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"Who Is Superman? A Private Interview with Lois Lane" a fancomic about hope and connection. I've had this story in mind for so long and I'm very excited to be able to share it at last. Thank you for reading, and happy Lunar New Year!

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Love this.

We're the same. :)

#My trans heroes are Loki #And Odin #And every fucking brave trans soul on the planet #I love you all unconditionally

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who’s left- Mariame/Prison Abolition

by Flynn Nicholls

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Normally, I'd just like this and move on, or promote kudos to the woman who admitted she was wrong and put herself out there to help others.

But then there's the snark post above with "leopards-eating faces party".

Fuck that noise.

Look, this isn't "leopards-eating-faces party". Vaccination is a description of a tool, not a blanket endorsement that every type of vaccination is the same.

"But... but they were tested". Yeah, by the same fucking industry who thought thalidomide was a good idea. Who routinely in the U.S. shove dangerous medical drugs out in advertisements so that patients can mention them to doctors who get a kickback for prescribing them and who don't stop until the lawsuits over dead or damaged people get too onerous / expensive.

"But these vaccines have been out for decades." Yep. Those are NOT the ones I'm talking about. Those are time-tested and studied and have definitive answers.

Take an industry (again, speaking US / multinationals that do business in the US) that time and again proves that it doesn't care about its patients (except as a source of cash), that has reliably pushed for immunity from prosecution (regardless of the actual danger), and ask us to trust them?

Buddy... seriously?

Take the COVID vaccine. I got the rare side-effect of Bell's Palsy from those shots. Took them about a year to go "oops. Yeah, that's a thing."

And when I asked "what is the possibility of RNA vaccines--considering multi-year boosters with minor changes--causing the emergence of a harmful prion mutation?"

I was angrily confronted multiple times about daring to ask the question. Not denying vaccines; just asking a science question, and mostly privately.

When you can't question something, you can get paranoid fast, and I'm a clever, well-educated (and well-vaccinated) person who self-diagnosed both of my major illnesses while the doctor's couldn't or wouldn't.

Now take someone who's not as well-educated, who's busy, surrounded by vehement supporters on one side, charlatans on another, and honest questioners on another. It gets hard to source out the data fast enough.

I'm with @timemachineyeah on this one: "She was trying to the best for her kids and just didn’t know how to interpret the validity of information or its sources, an actual skill that can be actually difficult and that is under-taught and a necessary first step to being able to trust vaccination research, so chose no action over taking an action she wasn’t sure of"

I've done that before, with the initial round of the HPV vaccine, under advice from our doctor at the time who said, clearly "Let someone else be the guinea pig. This is new." Now that it's been long enough, I'd happily get it / advocate for it.

But don't expect my blanket permission for everything when all you are describing is a tool, not a panacea.

(Note for the internet: The Republicans are absolutely the example of the "leopards-eating-face party" because there is ample proof of their insanity and descent into fascism out there. But that metaphor doesn't apply to everything you disagree with)

You don’t say.

#fucking capitalism #people are NOT stupid #we're all doing the best we can #give folks some grace

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Dinner's ready :)

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BRIAN MURPHY YOU GOTTA HONOR THE COCK. YOU SIMPLY MUST HONOR THE COCK

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Hey this isn't my usual thing, but

This is (ordinarily) a Hollow Knight youtuber I like; I get that y'all probably give negative shits about Some Guy From Youtube but you presumably give a shit about copyright trolling and labor rights, so, to contextualize: They made a video concerning the treatment of contract workers by Valnet inc., the parent company of known dogshit SEO Mills ScreenRant and GameRant, among numerous others. Valnet are the subject of numerous individual suits, as well as a Class Action complaint in California for misclassification of workers- a practice which would allow them to avoid compliance with labor regulations

Their reward for this piece of investigation was having the video removed due to a transparently specious copyright claim, in the usual "YouTube simply cannot guzzle enough corpo smeg" manner They have made the understandable decision not to reupload the video, since three copyright strikes = a deactivated channel, a nearly irretrievable loss

Therefore, I am sharing this little incident because if there's one thing I love, it's the Streisand Effect nailing shitbirds to the wall as much as possible because they just can't fucking help themselves when it comes to abusing labor and/or power

Therefore reblogs are appreciated

#fuck capitalism #also fuck V--net #And --utube

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Listen. To. The. Youth.

i hope that the discussion about student protests does not get reduced to "privileged rich kids faffing around at an ivy league school." setting aside that tenuous claim, over the last week, protests have erupted over the entire country. a few days ago, riot police beat, pepper-sprayed, and arrested NYU faculty shielding students; protests started at the university of southern california when the admin cancelled the valedictorian's speech; encampments appeared at the university of southern carolina, UT dallas, the university of maryland, the university of new mexico, IUPUI, virginia tech, the university of virginia, the university of illinois, the university of north carolina — chapel hill, the university of pittsburgh, uc berkeley, the university of michigan — ann arbor, MIT, emerson, tufts, the university of rochester, rice, swarthmore, the new school, vanderbilt university, with students arrested; students protested or walked out at miami university, northwestern, temple, the 5 claremont colleges: pomona, pitzer, scripps, harvey mudd, and claremont mckenna, stanford, washington university in st louis, students were arrested at ohio state, students were confronted by riot police at cal poly humboldt, after which they occupied campus, students were arrested at the university of minnesota — twin cities, after which faculty walked out; and yes, there are protests at the other ivies, most notably yale, with students facing mass arests after encampments, but there is also an encampment at brown, protests appeared at cornell, princeton faculty issued a statement of solidarity while students are preparing an encampment, and harvard banned the undergraduate palestine solidarity committee. there are thousands of students who are protesting for palestine across the entire country, facing harassment, arrest, and suspension in return

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The Doctor

<deep sigh>

“I was very, very emotionally avoidant. I strictly emotionally avoided everything my whole twenties. I was catching up with my sister the other day, and I was like, ‘I think from the way that we were raised, I think we were taught that we have to earn love.’ Instead of it being an unconditional thing or that being an unconditional entity. I’m not saying it is that. I don’t know whether that comes from that African upbringing, that strict upbringing: get your grades, get into a good uni, become a doctor, become a lawyer. Start overachieving. It was like you have to prove why you’re lovable. We’re trained to be like, ‘If I’m not exceptional, I won’t be loved.’ Certainly, I think that was my thing. So, yeah, I think I’m just learning now like, ‘Oh, you are allowed to be loved.’ You don’t have to be excellent or aspire to that term, ‘Black excellence’. What the hell? There’s so much white mediocrity that gets celebrated, and Black people, we have to be absolutely flawless to get half of [that] anyway. So, I’m slowly training myself out of that and being like, ‘No shit. You deserve love just for existing.’ And that has taught me to be a lot more loving as well, in a weird way.” NCUTI GATWA photographed by Melanie Lehmann for Attitude Magazine (May/June 2024)

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I'm concerned, having watched the episode, about random ponytail inspections. I am afraid I'd get docked 3 points.

Ugh, random podium inspections always happen at the most inconvenient times

Watch the full episode on Dropout

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Playing nonstop in my head since this episode.

Help

Somebody help me. :P

the wenis is a dance

(thanks to tiktok user @thatbaroneboy for the amazing compilation!)

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The Iranian Regime is going to execute rapper Toomaj Salehi for supporting protests of Jina Amini’s murder by the regime in his songs.

Iranian activist Elica Le Bon says, “Iranians in the diaspora picked up on the fact that the regime tends not to execute people who become known to the international community. We have seen many examples of prisoners that were either released on bail or had their sentences commuted through our “say their names to save their lives” campaign on social media, using hashtags to garner attention for their causes, and even before social media existed, through getting the stories of political prisoners to international media outlets. Once reported on, and once the eyes shift to the regime and the reality of its pending brutality, realizing that the action is not worth the repercussions, we have seen them back down and not execute. For that reason, this is part of an urgent campaign for readers to talk about Toomaj as much as you can, using the hashtag #FreeToomaj or #ToomajSalehi. Every comment makes a difference, and if we were wrong, what did we lose by trying?”

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reblog to give the person you reblogged from the strength to complete The Task™

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Reblog if you love AO3 and appreciate their volunteers who are working harder than God, fighting battle after battle, making sure the place that is a safe space for every fandom is staying up and running for all of us

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Support to the people.

Fair note: Once upon a time, Cal State Northridge was protesting financial raises and a bunch of students marched. A 70+ year old teacher joined them because she had serious experience protesting and wanted to make sure the kids didn't get hurt.

The cops waited until the protest hit the street, blocking some (very light) traffic, and then aggressively plowed into the students, allowing no chance for retreat.

They knocked that 70+ year old teacher to the ground and boot-stomped her shoulder, shattering her.

I got to be the "lucky one" who promised her, at her hospital bedside, that if she died, I had people to contact and communicate her wishes to.

She survived. Sued even. The campus got away with a small handslap (relatively speaking) for gravely injuring faculty and I believe their might still be one or two students in jail, for the crime of shielding her from further abuse.

That was about finances

Imagine how far these campuses are going to go against students protesting a genocide they don't want to admit is going on.

Support the students. Support the striking faculty. ACAB and so are any staff members calling out for help to suppress these movements.

i hope that the discussion about student protests does not get reduced to "privileged rich kids faffing around at an ivy league school." setting aside that tenuous claim, over the last week, protests have erupted over the entire country. a few days ago, riot police beat, pepper-sprayed, and arrested NYU faculty shielding students; protests started at the university of southern california when the admin cancelled the valedictorian's speech; encampments appeared at the university of southern carolina, UT dallas, the university of maryland, the university of new mexico, IUPUI, virginia tech, the university of virginia, the university of illinois, the university of north carolina — chapel hill, the university of pittsburgh, uc berkeley, the university of michigan — ann arbor, MIT, emerson, tufts, the university of rochester, rice, swarthmore, the new school, vanderbilt university, with students arrested; students protested or walked out at miami university, northwestern, temple, the 5 claremont colleges: pomona, pitzer, scripps, harvey mudd, and claremont mckenna, stanford, washington university in st louis, students were arrested at ohio state, students were confronted by riot police at cal poly humboldt, after which they occupied campus, students were arrested at the university of minnesota — twin cities, after which faculty walked out; and yes, there are protests at the other ivies, most notably yale, with students facing mass arests after encampments, but there is also an encampment at brown, protests appeared at cornell, princeton faculty issued a statement of solidarity while students are preparing an encampment, and harvard banned the undergraduate palestine solidarity committee. there are thousands of students who are protesting for palestine across the entire country, facing harassment, arrest, and suspension in return

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nah this gets its own post:

imagine that someone comes up and compliments you on something - maybe it's your hair, your voice, your clothes, whatever. And you thank them and plan to move on. Then they ask for a little bit of your hair and you go, "okay fine, it's not gonna really hurt to give that" so you give them a couple strands. you'll grow more. whatever.

next week they come up to you again with a clone of your body that they can control like a puppet. "I liked you so much I wanted my own version of you so I can see/hear/talk to you whenever I want!" you would react with horror, right?

Art is inherently a personal creation; the things that you feel, the things you have lived through, your emotions and your skills and your past will affect what you make and how you make it. There is a bit of 'you' in everything you make, and the analogy above is what generative AI feels like to me as a creator. And I'm just a writer/artist. My art isn't a direct representation of me. If I was a supermodel or a voice actor or anyone in the public eye, my analogy is even more spot on with how viscerally horrifying it is to watch someone make a "you" that they can get to use to make whatever they want. say whatever they want. be whatever they want.

and then you have to listen to the people who make or use the clones brag about how much time and money they're saving by making all these clones (who they don't have to treat like people and who can't say no) instead of asking you to do the thing you're best at, at enormous environmental cost to create and power the damn things, all so they can make profit with no effort selling a thing wearing your face...

... so, yeah. I get a little mad about generative AI sometimes.

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He is my Doctor (sigh) (positive)

Ncuti Gatwa - Attitude Magazine (May/June 2024)