i do think that disinformation poses a problem but not like from the angle of china is turning our kids into hamasniks but from the angle of "this conservative wellness influencer who's paid to say all this shit about canning is legitimately going to get someone killed"

any mention of colloidal silver now sends me into a blind rage

Please tell me about the forbidden silver.

Colloidal Silver sounds like it will give me superpowers. (Cancer)

In fact it WILL make you a bit more like a low-budget X-Man, but only in the bad way:

Ingesting silver turns you blue.

our bodies need differing levels of many vitamins, and even some metal (namely iron) but one that we do NOT need, and are in fact completely unequipped to process, is silver. Colloidal silver is just the name for the way it exists in many fake medicine supplements. It isn’t a special kind that is safe to ingest or anything. It’s still just silver. And when your body receives more silver than it can remove from your body via waste… it goes to your skin, and you get something called Argyria, which is basically just the medical term for “you et silver and now you’re blue”.

So why do people take it??

Silver *does* have antibacterial properties- in a Petri dish. Many things which have absolutely no place in the human body kill bacteria in a Petri dish. Bleach. Fuckin, lava, I assume. Many things that kill bacteria would also kill *you*. But scam artist fucking assholes have taken advantage of misinformation, ignorance (neutral, not derogatory) and the public’s completely reasonable distrust of the for-profit medical system and uses it to push this stupid fucking poison. Anyway. If you’d like to learn more about this there’s a medical history podcast which I love called Sawbones that has a silver episode, the transcript is also available here.

A 22 yr old in my org got drunk tuesday night and kinda shit on the fact that I'm running a community cleanup for our chapter. Said something along the lines of "i didn't join up to pick trash." Which really bothers me and it took me a while to figure out why. The whole point of the community cleanup is that we're returning to the neighborhoods where we knocked doors for A4 to help clean up their streets and provide material improvement for free in an effort to build inroads with those neighbors.

Like... if your socialism doesn't include picking uo trash, I'm guessing it also doesn't include doing the dishes, babysitting, or anything else that is important but not prestigious. Idk man, fuck off with that shit. You'll pick up trash and you'll like it until you understand why picking up trash isn't anyone's job but your own. I hate that attitude. If helping and doing activism was always fun and visible and impressive, everyone you know would already be doing it.

The first thing the new york chapter of The Young Lords (Puerto Rican American communist civil rights group(Worked alongside the black panthers))did upon forming their group was reach out to their community in east harlem, they asked their community what problems needed to be addressed and consistently the number 1 problem brought up was the trash.

In their chairman Felipe Luciano's words, “So we’re on 110th Street and we actually asked the people, ‘What do you think you need? Is it housing? Is it police brutality?’" Luciano says. "And they said, ‘Muchacho, déjate de todo eso—LA BASURA!” [Listen kid, fuggedaboutit! It’s THE GARBAGE!] And I thought, my God, all this romance, all this ideology, to pick up the garbage?”

And so the young lords responded to their communities needs and they picked up the trash. This was at a time (1969) when there were literal tons of garbage lining the streets, trash collectors would pick up some garbage every now and then but would leave most of it behind, they also refused to sweep the streets, and only allotted 6 big dumpsters in that entire 40 block area. This was due to racist/classist stances held by the almost exclusively italian american trash collector union.

The young lords stepped up in this situation, they go and ask for brooms and bags from the trash collectors union and get refused and insulted. They go back later and steal the brooms and bags, and get started cleaning their neighborhoods. This is a band aid and it doesn't fix things but it does show their community these people care, these people will listen and put in the work, these people are our people, it was the basis of community organizing, building trust and responding to people's actual needs.

While this did help and build trust the problem persisted and so the young lords came up with a program they called the garbage offensive (or maybe the trash offensive i forgot). They started sweeping all of the trash onto the side of the street and waited for the trash collectors to come by, when they refused to pick it up, the young lord would pile that all into trucks and haul it off to 3rd avenue in Manhattan(a much richer whiter area that gets high traffic). They dumped the trash into the middle of the street (not just bags of trash, we are also talking furniture, broken sinks, etc.) and then hauled off and they did this almost daily. They forced people to pay attention. The whole community started to get involved in this, kids, young men and women, and older community members too. They all started to join in on dumping the trash in the richer parts of the city to make people care and pay attention.

These protests got larger and bolder, they would sometimes pile up the trash high and then light it on fire, over turn cars and make a party out of it sometimes too. Police were called and showed up and attacked as they do but the protests persisted.

The Young lords published their demands and sent them out in a press release and their demands were listened too. In that years mayoral race every single candidate had to address the trash problem and promise solutions.

-

This is an important lesson that direct action often pushes reforms, if we want reforms the best way to get them is to act and make the state react to us and catch up with our demands.

-

Their demands included increased sanitation workers, hiring black and puerto rican sanitation workers, increased dumpsters, increase in pay to sanitation workers, end having to pay off your sanitation workers to ensure your trash gets picked up etc. Many of these demands were met and in the coming years the trash does end up getting picked up regularly and the problem does get dealt with.

The Young Lords end up going on to do so much more. They occupy hospitals, steal supplies from the government, and try to build towards a revolution in america. But it starts here, it starts with the trash it starts with all the small menial hardships. We can talk about revolution all we want but if our neighborhoods are unsanitary, our neighbors hungry, our needs uncared for nothing will come of it. The revolution you want to build however radical you are must start rooted in your community, their wants and needs. And part of that is picking up the trash, starting a community run daycare, and all the little unglamorous day to day struggles that weigh people down.

Thank you for this addition! I'm going to read it to the volunteers who come out to trash pick with us today 🤘

Don’t forget that the US civil rights bill only passed after six weeks of rioting that were the direct result of MLK’s murder. Peaceful protest paved the way, but violent protest got it over the finish line.

It’s understandable why the state would not want you know that, but that’s also why it’s imperative that you do.

king's family doesn't "believe" the FBI killed him, they know it for fact because the FBI admitted to it in a civil case brought against them in the early 90s. the court documents are a matter of public record. read them yourself. the king family won that suit against the united states fucking government for assassinating martin luther king jr

Martin Luther King Jr. playing with his children Dexter King, Yolanda King and Bernice King in their backyard in Atlanta on November 8, 1964.

Photos by Flip Schulke

This is a really excellent deep dive into AI water use and how a lot of discourse around it is at best inaccurate and at worst deliberately misleading.

A great example of how it's misleading is the NYT story about an AI datacenter causing local wells to dry up for residents, but the story is actually about the construction causing water issues - the datacenter wasn't active, hadn't been finished, and the construction could easily have been for a shipping hub or housing development. Framing "construction company did not do appropriate groundwater surveys and fucked up the water table" as "data centers guzzling up water" is extremely disingenuous.

The substack article I linked is quite long and quite technical, and if you're not interested in reading it Hank Green has made a video discussing the fact that there is a lot more nuance in the discourse around AI water use than the most vocal Pro-AI or Anti-AI people are interested in examining.

There are a lot of people who say that all AI use is theft. I think that's uncomplicatedly wrong, that if you're using "theft" the way that the DMCA uses "theft" you're wrong. For more on that, I'd recommend reading the "Expanding Copyright is not the Answer" section of @mostlysignssomeportents's adapted speech on AI criticism or the EFF's comments to the copyright office RE generative AI. (You should actually read both, and you should read Doctorow's article in full because it is a criticism of AI that moves beyond thought terminating cliches to really explore why the AI industry as it stands is bullshit).

I do not, generally speaking, like AI. I think that most AI products create shit results. I think most AI art looks like shit and most AI writing is awful bordering on unreadable. I think that there's a massive bubble built up around AI and I think AI is absolutely fucking the personal computing market.

And, all that said, it is deeply annoying to dislike AI as much as I do and still feel the need to point out that the way that a lot of people criticize AI is shortsighted, reactionary, and just flat-out incorrect. There are real things wrong with how we are approaching AI as a society and how AI is being sold to users and forced into our environments, and "art theft" is not one of those things.

(And this is everyone's reminder that fair use is the best, I love it, and you are allowed to copy, distribute, remix, sell, and do whatever you want with my art and writing whenever you want to. Every time I write something like this people come into my inbox to say "I hope your art gets stolen" and I'm like "Bitch, me too, the fuck?")

TIL a 30-year-old elephant named Ben sought help at a safari lodge after being shot by poachers. The elephant waited patiently near the lodge for the 6 hours it took for a vet to fly in and dress his 3 bullet wounds.

via ift.tt

The fact he’s named kinda brushes over the fact this is a wild elephant. Born in the wild, raised in the wild, the only human interaction is watching the safaris. And after mean humans shot him, he decided the best course of action was to go visit the nice humans who just take pictures in hopes they’d help him. And then, even though they didn’t help him right away, he trusted that because they continued to be nice, he was safe, and they would help him.

also the people saw an elephant and were like “that’s a ben”

i hope he tells the other elephants where they can get help

@brunhiddensmusings

Actually, they do!

https://www.thedodo.com/elephants-travel-humans-help-1353631970.html

Orphans who were rescued, raised, and released by the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Kenya have communicated that it is a place of safety to other elephants who’ve never even been there.

Injured animals will show up there when they have been harmed by poachers because they know it is a place where they can get help!

i am very glad elephants have a functioning yelp system

“Took a little while to get served the quality of service made up for it. 4/5 stars. Would reccomend”

-Ben the Elephant

“Just visit your local apex predator and they’ll help you for no reason”

I have some new and reevaluated thoughts on this!

When I first saw/reposted this, I thought "Ha ha, yeah, age segregation is ridiculous and this humorously points out just how ridiculous it is!"

But I was thinking about it again in light of some thoughtful posts about how the argument "This queerphobic law, if taken literally, would be ridiculous and impossible!" isn't actually a very helpful argument, because queerphobic laws aren't going to be enforced equally, and pointing out "Ha ha, banning pronouns would mean you can't say 'you' or 'I'!" or "Ha ha, banning mentions of sexual orientation would mean you can't say 'Mr. and Mrs. Jones'!" doesn't actually address the harm of the intent and effect and enforcement of these laws. Of course they'd be ridiculous if applied equally, but they're not going to be, and that's the point. (I do still think there's some value in pointing that out, in making visible the default, in pointing out that "gender" and "sexual orientation" includes straight people too, but I can see how it's not always helpful when talking about queerphobic laws specifically.)

And more recently, I've gotten into more discussions with people about exactly how and why age segregation and "Adults shouldn't socialize or be friends with kids" is harmful.

The "Adults shouldn't talk to kids" ideology always has an unstated, taken-for-granted exception for parents. That's so taken-for-granted that when a space actually does have a "no adults" policy that actually includes parents, parents lose their entire minds. The Venn diagram of parents who flip out because a strange adult said "Excuse me" to their kid and parents who are mortally offended that they can't waltz into their kid's classroom to meddle anytime they wish (oblivious to the fact that they are a Strange Adult to every other kid) is a circle.

There's also always an unstated, taken-for-granted exception for people acting in loco parentis (teachers, babysitters, coaches, etc) or "in a professional capacity." I've argued with people on the "Adults shouldn't be friends with kids" side who argued that, of course kids need adult role models, and possibly influences other than their parents, but they should be "professionals acting in a professional capacity."

No one who says things like "Adults shouldn't interact with minors" actually means that literally.

What they mean is "Adults shouldn't interact with minors except from a position of explicit authority over them. Adults shouldn't interact with minors on equal social footing, as friends, as acquaintances, as fellow citizens."

And that's much worse.

That means the only adults a kid has a relationship with are authority figures, who are also statistically the most likely to abuse them. And the proposed solution to abuse by adult authority figures is always other adult authority figures, who are also likely to be abusive.

The root of this ideology is "Adults with power over children are safe and non-abusive, but regular adults out in the world with no specific power over children are dangerous."

Which is exactly backwards.

And, it's pedo panic, it's always pedo panic -- that's how people justify it, that any adult in proximity to a child must be trying to abuse them -- but it's more than that. It's based on fundamentally harmful ideas about child development and social relationships.

Like, I've made it clear that I am a non-fan of the trend of banning childless adults from the kids' sections of public libraries. I read a comment from a librarian arguing that this was necessary because there was a man who was not only hanging out in the kids' section, but he "tried to interact with minors." I refrained from asking (but was tempted to ask) "You mean he harassed them? Was rude to them? Threatened them? Or do you mean he said 'hi' or interacted in some innocuous way that people have lost their damn minds about?"

Because no one actually, sincerely believes that someone is going to kidnap or assault a child at a public library. That's the reasonable-sounding pretext, but it falls apart with any scrutiny.

What it's actually about is the idea that it's somehow inherently emotionally harmful, developmentally inappropriate, or traumatic for children to see adults as whole people.

The 19th century conservative authoritarian idea "Children shouldn't see adults as flawed individuals because that would undermine their respect for adult authority" has been horseshoed into the pseudo-progressive "Children shouldn't see adults as flawed individuals because it threatens their sense of safety."

The necessary developmental stage of children realizing that adults -- by implication, including their own parents -- are just regular people has been reconceptualized as a form of child endangerment.

This is such a harmful worldview. Kids need to interact with adults who aren't bossing them around or taking care of them. Kids need to see that adults are real people with their own interests, problems, quirks, and lives. Because, much as the powers that be are invested in denying and thwarting this reality, kids are future adults, and it does them no good to see their future selves as a weird alien species.

ima black trans woman who got fired on friday and i need help with paying rent which is due on the first

0/400

vn/ca: Smokeyquartz

pp

Text: Don’t act like everyone loved my father. He was assassinated. A 1967 poll reflected that he was one of the most hated men in America. Most hated. Many who quote him now and evoke him to deter justice today would likely hate, and may already hate, the authentic King.

Stranger Things season 1: beneath the superficial image of “peace and prosperity” in 1980s small-town America, there was the painful legacy of countless atrocities committed by the American government in the name of ‘freedom.’

Stranger Things season 4: evil Russians (not Soviets) have sent our All-American Hero to the gulags which apparently still exist in the 1980s and it’s up to us to save him 🇺🇸🦅🫡

There’s probably a term that already exists for this but if there isn’t I’m gonna call it ‘Rambofication’ in honor of its probably most well known instance: Rambo First Blood was about a soldier, John Rambo (that’s his actual name I’m not doing a bit), returning home from the Vietnam war, so traumatized by war that he brought the war home with him to a small town, unable to adapt to life without strict military discipline and hierarchy. Subsequent Rambo movies were about how John Rambo was the only supersoldier tough enough and patriotic enough to kill faceless hordes of dastardly foreign commies.

Ergo, ‘Rambofication’ is the process of a series starting with a relatively nuanced or subversive narrative before its sequels become a shallow embrace of the very narrative it originally subverted. It happens surprisingly often!

fundraising for a trans woman of color so she doesn’t end up kicked out or starving to death has lost me followers and has most of my mutuals filtering my url as if i cant tell when im being filtered out and its taken 2 weeks to get even close to the goal but when i decide to fundraise for myself on indigenous peoples day and thanksgiving, white guilt helps me reach way more than any goal i set in just a couple of days. funny how this all goes isnt it

anyways today is her birthday, send my wife some money as a gift. she’s a disabled chinese trans girl suffering from multiple disabilities along with living in an abusive household and her father is getting more violent everyday. ice is swarming my city so i cannot get a stable job without risking being detained and without me my wife will die. you can find photos of proof from previous fundraiser posts that lost traction on my blog. please reblog, we need to reach $30 at minimum but $154 would pay for her laser treatment ❤️ thank you

paylinks: pypal | cshapp | vnmo

$95 so far btw, only $59 left! thanks so much :)

I think I should start bragging about my adopted son’s achievements when people around me start bragging about their kids. Ooooh your child can count to 10 in mandarin? Well, my child found 110 landmines! And he’s only 6 years old!

I identify the most with the woman who has a green velvet ribbon around her neck and keeps being like "DONT untie my neck ribbon or something really bad will happen" and then her husband unties the ribbon and her head falls off. this is extremely real to me. spent my whole life like "please don't do this thing to me or really bad stuff will happen" and everyone around me being like "that sounds fake" and doing it anyway. and then my head fell off!

I unironically adore weird teenagers who don’t know exactly what the hell is going on yet. This kid came in for a job interview at the grocery store today wearing very nice slacks and suspenders and a bow tie, with his lil pink hair all done up, and I’m just like, “Oh, we gotta hire this kid. He kicks ass. Motherfucker’s going to groceries prom and we couldn’t stop him if we tried. He’s my manager now; I only answer to grocery prom kid.”

To this day I still don't believe that anyone actually thought you could generate infinite chocolate via an optical illusion. That's a thing people tell themselves to feel superior

The defining feature of tumblr is not "the website where people actually think infinite chocolate is possible", it is defined by a group of people refusing to break kayfabe, another group being genuinely confused by an optical illusion (NOT the same thing as thinking infinite chocolate is possible) and a third group who is certain they are a lot smarter than the other two.

just found out in my paperwork that im not diagnosed with JUST sepsis but apparently SEVERE sepsis. so thats cute 😀

uh so if anyone wants to help me afford housing until + after the literally LIFE SAVING surgery i will be getting in march it would be so incredibly appreciated. im probably going to need some level of caregiving after the surgery too and i have no idea how to even approach that because its uh. insanely expensive

pypal | cshapp | kof1 | my friend's venmo bc yeah im still locked out of mine 😭 haven't had the energy to get back in