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amethyst-against-pearlmethyst · 4 years

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if you know you’re going to be exposed to tear gas make sure to:

wear a scarf or bandana to cover your nose and mouth (assuming you don’t have access to a gas mask, dust mask or other kinds of filtered masks). cover up identifying marks like tattoos.

tie up your hair and cover it as best as you can (tear gas can and will get into your hair and become tricky to wash out, you risk repeated exposure if you touch your hair and then your face etc).

wear goggles (swimming goggles or ski goggles work pretty well, sunglasses are not as good but they are better than nothing).

COVER YOUR SKIN (tear gas irritates the fuck out of your skin so cover up as best as you can. wear gloves. especially in warmer months sweat or other kinds of moisture on open skin eyes and lungs will react to tear gas and it will burn).

carry cold water with you to wash your face upon exposure, make sure it’s sealed so it’s not contaminated. hot water will open your pores and likely exacerbate the situation, so try to only use cold water.

prepare a separate spray bottle and fill it with a mixture of baking soda and water, this will help neutralize some of the effects of the gas. 3 tsp to every 250 ml seems to be a good rule of thumb. you will spray this onto your face and skin as needed. edit: this mixture is similar to what we used while we were protesting, but i have read conflicting reports regarding its medical efficacy. there’s apparently a risk of scratching your corneas if the baking soda has not dissolved sufficiently. if in doubt just use loads of fresh cold water.

do not wear makeup, sunscreen, creams, or contact lenses.

upon exposure:

try not to panic. running blindly will overexert your lungs and make things worse, and might make you hyperventilate faster. you also risk creating chaos and running headfirst into something more dangerous. move quickly but safely to get away from the cloud. get to higher ground if you can. if you’re in a building that has been gassed, immediately exit the building.

if you do inhale it, DON’T PANIC. it feels horrible and kind of like you might die but for most people it’s not lethal. (if you have asthma or other respiratory conditions or you’re elderly it’s far more dangerous for you to be exposed. infants are at greater risk also.) don’t rub your eyes or your face. you might vomit. your eyes and nose will stream like crazy. cough and spit as much as you can to get rid of the mucus build up. you might feel dizzy and disoriented. you might feel blinded. that’s normal. use the spray bottle on your eyes and face as quickly as possible and escape the area. the immediate effects will likely wear off in an hour or two but you might feel the burning/irritation for a day or two afterwards.

take care of yourself first and help others after. remember that touching exposed individuals with bare hands will contaminate your skin also.

if a gas canister lands next to you DO NOT TOUCH IT UNLESS YOU’RE WEARING HEAVY DUTY GLOVES. you will get second degree burns. the traffic cone method that HK protesters have been using seems to be the safest option to neutralize the canisters, but unless you’re sufficiently prepared to do this your only priority should be to get away from them.

when you get home:

take off your shoes outside so you don’t track particles into your house. wear gloves while handling contaminated items.

take off all of your clothes. everything, down to your underclothes will likely be soaked in gas. if you’re able to, hang them outside to air them out on a balcony or in a yard for a few days.

wash your face with cold water as many times as you can. do not stand over a sink and do this; kneeling down and tilting your head back to pour water over your face and into the inner corners your eyes is more effective. flush your eyes out one by one, try not to cross-contaminate particles from one eye into the other.

wash your glasses and goggles with soap and water.

take a cold shower with soap. do not take a bath. you will probably have to take multiple showers until the burning on your face and skin subsides.

wash your contaminated clothes separately – you will have to put them through multiple wash cycles or failing that, discard them. wear gloves while doing this.

gas particles can stay active for 4-5 days so do not wear the same clothes if you are heading back out.

what to do if your home is exposed to tear gas.

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amethyst-against-pearlmethyst · 4 years

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DO NOT JUST LIKE THIS AND KEEP SCROLLING FUCKING REBLOG THIS

script from @bluecollarbabe1 on instagram. even if you can't protest, you can still be heard. use your voice. do something.

TEXT:

To whom it may concern:

I am writing you about the murder of George Floyd by MPD officers Derek Chauvin, Thomas Lane, J. Alexander Kueng, and Tou Thao. These men were not upholding the law, they were committing murder and terrorizing their community. Being fired is not an appropriate response to the crime. All officers must be charged with murder.

We cannot continue this way. This is not the way forward. Use your station and power for change; for good. Give a voice to the smothered. Prove that all lives matter. Do your job.

[email protected]

When the streets clear and the ashes fade, George Floyd will not be forgotten. The events transpiring may very well be plastered into history books. The world is watching. My generation will not fail to tell our children exactly what happened. Your actions now will cement how you are remembered. If you stand up and act, you will be remembered for your bravery, choosing to enact justice. If not, history will sneer at your cowardice. The choice is yours.

MPD EMAILS:

[email protected]

DO NOT JUST LIKE THIS AND KEEP SCROLLING FUCKING REBLOG THIS

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amethyst-against-pearlmethyst · 4 years

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So for the “history of unions in tv and movies” video, my favorite thing I dug up was this bit about South Park during the 2008 writers strike. Those guys are…not awesome at supporting their peers.

(If you want to watch the whole thing, here’s part one and part two.)

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amethyst-against-pearlmethyst · 4 years

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I can say Hatsune Miku co-created Night In The Woods with Scott Benson because it's not a piece of shit like HP or Hazmat Motel.

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amethyst-against-pearlmethyst · 4 years

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terf (and other radfem) dogwhistles & warning signs

I wanted to make an easy guide to helping people identify terfs and other radfems.

Followers, if you have anything to add on, feel free to reblog and add it, or shoot an ask and we’ll add it!

Keep reading

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amethyst-against-pearlmethyst · 4 years

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People seriously underestimate the impact the media has on notions of pet ownership and what people can handle in animals.

Books, movies, TV, and internet videos from Youtube, Instagram, and The Dodo often show animals in their best moments, or even acting because they’ve been trained to do certain tasks (or are animated as humanlike characters). The fact is that the vast majority of people, even those who already have pets, have a very low or nonexistent level of animal literacy; what they take away from that kind of media oftens turns into “I want that animal as a pet.”

People who watched Finding Nemo created an explosion of demand for clownfish and blue tangs; Harry Potter, owls; 101 Dalmatians for dalmatians, etc etc etc. When the decision to get a pet modeled after the cute, photo-ready animals seen on a screen is made, there is zero consideration as to whether or not their needs can be met and if people can actually handle them.

Media featuring animals inevitably creates a boom of abandonment and huge environmental impact precisely because people who were in over their heads and acted purely on a whim got their dose of reality, and it’s incredibly heartbreaking to have to see the news detailing such cases. These are just some examples:

Yearly reminders have to be passed around telling people not to buy rabbits on Easter unless they’re committed to actually taking care of them

Thousands of dalmatians were abandoned when families discovered that they are very energy intensive, broody work dogs that are not suited to families with small children, unlike the cuddly Perdita and Pongo

Similarly, huskies and malamutes were surrendered to shelters when people realised they are not loyal Westeros direwolves

Entire ecosystems in Europe and southern Asia lost valuable apex predators when people began poaching them to sell to fans who wanted their own Hedwigs and Errols, and again abandoning them en masse when they discovered owls are highly aggressive, loud, messy, and nocturnal

Japan imported thousands of North American raccoons after the release of the Disney movie Rascal, people let them loose in the wild, and Japan now has a problem trying to figure out what to do with their enormous pest population that has no natural predator in place to control their numbers

Pacific Reefs suffered greatly when people demanded to have clownfish and blue tangs as pets, especially considering they were caught by being stunned with sodium cyanide, which, additionally, severely damages coral as well. NatGeo estimates that up to 90% of tropical fish imported by the US are caught by way of cyanide fishing; this often ends up for naught as these fish are often flushed down the toilet or released to the wild in other ways, which is also why the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico are under threat by voracious invasive species like lionfish

The gist is that the media perpetuates this cycle of people reading about or seeing animal characters, demand is created, people impulse buy those animals, and then leave them for shelters to care for or release them to the wild when they get a rude awakening and find they’re actually unable to deal with those animals.

This isn’t even counting other animals like “mini” pigs, chihuahuas, snakes, foxes, etc etc etc. And we can’t exactly blame this on over enthusiastic children when it’s adults who have the purchasing power to buy a pet, and who choose to do zero research, and who choose to indulge said children or even themselves when that I Want the TV Animal as a Pet urge comes on.

Ignoring what is essentially weaponised cuteness used for online likes is hard, especially when faced with such palatable stuff like that gif of the owl riding the tablet stylus, or the plethora of cat videos. But it costs very little effort to not only educate yourself on the needs of animals and to also not encourage a rapacious pet trade industry, but to communicate that to others so that, hopefully, we won’t have to see things like Peter Dinklage and Jo Rowling having to make statements to the news because of this problem.

–Mod Nick

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amethyst-against-pearlmethyst · 4 years

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UGH “HATSUNE MIKU WROTE HARRY POTTER” I SWEAR TO GOD YOU CANNOT DIVORCE HARRY POTTER FROM THE RACIST TRANSMISOGYNISTIC ANTISEMITIC AUTHOR ITS IN THE TEXT STOP DOING THIS SHIT

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amethyst-against-pearlmethyst · 4 years

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!!! WARNING, EVERYONE !!!

IF YOU SEE THIS IN A YOUTUBE AD MUTE YOUR DEVICE AND SCROLL UNTIL YOU CAN’T SEE THE VIDEO SCREEN ANYMORE.

This is an ad about animal cruelty that has very loud screaming of dying animals. Also flashing, graphic pictures of said animals, like a dead chicken or a pig biting a wired fence.

It’s about thirty seconds, the screaming starts 10 seconds in and the ad isn’t skippable.

It can trigger panic attacks and cause your anxiety to skyrocket, and it’s just generally a very disturbing thing no one should see.

I’ve only seen a warning yet, haven’t stumbled across this before despite using YT a lot but for the love of God please be careful. Here is a link to that video but ONLY WATCH IT IF YOU KNOW YOU’RE NOT SENSITIVE TO THIS TYPE OF CONTENT. I’m merely giving out the link so you can report it and I wouldn’t advise any of you actually watch it.

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amethyst-against-pearlmethyst · 5 years

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I did a palette challenge in my server yesterday

Buy me a coffee?: ko-fi.com/A083C1

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amethyst-against-pearlmethyst · 5 years

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Beyond this risk of hard-to-shake personal distress is another concern that is at least as troubling. Fictional rape scenes may help shape how viewers think about actual sexual violence in the real world. Even a single exposure to dramatized sexual assault — such as what many young people now see — has been found to influence attitudes and inclinations. In two different experiments, college students who watched a movie that included a rape scene were compared to peers who watched movies with content that was either violent or sexual, but not sexually violent.

The studies found that the young men, but not young women, who viewed rape scenes in commercial films (including the same-sex attack in “Deliverance”) were subsequently more at ease with violence against women and more attracted to sexual aggression than those who had not watched a rape scene. These findings held true regardless of the gender of the victim.

Dramas often take pains to portray rape as the traumatizing and destructive act that it is. Unfortunately, doing so may not guarantee it will have the hoped-for effect. Neil Malamuth, a professor of psychology and communication studies at U.C.L.A. who studies the effects of mass media violence, has found that, “exposure to sexual violence — even if it is intended to help people see the horror of it — will be sexually arousing to a small but significant percentage of young male viewers. And we do know that such sexual arousal to violence is one of the contributing predictors of actual aggression against women.”

And if some viewers are aroused by rape scenes, others may become numb to them. Research on undergraduate men found that repeated exposure to sexually violent movies led to dampened distress while watching them, a reduced concern for victims of sexual assault and an increased acceptance of degrading depictions of women. (Similar findings are amply reported in the research literature on violent and nonviolent pornography.)