Sarah Sprader

[corporationsarepeople]

The Onion, 1980

In a lot of ways, not much has changed in the past 44 years. I’m not sure if this is reassuring or depressing. Perhaps a bit of both.

[sarahsprader]

The Helpers

Wearing blue bracelets as time comes to a head

Are we solidarity or solitaire?

When the countries lined in red

Forever almost there

For history always rhymes

As the Red Sea starts to flood

But oh, within time

The seas are filled with blood

The squeaky wheel always gets the grease

And we are hesitant to wake up

When will the hatred cease?

As we drink from the same poisoned cup

For as the sky darkens

but also shining are Millions of stars

So please, harken

Back to remembering

who you are

We will walk hand and hand

For one day peace will proceed

United, we still stand

As we plant the seed

For even as darkness takes over the sky

there is not darkness without light

We live for us and those who have died

For we continue our fight

As the hurricane comes in

Do not just look to the wreckage

Do not just focus on the win

But find the benevolent message

And let us continually begin

For even in a dark age

The helpers, the healers, and the visionaries still reside

And with future wars to wage

Love will never hide

[sarahsprader]

Sadly, this isn’t satire

They better hope they don’t run into hepatitis or polo with their ‘natural antibodies’

[sarahsprader]

Reblog if you wear a mask to subvert white men

[sarahsprader]

Coronavirus Republican Bingo:

-China is controlling

-Democrats are spreading fear

-*some vague scientific misunderstanding posed as factual* leading to...

- “It’s not that bad”

Oh hey look, this one crosses off all of them!

[sarahsprader]

No one: 

Absolutely no one:

Republicans, attempting to justify the death of thousands:

[sarahsprader]

The same Republican, five seconds later:

[sarahsprader]

No one: 

Absolutely no one:

Republicans, attempting to justify the death of thousands:

[sarahsprader]

Call me crazy, but, I feel like people’s lives matter more than the economy

[sarahsprader]

Boomer: Eww, socialism. It's also communism. We can't let it ruin our lives! FREE HEALTHCARE WILL TURN US INTO SOVIET RUSSIA ANYTHING FREE WILL RUIN EVERYTHING!!

The same boomer, five seconds later: Man do I ever love public libraries so much with all of their FREE stuff. They're the best.

[sarahsprader]

A NEW HIGHSCHOOL IN MY AREA MADE NATIONAL NEWS BECAUSE IT’S DESIGNED ENTIRELY WITH THE THOUGHT OF DETERRING AN ACTIVE SHOOTER

WOW, I FEEL SO MUCH SAFER KNOWING THAT THE ENTIRE COUNTRY KNOWS ABOUT IT

AND THAT TEXAS APPARENTLY HAS LOOSER GUN LAWS EVEN AFTER SHOOTINGS

SO THANKS, i GUESS FOR THAT

[sarahsprader]

Me: Wow, that old lady was really nice. She seems like the type to like gardening, a wise old sage, who can be the mother figure for like, a youth group or something. So sweet and mild mannered. I'll add her on facebook.

Her Facebook: GAYNESS IS EVIL AND MUST BE ERADICATED. POLICE BRUTALITY ISN'T REAL. IF CHRIST WAS BACK INTO OUR SCHOOLS, SHOOTINGS WOULDN'T HAPPEN. IMMIGRANTS WANT TO TAKE OVER AMERICA AND TURN IT INTO THE NEW IRAQ AND ARE LESS THAN HUMAN. I NEED TWENTY GUNS NEXT TO MY BED TO FEEL SAFE.

Me, softly: ...oh no.

[topsyturvy10]

Gen z kids

I have a prediction about the future. I mean, this might not happen. It probably won’t. But… a lot of boomers and xennials are so focused on Gen Y that I think Gen Z will be the people that end up in power positions, and end up in charge- that is, if Trump doesn’t destroy it.

All I see online about millenials is how they’re constantly depicted as lazy, how they aren’t doing anything. Everyone is so worried about y'all being better than them at their jobs and making a last-ditch effort to stop it, that they won’t notice US, the Gen Z'ers.

I’m not trying to say that we’re gonna be ignorant assholes and call the generation after Alpha the laziest generation ever. I’m not saying that Alphas, Millenials or ANYONE is lazy, or unimportant. I’m saying that.. we want to do good, we want to try and fix things. I’ve already accepted that the world is at the point where we can’t “fix” it properly- but I so badly want to help- everyone does.

My prediction, essentially, is that Z'ers will become the political figures and we’ll try and change the world- cause yeah, we’re on our phones all the time, but we’re learning about the world. And Millenials at that point? You guys are so, so important too. I’m not sure what’s gonna happen, but I AM sure that it will be great. Z'ers will change the world as best we can, but we would never have even thought to do that if you guys hadn’t stood up and said “hey, this is unfair! This isn’t right!”

Generation Z want to fix things, and I believe we will- but we wouldn’t have been able to without Millenials helping us and paving the way for us.

So thank you, to everyone who’s stood up for what they believe in, for what’s right, because you’re helping to change the world and make it better. Thank you and goodnight.

[sarahsprader]

Donald Trump Drinking Game; take a shot every time he...

-Blames Democrats

-Complains about Immigrants

-Insults someone

-Brags about being the best at something

-peddles a conspiracy theory

-says a historically wrong ‘fact’

-gives a really vague answer that isn’t really an answer to a question

- Contradicts himself

-mispronounces something/misspells something

On the second thought, I don’t want to get alcohol poisoning.  

[harry-strickland]

[reginaeinferos]

Nothing is going to change. Americans love their guns more than they love people and after Sandy Hook we decided that killing over 20 children was acceptable and not outrageous enough to make reasonable restrictions on guns. This is America, a country that has been around for 200 years, a superpower, a 1st world nation, and one of the wealthiest countries on the planet and we refuse to protect our own people. We respect guns more than we respect the lives of people. 

[therevenantrising-deactivated20]

What specific gun control measures would you propose and how would they directly and effectively make society safer?

[reginaeinferos]

Absolutely get rid of all AR-15′s and the like.

Intense background and criminal background checks and anything violent automatically disqualifies you.

Make getting a gun/gun permit more like getting a driver’s license:

permit to learn

includes an exam with 18 or more questions on the policies, laws, and etc of guns and gun ownership

if you get more than 8 questions incorrect you must retake it.

30 hours of practical experience at a gun range with a licensed teacher

Must take a 5 hour class on the dangers of guns and how to use them safely which will then yield you a certificate that grants you to take the practical exam and lasts for one year. If you don’t gain the license within the allotted year you must retake the class.

A practical exam with a licensed instructor who will grade you on various skills. If you pass you may be granted a permit on the weapon of your choice, the exams may differ on the type of firearm you want.

Follow the Japanese model where you must have two gun safes in different areas of the house, one to store the gun and one to store the bullets and you must provide the police with information on where those safes are.

No concealed carry and only handguns may be allowed to be out in public.

If transporting a weapon, it must be in the trunk of the vehicle, in a bag or some other case, safety on and unloaded and may not leave the vehicle until you are at the destination.

If you’re a hunter or some other gun hobbyist that requires a functional weapon other than a handgun then the gun must stay on the premises, whether that is a gun range or the Fish and Wildlife facility.

If you live in a rural area where police (and people, for that matter) are few and far between, something akin to a deer hunting rifle should provide plenty of protection from predators and poachers, you still have to follow the aforementioned steps.

This doesn’t cover everything but I think it’s a good place to start.

[therevenantrising-deactivated20]

Can you show me evidence that this would directly and effectively create a safer society?

[reginaeinferos]

[oh-snap-pro-choice]

I have never laughed so hard at a gun law post. Like seriously, the evidence is in fucking reality. The proposed restrictions are just fucking logic.

[deegeeak]

For the most part I agree with these.  However I would respectfully ask, how would you take into accounts areas where having a gun is valid for self-protection, such as very rural areas in Alaska?  And how does keeping the gun only the premise allow for hunting (for example, I don’t hunt in my apartment, but several thousand miles away from my house)?

[pyrrhiccomedy]

I can answer that one. I lived in Australia for eight years. If you lived in an area where you legitimately needed a gun to protect yourself or your property (for example, farmers in rural areas who had to deal with potentially dangerous animals), you could apply for a special permit. If an investigation confirmed that your need for a gun was legitimate, you would be given permission to buy a hunting rifle. But the permit had to be renewed, so if you sold the farm or otherwise no longer needed the gun, you would have to hand it back in.  (The government would reimburse you for it.)

It was simple, effective, and meant that the only guns in civilian hands were on farms a fuckmillion miles away from the cities and were actually being used for constructive purposes, not just collecting dust in a closet, waiting for some curious five year old to find them and blow their own heads off.

As for hunting weapons: you don’t bring them into the city. You keep them in a storage locker close to the hunting reserve.

[dr-jekyl]

People here own guns.  They just have to have a valid reason to do so, be trained to use them, and must store and transport them safely. 

The other day a rifle was discharged in my street.  It was used by a volunteer wildlife rescue worker to euthanise a badly injured kangaroo.  He kept it in a locked case in his truck until he determined there was no way to save the animal.  He retrieved it, fired it once, returned it to its case and then phoned the local police department to let them know that he had discharged a firearm and why he’d done so, because it’s a semi-rural area and most people are like me.  It was the first time, in my 20+ years of living in Australia, that I’ve ever seen a gun fired for anything other than practice.

The gun was there to do a very specific job.  And when that job was done, it was put away.  Zero fuss

[ichorandpride]

Another prime example of a place with strict gun controls that has only had eight mass shootings in the last 20 years:

[monstrousturtless]

Can confirm: I had my firearms license. I had to do a 2-day class where we covered safety and laws, and then we had to do a written test. I also had to fill out paperwork and have it signed by guarantors (similar to getting a passport).

And that’s not even to OWN a gun, that’s just to have a license. If I recall correctly, you still can’t carry a handgun around on you all higgedly-piggedly just because you have a license. You have to have a legal job that requires a reason for carrying it, otherwise it’s illegal.  

[reginaeinferos]

Gun control works. Dozens of countries have it and most of them have had less than 10 mass shootings in the past 20 years. In the US, we’ve had over 20 mass shootings in the last 10 months.

[divineforests]

The more times I see this post, the better it gets. These are real statistics, yet we still have people denying that this works. OPEN YOUR FUCKING EYES AMERICA

[discar]

The majority of Americans support reasonable gun legislation.  But “gun rights” are tied up in the Republican platform, meaning people who don’t like guns will vote for guns because they like a bunch of the other stuff in the platform.

So the two-party system is a large part of the problem.

[dragonsatmidnight]

See also; arms manufacturers paying for groups like the NRA to stay active. And for arms manufacturers dumping money into political races. 

[sarahsprader]

“I walked past a gun and it didn’t shoot me!” Is possibly one of the stupidest anti-gun control argument. You can walk past a bomb and it might not go off. You can walk past a knife and it wouldn’t stab you. Almost like the weapons your talking about are inanimate objects that are only used when people want them to be. And people want them to be.  

You can say food doesn’t nourish you, but the person who made it does...and so on, ignoring the direct outcome of what will happen if you shoot a gun at the right angle.

Guns are a TOOL to kill people. Guns ALLOW people to kill each other efficiently. Acting like they miraculously don’t is just minimizing their deadly abilities. Nobody goes hunting with freaking bagpipes or something equally as random and/or innocuous. Guns are used for pain. Guns are used for killing-made for it, actually. That’s well known. Stop pretending it’s not.

[sarahsprader]

Society often looks for the small, easier digestible things as huge causes. We can see the subtle disintegration of quality in the economy, of less politeness and attribute it many things, saying that is the reason for so much hate-from the things like the internet. And while the small things may truthfully be bad, the essence in hate lies more in other, ancient, more hateful things such as white supremacy, greed, power-hunger. Little things do not randomly correlate to gayness, which in itself is seen negative in outdated views. We cannot blame the large, complex issues with smaller, unassociated things.

me