In the nineties, people started to pay attention to peanut allergies. There were definitely people with severe peanut allergies before than, and to lots of other things, because human bodies are bs. It’s likely that some quantity of unexplained deaths in children came from allergies they didn’t know about. But in the nineties, people started to get scared of it, wanted more safety, wanted to be sure their child didn’t become allergic because they were exposed to an allergen too young.

New parents got scared and got told that you shouldn’t expose your baby to any of the big bad scary allergens. Not until they’re older and their immune systems are more developed. Peanuts were the most notable. So parents kept little kids away from peanuts entirely. Peanut allergies — severe allergies rose. And it showed up later, and was more severe from the start. Some schools fully banned peanuts. And the allergy rate continued to rise.

In the nineties, immune system fears increased. Stories like bubble boy made new parents think about germs a lot more. The idea of antibiotic resistance was entering the public consciousness, and people were scared for their kids when they got sick. Parents got obsessive with hand sanitizer and bleach and keeping their kid clean all the time. No more playing outside in the dirt. We need to sanitize the playground. Stay out of that ball pit. Give them the antibiotic just in case so the parents didn’t worry.

More kids had a harder time fighting it off when they got colds or bugs. Schools and parents got more worried and pushed for more hand sanitizer and wanted more antibiotics for any and every cough or cold. They wanted to be sure they had some later if the doctor said no next time, or if a friend needed some for their kid. Parents would only give 5 of 7 days, stop when the kid seemed healthy, and keep the last few, because they wanted to keep their kid safe. Drug resistant bugs got more dangerous and more prevalent. More kids showed up with weaker immunity to things and got scarily sick from stuff that would have been a few days feeling gross.

In the nineties, the idea of kids not having an education became a nightmare scenario for parents. It became a social taboo not to graduate high school, and college became an expectation not an achievement. Parents were scared their kid might fail a grade, and it would ruin their life. To help stop that, schools added standardized testing, no child left behind type initiatives, and parents fought for things that promised all kids would graduate.

Testing got tied to funding for schools, so the tests became the most important thing, and classes shifted focus. Teacher’s jobs got tied to whether all the students passed, or got high enough scores, and schools with lower graduation rates were tarred and feathered. Parents showed up screaming at teachers if their kid got less than an A on a test because that might keep them out of the best college five years later. Kids got shoved into advanced classes and yelled at by parents if they weren’t perfect, because they wanted the best life for their kid. Schools lowered the standards, changed the requirements, made sure that even if they had to lie, even if the teacher had to fake the test scores, the kids would pass and graduate on time.

Now the general recommendations say to make sure toddlers taste peanut butter with other early foods and are exposed to as many potential allergies as possible while young. That you should toss the kid in a mud puddle and shrug when they eat some dirt, and give them soup and a popsicle before you rush to the doctor for a Z pack. That standardized testing has wrecked the education system, and made sure that kids learn less, and made it harder for them to handle failure.

Sheltering kids from anything that might hurt kids, hurts kids.

The fact that there are kids with severe peanut allergies, and there are kids with dangerously weak immune systems, and there are kids who will flunk out of school does not mean it will happen to all kids. And you’re hurting the majority by sheltering them like the minority.

They’ll find out they’re allergic to mangos when their lips swell up, they’ll have a runny nose most of preK and kindergarten, they’ll fail a class or a test or a grade and learn that the world doesn’t end.

Some kids get truly, scarily damaged by things. The others get stronger, more resistant, more able to shrug it off later if they got mild exposure when young and they become healthier adults. They don’t get knocked into a dangerous overreaction when they finally encounter it. They learn, physically and mentally, how to handle things that might be bad for them, without crashing out.

This post is about pornography.

Does he have "nonbinary vibes" or is he just east asian

Important addition

As a young boy in school, Masaki Sashima would be dragged out of his classroom and beaten by his fellow students.

Masaki, now 72, was different to the other kids. 

He was Ainu, an Indigenous people from the country's northern regions, most notably the large island of Hokkaido.

"During recess, the hallway door would open, and several guys would yell at me to come out," he said.

"I clung to my desk in the classroom and kept quiet.

"Everyone would surround me and beat me."

Japan has long portrayed itself as culturally and ethnically homogenous, something that some have even argued is a key to its success as a nation.

More than 98 per cent of Japanese people are descendants of the Yamato people. 

But the Ainu are distinct, with their own history, languages, and culture.

But, as the victims of colonialism, assimilation, and discrimination, much of that identity has been lost. 

An Ainu woman named Chiri Yukie wrote down some of her people's oral traditions into Japanese because, as a child, her people were being displaced by Japanese settlers in Hokkaido. Her language was disappearing, so she (ironically) saw translating the stories into Japanese as a way to preserve them. She died at age 19.

Some of the objects from the Ainu exhibition at Japan House in London this year, showcasing traditional Ainu skills and culture. There is a campaign to get Ainu recognised as an official language, at least in Hokkaido, and small steps are happening, for example, bilingual bus stops. It reminds me of the struggle for Welsh to be revived after suppression for centuries.

second image ID: the cover of The Song The Owl God Sang: The collected Ainu legends of Chiri Yukie, Translated into English by Benjamin Peterson. end ID

Also, this is a good short ~25 minute documentary that shows Ainu people fighting to recover their ancestral bones and bodies from Hokkaido University that's worth a watch.

While I think more people have heard the story of Minnesota’s continued possession of a Virginia Battle Flag that was seized by the 1st Minnesota Volunteers on July 3rd, 1863. What I think is important to also know is on July 2nd, 1863, they held a gap in the union line despite hugely outnumbered and experiencing an 82% casualty rate. This remains the highest single day casualty rate experienced by any surviving US military unit ever. The men and teenage boys of the 1st Minnesota Volunteers walked into certain death to bring Democracy to the United States. They sang “As He died to make men holy let us die to make men free” and then died gruesome, bloody deaths. That’s why we have a country and why they still have that flag.

#seen a lot of people talking about how unsustainable this is. correct. #we'll do it anyway #every minute of delay saves lives #every day of frustration makes fascism that much harder to implement #there is no other option and there is nothing more important than this. #minnesota occupation (tags via @stopthatimp)

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/5694014-uva-board-members-resignation-abigail-spanberger-governor-inauguration/

Things I think people DESPERATELY need to fucking learn, going forward.

Strongly worded letters are not just wagging your finger at people. This is a legal tactic, which is used to invalidate future defenses of "I didn't know" or "I was not aware" with regards to crimes. When Democrats send and post "strongly worded letters", they are establishing documentation and a RECORD that the other party was advised and warned that their actions were illegal or violated policy. If we get ourselves some Nuremberg Trials 2.0, those "strongly worded letters" are EVIDENCE that establishes the fascists were warned, that they knew and chose to continue doing the thing.

Related to the above, I think people need to actually learn what powers a Minority party actually has, ESPECIALLY in a case where they do not control any part of the government. Hint: Not a lot. Impeachment? Not even a chance of going anywhere. Legislation to stop things? We just saw the GOP kill a bill to limit Trump on Venezuela. There is unfortunately not a lot of options when you do not have control of anything, and you are outnumbered.

(I know, neither of these things is comforting or good. But it is a thing we have to contend with, instead of wasting our time complaining about something that can't be changed in this moment.)

Active Duty military and Law Enforcement are in fact legally restrained from making statements or discussing politics. I know, MAGA types completely ignore those rules and regulations. (Hint: If they are open about where they work, start making complaints and reports). You will notice that when people bring in their experience and professional options, they always clarify that they are RETIRED military or LEO, because that is an important distinction that means they cannot be punished.

So when I see people ask "Why aren't soldiers or cops saying anything?" it's because they actually are not allowed to do so.

(Again, this is your hint to start making complaints and reporting the MAGAts that post political stuff and make statements while in uniform or otherwise directly linking to their place of work. They aren't allowed to do that.)

Holy fuck you illegally downloaded a cardigan

Dang. The skill needed to know how to use all of those machines, the vision, the planning. Wowzers.

in the whole greenland conversation i feel like there's not nearly enough acknowledgement of the fact that greenland is already suffering under imperial rule. seeing wayyyyy too much tacit validation of denmark's possession of greenland on socials today. look into reproductive abuse against greenland inuit women by the danish state. US acquisition of greenland would be bad but the status quo is not good. this is not a matter of sovereignty, i only wish it were a matter of sovereignty, it's just a bunch of imperial powers playing RISK with indigenous people's lives again

“The tests cover attachment, personality traits, cognitive abilities and psychopathology, and take about 15-20 hours. It is almost impossible to pass them, says Nellemann; even he and his colleagues have failed to do so. Questions can include “What is glass made of?” and “What is the name of the big staircase in Rome?” 

[Kiera] was nervous going to the doctor, because she says she had previously been given the ultimatum either to have an abortion or face the baby being taken away after the birth. She agreed to undergo another parenting competency test in an attempt to cooperate. But in the session, the psychologist brought up her previous abortions and asked her to show her parenting skills by playing, singing and talking with a doll, checking whether she made eye contact. “The problem is, I didn’t grow up with a doll,” she says, adding that her real baby, Zammi, was busy kicking in her stomach. “They made me draw and they were criticising it, that I didn’t draw a face. I drew a mum and baby.”

On Friday morning, I walk through Keira’s open front door as rain falls in torrents outside, to find her sitting in her living room under soft fairy lights and the silently flickering television, arranging flowers. Every week she takes a different arrangement to Zammi so that she will associate them with her mother’s visits. This ceremonial act of devotion is part of how Keira survives.

While she is there, she thinks only of Zammi. Her own feelings can wait till she gets home. It is always hard. Before she gets out of the car, she puts into words the pressure she is under. “It feels like somebody holding your throat. And they decide how much you can breathe.”

Sweden, Norway and Germany are deploying troops for a reconnaissance mission in Greenland.

Source.

As have France.

People in the comments going ‘No need to worry, they only sent 20 people’ as if that’s not the very fucking obvious plan.

Seriously, it's very clear what's happening here.

They're human shields.

There is no force that NATO could deploy to Greenland that could successfully repel an American invasion.

What they're doing is making a statement: if you want to take Greenland, you have to kill our soldiers too. You will not be going to war with Denmark, you will be going to war with all of us.

This is making it clear to the Trump administration that there will be no political hemming and hawing, there will be no debate over whether they'll respond to Article 5 being invoked. An attack on Greenland is an attack on all of these nations, because it literally will be.

So think twice.

(This article is behind a paywall, so hit yon readmore for the full text)

January 13, 2026

The plan was never to become an ICE agent.

The plan, when I went to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Career Expo in Texas last August, was to learn what it was like to apply to be an ICE agent. Who wouldn’t be curious? The event promised on-the-spot hiring for would-be deportation officers: Walk in unemployed, walk out with a sweet $50k signing bonus, a retirement account, and a license to brutalize the country’s most vulnerable residents without consequence—all while wrapped in the warm glow of patriotism.

At first glance, my résumé has enough to tantalize a recruiter for America’s Gestapo-in-waiting: I enlisted in the Army straight out of high school and deployed to Afghanistan twice with the 82nd Airborne Division. After I got out, I spent a few years doing civilian analyst work. With a carefully arranged, skills-based résumé—one which omitted my current occupation—I figured I could maybe get through an initial interview.

The catch, however, is that there’s only one “Laura Jedeed” with an internet presence, and it takes about five seconds of Googling to figure out how I feel about ICE, the Trump administration, and the country’s general right-wing project. My social media pops up immediately, usually with a preview of my latest posts condemning Trump’s unconstitutional, authoritarian power grab. Scroll down and you’ll find articles with titles like “What I Saw in LA Wasn’t an Insurrection; It Was a Police Riot” and “Inside Mike Johnson’s Ties to a Far-Right Movement to Gut the Constitution.” Keep going for long enough and you might even find my dossier on AntifaWatch, a right-wing website that lists alleged members of the supposed domestic terror organization. I am, to put it mildly, a less-than-ideal recruit.

Not to go "if you have ADHD just go for a run" or anything, but I am so serious if you have ADHD you should regularly go outside, no headphones no phone no nothing and just stand and observe for a while until you've had enough. Not until you get bored, until you've had enough. Drink your coffee without watching tiktok. Have a bath without music. Turn down the volume in your headphones. I cannot overstate how much learning to be bored is cruicial with ADHD. Life is not just about pleasure, no matter what your dysregulated dopamine system thinks, and when you teach your brain to be okay with being bored, then boring tasks stop feeling like torture. By letting yourself be bored you are yoinking your system out of the high/low binary and allow for the highs to feel like actual highs and not just anything that isn't low. I am so serious go literally touch grass. Listen to the sounds in your flat. Stimulate your body the way it was designed. It lowers anxiety and makes you feel like you're real and best of all it's completely free

I really wish more ADHD mental health care told you WHY things like this matter to our quality of life.

The Hyperactivity in Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is NOT about being physically hyperactive, it's about having a "hyperactive central nervous system" because it's a form of inheritable dysautonomia. The problem with disautonomia, especially the ADHD kind, is that it makes boredom flag to your nervous system as a THREAT, triggering hyperactive and maladaptive central nervous system processes like fight or flight.

But dysautonomia kills you that way. Literally, part of the reason our average life spand increase on stimulents is that it helps manage risk-taking impulsivity that can get us killed by accident, but the other part is that stimulents can regulate a hyperactive CNS such that it is functionally (while impacted by the stimulent) NOT dysregulated anymore. And PHYSIOLOGICALLY that is essential because the physical outcomes of dysautonomia can reduce your life span by YEARS if not decades through self-perpetuating hypervigelence, endocrine disruption, and adrenal fatigue.

So when the ADHD brain goes stimulation-seeking and a doctor tells you to practice mindfulness, it feels like being told "hey go stand in a functioning boiler until you can stop thinking" rather than WHAT IT IS which is the process of re-teaching your body what is and isn't safe.

Standing outside making mindful, non-interpretive/moralized observation of the world helps your brain and body re-acclimate to the idea that absence of that frantic "busy" feeling isn't a threat or a risk to your safety, and gradually reduces the level of distress that just hanging out somewhere triggers for you.

Learning WHY this stuff was being suggested and understanding what it was actually supposed to do went a long way towards changing my relationship with my ADHD. I am FAR more functional now, far less prone to shame spirals and rejection sensitivity, hell, I can **sit physically still for near on an hour at a time** now without feeling like I'm going to crawl out of my skin.

So yeah. Go outside. Let the world narrow around you and take deep breaths until it stops feeling claustrophobic or like you need to climb walls. Learn how to let little sensations become big ones like the way the heat of the sun on your skin starts as a gentle warming and be omes a unique collection of sensory moments depending on how it lands on you. Listen for sounds under sounds and let them fade in and out as you move your focus from one sound to the next. Enjoy. Move on. Rinse and repeat.

When you no longer feel like the world is actively killing you, it's a lot easier to navigate it.

S++ tier addition to the post, thank you tumblr user butts bouncing on the beltway

YOU KNOW WHAT DAY IT IS

A POWERFUL moment. Jesse Kortuem, a longtime semi-pro hockey player from Minnesota, came out publicly yesterday, inspired by Heated Rivalry.

(Source: Facebook)

(Source: Out Magazine)

In case people don't realize the full extent of what's going on, we are under siege in Minnesota. I live in an affluent, majority white suburb of Minneapolis, and ICE is all over the place terrorizing people. They showed up at the library, kitted out in their Temu tactical gear, and stormed it.

The library. Please let that sink in.

They've pulled weapons on legal observers and physically attacked them. They're threatening teenagers and children with death. One woman told a story at my, again, affluent, majority white suburban town's city council meeting this week of being shoved from behind so hard that she fell down by an ICE agent, who then said to her, "Stop touching me." A man, in tears and begging for our city government to do something to help our neighbors, described having a baton pulled on him. They're luring people out of their workplaces with lies about "hitting someone's car in the parking lot" and then abducting them. Citizens and legal residents are being detained. People are being racially profiled and snatched. A teenager (a US citizen) working at Target got dragged out and shoved in a car, then dumped a mile away in a Wal-mart parking lot, beaten up and crying. And all of this is after they murdered Renee Good.

I don't emphasize the demographics of my particular suburb to say "but this shouldn't be happening here, we have money!" but to illustrate that the Trump administration has declared war on a US state. Even if you stick your head in the sand because you're white and won't be directly targeted, ICE is running traffic lights, speeding, tearing the wrong way on one way streets, and causing nasty accidents because they think they're above the law. They think it doesn't matter who they hurt or kill, because they're being told straight from the top that they can do whatever they want to whoever they want.

We are all under attack, and this is coming to a city near you if we don't stand up to it. Please stand with Minnesota, as well as LA, Portland, Chicago, and every other place DHS has sent their COD cosplay gestapo. I don't know what that looks like for you but please, please, don't ignore this.

I live in Minneapolis. OP is not being dramatic. We will continue this fight, but please everything you can to stand with us because nobody in this country is safe if they get away with these crimes against humanity.

Teens are doxxing their own dads for being ICE.

Round of applause to these teens.

@mjmadison23

Everyone say hi to Duane Cottrell.

Duane is an ICE Special Agent from Texas.

the people who deliberately misunderstand youth liberation really piss me off as an adult who was once a kid who wanted to run away and, while literally running away from home, realized they had nowhere else to go but back home. nowhere. no where! the only place i could go was back home to my abusive parents. youth liberation is creating a society wherein i, as a child, would have had a safe place to go that was not my home, where i could prioritize my and my brother's safety.

youth liberation is what helps children get the medical support they need, even if their parents are neglectful.

youth liberation educates the child so that the child has the necessary language to speak on their own behalf, as an agent of themselves with autonomy over themselves.

youth liberation demands we treat all children as what they are: future adults, who at all times have the right to autonomy over their body, and a right to a life free from abuse and exploitation. it would deny parents the ability to force (in the case of intersex "correction" surgeries) or deny medical care, deny them the ability to isolate and control their children through regulated forms of education like in homeschooling, and would instead give that power to the child and the child alone.

youth liberation is not only about preventing abuse before it happens, by demanding that children are treated with respect and as full agents over themselves, it is also about creating a supportive society that allows children to escape abusive situations to a community-based safe space.

everyone trying to argue youth lib is about "letting pedophiles hang out with children" are not only engaging in some of the most deliberate bad faith possible, they're purposefully ignoring the fact youth liberation would also protect and prevent child sexual abuse, which relies upon children being - to a certain extent - trapped, with no ability to leave the situation they're in themselves, at the hands of statistically family members, relatives, family friends, known babysitters, etc. children can only be trapped if they have nowhere else to go.

csa also relies on poor sex education - in fact, every single assault i faced was due to me not having been taught that what i experienced was assault at all. i was raised in an abusive home, and i came to earnestly believe that a relationship with a man necessitated my allowing him to use my body however he wanted, because that's what i saw growing up. my parents were poor educators, only giving us books they purchased about sex education for kids for us to read alone.

youth liberation is necessary, and any who tries to paint youth lib as evil, as a "pedophile" movement, is choosing to view the collective desire of abused kids and former kids who were abused - their desire for a better world where their abuse wouldn't have happened - as something destructive and negative and that's just disgusting to me. youth liberation now.