journalofimprobablethings

[journalofimprobablethings]

somehow the poor cops who we were told are simply too understaffed and underpaid because of Woke to deal with 'rampant rising crime' have found the strength to beat the shit out of college students across the whole country for peacefully saying "divest from the country killing innocent palestinians in the tens of thousands"

#acab

[journalofimprobablethings]

Thank you for being open to feedback, and taking what I said to heart! I know it's not easy to post something like this, especially when you know it's going to be unpopular - and I apologize if I came over harshly in any of my response.

I realized since I reblogged from myself you couldn't easily see it--I added an addendum after I thought a little bit more about why the idea of labeling something like asexuality as a condition doesn't sit right with me, even if you remove any negative connotation from the word (which proved surprisingly difficult, and definitely something I want to keep working on for myself). Basically it seems to me that usually conditions are things that require/benefit from some sort of management. Even ones that, as you point out, people integrate into their identities (eg ADHD), they still often take meds or have other strategies for managing the condition. Whereas with asexuality, I don't need that. Which is not to say needing it is a bad thing, but my asexuality isn't something I feel needs management. It's just a fact of my existence, in the same way many people view their homosexuality.

This is something I hadn't thought about in so many words before reading your post, so I am also sort of working things out in my head as I go. But to my mind it feels like labeling something as a condition implies that there is something to be managed, which in this case then can lead to "treatments" that are harmful.

Again, thanks taking the time to think about my perspective, and giving me some things to think about as well. So often tumblr devolves into people yelling at each other without really listening, so I appreciate that we could have a conversation about this!

fun fact (not fun at all fact actually) :

aromanticism and asexuality are still treated as issues to be fixed in most therapy settings, at least in the western psychiatric institution. i cannot fucking mention my aromanticism or asexuality to a therapist or it’ll immediately become their primary concern and goal to fix. whether or not i have a partner/am trying to have a partner is actively being used as an indicator of my wellness, regardless of if i WANT one. i cannot have access to needed mental health ressources because of fear of conversion therapy. aro and/or ace conversion therapy is the norm in most psychiatric institutions and we are getting told by the rest of the queer community that our oppression isnt real and that there is no link between our struggles and theirs.

more thoughts on the medicalization of asexuality and/or aromanticism

answers to common notes

aplatonic perspective

ressources

background information

tips to avoid aro and/or ace conversion therapy

#asexuality

[journalofimprobablethings]

Addendum to this as I had a bit more time to sort out my thoughts:

When we talk about destigmatizing mental health, to me it mostly means acknowledging that both having these conditions and taking steps to treat them are not bad things, they have no moral weight. This doesn't change the fact that, like a physical health condition, most mental health conditions are things that people need/want to manage in some way. Whether it's something that's a little more socially acceptable to talk about, like depression or anxiety, or something heavily stigmatized like psychosis, people will often seek diagnoses so they can get help with managing their condition with therapy, medications, etc.

Similarly, someone with a neurodivergency like ADHD might take meds or have other ways to manage their brain chemistry so that they can function in the world they way they want to.

This is not a bad thing; these are simply steps that people take to help keep themselves feeling well and functioning, in the same way that someone might take steps to heal a broken bone, or take meds to manage a chronic illness.

My asexuality does not require management. I do not need therapy for it, and I don't need meds. I don't feel sexual attraction, and I, personally, do not want to have sex, possibly ever. The solution? I don't have sex. That's it.

This is why, apart from the historical context, I do not think it is correct to class something like asexuality as a mental condition, because there's no follow-up needed. I don't feel sexual attraction, end-of. And again, I don't see the point of classing something as a health condition unless you feel that it needs management in some way, and that quickly strays into the territory that OP was talking about in the first place.

fun fact (not fun at all fact actually) :

aromanticism and asexuality are still treated as issues to be fixed in most therapy settings, at least in the western psychiatric institution. i cannot fucking mention my aromanticism or asexuality to a therapist or it’ll immediately become their primary concern and goal to fix. whether or not i have a partner/am trying to have a partner is actively being used as an indicator of my wellness, regardless of if i WANT one. i cannot have access to needed mental health ressources because of fear of conversion therapy. aro and/or ace conversion therapy is the norm in most psychiatric institutions and we are getting told by the rest of the queer community that our oppression isnt real and that there is no link between our struggles and theirs.

more thoughts on the medicalization of asexuality and/or aromanticism

answers to common notes

aplatonic perspective

ressources

background information

tips to avoid aro and/or ace conversion therapy

#asexuality #again op i apologize to your notes #i just had more thoughts

[journalofimprobablethings]

Listen, I do believe that you are coming at this from a place of good faith, but I need you to understand that no matter how much you disclaim, telling aspec people that you view their sexuality as a "mental condition", especially on a post talking about the way that asexuality and aromanticism have been medicalized and treated as a disorder that needs to be fixed, is going to make those people feel bad. Saying "hey if you take this personally that's on you" does not suddenly absolve you from how your take makes people feel.

The fact of the matter is that you can't say "Humans shouldn't be asexual" and then act like no one should be hurt by that statement because you're "just citing a scientific fact!". Telling a group of people that they are "challenging nature" by not wanting sex, and treating us like an exciting scientific anomaly that is a fun thing to study, is dehumanizing. I don't want to be treated like a fascinating research topic. I want to be treated like a person.

I wholeheartedly agree that mental health conditions should not be stigmatized or seen as something "wrong", or that makes you less human. But I vehemently disagree that framing asexuality, aromanticism, or trans-ness as a mental condition is a harmless position. Homosexuality and queerness of any kind have a long history of being treated as a mental health condition, as a "deviation from the norm" that could be fixed with conversion therapy. You cannot separate these identities from their historical context, or the connotations that treating those identities as "mental conditions" brings with it.

Your baseline for your argument is that humans are sexual beings. Why? Because we have sex in order to have children? Many homosexual couples cannot produce children through sex. Would you also argue that homosexuality is a "mental condition" because it deviates from the "scientific norm" of biologically male and female humans having sex in order to produce offspring? I don't think you would, because that argument has been used for decades to deny the humanity of gay people and argue that they should be "fixed". So why is it an okay argument for aspec people?

In terms of your trans argument, I think you are conflating dysmorphia, as something trans people experience, and the trans identity as a whole. Body dysmorphia is something that some (not all) trans people experience, and can, as you say, be treated in various ways, from changing physical presentation to HRT and surgery. But body dysmorphia does not encompass the whole trans experience, and arguing that being trans is somehow a "mental condition" is directly harmful to the trans community. There are people in power *right now* who argue that transgender people are mentally ill, and they are using that argument to curtail trans peoples' rights and their access to vital health care.

What is the benefit of treating these identities as "mental conditions", especially of you claim that you don't think they need to be fixed? Why do you feel like they must be pathologized, instead of just treating them as one more variation in the vast spectrum of human experience?

If you truly think that being asexual or aromantic or trans is an amazing example of the variations of what it means to be human, just say that. There are ways to celebrate the diversity of the human experience without pathologizing it.

fun fact (not fun at all fact actually) :

aromanticism and asexuality are still treated as issues to be fixed in most therapy settings, at least in the western psychiatric institution. i cannot fucking mention my aromanticism or asexuality to a therapist or it’ll immediately become their primary concern and goal to fix. whether or not i have a partner/am trying to have a partner is actively being used as an indicator of my wellness, regardless of if i WANT one. i cannot have access to needed mental health ressources because of fear of conversion therapy. aro and/or ace conversion therapy is the norm in most psychiatric institutions and we are getting told by the rest of the queer community that our oppression isnt real and that there is no link between our struggles and theirs.

more thoughts on the medicalization of asexuality and/or aromanticism

answers to common notes

aplatonic perspective

ressources

background information

tips to avoid aro and/or ace conversion therapy

#asexuality #aromanticism #ace #aro #disk horse #i guess #op i apologize for the essay

[journalofimprobablethings]

[ID: A rendition of the "I was so caught up in the euphoria" meme with some of the text replaced It reads, "But I was so caught up in the euphoria of a murderbot diaries tv show that for like a minute I didn't process a generic white man playing MB" /End ID]

the way im speedrunning the stages of grief rn

#yeahhhh #like murderbot is literally genderless #they could have gone in so many directions #but no generic white alexander skarsgard it is #also prev: highly recommend trying the books again i have so many feelings about this stupid security construct and its friends #murderbot diaries

[journalofimprobablethings]

As much as it’s difficult to hear this, by every definition Gaza is not a genocide. That doesn’t take away how awful and horrific it is, to be sure. But it doesn’t meet the metrics necessary for that word to be used—genocide doesn’t just mean Really Really Really Bad Thing(tm), ya know? On 4/14/1994 30k Tutsi people were murdered in just one day. That’s the same # in Gaza after… 6 months. Either Israel is really bad at genocide or it’s not their intention to exterminate all the Palestinians in Gaza. Ofc genocide is more intent than #s, but by pretty much every metric… it doesn’t add up. (Also who’s saying they’re indigenous…. Like Arab colonialism anyone?)

Genocide as a definition is more than kill every member of a population, anon.

Read it:

On 11 December 1946 the General Assembly of the United Nations resolved that genocide was a crime under international law. This was approved and ratified as a Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide on 9 December 1948. The Convention defines genocide as: ‘any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: -killing members of the group -causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group -deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part -imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group -forcibly transferring children of the group to another group

#gaza #palestine #israel #genocide

[journalofimprobablethings]

What I need for White Americans (ppl in general really, but I'm talking to the U.S.) to understand about Americans of Color is that You don't know Us, but We know YOU.

We've spent generations upon generations of our entire lives learning YOUR social norms, forced to assimilate to YOUR idea of society. We live and learn entirely separate cultures, but we also learn from birth what it means to have to cater to Whiteness in America. It's why I can name so many famous movies with white casts, but most white people didn't even know where "Bye Felicia" came from. It's why I was raised to professionally Code Switch from childhood, but grown white people struggle to even grasp the basics of the grammar of AAVE. It's why people who speak different languages think they have to give up their own mother tongue just to function in this country.

It's why you all are so uncomfortable with the idea of people of color questioning and rejecting what seems "normal" to you- and to be honest, I actually think older white generations are better at admitting this than younger ones. It's because what you know as normal is usually not "normal"- it's White. Whiteness is just as loud as any other presentation of race in this country, you just don't see it that way because everyone else has been forced to maintain your comfort. The entire system is built around it, and you don't even know it.

It's why it frustrates white Americans of some marginalization- queer, disabled, neurodivergent- because you do not have access to the "norm" as it is shown to you. But that frustration- literally everyone of color (who shares those identities btw) lives under that understanding.

Idk, I didn't really have a direction. I just think it's wild how so many conversations require this... Constant Verbal Leveling of the Playing Field simply because Whiteness blinds white people to what things ACTUALLY look like out here.

[journalofimprobablethings]

Wheat fields are more mystical than fields of other crops. You are 7,000 times more likely to meet an old god or see a portent of doom in a wheat field than in a field of like… soybeans.

[journalofimprobablethings]

if you want to actually start to end homelessness, you need to give homeless people unconditional homes, including when we use them to do drugs or sit around drinking. either housing is unconditional or it isn’t

someone sitting at home alone, an active alcoholic, squandering your charity, drinking all day is better situation than a street homeless alcoholic. someone using drugs in your charity house is better than them doing the same w no shelter

most of you would not like most street homeless people, I definitely don’t and didn’t when I was street homeless. for every one person who uses unconditional shelter to turn themselves around, someone else will do jack shit and very slowly, if ever, work through the issues that made them homeless, will maybe never be able to live independently. still better than street homelessness, still worth doing. ultimately either you believe that shelter should be universal or you don’t

homeless people actually can’t be rehabilitated if you want to end homelessness. we either affirm the right to shelter for the worst drunken, lying, filthy, cheating, self destructive homeless people that exist, genuinely irredeemable wankers, or we concede that shelter is not a right

[journalofimprobablethings]

For those who don't know, Rafah Crossing is closed. Meaning Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are technically not allowed to go into Egypt through Rafah Crossing (with exceptions, like holding a foreign passport) so in order to evacuate, Palestinians need to bribe Egyptian border security officials. The standard price used to be about $5000 - 7000 per person but some Palestinians have been told to pay $10,000 per person just to cross the border, forget other expenses like food and boarding.

For a group of people who are enduring genocide and the complete destruction of their homes that money is impossible to raise without the help of fundraising. That and the collapse of the UNRWA is the reason you're seeing so many Gofundmes nowadays. The entire aid system is gone with the exception of local aid organisations that have limited reach.

So if you see a credible fundraiser, please at the very least share it so it can reach more people. This list by @el-shab-hussein is a good place to start.

#gaza #fundraisers #mutual aid #genocide

[journalofimprobablethings]

i feel like high school/middle school sitcoms set the unrealistic expectation of being able to have lunch time outside

#live in California #and yes we ate lunch outside every day in middle & high school because we did not have a cafeteria #this was fine except when it rained and you ended up huddled under the eaves of the school building #because none of the tables were under any sort of awning

[journalofimprobablethings]

Human heads eaten by crows, unidentified and decomposing body parts, and hundreds of corpses piled up and buried in mass graves are all that remained of the victims of the massacre at al-Shifa Hospital. The grim scene was something out of a dystopian movie, the product of the two-week siege of Gaza’s largest hospital that ended in its total destruction. Following the completion of al-Shifa’s decimation, the Israeli army announced that it had been one of the most successful operations since the start of the war, claiming that it had arrested hundreds of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad members in the medical compound. But the question that no one seemed to ask is how such a massive number of so-called “operatives” from Hamas and PIJ had gathered at al-Shifa with the full knowledge that the place had already been combed by the army once before and that Gaza City had been occupied by the army ever since.

One young man who managed to escape the hospital mere moments before the army invasion began said that there had indeed been hundreds of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad-affiliated employees in the hospital, but none of them were military operatives. They were workers in the Gaza government’s civil branch, including Civil Defense crews, the police force, the internal security services, interior ministry employees, and employees of other branches of the local government. All of them had gathered to receive their governmental salaries at al-Shifa, given that it was one of the few remaining places that was supposed to be relatively safe from the fighting

When everyone left the buildings, the army began to separate the crowds of people into groups, making each group wear differently-colored plastic bracelets. The soldiers told them that these bracelets were connected to a system that alerts snipers to their movements. They were divided into two colors: yellow, which was attached to hospital staff and whoever the army considered civilians, and red, which was given to people who could not move on their own, such as patients, the injured, amputees, or people with broken limbs. The army also gathered people who were suspected of belonging to Hamas or the PIJ. They were not given bracelets but were separated from the injured and hospital staff, who were sent to a different building. A third much larger group was ordered to leave the hospital entirely — thousands of displaced persons who had been sheltering in the compound, in addition to some members of the hospital staff. Some of the staff members, including doctors, refused to leave. When they refused the army’s orders, they were executed immediately and without argument. The army then brought out a huge number of men from the group of suspected Hamas and PIJ members and employees, gathering them in the center of the courtyard. It then proceeded to execute them, one after the other. When the slaughter was done, army bulldozers piled up their corpses in the dozens, dragging them through the sand and burying them. As this was ongoing, other soldiers stormed various buildings in the compound in search of people who had refused to evacuate when the initial order was given. They killed anyone they found, regarding them as suspects.

This is a long article but I suggest you read the whole thing.

#palestine #israel #gaza #genocide #death #id in alt #war crimes on war crimes on war crimes

[journalofimprobablethings]

[ID: A black and white, hand-drawn comic showing a boy sitting at a table with a pitcher and a couple glasses. There is a sign on the front of the table that reads: "criminals deserve the right to vote. change my mind." /End ID]

#the fact that felons can't vote #that black and brown people are more likely to be convicted of felonies over something like possession of a small amount of drugs #and that slavery as a punishment for a crime is a specific exception written into the 13th amendment #none of these are an accident #they are on purpose #“undesirable” members of society are funneled into prisons where they are exploited for free labor #and they are not allowed to vote even when they get out #meaning they have no power within the system to change their situation #the system is not broken it is working as designed #described

[journalofimprobablethings]

obsessed with mass market paperbacks. their pleasing rectangular proportions. how they fit badly in a hoodie pocket so you can drag them around everywhere with you like a temporary little buddy. the way they fit in your hand because they're MADE for human hands and not as bookshelf decoration. the way the pages feel when you riffle them gently with your thumb. How pristine and crisp they look when you get them and how creased and folded they look when you're done, even if you try to be nice to them. how that wear is okay, how that's correct actually, because they're made with the philosophy that books aren't meant to be PRETTY, they're meant to be read. that little ripple new ones get on the left side from where you hold them when you're reading, the way the ripple only goes as far as you've read, because u change stories by reading as they are changing you. how you can find thousands of these creased and folded and loved little dudes in every thrift store and used book shop and neighborhood library and you can instantly see the ones that someone carried around in a backpack for weeks or read to pieces or gave up on halfway through because they wear being read like fresh snow wears footprints. I love these poorly made, subpar little rectangles so much. truly the people's books.

#ohhhh yess this person gets it #every time i go in a bookstore now i mourn the move away from mass market paperbacks #i do not want big pretty trade paperbacks #i want paperbacks that i can fit in my pocket or purse and are made with shitty paper that smells like middle school summer vacation #books

[journalofimprobablethings]

a palestinian woman in canada lost her job due to zionists harassing her for her support of the resistance. she needs financial support to pay off bills/rent as well as other living costs. please donate and share!!

#mutual aid #palestine

[journalofimprobablethings]

"i don't understand why you're upset, you're not jewish or palestinian" SHUT UPPPP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!!!!!!!!! CARING ABOUT PEOPLE IS NOT SOMETHING YOU HAVE TO UNDERSTAND!!!!!!!!!!!

[journalofimprobablethings]

this morning the United Nations Human Rights Council voted on a resolution calling for a ban on arms sales to Israel and the resolution passed. two Israeli border points opened for aid routes (they were supposedly open? lmao), Biden is calling for an immediate ceasefire, last night was the first without air attacks on Gaza.. the killing of seven foreign aid workers shook the world apparently, but oh god how late. the journey to recognising genocide for some seems to avoid acknowledging the humanity of thousands of Palestinians who have been murdered

#gaza #palestine #israel