency, and the legally-required public availability of documentation is next to non-existent;
unemployment risk is high, food and rent + general cost of living prices are astronomical when weighed against wages (which are skewed in public reports and the media in order to overrepresent growth);
our elderly, which make up a significant part of the population, are one of the most likely groups to be targeted in SNS campaigns and are continually used for political points—despite the fact that they’re also increasingly the most at-risk group for falling below the poverty line, with some receiving as little as ~170 euros a month in pensions/social support;
this similarly applies to agricultural workers and rural+smaller town areas which are commonly neglected in favor of Belgrade (and to a lesser extent other larger cities) when it comes to upkeep, support, investment and modernization, yet are also disproportionately represented as supporters by the govt—which also breeds resentment on both “sides” that the govt takes advantage of;
people are suffering permanent health consequences from the relentless pollution that is constantly on the rise, including high premature death rates due to air pollution, with very little concerted effort to curb this and ecological activists constantly mocked, villainized and detained for bullshit offenses;
an estimated 51,000 (or the size of a small town in a country of just over 6.6 million) leave the country every year, with as many as 50% of young people having some form of plan to leave the country, many permanently because they don’t see any future here;
and there’s so much more bullshit that I can’t even cover right now. And all the while we are told we’re on the right track to some elevated standard by both domestic and foreign officials who, for their part, tend to pat Vučić and his posse on the back for supposedly turning the country away from its turbulent past—conveniently ignoring the fact that many of them directly participated in that same past and are now, in addition to everything else, constantly feeding us the same fear-mongering, nationalist rhetoric that flourished from it.
Over and over, we are called morons point-blank, accused of being delusional, ill-intentioned, ungrateful, told that this is what progress looks like and that life has never been better here, that anyone who thinks otherwise is just a Serb-hating, foreign-sponsored “inserted element” seeking to destabilize the country and destroy its people. And what all this and more has resulted in is a population that has, for the most part, been stuck in a permanent state of profound apathy, distrust, division and frustration for a very long time.
Okay, enough of the deeply shitty part. Here’s the actual good news, and the reason I’m writing this long-ass addition in the first place:
For the first time in a long time, we have a big non-partisan movement with a very high youth engagement that has remained extremely coordinated, clearcut and dignified after more than three months of daily protests all over the country, despite the regular physical attacks and deeply unlawful yet institutionally sanctioned threats and calls for violence leveled at the people participating. A movement which above else prioritizes mutual support, universal justice, and just plain common sense over sensationalism and attempts at political gain by any one specific party. A movement spearheaded by committed—and I mean COMMITTED, like. Not only are they all putting their diplomas on hold but some of these resilient motherfuckers RAN a 140km relay in freezing temps and/or marched for 4 days straight just to make a point—young people who managed to resist political games for long enough to say, “Okay well, actually, this isn’t normal. Why aren’t our institutions doing their job, how do we get some accountability not just under short-term pressure but in the long run, and who the fuck, by the way, even asked the president his input on XYZ when it in no way falls under his constitutional jurisdiction?”
It’s a very simple, clear message, and the people at large are responding to it with unprecedented vigor. I don’t know if I can contextualize just how much of a big deal that is in a country and region that has been mired in perpetual, generational disillusionment and the “save your own ass, this ship is sinking” mentality for 30+ years, but I’ll try.
ph: gavriloandric, instagram
First of all, these are some of the best fucking organized protests a lot of us have ever witnessed, and that alone is a shock to the system. Especially given that the organizing core functions solely on a model of direct democracy—meaning that the students at these blockaded universities regularly host plenary sessions that are open to every student to submit motions at and vote on planned actions—and that the age of the majority of these people averages somewhere between 18-30. That’s already a massive difference compared to the widely accepted notion that young people just don’t care about politics and/or have no future here so they shouldn’t even try.
In everything from the articulation of the demands, to the interconnection between various student, union, and citizen groups, to the resistance in the face of biased media coverage and attempts at diluting the messaging or hijacking political momentum, to the mutual aid efforts and everyday logistics, including material, legal, financial support for the students from just regular people off the street—the organization is at a level that simply hasn’t happened here for a good 30, if not 60 years.
Second, and here’s the key thing: the student “monitors”—those guys in the neon vests acting as human shields—not only try hard to prevent violent altercations and property damage like prev said, but on top of that they take every necessary precaution to make sure that everyone is alright and everything accounted for.
What I mean by that is that at every single street blockade there is a concerted effort to keep at least one lane operational in case any ambulances are passing by. When the Three Bridges protest was taking place in Novi Sad, the students reportedly consulted infrastructure experts, constantly redirected thousands of people and once again acted as a wall to make sure none of the suspended structures would be damaged under too much weight and that there was no risk of a stampede happening. When the first 24h blockade was happening, there were arrangements made for potable water tanks and mobile toilets to be put in place. In Novi Sad, there were people making sure the food cooked by citizens on location was up to standard and wouldn’t get anyone sick. I’ve seen crowds of hundreds part like the Red Sea because there were pregnant women, people with strollers/little kids, people with disabilities or the elderly being escorted through. These guys are out there every time taping trash bags to lamp posts and sweeping so that the area is left clean after.
And that might not seem like such a big thing, I know, and I’m really not emphasizing this to impress some holier-than-thou bullshit upon anyone about ~the virtues of peaceful protesting~ or whatever. I’m saying it because it’s not just that these protests are peaceful—they’re thoughtful enough to take into consideration what’s needed at these locations for the wellbeing of everyone involved, which is a highly contagious sentiment; but equally as important, these guys are smart and strategic enough to know who the actual enemy is and what their tactics are, how to avoid losing momentum, and how to avoid infighting. They’re not allowing the govt a single goddamn inch that it can later use against them, and they’re doing it while simultaneously representing the best of who we can be as a people. And that’s making thousands of others step up, including groups that have so far been heavily underrepresented at general demonstrations.
Farmers are coming into the cities with their tractors to form protective barriers and prevent any more cars from ramming into crowds. So many (no seriously, like so, SO many) people are cooking and feeding everyone at these protests and marches. A thousand bikers rode in behind the students marching to Novi Sad. When the students got to the city, locals were literally waiting to help them with stretches and massages so that they could recover from two days of near non-stop walking. Hundreds of cab drivers organized to give them (as well as the ones who marched to Kragujevac) free rides back home. For the first time in forever, war vets made an organized appearance at several protests. Teachers at schools are supporting the kids who are boycotting classes in solidarity despite threats from their admin, and they’re being supported right back as they strike for better salaries and conditions. Public transportation workers protested for the same thing with support from the students, and so did a part of our electro distribution workers. We had a general strike in January. Theaters went on strike in solidarity. The Bar Association also went on a month-long strike, and many lawyers have offered students pro bono legal support.
ph: ZKlik; a.stankovic_ph, instagram
To make things even better, these students are single-handedly creating a world within the blockaded universities which tries to make up for the things that are lacking. I don’t just mean pure survival while folks are sleeping in university buildings with no appropriate facilities or heating—I mean they are literally creating entire culture and education and recreation programs that are more useful and efficient than what we often have normally.
In a very nice “fuck you” move to the ruling party’s endless refrain of “they should just go back to studying already”, there’ve been lectures & workshops on topics ranging from history to politics to philosophy to architecture to art to mental health, open to all with a student ID. There’ve been sports matches, tournaments, art shows about the protests, free concerts, mutual aid drives, fundraisers for various charities. They’re printing zines and hosting poetry and film nights. They’re sending letters of support and little anonymous notes to each other.
Both literally and symbolically, they’re reclaiming student and public spaces and utilizing them for what they’re meant for in the first place, and they’re doing so while remaining a united front.
I really don’t have much of a concrete conclusion to offer at the end here, other than to say that no matter what direction this ends up taking the sheer unity and care that is felt while this is happening every day is astounding. In the best way possible, I don’t think there’s going back from this. There’s a reason every single generation from 3 to 93 years old from every walk of life and shade on the political spectrum is showing up at these: people are goddamn sick and tired and this is something everyone can get behind, including some people who previously supported or even currently support the party. It’s breaking down the us vs. them divide on so many levels. Even when atrocious shit happens—like the countless instances of intimidation and violence we’ve seen so far—it really feels like the love and respect people have for each other is stronger than the rage and indignation they feel towards those attacking them, and for the first time in a while that’s truly visible.
Despite the government’s constant claims that we’re “trying to tear everything down”, what’s actually happening is that people are rebuilding lost trust by showing up for each other in very practical, palpable ways, and that alone is doing wonders to restore confidence that yes, maybe things could change on a systemic, institutional level as well.
And that is so vital and makes all the difference in the fucking world.
Anyway, here’s some more photos/videos which will hopefully speak for themselves:
“when I grow up, I’ll be a student” + pensioners with their old student IDs; ph: tanja.bazalac, instagram
“mom is with you”; kreni.promeni, instagram
MORE ARTICLES IN ENGLISH
Al Jazeera France 24 Reuters Associated Press N1 covering the latest Statehood Day blockade of the city of Kragujevac (Feb 15)
Euronews Reuters The Guardian (1, 2) Radio Free Europe covering the Novi Sad Three Bridges Three Months blockade (Feb 1)
MORE FROM SOCIAL MEDIA
Posts in English explaining what’s happened so far: masina.rs, svice.dijaspora, College of Organizational Sciences
“One world, one fight”— compilation of support from the diaspora + friends in 40+ cities around the world; more here
The solidarity demonstrations in other ex-Yugoslav countries—Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia & Herzegovina and North Macedonia.
Students from Novi Sad that walked/ran to Belgrade to “deliver the invite” to a protest to their colleagues and those that did the same from Kragujevac
Belgrade high schoolers on their Valentine’s protest walk “Spreading love, spreading justice”
Support and conditions along the way on the marches to NS & Kragujevac
ph: mdjurica + Reuters, instagram
https://www.instagram.com/p/DGBDVGLIITr/
Welcoming students who marched to Kragujevac and Novi Sad
I could keep going forever because there are so many beautiful images from these but Tumblr won’t let me, and l should probably stop anyway.
(If anyone got this far, god bless for making it and thanks for reading, genuinely. I know there’s a lot going on right now, but—hopefully things like this and the many many other calls to action happening around the world can inspire some mutual confidence that things can get better for everybody.)
students from across serbia are arriving in kragujevac tonight to join the protest on statehood day, february 15. kragujevac, the first capital of modern serbia, is where the country’s first constitution was adopted. over the past few days, students have been walking and biking more than 100km in freezing temperatures. people greeted them with cheers in every town they passed[1,2,3,4]. the journey has been brutal, leaving many injured.
none of their demands have been met, and violence against them continues. the protests began after the collapse of a railway station canopy in novi sad on november 1, which killed 15 people and left 2 still fighting for their lives. just three weeks later, there was a violent attack against students at the faculty of dramatic arts, sparking a wave of university and high school blockades. soon, mass protests erupted across the country, with farmers, actors, lawyers, teachers (and the list goes on) joining the students in their fight against corruption.
the student demands are: the publication of the complete documentation related to the reconstruction of the railway station in novi sad, the publication of the findings of the investigation on those responsible for the attack against students of the faculty of dramatic arts and all later attacks, the immediate release of all citizens who had been detained during the non-violent protests, a withdrawal of all legally unfounded criminal and misdemeanor charges against citizens and a 20% increase in funds for state universities.
more information about the current political crisis in serbia can be found here.
Translation of the video because it made me really fucking emotional, and because these are just some of the many, many older people that have been speaking out on this with so much feeling:
[first]
You bet! I’m with the youth! And I’m a grandma! I’m in support of the students, of the youth—the world is in their hands!
[second]
I want this to work out for them, I want this to work out for all of us! Because if we don’t manage it now…I don’t know if we ever will.
[third]
They’re like our army, like our infantry…And it’s on us to be the background, [laughing] to feed them and to have their backs!
we are currently witnessing one of the largest student-led movements in history. students in serbia have been protesting since november of last year, following the collapse of the novi sad train station canopy and the subsequent attacks on students who were paying respects to the victims. universities across serbia have been shut down for more than three months, yet the students' demands remain unmet, and the violence continues.
for more information please read this post & this post
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