syaamethyst213

[syaamethyst213]

#undescribed

[syaamethyst213]

vent post. There are two stories i was told in my teenage years that even before i had a real concept of trans issues made me uninterested in discussing the supposed sacredness and safety of separated sex-based spaces.

First, when i was like 13 or 14 my PE teacher told us about a time she went to a women's public restroom, some guy was hanging out outside the bathrooms, she didn't think anything of it, went to the bathroom, and he walked in after her and like, creeped on her over the top of the stall. She was ok, she wasn't telling us this to scare us, just telling us what to do in situations like that (and iirc she was telling the whole co-ed class this, not just girls, bc it's useful for everyone), but this taught me immediately and forever that there's nothing actually keeping these spaces separate really, that anyone can be a creep in any space, and that establishing a space like that as for women only isn't actually particularly useful for safety.

Second, when i was 16 i was at an anime convention, a friendly acquaintance of mine and i ended up in conversation outside, and he showed me his bare wrist and told me he'd been kicked out. A female friend of his had stepped in dog poop outside, and between that and the stress of the convention she'd had a bit of an emotional breakdown, so being her friend, he started comforting her and ushered her into the women's restroom so they could wash the poop off her shoe together. And because he was a man who went into the women's bathroom, he got kicked out, no matter that he was doing something that was actually beneficial to a woman. Punishing a woman's friend for supporting her was supposed to... protect her somehow? This made it clear to me that a no-exceptions rule separating the sexes like that wasn't actually inherently good for everyone.

And this isn't even getting into me as a child needing to accompany my younger sister to the restroom when we were out with just my dad because she had certain support needs past the age he felt comfortable bringing her into the men's room with him. And what if I'd been born a boy, or she'd been the first born? Who's helping her then?

And of course even putting all this aside, we should always prioritize compassion and support anyway. But i never even needed to meet a trans person to know that "keeping men out of women's bathrooms" is silly nonsense. But trans people also need to pee anyway and as humans they have that right, so leave them the fuck alone. your precious women's restroom is just a fucking room with a door, holy shit give it a fucking rest, if someone is attacking you in the bathroom that's bad and if someone is in there to pee that's good and it doesn't fucking matter what their junk is or was when they were born.

a woman could have done the exact same thing to my PE teacher and it would have also been bad no matter how "supposed" to be in the restroom she was, and no one should ever be punished for helping a crying friend wash their shoe.

Anyway i know I'm speaking to like-minded folks here, i just think about those two stories literally every time bathroom gender shit comes up and it pisses me off.

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do you ever hear people talking about something and you’re like. fuck. let me be real for a second. i’m too much of a commie to have this conversation

[syaamethyst213]

I don’t think you’re ready to have an adult conversation about politics until you’re able to admit that there are things you love and enjoy that would not and should not exist in a just world. $8 billion dollar budget movies every other month don’t exist in a just world. New 900 GB AAA video games every year don’t exist in a just world. Next day delivery doesn’t exist in a just world. 80 different soda brands don’t exist in a just world. 

All of those things come from exploitation on some level, and if you wouldn’t trade those for a world where everyone can eat and have a home no matter who they are or what they do, I don’t know what to tell you. 

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For many people arrest is a tolerable consequence of protesting and direct action but it should never be a fucking goal and if an organization is trying to get you to participate in symbolic mass arrests that organization is at best wasting your time

[syaamethyst213]

The situation of the Congo Genocide is complicated because we are all implicated in it. We can’t ascribe it to a foreign policy state interest as we can regarding Palestine. It is something we, as consumers, all have a hand in and given the ubiquity of the resources involved, a lot of us are caught off of guard by this premonition of the type of wars to come. This is that nasty intersection of neo-colonialism and hyper capitalism that pits the Global South against the Global North. It’s a war of sustaining a way of life means imposing slavery and genocide on others. This is an instance of global capitalism and hyper consumption as a lifestyle and convenience is being pitted against the humanity of those we deem expendable.

[syaamethyst213]

I feel like a good shorthand for a lot of economics arguments is "if you want people to work minimum wage jobs in your city, you need to allow minimum wage apartments for them to live in."

"These jobs are just for teenagers on the weekends." Okay, so you'll use minimum wage services only on the weekends and after school. No McDonald's or Starbucks on your lunch break.

"They can get a roommate." For a one bedroom? A roommate for a one bedroom? Or a studio? Do you have a roommate to get a middle-wage apartment for your middle-wage job? No? Why should they?

"They can live farther from city center and just commute." Are there ways for them to commute that don't equate to that rent? Living in an outer borough might work in NYC, where public transport is a flat rate, but a city in Texas requires a car. Does the money saved in rent equal the money spent on the car loan, the insurance, the gas? Remember, if you want people to take the bus or a bike, the bus needs to be reliable and the bike lanes survivable.

If you want minimum wage workers to be around for you to rely on, then those minimum wage workers need a place to stay.

You either raise the minimum wage, or you drop the rent. There's only so long you can keep rents high and wages low before your workforce leaves for cheaper pastures.

"Nobody wants to work anymore" doesn't hold water if the reason nobody applies is because the commute is impossible at the wage you provide.

[syaamethyst213]

[syaamethyst213]

It’s easy to lose sight of some of life’s simple pleasures when you’re mired in the politics of a land you’re forbidden to enter. But every now and again we deserve to be reminded of just how beautifully the sea sparkles in the Gaza Strip, or just how high the rainbows over the West Bank’s grassy hills can go, or just how easy it is to visualize the earthy way of life in villages wiped away in 1948. 

Source: Sixteen Minutes to Palestine

#undescribed

[syaamethyst213]

Another fundraiser I trust!

Mohammed here contacted me directly through tumblr, he was referred to me by a friend of his whose fundraiser I've also verified the legitimacy of. This fundraiser is just now starting out! Do not hesitate to donate!

[syaamethyst213]

If you ever find yourself writing a post and it has “I love Palestine, but-“ maybe you should just typing right there

[syaamethyst213]

Hey guys, I have a priority fundraiser rotation for you:

Fadi & Shahed: 5,885 USD out of 62.5k

Sana'a & Sujood: 15,049 £ out of 50k

Mahmoud Qassas: 12,466$ out of 200k

Ezzideen Shehab: 11,075€ out of 32.5k.

Hussam Aburamadan: 17,657€ out of 148k.

Hamdi Hijazi: 6,614$ out of 25k.

Suheir Hojok: 17,557 AUD out of 70k.

Madleen Abu Jayyab: 33,808$ out of 70k.

Hani Al-Hajjar: 2,536€ out of 50k.

Little Yusuf: 664€ out of 85k.

Nael Helles: 255$ out of 50k.

Alia's family: 516€ out of 30k.

Hala's family: 350 CAD out of 50k.

Mohammed Al Shaer: 150£ out of 50k

Mona Abu Hamda: 75k out of 150k.

Sahar El Tibi: 15€ out of 30k.

Youssef Munir: 596£ out of 50k.

Muhammad Munir: 1,528£ out of 45k.

Amal & Ruba A.S.: 0€ out of 50k.

I have personally verified every one of these campaigns listed here.

The invasion of Rafah grows nearer everyday. Please understand the urgency of this campaign.

Version date: April 30th 2024.

[syaamethyst213]

today i love queer palestinians

[syaamethyst213]

[syaamethyst213]

“average person eats 3 spiders a year” factoid actualy just statistical error. average person eats 0 spiders per year. Spiders Georg, who lives in cave & eats over 10,000 each day, is an outlier adn should not have been counted

[syaamethyst213]

i've been seeing this around a lot lately as like a little memey jokey thing but "this is what they took from you" is a fascist meme.

"they" are jewish people/"the global elite"/"cultural marxists"/"globalists"/"the woke left" etc.

and it's basically the same as "RETVRN" like this is explicitly a fascist thing that fascists say about their fascist beliefs

please don't go around saying it

you can talk about capitalist enshittification without invoking fascism, and just because YOU mean something different doesn't mean it's not invoking those things it's explicitly meant to invoke

[syaamethyst213]