withswords:

acesvega-deactivated20240116:

something i’ve noticed. people seem to think the most nature-y nature is forests. so forests are always prioritized for conservation, and planting trees is synonymous with ecological activism. my state was largely prairies and wetlands before colonization. those ecosystems are important too. trees aren’t the end-all be-all of environmentalism. plant native grasses. protect your wetlands.

deserts also!!! it sucks so bad that people think of desert as ‘wasteland’ just because it’s not suited for western european style ag development, they’re beautiful and delicate and valuable ecosystems and, i think it’s good to point out that humans have been living willingly in them for thousands of years

6 hours ago
Reblogged from tee hee (for men) 108,948 notes

noodle-the-queen:

fvlter:

junflower123:

image

I was gunna put this in the tags but it’s a lot. When i first started going through the process of getting a diagnosis, i was labelled with ODD. I immediately took issue with this, it seemed like an unfair diagnosis based entirely on the session the psychiatrist had with my parents (which mostly consisted of “my child is being really difficult on purpose”), and Hoo Boy when i tell you ODD immediately strips you of your ability to call out anyone on anything, that would be an understatement. I couldn’t even disagree or bring up my concerns about the validity of MY OWN DIAGNOSIS without it being labelled as oppositional defiance. Whenever i displayed any negative emotion the “treatments” did so much more harm than good. When you label someone as ‘defiant’ (ugh), when that word is put on their medical record, that person is never allowed to complain about anything again. Knowing that POC are disproportionately affected with this diagnosis makes me feel sick, i can only imagine what’s being swept under the rug as someone just being “defiant to authority”, not even just in the medical field but as justification for police brutality and mass incarceration. When i say medical racism kills people, this is what i mean.

this is so fucking important. reblog.

6 hours ago
Reblogged from silken threads and silver strings 114,759 notes

kivaember:

tossawary:

Thinking about how Han Solo is apparently a regular visitor to Tatooine and Different First Meeting AUs… if Han Solo had fucked up and gotten into horrible debt earlier, maybe Jabba might’ve forced him to become a podracer or something. He IS a hell of a pilot. (He’s maybe even a little Force sensitive about it!) Humans don’t tend to have the reflexes for podracing, but that’s fine, because the crowd likes a good deadly explosion every now and again.

The funniest stupid thing that could happen here is some podracer promoter looking at Han Solo and going, “If that’s fake, that’s a stupid ass name. If that’s real, that’s stupid ass name; never use your real name. We’ve got to get you a gimmick, kid. We’ve got to make up a persona. We’re gonna sell a storyline, so you can do better for yourself than just helping Jabba fix the races to get the most of the sports betting money.”

(Download the new Duel of the Fans app for live betting on crashes today!!!)

“There’s only been one human podracer of any note here, some really tiny kid about 30 years ago, and people still talk about it. So we’re gonna say you’re him all grown up and coming home. We’re gonna build on something here. No, I don’t know how humans age and I don’t care. You’ll be wearing a helmet most of the time, and then we’ll just say you look good for your age. Humans are ugly, who can tell? Kid, we’re going to make you a STAR.”

And fine, whatever, it works to start out with. Han is mainly focused on not dying, both on the racetracks and at Jabba’s terrible, non-stop parties he’s forced to attend sometimes. (Boba Fett SUCKS; Han would shove that guy into the sarlacc pit if he could get away with it.) He’s GOT to find a way to get himself and Chewie off of this awful sand planet…

And then this belligerent teenage farmkid shows up like, “I heard about your podraces on the radio! Are you my DAD?!?!” And also two Star Destroyers are suddenly overhead, full of Imperial Security Bureau agents AND Imperial Inquisitors, demanding to know how Jedi General Anakin Skywalker is alive and why he’s making dramatic villainous speeches kayfabe-style about how he’s going win the Mos Espa Belt for humans everywhere on the Coruscanti Sports Network’s Outer Rim Podracing channel.

i had to come back to this bc the idea of this being an alternative way han solo joined the rebellion. like imagine the hilarity if han gets rescued by the rebellion who also think he is the legendary jedi general anakin skywalker, known to be a charismatic war leader and a hero of no fear etc etc (like why else would be announce his survival to the galaxy with a kayfab style villain speech on DAYTIME TV… guy has balls of steel) and that guy would be such an asset to the rebellion!

so han ends up having to go all in on this. no more is it pretending to score that sweet pod racing cash, its now a case of he has to pretend to be jedi war hero anakin skywalker for the rebellion so they can help keep him out of imperial hands who also think he’s anakin skywalker and the amount of excuses and sheer LUCK (the force is definitely doing some heavy lifting here) where he keeps this ruse somehow going and like… he’s actually good at this stuff! he’s p good at being a rebel leader and thinking of on the fly plans that somehow pay off and weird coincidences ppl chalk up to the Force. he’s good at pretending to be Anakin Skywalker (and a better dad too).

the best part is that obi-wan is even like “oh yes that is my old friend anakin” bc he took one look at this circus and was like yes, this will send vader into an incandescent temper tantrum. lets do it.

7 hours ago
Reblogged from Welcome to the Madhouse 4,781 notes

ceilidhtransing:

bdalak:

the more i talk w/ leftist friends the more i start to realize that they think culture is only defined by food or “traditional” (i.e. “ethnic”) garb and nothing else

mentioned how white americans do in fact have a common culture and they genuinely thought i was joking. culture isnt something only granted to the Cool People of Color. just feels like among progressive groups there’s this dichotomy created in which only the virtuous oppressed minorities have culture and anyone who is privileged some sort of void cultureless being

As someone with a background in anthropology, culture is everything and everywhere. It’s so all-encompassing it’s hard to even wrap your head around. Everything you do, say, think, eat, wear is wrapped up in culture. Even being deliberately counter-cultural, by consciously defying the expectations of your culture, is still an engagement with culture (often by adopting a sub-culture).

Sure, it’s the “simple”, “surface-level” things that people tend to think of, like

  • In your culture, how many meals a day are you generally expected to eat, and when are you expected to eat them?
  • In your culture, which clothes are considered “formal”, and when would you wear such clothes?

But it’s also so much more:

  • If you were dating someone, at what point in the relationship would you be expected to introduce them to your parents? That’s culture!
  • How much respect is given to artists? Are people like poets or musicians revered as an integral part of society, or is the predominant attitude “get a real job”? That’s culture!
  • How much value is given to education? What’s considered more socially embarrassing - academic failure, or academic achievement? What’s the intellectual landscape? Do people tend to respect experts, or denigrate them as “elitists”? That’s culture!
  • Which things are generally considered to be “high culture” or “low culture”? Which kinds of media and art are considered “for the masses” versus “for the elites”? That’s culture!
  • How are politicians treated? Do people tend to respect them as their “betters”, their “leaders”? Or are they assumed to be lying, conniving, corrupt, the worst of society? What kind of thing would end a politician’s career? That’s culture!
  • What’s considered more egregious behaviour - bothering other people, or asking someone to stop bothering other people? That’s culture!
  • If you were attending a job interview, how would you want to come across? How would you be expected to dress and behave? Would it be better to come across as very bold and confident, or humble and subservient? That’s culture!
  • If you found yourself in a tricky situation - say, broken down at the side of the road - would you confidently expect strangers to come and help you? Or would it seem really weird for some random person to come and involve themselves in your situation? That’s culture!
  • How are you expected to communicate? Is it seen as rude to be very blunt and straightforward, or is it considered rude to beat around the bush and make allusions and try to soften what you’re saying rather than quickly getting to the point? That’s culture!

I could go on (boy could I go on). This is so not meant to be all-inclusive; this is just a tiny sample of the things that make up “culture”.

To put it bluntly, a lot of the time the word “culture” seems to be used to mean, essentially, “the things that make people of colour different from white people”. Oh, this guy eats this different kind of food; that’s culture. This lady wears these clothes to a wedding; that’s culture. But we white people, we don’t have “culture”; we just do what’s normal. But it’s all culture! Everything! All of it! And culture isn’t just the result of where in the world you come from - class, occupation, rural/urban location, minority status, political affiliation, all these things and more can result in cultural differences even within a small area. Multiple cultures often co-exist, blend, overlap, and borrow from one another within the same place, which is especially noticeable in places with legacies of migration. People bring different cultures from around the world, and these interact with the dominant culture in all sorts of interesting ways. But a culture being dominant doesn’t mean that it ceases to be a culture.

Claiming that certain groups of people (generally, whoever is the dominant majority group in a particular context) “don’t have culture” is just as dumb as when people claim they “don’t have an accent” simply because their accent is the most common one where they live. There is no “default”, every deviation from which is “a culture” or “an accent”. Everyone has an accent. Every community, everywhere, has culture(s). If you aren’t aware of your culture, or don’t think you have an accent, you’re probably just so used to being considered “default” and “normal” that it doesn’t occur to you that no such thing actually exists.

7 hours ago
Reblogged from silken threads and silver strings 20,844 notes