Love to talk but may sound blunt as i am autistic. hEDS + GERD + multiple neurodivergences. I follow back most of the time. I call myself the f-slur a lot. If it triggers you, protect your peace. Do not tag my posts as "q-slur".
Obsessed with anything Victorian, Edwardian or from the 1920/1930s. I love history in general.
I am an adult with a job and zero patience for shipcourse. I don't care what you ship as long as it isn't abuse, incest, or queer erasure. Do your thing, but don't call me an anti. I just do not care that much.
People are not their governments and colective punishment is never justified.
Please ask my opinions before making headcanons about me, you are not Charles Xavier.
(FANDOMS) Assassins Creed. Resident Evil. Devil May Cry. Left 4 Dead. Dispatch. Dying Light. PROTOTYPE. Watch_Dogs (1/2). Team Fortress 2. League of Legends. Arcane. Duke Nukem. MadWorld. POSTAL. Halo. Iron Lung. Dishonored. NINAH. Fear & Hunger. Death Stranding. Red Dead Redemption. Disco Elysium. X Men. AMC Interview With The Vampire. Farenheit 451. Kafka. Dracula. The Picture of Dorian Gray. Frankenstein. Classical literature in general. Metal, goth, industrial, rock, classical and pop punk music. DnD.
(DFI): Anti-itelectualist. Zionist. Antisemite. Pro hamas/spain/russia/USA. Pro MSPEC lesbians/gays (most contridactory labels in general tbh). Charlie Kirk apologizer. Anti kin. Anti theistic. Radqueer. Pro non traumagenic "systems". Anti xenogenders/neopronouns. Fatphobes. Generative AI "artists". Centrists/Capitalists. Sex/Kink negative.
Video captions: And stop trying to show your ex what they missed out on! Stop trying to teach your family a lesson for not believing in you! Stop trying to shit on your haters! Do it for you! Do it because you deserve it! Do it for YOU! Water your dreams with love! Don’t put no hate and resentment, and try to — “oh Imma fucking show them, Imma show” — FUCK THEM! Fuck them, do it for you! They don’t matter! They NEVER mattered.
Hiii fandom girlie do you want to explain why you are drawing/writing the dark skinned man as dominant over his lighter skinned partner when that doesn't fit his personality at all. The class is waiting for your answer
btw if you’re fat and your partner doesn’t love you wholeheartedly, if they’re attracted to you “despite” your body, if they avoid touching you, if they look away from certain parts of you, you’re allowed to break up with that person. look at me. you can do better. you are not unloveable and you don’t have to settle i fucking promise.
[Image Description: tags by user biblicalhorror that read #also goes for physical disability btw. End ID.]
ALSO GOES FOR DISABILITY, DISABILITY JUSTICE AND FAT LIBERATION INTERTWINED 4 FUCKING EVER I LOVE U FAT PEOPLE I LOVE U DISABLED PEOPLE I LOVE U FAT DISABLED PEOPLE YOUR BODY IS NOT A BURDEN ON THE PEOPLE WHO LOVE YOU !!!!
Aid organizations & Community Kitchens operating in Sudan
SudanFunds - website compiling verified campaigns and organizations
Khartoum Aid Kitchen - they operate 12 kitchens across sudan, including 2 hospitals
Saving Al-Geneina / Hope and Haven for Refugees - provides food, medical care, and education to refugees in sudan
Sudanese American Physicians Association's medical aid program - they operate a hospital in khartoum, **the ONLY hospital still delivering babies in sudan**
One Million Sustainable Pads Campaign - distributes reusable pads
FAH Supporting Sudan - financial assistance to sudanese hospitals, backed by the FAH / federation of american hospitals
Community kitchen in Cairo - provides food to refugees who have fled to egypt
Community kitchen in Sudan - provides food for 1200 families
Another community kitchen in Sudan - provides food, only £1,500 raised so far
Sanad Initiative - raises money to keep sudanese medical students in school
Sudan Solidarity Initiative - run by sudanese diaspora, provides direct funds to all kinds of sudanese including farmers unions and low cost clinics, also runs awareness-raising workshops
and, finally, this isnt a community organization, but @lgbtq-refugees is a large group of LGBTQ refugees who have reached out to me personally. they have been kicked out of multiple IDP camps because of their queer identity. i can personally attest they are real refugees who really need help. you can donate to them here
This is how I feel when people are like "how is x politician saying x an example of liberal zionism??" Because we answered this several times over years, several political thinkers and authors. People are not engaging with our politics and thats why this movement in the west is so confused and not militant
It was a Tuesday in 1981 when the San Francisco police kicked in the door.
Inside the small apartment, they expected to find a hardened criminal. They expected a drug kingpin. They expected resistance.
Instead, they found a 57-year-old waitress in an apron.
The air in the apartment smelled sweet, thick with chocolate and something earthier. On the kitchen counter, cooling on wire racks, were 54 dozen brownies.
The police officers began bagging the evidence. They confiscated nearly 18 pounds of marijuana. They handcuffed the woman, whose name was Mary Jane Rathbun.
She didn't look scared. She didn't look guilty.
She looked at the officers, smoothed her apron, and reportedly said, "I thought you guys were coming."
She was booked into the county jail. The headlines wrote themselves. A grandmother running a pot bakery. It seemed like a joke to the legal system, a quirky local news story about an older woman behaving badly.
But Mary wasn't baking for fun. And she certainly wasn't baking for profit.
To understand why Mary risked her freedom, you have to understand the silence of the early 1980s.
San Francisco was gripping the edge of a cliff. A mysterious illness was sweeping through the city, specifically targeting young men. Later, the world would know it as AIDS. But in those early days, it was just a death sentence that no one wanted to talk about.
Families were disowning their sons. Landlords were evicting tenants. Even doctors and nurses, paralyzed by the fear of the unknown, would sometimes leave food trays outside hospital doors, afraid to breathe the same air as their patients.
Men in their twenties were wasting away in sterile rooms, dying alone.
Mary knew what it felt like to lose a child.
Years earlier, in 1974, her daughter Peggy had been killed in a car accident. Peggy was only 22. The loss had hollowed Mary out, leaving a space in her heart that nothing seemed to fill.
When the judge sentenced Mary for that first arrest, he ordered her to perform 500 hours of community service. He likely thought the manual labor would teach her a lesson.
He sent her to the Shanti Project and San Francisco General Hospital.
It was a mistake that would change American history.
Mary walked into the AIDS wards when others were walking out. She didn't wear a hazmat suit. She didn't hold her breath. She saw rows of young men who looked like ghosts—skeletal, in pain, and terrified.
She saw "her kids."
She began mopping floors and changing sheets. But soon, she noticed something the doctors were missing. The harsh medications the men were taking caused violent nausea. They couldn't eat. They were starving to death as much as they were dying of the virus.
Mary knew a secret about the brownies she had been arrested for.
She knew they settled the stomach. She knew they brought back the appetite. She knew they could help a dying man sleep for a few hours without pain.
So, she made a choice.
She went back to her kitchen. She fired up the oven. She started mixing batter, not to sell, but to save.
Every morning, Mary would bake. She lived on a fixed income, surviving on Social Security checks that barely covered her rent. Yet, she spent nearly every dime on flour, sugar, and butter.
The most expensive ingredient—the cannabis—was donated. Local growers heard what she was doing. They began dropping off pounds of product at her door, free of charge.
She packed the brownies into a basket and took the bus to the hospital.
She walked room to room. She sat by the bedsides of men who hadn't seen their own mothers in years. She held their hands. She told them jokes. And she gave them brownies.
"Here, baby," she would say. "Eat this. It'll help."
And it did.
Nurses watched in amazement as patients who hadn't eaten in days began to ask for food. The constant retching stopped. The mood on the ward shifted from despair to a quiet sort of comfort.
Mary Jane Rathbun became "Brownie Mary."
For over a decade, this was her life. She baked roughly 600 brownies a day. She went through 50 pounds of flour a week. She became the mother to a generation of lost boys.
She washed their pajamas. She attended their funerals. She held them while they took their last breaths.
She did this while the government declared a "War on Drugs."
By the early 1990s, the political climate was hostile. Politicians were competing to see who could be "tougher" on crime. Mandatory minimum sentences were locking people away for decades.
In 1992, at the age of 70, Mary was arrested again.
This time, the stakes were lethal. She was charged with felonies. The district attorney looked at her rap sheet and saw a repeat offender. He threatened to send her to prison.
One prosecutor famously whispered to a colleague that he was going to "kick this old lady's ass."
They underestimated who they were dealing with.
They thought they were prosecuting a drug dealer. In reality, they were attacking the most beloved woman in San Francisco.
When the news broke that Brownie Mary was facing prison, the city erupted.
It wasn't just the activists who were angry. It was the doctors. It was the nurses. It was the parents who had watched Mary care for their dying sons when the government did nothing.
Mary turned her trial into a pulpit.
She arrived at court not as a defendant, but as a grandmother standing her ground. The media swarmed her. Reporters asked if she was afraid of prison. They asked if she would stop baking if they let her go.
Mary looked into the cameras, her voice gravelly and firm.
"If the narcs think I'm gonna stop baking brownies for my kids with AIDS," she said, "they can go fuck themselves in Macy's window."
The quote ran in newspapers across the country.
The court didn't stand a chance.
Testimony poured in. Doctors from San Francisco General Hospital wrote letters explaining that Mary’s brownies were medically necessary. Patients testified that she was an angel of mercy.
The charges were dropped.
Mary walked out of the courthouse a free woman. But she didn't go home to rest. She realized that her personal victory wasn't enough. As long as the law was broken, her "kids" were still in danger.
She needed to change the law.
August 25 was declared "Brownie Mary Day" by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. It was a nice gesture, but Mary wanted policy, not plaques.
She teamed up with fellow activist Dennis Peron. Together, they opened the San Francisco Cannabis Buyers Club—the first public dispensary in the United States. It was a safe haven where patients could get their medicine without fear of arrest.
But Mary wanted more. She wanted the state of California to acknowledge the truth.
She campaigned for Proposition 215. She traveled the state, despite her failing health. She spoke in her simple, direct way. She didn't talk about liberties or economics. She talked about compassion. She talked about pain.
She forced voters to look at the issue through the eyes of a grandmother.
In 1996, Proposition 215 passed. California became the first state to legalize medical marijuana.
It was a domino effect. Because one woman refused to let her "kids" suffer, the public perception of cannabis shifted. The Economist later noted that Mary was single-handedly responsible for changing the national conversation.
She never got rich.
She had always joked that if legalization ever happened, she would sell her recipe to Betty Crocker and buy a Victorian house for her patients to live in.
She never sold the recipe. She never bought the house.
Mary Jane Rathbun died in 1999, at the age of 77. She passed away in a nursing home, poor in money but rich in legacy.
Today, over 30 states have legalized medical marijuana. Millions of people use it to manage pain, seizures, and nausea.
Most of them have never heard of Mary.
They don't know that their legal prescription exists because a waitress in San Francisco decided that the law was wrong and her heart was right.
They don't know about the 600 brownies a day.
They don't know about the thousands of hospital visits.
Mary didn't set out to be a hero. She told the Chicago Tribune years before she died, "I didn't go into this thinking I would be a hero."
She was just a mother who had lost her daughter, trying to help boys who had lost their way.
She proved that authority doesn't always equal morality.
She proved that sometimes, the most patriotic thing a citizen can do is break a bad law.
Every August, a few people in San Francisco still celebrate Brownie Mary Day. But her true memorial isn't a date on a calendar.
It is found in every oncology ward where a patient finds relief. It is found in every dispensary door that opens without fear.
It is found in the simple, quiet courage of anyone who sees suffering and refuses to look away.
Mary taught us that you don't need a law degree to change the world. You don't need millions of dollars. You don't need political office.
Sometimes, all you need is a mixing bowl, an oven, and enough love to tell the world to get out of your way.
Sources: New York Times Obituary (1999), "Brownie Mary" Rathbun. San Francisco Chronicle Archives (1992, 1996). History.com, "The History of Medical Marijuana." Weird Everything, FB december 12, 2025
I'd be only too happy to do that. I was suspicious to start, too. It seemed a bit on the nose to have the weed brownie grandma named "Mary Jane," but also, that's a very common combination in a certain place and time, so I thought it was worth the extra effort.
What I did was find sources that made the claim (in this case, that a woman named Mary Jane was a medicinal marijuana activist in California, USA in the 1980s and 90s.) I checked the dates to get some certainty those sources aren't AI slop, then checked that the sources are generally reliable.
Then I followed useful details about the place and time, and other people involved, to explore it more fully.
The first thing I did was search for "Brownie Mary" and see if that turned anything up at all. It turned up a LOT of results. Predictably, some of them were recipes, but not all of them.
Next up, I checked sources and dates. Wikipedia can be dodgy for academic use, but their policy on LLM-generated input is very clear: they don't want slop. I started by reading that page and then went on to read others.
The Atlas Obscura article is from 2018. I found another one from SFWeekly from 2017.
Both of those are decent sources - Atlas Obscura gets a High factual reporting rate from MediaBiasFactCheck, and while MBFC doesn't have a rating for SFWeekly, the verbiage in that article is very close to what GastroObscura has. (Also to what the post itself has, right down to the choice of pull quote.)
Now, we can stop there and feel pretty confident that articles published before the wide availability of LLMs are not, in fact, LLM generated.
...or we can go deeper, and run this all the way back to source.
I spotted references to a Chicago Tribune imterview of Mary Jane Rathbun, published in 1993.
My search string of "Chicago Tribune 1993 Mary Jane Rathbun" hit it in the top 3 results. That article includes some fun new details: she wore a cannabis leaf shaped pendant to her trial!
She also objected to being portrayed as a cuddly grandma up against The Man, so I must retract my flippant tags, above.
The evidence now strongly points to Brownie Mary being a real woman who really went to court for giving AIDS patients weed brownies. But can we get closer? I've now seen several mentions of a 1980 attempt at convicting her too.
The articles have mentioned Sonoma County and a nonprofit called the Shanti Project, so let's hook onto that and see what we get.
Searching for "Mary Jane Rathbun Sonoma County 1980" gets me an article from a law firm; that mentions the prosecuting attorney by name, and points to a book: Lust for Justice: The Radical Life & Law of J. Tony Serra, by Paulette Frankl. It even has an excerpt!
We can run the book down too, just for fun (now we have a primary source.) My favorite used book site has a copy for $1. Amazon gives a view of the back cover, too:
...wow. I should see if my library has that!
The excerpt on the site has a mention of a candelight vigil held for her death in 1999. It took some hunting past things I'd already read and a bunch of shops giving written tributes, but I found a news report about that, too.
There's a lot of information out there, and it's worth digging into. Otherwise it's altogether too easy to think something real and worth knowing is just another bit of slop.
[images: series of tweets from @realavocadofact. tweets read, “they’re not elite they’re rich”, “they’re not better they’re better supplied”, “they’re not smarter or faster they’re buying up others’ lifetimes to do their chores”, “there is nothing wrong with you; you’re doing your best in a game rigged against you, probably not enough people and fruit tell you that”]
I see this reaction a lot, and I gotta say, it always makes me a little sad. Whenever the conversation of exploitation of labor comes up, inevitably someone finds themselves struggling with the guilt of “It is so important to me not to contribute to exploitation but I cannot do this thing myself and need someone else to do it for me, so how do I even approach that?”
Exploitation isn’t in the hiring of a service worker. Exploitation is in the respect you show them for their ability to perform the service you need from them.
I have been on a cleaning service staff before, and also been someone who hired a cleaning service, and I can tell you for sure that a lot of cleaning crews (especially worker owned ones) absolutely LOVE their clients and are genuinely happy to be able to make their lives better. The clients they don’t like? Those are the ones who disrespect the workers.
When I was involved with a cleaning service, we had everything from little old ladies living alone to McMasions with five cars as clients, and I can assure you that whenever there was someone who clearly hired us because they were overwhelmed or unable to keep their space clean, those were the households where you put a little more elbow grease in and did a deep clean even when it wasn’t paid for, because you could see how much these people were trying and struggling, and they were always so kind and generous and often embarrassed when talking to you about the job.
I only hired a service a couple if times in my life, but whenever I did, I worked with the same people as often as I could, tipped as well as I could afford, and tried to be the kind of client I would want to have, and that’s how I often ended up with my baseboards cleaned too, or my fridge scrubbed and organized or a restorative clean done in a high use room even when that wasn’t what I had scheduled or paid for.
I’ve heard the same thing from all manner of service workers over the years. Many of us like our jobs! We enjoy the work. It’s the customers that can do a number on you.
I think a lot of people are afraid that by needing a service they are inherently exploiting or harming the people who perform that service, and they really aren’t. But it does benefit a capitalist system for us to all be burnt out and overwhelmed because we’re too afraid to hire the help we need. Be upfront and honest with service workers about what you need and why you need it, and treat them with dognity and kindness while they perform your service, and I promise you they will always be happy to answer your call.
For BHM (and every other month out of the year) stop mocking AAVE. I need yall to do your proper research before you start using random slang / terms you see on the internet. I see it happen every year. New black term is brought to Tiktok / online spaces; term gets big and starts being used by nonblacks; term gets misused and ran into the ground, nonblack people then try and educate us on the etymology of the word act like they know more than us and that we're evil gatekeepers for wanting to protect our language/dialect ; term gets turned into an unfunny meme spread everywhere and everyone wants to act like they don't know where it originates from or acts like its not important. "Not that deep" as stupid folk would say and then finally you arrive at *insert AAVE term/slang here* is so 'annoying' or 'cringey' or 'a tiktok meme that's no longer trending anymore.' Don't even get me started when corporations latch onto it, just beating a dead horse. Even i have to hold my breath just now using certain terms because nonblack people have ruined it for me and other black people!
Like don't even get me started on the whole 'unc' stuff. I told my mom how people were calling nonblack / white men (especially) who are barely over the age of 35 'Unc'. She looked at me with that one 'IKYFL' ass stare that black people give when we hear or see some bullshit. That is a term of status reserved for older black gentlemen in the black community who younger kids, teens and young adults respect. Regardless if they are blood-related or not. It's not a joke and it's not meant for white people. And I am so sick of white fucks being like "Well uhm akschually op 🤓👆🏻 I am a white neurodiverent linguistics and I study language and dialects and I'm a polygot so I can't be racist!! And what you're saying is really wrong everyone is allowed to speak any language they want! Its wrong to gatekeep people and tell them what they can cannot say!" Im not exaggerating when I say I have seen / encountered those exact types of mfs. Literally seen a white bitch say that if we do not allow people to use AAVE it "die out due to gatekeep." Motherfuckers who can't accept the word 'No.' coming from a black person and thinks that they are ENTITLED to using AAVE. I think if you are not black and use AAVE you should be whip for it! Or at the very least mocked because why are you saying shit like "whew hunny chile, I'm finna gonna get me a slay!" Or some dumb shit like mixing stuff from the North like from Chicago with shit from the south like saying 'jit' when you know yo ass ain't a black man from Florida.
One Ukrainian user made a summary of today's day in Ukraine. And this happens every day all over the country. Don't look away, spread the info, donate🙏
This time, they destroyed children's hospital. Not just any hospital, the Ohmatdyt hospital - the biggest and one of the most important pediatric facilities in the country. It takes care of children with rare and often deadly diseases, including cancer, rare genetic disorders, AIDS etc.
Idk if there is anything more evil than this.
You can say whatever you want about Ukrainians, about "escalation" and shit, like why we shouldn't be allowed to destroy ruzzian military aircrafts, but if you're trying to justify their behavior, idk what the heck is wrong with you. Remember, if they stop, they'll just go back home. If we will stop - they will destroy us.
Please stay with Ukraine
And if you can and want to support the Ohmatdyt hospital, here is a link to their website.
I go on and on about how people don't know or pay attention to the Rohingya (Myanmar) genocide and rather than continue to spew out negative energy in that fashion I'm going to attempt to direct it towards education. So let's learn together.
The Rohingya are an indigenous population of Arakan, which if you're not familiar is here:
Given its position, Arakan has been heavily under the influence of India for most of its history, which facilitated the arrival of Islam to the region between the 7th and 9th centuries CE. Both Islam and Buddhism lived side by side in the region for most of its history.
In the 1700s, the Arakan region was taken over by the Bamar, aka the dominant Burmese ethnic group, under the banner of the Kongbaung Dynasty. Many Rohingya were executed, along with the native Buddhists of the area, the Rakhine. This is also the first time the two are referred to by their own terms, rather than grouped together. Both considered themselves native to the region - of note, neither thought of themselves as Indian or connected to Indian populations.
The early 1800s in the region was marked by a variety of wars between the Burma and the British, ending in British colonial rule in 1823. The British actually encouraged the settlement of Bengali and other Indian immigrants in the region, and many of them intermixed with the Rohingya, who still maintained their unique identity. In many ways, the Buddhist populations of Burma (Myanmar) were not well supported by the British, and the Muslim and Xtian minorities of the region were prioritized. This lead to resentment building between the groups, especially as more and more Muslim Indian immigrants settled in the area and put a strain on its resources.
During WWII, the Japanese invaded Burma, leading to British retreat into India. Naturally, the majority of the natives were thrilled due to the removal of British imperial rule; but the Rohingya, who had been supported by the British, were not. This lead to an eruption of violence between the Buddhist Rakhines and the Muslim Rohingya. The Japanese also repressed the Rohingya for their alliance with the British, and the British armed the Rohingya to fight against the Japanese - essentially exploding the area with violence and conflict, all at the hands of these two competing empires (British and Japanese).
In 1948, Burma gained its independence from the British (the Japanese having left in 1945). The state refused to acknowledge the Rohingya as rightful citizens. Many Rohingya considered moving to Pakistan, and the Burmese government continually targeted them with military oppression, which increased in severity after a military coup in 1962. As the Bangladeshi Liberation war raged in the 1970s, many Bengalis fled to Arakan. This influx of Muslim refugees led to extensive protests from the Buddhist population, who did not want to be outnumbered. The Burmese government, as a result, expelled hundreds of thousands of Muslims from the country, including many native Rohingya in addition to Bengali immigrants.
In 1982, this class difference was codified: the Rohingya were not listed as one of the native ethnicities of Burma present prior to British Occupation. Thus, they were considered colonizers, and thus, they were not included within the citizenry of the country - the Rohingya were considered to just be Bengali immigrants and, thus, "there illegally", even though the Rohingya had long ties to the Arakan region. This led to the permanent implementation of draconian policies towards the Rohingya, policies specifically meant to increase bodily and mental harm in order to eliminate them through attrition over time.
Between 1989 and 1992, a series of uprisings known as the People Power Uprising swept Burma and instituted democratic elections for the first time since the military takeover. This is also when the country's name was changed to Myanmar, in order to reflect the multiethnic nature of the country (rather than imply it was only the Burmese). The military set up a free election, which was supported by the Rohingya (who saw it, rightly, as a chance for their own return to citizenship). However, the results of the election were suppressed by the military, who began targeting Muslims throughout the country for their support of the democratic shift. The army forced Muslims, including the Rohingya, into forced labor; many buildings were destroyed; and Muslim religious activities were banned. Hundreds of thousands of refugees fled int Bangladesh. The UN eventually created a repatriation agreement, which allowed many of the Rohingya refugees to return - which they wanted to, because Arakan was their homeland. However, as the name of the country was changed to Myanmar, the name of the Arakan region was changed to the Rakhine State, further legitimizing the claim of Rakhine Buddhists to the region and delegitimizing the claim of Rohingya Muslims. The Rakhine felt they were being persecuted both by "invading Muslims" as well as the Burmese.
In the 2000s, the military melded their government with Theravada Buddhism, and cemented their power through Theravada Buddhism as a unifying religion for the country. This further alienated the Rohingya, who were still considered to be illegal immigrants from the Indian subcontinent. The Rakhine State was essentially divided, with Rohingya Muslims forming the majority in the North and Rakhine Buddhists forming the majority in the South. The Rakhines, terrified they would become a minority in their homeland, began extensive riots after a brief outbreak of violence between Rakhines and Rohingyas. This led to the decimation of several towns and the displacement of many, as well as at least 78 people dead. The military intervened, and proceeded to target Rohingya Muslims and even participated in the violence against them. Many Rohingya were confined in camps, where around 140,000 remain to this day.
These riots were accompanied by a rapid increase in anti-Rohingya rhetoric by politicians and military personnel, as well as among the citizens of Myanmar. In 2015, several different Human Rights Groups concluded that the persecution of the Rohingya qualified as a genocide, satisfying all criteria. The systematic discrimination against the Rohingya - as well as denying their ties to the area - was not the only thing considered, but also the extreme abuses imposed by the Myanmar government such as torture, unlawful arrest, restricted movement, restricted religious practice, and forced labor. As Rohingya individuals attempted to defend themselves, the police instituted a crackdown on Rohingya individuals, killing many and arresting many more, leading to the deaths of hundreds and the fleeing of thousands. Many military forces burned down whole villages and shot individuals fleeing the area - though most of this is from satellite images and survivor testimony, as the Myanmar government does not allow the media or human rights groups to enter the persecuted areas. In 2017, the Myanmar military began clearence operations against the Rohingya, killing thousands of them and driving hundreds of thousands of them into Bangladesh, regardless of their connection to insurgent Rohingya groups.
Since 2017, the violence against the Rohingya has continued via the military and Buddhist militant groups, with hundreds of thousands killed and even more displaced. Gang rapes, burnings, torture, and other violence were also carried out by the military against those Rohingya left. The military also flattened villages and graves in order to erase signs of these atrocities. Journalists covering the situation were routinely censored and imprisoned by the police. In addition, in 2024, many Rohingya men were forcibly conscripted into the army, even though they weren't counted as citizens, and were used essentially as human shields for the main army.
Plans from the army across these decades are damning: they outline extensive plans to eradicate the Rohingya, either through complete displacement or elimination. Prior to 2015, the population of the Rohingya in Myanmar was between 1.1 and 1.3 million. Now, it is significantly lower - while last count was 600,000 in 2019, this number has lessened in the five years since. Most of the remaining Rohingya are in camps or limited areas of settlement, and not allowed to leave - in fact, they are forced to work by the military, often in amber mines and other dangerous environments. Most Rohingya are displaced, creating a notable refugee crisis in Southeast Asia and the Pacific.
While international groups have condemned the situation in Myanmar and there have been protests in many Muslim countries, the fact is is that this genocide is not something most Westerners are particularly aware of. In many ways, this situation is the fault of the world: the warning signs for genocide were there for three decades, which the UN was aware of, and yet no interventions occurred. The UN has continued to work with the Myanmar government, which does not attempt to crack down on the military's actions, which has allowed the crisis to continue. Aid is often stolen or the process of giving it intervened with by the military and other groups. The International Court of Justice has ordered Myanmar to take all measures to prevent genocide, and yet, very few steps have been taken. The lack of international activism and awareness of this situation has further allowed for more ethnic cleansing by the Myanmar government.
This is an ongoing and current crisis, stemming from the colonial history of the area, but descended from tensions present prior to that period. The Rohingya have many cultural ties to the region that showcase their shared heritage, including clothing and food. Not all Rohingya are Muslim, though most are - there are a significant Hindu and a significant Xtian minority in the group, though the majority practice a blend of Sunni and Sufi Islam. There has not been repatriation, there have not been reparations, there has not been any justice for the Rohingya in any major sphere. It is time we demand it.
Sources and Links for Further Reading:
Learn about UNICEF's response to the Rohingya refugee crisis, providing lifesaving aid and protection for children affected by displacement.
Rohingya Muslims are still awaiting justice and protection of their rights five years after the Myanmar military began a sweeping campaign o
A recent joint report by the Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide and Fortify Rights documents the mass atrocities committed a
