Most non-Minnesotans have no idea what this means, but to put it plainly: we're raised with not just the expectation but essentially -programming- to assist others who get stuck during the winter. We'll help people we'd otherwise punch on sight if they're stuck in the snow and ice, for zero reward.

This is the level of rage we're at with ICE. I'm not joking to say it's almost physically painful to not help someone stuck like that, and it's worth it because the people stuck are ICE.

The only way we have to express how mad we are above this is channeling the First Minnesota all over again.

The Scandinavians who settled in Minnesota brought with them their Norse understanding of the laws of hospitality: you do not fuck around with winter, that if someone needs help in the winter, you help them as long as they don't actively try to hurt you or your neighbors. Food, shelter, labour, whatever, if you can help in winter, you do.

ICE has violated the "actively try to hurt you or your neighbors" bit of the laws of hospitality, and thus the hospitality has been revoked. They are free to feel winter's wrath against those who would bring harm to the community.

I like to think that Lady Skaði would be proud of her distant children.

this reminds me of the mud wizard who walked through everything without any problems while the police officers kept sliding and falling and getting stuck, you can watch it right here.

for context, this was during anti-coal protests in lützerath which went on for days and included people being forcibly removed, injured, or otherwise violated by the police. they showed up in riot gear against people simply sitting and camping and wanting to protect their forests. it was a really big deal here.

I've been monitoring this closely because I have friends in the area, and because I think every city in the country is at risk of having the feds come to do what they're doing in Minnesota, and we all need to get ready.

There are some Twin Cities activists who have been very clearly laying out what they're doing, and why it's effective at slowing down ICE. It sounds like all you really need, is neighborhood group chats where people can let one another know when and where ICE is present, and then people show up, start recording, and blowing whistles, and then ICE will leave again more often than not. This VERY SHORT thread by a Twin Cities activist outlines what to do and how it works.

Also: Minnesota Public Radio has been doing great coverage of what's happening, and the local NBC affiliate has some excellent interviews with activists who were arrested and detained for hours.

And finally, some good news: the courts restored SNAP funding.

while i'm here, the other one that always pisses me off is "do you interpret idioms literally, for example 'bull in a china shop'?"

well, no, obviously. i know what "bull in a china shop" means because that is a popular phrase with a clearly defined meaning. and if i hadn't heard it before, then i would still not interpret it literally, because it has the cadence of an idiom and i would probably be able to work out from context what it meant. what is the point of this question

third and final complaint: "are you good at noticing subtext?"

i feel like the problem with this question is best illustrated by a conversation i had with a friend a while back, where i said something like, "i feel very safe with you because you don't do subtle hints and you are always very straight-up with me about what you are thinking and feeling."

and he laid a hand on my shoulder and was like, look dude i'm gonna be straight up here. i am subtle with you constantly and you simply do not notice <3

@luckyybones hope you don't mind me screenshotting but you are actually so correct

Computers are so scary what if I accidentally hit F12 in a steam game and it takes a screenshot. What if I press shift + F12 while in word and accidentally save my document 😖

If you had to learn what the F keys on your computer do through me reblogging this post, then I'm glad you did. Computer literacy is not a skill that gets taught anymore, and it is absolutely one that needs to be taught in order to be learned. Don't ever feel bad for not knowing something, but ☝️ don't ever stop learning learning about your environment, the tools you use, and especially the people around you

Never stop learning+ Never stop sharing what you learned

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/14/us/minneapolis-federal-agent-shooting-immigration.html

youtube video is live. there appears to be some sort fireworks or flashbangs being fired at ICE, because the crowd cheers when they go off. according to my mom watching, two people were shot, one being a 12 year old. this is breaking so some of this information may be be updated.

northside minneapolis is almost entirely people of color and has a large immigrant population. please share this, and if you are in northside minneapolis, STAY SAFE.

on the livestream right now (9:55 pm CST, 1/14/26) ICE vehicles are speeding dangerously through the streets and gassing the neighborhood. there's a visible thick cloud of gas.

(10:19 pm CST) ICE is trying to get people to back up, but there is a large crowd of people refusing to budge, shouting a foot or two in front of their faces and chanting "fuck ICE" and "no hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here". they aren't giving an inch and have the agents completely outnumbered.

(10:28 PM CST) an ICE agents just came out and said they're leaving. the line is backing up and are being followed by a crowd of protesters shouting "ICE out". they do appear to be trying to leave.

The minneapolis police department, however, is escalating by throwing tear gas into the crowd. They can be very clearly seen throwing canisters.

(10:49 PM CST) ICE, as they are leaving, are gassing the streets and houses with an absurd and dangerous amount of tear gas, and have fired some kind of nonlethal bullets into a crowd. They're firing tear gas and flashbangs out of the tops of their vehicles as they drive away.

(11:02 PM CST) ICE appears to have mostly cleared out of the area, but it's possible that they may be causing more trouble elsewhere as they leave.

people are cheering and firing firecrackers. there are abandoned ICE vehicles littered around, and the livestreamer is reporting they left behind belongings like gear, documents, and agent IDs. people are ripping them apart and some folks seem to be collecting what they can.

don't fuck with north minneapolis.

wait i'm sorry the whole anti/pro thing is about whether or not it's ok to SHIP FICTIONAL CHARACTERS IN GENERAL???

THAT is the problem???

like, not an argument between shipping age differences or non-con or abuse or anything, but shipping IN GENERAL???

oh my god

get better hobbies

learn your fandom history

i can't even with fandom fetuses

i need to lie down

It's more complicated than that (but just as stupid).

The term "anti" (short for "anti-shipper") started as a term for people who just didn't like a specific ship originally (like, say, someone who didn't like people shipping Mulder and Scully), but that usage was just standard fan discourse -- not a moral judgement. Like you'd casually drop that you were anti-a specific ship just because you didn't like it, not because you thought the people shipping it were morally wrong for doing so.

Think of it like how people would root for a sports team. Standard fandom rivalry stuff.

The modern usage really joined the party in 2016 though -- right here on Tumblr largely. And you're right, it was for people who were anti certain kinds of darker ships. But unlike the "antis" of the past, this wasn't about not wanting to read those things, it was about the existence of people who enjoyed those ships being morally wrong as well.

And what qualified as "problematic" kept expanding with those people. It sounds reasonable to most people when someone says they're anti-pedophilia in the fiction they consume. But then you find out they consider a story where a person is depicted as a child at some point in fiction means any adult romantic pairing must be "pedophilic." Or that a character is "child coded" because they're short. Or that a three year age gap between adults is "grooming." Literally everything

And, again, if this was just people choosing not to engage with those stories, no one would care. Like if exploring darker stuff bothers you, you should definitely not consume that kind of content. But instead they've gone after fanfic writers, websites, and people who enjoy it.

They've literally contacted the FBI about AO3.

Antis, fundamentally, can't differentiate between fiction and reality. They believe the fiction someone consumes reflects actions in the real world. Like they believe that everyone who consumes non-con stories wants to rape people (never mind that some survivors use the topic to explore their trauma). It's a fundamentally deranged way to look at the world, and used as a justification for harassment and censorship.

So, people getting frustrated with these "antis/anti-shippers," who wanted to go back to the traditional "ship and let ship" philosophy that fandom spaces were built on, decided to give themselves a name. At first it was "anti antis," but later settled on the inverse of "anti-shipper" with "pro-shipper."

But, of course, the "antis" need to cast anyone who idealogically opposes them as a bad person, so you can imagine that things just get worse from here.

The MAJORITY of human trafficking is for labor; factory work, garment/textile work, agricultural work, construction, and domestic work/cleaning.

And that's without counting -legal- human trafficking: Prison labor.

https://www.ilo.org/topics-and-sectors/forced-labour-modern-slavery-and-trafficking-persons

Here's an AP news brief with a little more info. It's limited in the way major news outlets are right now but provides context that supports the personal account shared.

When you can't handle discomfort, eventually discomfort itself starts to feel like you're under attack. Your body enters flight or fight mode, and your amygdala starts screaming at you that you are In Danger even when the "danger" in question is like, making an unpleasant phone call or like, you're reading a book about something gross.

Your ability to make frank assessments about your situation becomes compromised, because, well, when you're under attack who's going to stay still and go "Let me think this through?" Of course you're going to panic. The phone call isn't just unpleasant, it's potentially life-ruining. Someone is going to think you're dumb and that's going to be TRUE and then I guess you die or something except dying would be better. The book isn't just gross, it's actively coming for you, tainting your mind with the memory of its contents, it has RUINED you.

Obviously, you want to try avoiding danger whenever possible. So you create a world in which you avoid all dangerous things. Traveling? Well that's scary, what if you get robbed or lost? Better to avoid it (plus there are so many things to read, rules to remember, forms to fill out... it's just too much, it makes you uncomfortable, which means YOU'RE IN DANGER, what if you FORGET SOMETHING CRITICAL? Better to avoid). A new job? Well what if it's worse than your current one? You at least know the rules here. The unknown is so much more uncomfortable, which is DANGEROUS, so better to stay where you are. A dark-skinned foreigner? Do they even speak English? You don't know how you'd communicate. They don't know the laws here, surely? Plus what if other people think you're racist? It's so uncomfortable which means THEY ARE A DANGER. Best to avoid at all costs, keeping your bag clutched tightly to your chest. Vaccines? You don't really know what's in them. The explanations have a lot of words you don't understand,you said something that was kind of rude? UNCOMFORTABLE. THIS PERSON IS ATTACKING YOU. FIGHT OR FLIGHT. Someone says you were incorrect about something? DANGER. Someone says you reacted impulsively and seem to have misconstrued someone's words as a personal attack? YET ANOTHER ATTACK.

Eventually you lose yourself and become this. I don't even know. This totally reactive thing, unable to think analytically about anything (which is uncomfortable and a danger), unable to assess harms, unable to encounter anything new without having a meltdown. And none of it is a real escape because, well, you've created a life defined entirely by aversion to discomfort, which is the most uncomfortable life you can possibly imagine. Of course such people end up falling into fascist ideas about Why Your Life Sucks. When you build a life around trying to maintain as comfortable an equilibrium as possible, you cauterize the parts of you capable of growth, expansion, creativity, learning; at the same time, the knowledge of your own stuntedness is haunting so best not to think about that either. The world becomes this horrifying mirror maze where the only way to survive without offing yourself is by projecting your flaws onto others, bitterly externalizing your self-hatred (who could live like this and NOT hate themselves) just to avoid turning it inward. You end up living like a hollowed-out sea urchin

A lot of people I've met seem to think that mental healthiness is characterized by a lack of discomfort whatsoever, and are therefore justified in building a life where all discomforts can be avoided. On the one hand, I completely understand the impulse. Lord knows I have had colossally shitty times and wished I could just retreat into bed and fall asleep for as long as needed for everything to blow over. But like. You also have to understand that that's a fantasy, not a solution. When you have grown up living a crap life with nothing but discomfort, the ability to avoid it feels like exercising autonomy. But you really do have to be careful about making this your life ethos. I know so many people who have lapsed into total learned helplessness, so consumed by discomfort (mentally catastrophized into dangers) re: looking dumb, looking rude, looking X, looking Y that they just. Idk. Don't do anything except be bitter. You don't have to be that way. The solution isn't "tough it out" because that's also just a manifestation of your inability to handle discomfort. I also hesitate to say the solution is to focus on how much better your life will be when you do X and Y, because the entire point of the inability to handle discomfort is that it constantly manifests in precluding the possibility of even wanting X and Y in the first place since to want it and not be able to do it IS in itself another source of discomfort.

Idk what the solution is, exactly. I just think it's important to understand that sometimes things can feel awful and still not necessarily harm you

This is a characteristic of white supremacy!

The site discusses this issue in the context of white supremacy, and the solutions are also positioned in that context, and that's because the "right to comfort" mentality itself comes from white supremacy. It is a way of protecting power and structures of oppression. It also does immense harm to everyone who lives with that mentality, i.e. most people who are encouraged to think that way, i.e. white people & those who occupy positions of power within an oppressive, white supremacist system.

Here are the antidotes the author suggests: