#Not just with the abortion thing but also the lgbtq+ thing

[hadesoftheladies]

queer theory is actually a nightmarish frankensteinian creation of postmodernism, and post-modernists philosophers have frequently and explicitly been pro-pedophilia, because this is a logical consequence of what post-modernism says is true: there is no (epistemic) certainty or stable meaning.

when my conservative parents tell me they basically associate "lgbtq" with "maps" and pedophilia, they have reason to do so, given how "queer culture" is fundamentally a creation of post-modernist values, and post-modernist estimations of sexuality. everything is fluid, no binary exists, no meaning is fixed, so there are no defining lines, which means lines cannot actually be crossed. homosexuals can be bisexual, man and woman are interchangeable meaningless terms, and attraction to children is just one of the many ways sexual fluidity is expressed in humans, a benign and normal thing that should be released from modernist moralistic confines

that is queer philosophy, and it is actual queer culture. so not only are LGB folk being told they should celebrate the reclamation of an awful slur that explicitly others them as "perverted" and "strange", but now they are told to embrace queer culture (which means queer identity and philosophy) which not only declares their reality as abnormal and unreal (same-sex attraction is myth, since there is no such thing as sex and attraction is fluid), but also defines them explicitly with sexual perversions like pedophilia and bdsm: which IS EXACTLY WHAT HOMOPHOBES BELIEVE ABOUT THEM.

when queer culture is predicated on subjective feelings of identity needing to be validated, celebrated and "set free" from modernist (read definable, material and epistemological) structures, then the distaste for MAPs from queer folk doesn't mean anything, because even if MAPs are publicly rejected by queer culture, they are embraced and validated by queer theory and post-modernist philosophy.

what is doubly baffling to me is how the lgbtq+ community has tainted a movement for gay rights, you know, people who are being killed and ostracized for being same-sex attracted. not only nullifying their experiences and struggle in being same-sex attracted, not only associating their neutral, normal orientations with perversions and kinks, making something neutral political . . .

but they have also actively decentered a movement for homosexuals and bisexuals in order to accommodate identities that have NOTHING to do with that struggle or fight. intersex conditions, gender dysphoria, and asexuality have nothing to do with the oppression LGBs have faced for their sexual orientation and gender nonconformity, their culture of genderlessness. the idea that men and women can wear and present however they want, love and be attracted to the same sex, without it altering their material status.

EVEN MORE INFURIATINGLY, queer politics has offered almost ZERO challenges to patriarchy. by throwing out definitions, throwing out distinctions, it has relegated the essence of oppression to an individualistic, liberal fantasy that is powerless to change the system, and so can only grant us "spicy" patriarchy. dominance and submission, patriarchal inventions, are now cool kinks that every couple should try. gender is now open access (but still necessary), so men can wear heels and still call women slurs and violently harass them. transmen can go by he/him and still be refused abortion access! gay people are gender fetishists, not sinners. nothing has structurally changed, it's just we have cool names now! :)

so now LGB and women all over the fucking world are relegated to this homophobic misogynistic hell whether we turn to the left or right, and when we speak up about it, conservative homophobes and misogynists confuse us with liberal perverts, and liberal homophobes and misogynists conflate us with conservative sadists.

the structure doesn't change. there is no actual progress. like, same-sex right and women's movements all over the world have suffered for this. because white liberal westerners wanted to play around with words and have that count as activism.

i fucking hate queer theory and politics. i fucking hate how rich western whites shit on every human rights movement while capitalizing on them.

#queer theory #feminism #radblr #lgbtq #queer

[genderkoolaid]

sorry if you've talked about it already, but what is it that makes KOSA's idea of online safety wrong? I don't know much about the bill, what does it intend to do?

What do you think is a good way to protect kids from things like online predators or just seeing things that they shouldn't be seeing? (By which I mean sex and graphic violence, things which you'd need to be 16+ to see in a movie theater so I think it makes sense to not want pre-teens to see it)

From stopkosa.com:

Why is KOSA a bad bill? KOSA uses two methods to “protect” kids, and both of them are awful. First, KOSA would incentivize social media platforms to erase content that could be deemed “inappropriate” for minors. The problem is: there is no consensus on what is inappropriate for minors. All across the country we are seeing how lawmakers are attacking young people’s access to gender affirming healthcare, sex education, birth control, and abortion. Online communities and resources that queer and trans youth depend on as lifelines should not be subject to the whims of the most rightwing extremist powers and we shouldn’t give them another tool to harm marginalized communities.  Second, KOSA would ramp up the online surveillance of all internet users by expanding the use of age verification and parental monitoring tools. Not only are these tools needlessly invasive, they’re a massive safety risk for young people who could be trying to escape domestic violence and abuse.

I’ve heard there’s a new version of KOSA. What’s the deal? The new version of KOSA makes some good changes: narrowing the ability of rightwing attorneys general to weaponize KOSA to target content they don’t like and limiting the problematic “duty of care. However, because the bill is still not content neutral, KOSA still invites the harms that civil rights advocates have warned about. As LGBTQ and reproductive rights groups have said for months, the fundamental problem with KOSA is that its “duty of care” covers content specific aspects of content recommendation systems, and the new changes fail to address that. In fact, personalized recommendation systems are explicitly listed under the definition of a design feature covered by the duty of care in the new version. This means that a future Federal Trade Commission (FTC) could still use KOSA to pressure platforms into automated filtering of important, but controversial topics like LGBTQ issues and abortion, by claiming that algorithmically recommending such content “causes” mental health outcomes that are covered by the duty of care like anxiety and depression. Bans on inclusive books, abortion, and gender affirming healthcare have been passed on exactly that kind of rhetoric in many states recently. And we know that already existing content filtering systems impact content from marginalized creators exponentially more, resulting in discrimination and censorship. It’s also important to remember that algorithmic recommendation includes, for example, showing a user a post from a friend that they follow, since most platforms do not show all users all posts, but curate them in some way. As long as KOSA’s duty of care isn’t content neutral, platforms will be likely to react the same way that they did to the broad liability imposed by SESTA/FOSTA: by engaging in aggressive filtering and suppression of important, and in some cases lifesaving, content.

Why it's bad:

The way it's written (even after being changed, which the website also goes over), it is still possible for this law to be used to restrict things like queer content, discussion of reproductive rights and resources, and sexual education.

It will restrict youth's ability to use the Internet independently, essentially cutting off life support to many vulnerable people who rely on the Internet to learn that they are queer, being abused, disabled, etc.

Better alternatives:

Stop relying on ageist ideas of purity and innocence. When we focus on protecting the "purity" of youth, we dehumanize them and it becomes more about soothing adult anxieties than actually improving the lives of children.

Making sure content (sexual, violent, etc.) is marked/tagged and made avoidable for anyone who doesn't want to engage with it.

Teach children why certain things may be upsetting and how best to avoid those things.

Teach children how to recognize grooming and abuse and empower them to stop it themselves.

Teach children how to recognize fear, discomfort, trauma, and how to cope with those experiences.

The Internet makes a great boogeyman. But the idea that it is uniquely corrupting the Pure Innocent Youth relies on the idea that all children are middle-class suburban White kids from otherwise happy homes. What about the children who see police brutality on their front lawns, against their family members? How are we protecting them from being traumatized? Or children who are seeing and experiencing physical and sexual violence in their own homes, by the parents who prevent them from realizing what's happening by restricting their Internet usage? How does strengthening parent's rights stop those kids from being groomed? Or the kids who grow up in evangelical Christian homes and are given graphic descriptions of the horrors of the Apocalypse and told if they ever question their parents, they'll be left behind?

Children live in the same world we do. There are children who are already intimately aware of violence and "adult" topics because of their lived experiences. Actually protecting children means being concerned about THEIR human rights, it means empowering them to save themselves, it means giving them the tools to understand their own feelings and traumas. KOSA is just another in a long line of attempts to "save the children!" by dehumanizing them and giving more power to the people most likely to abuse them. We need to stop trying to protect children's "innocence" and appreciate that children are already growing, changing people, learning to deal with discomfort and pain and the weight of the world the same as everyone else. What people often think keeps kids safe really just keeps them ignorant and quiet.

Another explanation as to why it's bad:

#m. #ask box

[qqueenofhades]

Do you think part of what makes people feel like voting isn’t worth it because things don’t get better under democrats is because we can’t see what would have happened? Like I see a lot of people saying “well biden hasn’t made america much better so there’s no point” but it’s like they don’t understand that under a republican they would actively do everything they could to cause more harm. It’s like they don’t understand that 1. The president can’t do much, and 2. IT WOULD BE WORSE. like they don’t understand the possibilities. Idk people just frustrate me

I'm sorry, as I know you're just relaying what these people think and not claiming so yourself, but the whole "things don't get better under Biden/Democrats" line to which we are subjected so very, miserably often is a lie!!! It is demonstrably a lie! It is peddled by people who deliberately live in their echo-chamber leftist misinformation bubbles and either don't read the news, don't accept anything less than the Magical Socialist Revolution Now, and don't think partial or incremental progress (aka the only kind of progress that exists) is valid. "Biden hasn't single-handedly fixed everything wrong with America and the world after the most damaging presidency ever to exist and 250+ years of flaws, while other countries actually are their own actors with agency making complex choices, so we shouldn't vote for him" is a bullshit lie and I'm tired of it!!!

(Again. Sorry. This is not directed at you. This is just my frustration with this entire ridiculous situation speaking.)

We have had multiple elections now where people voted for Democrats, which resulted in abortion protections, protections for LGBTQ people, the biggest climate legislation ever to pass Congress/be signed into law (the Inflation Reduction Act), vast improvements in the job market, executive actions both large and small, improvements in labor and the economy, a general democratic system, a defense of the rule of law, a warning against fascism, and everything else that Trump trampled on in 4 years and will finish the job of doing if this godforsaken country is either right-wing-zealot or left-wing-zealot enough to put him back into office. (Like, people. Google is free. You're welcome to look up the improvements Biden has actually made, but that would harm your Narrative.) So much of this misinformation is also peddled by people who are proud that they don't have a clue how the American government works and/or deliberately lie about it: see all the claims that it was Biden's fault for not magically stopping a Trump-stacked SCOTUS, selected for the express purpose of overturning Roe, from overturning Roe. Because the president could just unilaterally overturn the Supreme Court with no problems at all if He Really Wanted To, I guess. Even if that is literally not the way it has ever functioned in history.

All the noxious Republicans in state legislatures passing anti-trans/anti-abortion/anti-voting laws ARE NOT SOMETHING BIDEN CAN STOP. If you're going to criticize him for not doing something, for God's sake at least make it for something he can do (like not calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, though I would argue he's already taking a more nuanced approach than the entirety of the American establishment during the War on Terror). And then vote for him when/if he follows it up, not just throw your hands in the air and scream about how you Can't Possibly Sully Yourself (especially when there is some very selective support going on here and a deliberate white-washing of how many orders of magnitude worse absolutely everything else in America and the world would be under Trump. So.)

I'm tired of it. I'm really, really tired of it. I've been trying to cut back on my politics posting because my mental health is bad right now and I often feel like a broken record screaming into the void. But. Yeah. Anyway. Whoof.

#plantsandothers #ask #politics for ts

[deadpresidents]

What do you think of people voting uncommitted or writing in “ceasefire” in the Democratic Primaries for president this year?

I think that everyone should vote and vote for who they think is the best choice and that a protest vote is a wasted vote, but if they feel the need to lodge a protest vote then the primaries is the time to do it.

But I'd also remind them that there are real, dangerous, life-and-death, democracy-or-dictatorship, choice-or-no choice stakes in the general election and that they are never -- and I mean NEVER -- going to get the perfect candidate who believes every single thing that they believe. So they can lodge a protest vote in the general election, but ELECTIONS HAVE FUCKING CONSEQUENCES and nobody who is an adult in 2024 should have to be told that because we can see freedoms that we've had and been confident that we'd always have crumbling and disappearing. A protest vote might make you feel that you've made a point about one aspect of our lives, but that protest vote also counts against abortion rights, health care, LGBTQ+ issues, and everything else that matters. Your protest isn't just going to register against what's going on in Gaza. It's going to help the GOP build a fortress around reproductive rights and same-sex marriage and health care for everyone who needs some help in order to fucking live. So, I'd say that you should always vote your conscience, but do so consciously, not emotionally.

Because, again, ELECTIONS HAVE FUCKING CONSEQUENCES and everybody should understand that by now.

#Elections #2024 Elections #Voting #Politics #ELECTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES

[waiting-makes-me-antsy]

Why the KOSA Bill Should Not Pass

tw: ab0rtion talk, assault mention, su1cide mention

also, credit to @the-realest-spot-conlon for getting this strike started. i've known about this bill for a while but until she talked about it, i hadn't really researched what this bill would have in store for the united states.

this will be a bit dark because this is sort of a speech against the KOSA bill and the bill basically wants to ban any talk of abortion, protesting and the LGBTQ+ community from kids under 16- WHICH the parents have no control over controlling what their child could see and the government would basically be saying:

"oh that's inappropriate" to say something like, idk, an inclusive video

and basically sort of brainwashing an entire generation

so yeah this will be a bit dark so don't read if you might be uncomfortable with the topics this sort of speech will have

(and this is directed at the government so when I say 'you' in the paragraphs it's towards the government)

[i removed the first part because it's a bit more personal and uh i dont think it should be shared here :sob]

And while it might seem a bit overexaggerated, it’s true. There are teenagers all over the united states, countries and the globe who face problems like these. And it’s not just verbal. No, there is physical violence and assault, hate crimes happening to students everywhere.

You might now be asking: “What does this have to do with the KOSA bill?”

I hate to say it but the internet has truly been my one and only friend I can ever count on. Who I always know has my back. The LGBTQ+ community doesn’t care if I’m not super skinny or if I have scars lining my arms. They support the fact I don’t really have any romantic feelings towards other people or really just romantic feelings in general. They make me feel normal. That it’s okay to not feel inclined to have and align with the normal gender rules. That I don’t have to follow the binary.

The internet is the only place I can analyze poetry and art deeply with different interpretations and analyzations of every single line, or every single stroke in a painting or word in a novel. Where I can freely talk about my new hyperfixation and no one will stare at me weirdly. Instead, they will respond with another essay.

They won’t say it’s “fucking sad” that I like to write essays in my free time- one of the only ways I can truly express myself because no one at school wants to hear me talk.

And it’s not just a safe place for me. No, it’s a place where everyone as a whole can express their rights and their thoughts. This is our future generation- our future leaders we’re talking about. If the only things that can make us realize what we need to change are censored, how will we ever be able to fix these problems that citizens make? 

Abortion laws. Yes I’m saying that. You want to censor any talk of abortion. What about all the innocent girls out there? Brutally assaulted and forced to ruin their career because they can’t get rid of a baby that’s not even developed yet. That doesn’t even have feelings or a brain yet. It’s just a tiny hint of life, not a fully classified human being yet. An embryo. And so now, they will have to face anxiety, depression, guilt, maybe even shame and ruin for the rest of their lives. 

They don’t have a free choice. But America is supposed to be freedom for the people! And here you are, taking away futures. Taking away future doctors, lawyers and even presidents. Just to save a cell inside their stomachs. Just to make them risk their lives giving a painful birth that will destroy their bodies. No brain, no feelings and no heartbeat. 

We need to know the wrongs in our world to stop them! To be able to protest against them! To be able to stand up for ourselves! So the older generations won't keep making votes that will ruin OUR futures.

Let’s look back at the first right for our states. Freedom of Speech. Huh, sound familiar to your bill? You want to take away protesting from the eyes of our future. From what can help them make the right decisions for our nation. So they can learn to lead. But no, you just want to raise mindless sheep that will bend to your will because they never had any exposure to what can help them break away. 

This bill will ruin lives. It will break apart the nation into pieces like a glass window broken by a bullet. Because if this bill passes, I bet you this: suicide rates will go up. Depression rates: up. Without the comfort of people who you actually connect to, isolation will take over your feelings and it just leads you into a downward spiral.

Imagine you’re a 13 year old who just watched their entire future torn to shreds by a bill signed. You just took their voice away. Their rights away. Possibly their entire life away. Consider that.

#KOSA newsies strike #fuck kosa #stop kosa #kosa bill #antsy whispers speaks

[hadeantaiga]

Reactive vs Proactive activism.

I had an epiphany in the car today while running errands.

I was thinking about this specifically in context with feminism, and trends I've personally noted. And probably, someone else has already talked about this topic, I'm sure I'm not the first.

I want to preface this with the following: I am not saying that one type of activism is necessarily better or worse. I think they're both necessary in the world we live in.

Reactive activism is activism that happens after a wrong has already taken place. Calling someone out for their sexism, the #MeToo campaign, working at a battered women's shelter, protesting a company that is actively campaigning against abortion rights, teaching classes for men who want to unlearn toxic masculinity - all of these are examples of reactionary activism. Reactionary activism is absolutely necessary. Healing wounds is necessary.

Proactive activism includes things like voting for progressive candidates, offering birth control, raising children outside the influence of misogyny and toxic masculinity so you break the cycle of abuse, going to schools and teaching safe sex, educating people about the lgbtq community, teaching all children homemaking skills, etc. We need proactive activism to stop harm from happening in the first place, and to actually FIX the world around us. Just reacting to harm after the harm is done will never actually heal the world.

And I think some kinds of activism fall into both categories. I think teaching adult men how to be homemakers, for example, can be both reactionary and proactive. It's reactionary because it's repairing the damage done to them in their childhood, and it's proactive because it allows them to be better partners and better parents, preventing future harm. I think a Planned Parenthood clinic is another great example, because it serves folks who want to prevent harm, with birth control and condoms and community education, but it's also there if harm does happen, and can provide abortions and resources for abuse victims and testing and treating STDs.

I think both kinds of activism are necessary.

#activism #feminism

[xxspirit]

Hello, my name is Moon. And I'm asking you to spread the word of KOSA (Kids online 'safety' act) an awful, deceiving bill that will censor you, me, minors, and adults online alike.

How the bill works will cause social media to change in a horrible way. It will make it to where you must upload your ID publicly to prove you're old enough to view 'explicit' content.

In reality, that content is LGBTQ+ resources for abuse victims, resources for abortion, resources for Palestinians, resources for sex ED, and more.

It will censor us, destory fanfiction, WHATS NEXT? Uploading private messages? Putting your IP in public?

It will end Tumblr, Fanfics, privacy.

PLEASE HELP END IT! Speak out! Stop them, reblog as much as possible! #EndKosa

Hi, I appreciate you for helping to stop KOSA and helping people understand what KOSA is, and I agree with you that KOSA is terrible.

BUT we need to take a step back, and calm down. I know lots of people are freaking out about this act right now, I am too. But I think a lot of the chaos behind it is because of misinformation as well, specifically about the whole IDs.

Just a warning v

I want to clarify to anyone if they are just skimming past my words that I am NOT ADVOCATING FOR KOSA, I hate KOSA, this act is definitely not to defend minors from the internet but instead HARM them even more as well as EVERYONE ELSE. I just think we are causing a lot of panic and chaos because of misinformation.

I just want to help calm people down, I tried to do my own research and tried to fact-check myself to make sure what Im saying is true, but if you know I said something wrong please let me know and I am so sorry if I misspoke, I will correct myself as soon as possible. 🙏

KOSA DOESNT REQUIRE A PERSONAL ID: I did my own research about the need of uploading a personal ID, but this doesn’t seem to be true. I will be reblogging a few things today that I found, and also this website for my evidence:

KOSA still needs to go through congress, and then the President. Although it may or already have passed through the Senate sadly, there is still another chance. So keep up with the rallying and keep giving attention to KOSA about how stupid it is! WE CAN STILL STOP KOSA!!! DO NOT GIVE UP!!

Even IF KOSA does pass… it will take MONTHS for the act to go into action. I found this screenshot from another person, I’ll be reblogging their post after this one:

It will take a ONE YEAR and SIX MONTHS(A YEAR AND A HALF)before KOSA actually starts being implemented. In that time, we can think of what to do, migrate if we have to, or whatever.

Also- know this doesn’t help tumblr but I also saw on another post which ill reblog, that potentially Ao3 won’t be affected, which may be nice for some of you to know.

Here’s a petition I found, I recommend signing it!

It is so awesome to see the community work together to help stop KOSA, but let’s make sure to be checking our sources and try not to spread things that don’t seem to be accurate! 🙏

Stay safe guys, and stay strong 💪

#I know this isn’t stuff I usually post #but I have been mentioned a lot in stuff related to this #and honestly KOSA has had me really stressed out and worried and I know many are in the same boat as me #but I’ve also been seeing other lovely people clarify some of the main things that had me freaked out #and I figured I could also help spread it to help calm others down too #stop kosa #anti kosa #kosa

[max--phillips]

Indiana just launched a “snitch line” for people to report schools for teaching about LGBTQ issues, Black history, and other topics.

On Monday, the AG, Todd Rokita, launched this “Eyes on Eduction” portal where students, parents, and teachers alike can report… “objectionable curricula, policies, or programs affecting children.” While they hide behind the suggestion that this is to stop “political ideology - either left or right” from being forced on kids, we all know that this is really a tip line for parents to complain that someone told their kid gay people exist or slavery was a real thing that happened to Black people.

I’m not going to lie, despite this being from the office of the attorney general, I don’t think this is much more than a wall of shame functionally. The AG’s office looks at submissions, takes the credible ones, and publishes them on the portal for anyone to see. The PDFs of the so-called evidence also include names of teachers.

Anyway, unsurprisingly, people have been flooding the portal with junk submissions, as pointed out by the wonderful Erin Reed (@/ErinInTheMorn on Twitter) in her article on the portal:

A report that Godzilla was witnessed with a trans flag

Indiana Jones slapping a Nazi

A report of a famous picture of Trump next to Rudy Giuliani in drag

Multiple reports citing the Bible for teenage pregnancy

A confession purporting to be from Breaking Bad character Walter White

The script for the Bee Movie (classic)

The script to Oppenheimer

The script for Eurotrip, with a note not to tell Scotty

Young Sheldon saying “Bazinga”

So ALL OF THAT IS TO SAY. Here's another link to the portal. Whatever you do, don't add to the list above and flood the portal, making it nearly impossible for the poor AG's office to sort through all the submissions and find credible submissions! That would be sooo uncalled for.

Anyway, side note for you: if you're thinking to yourself, "damn, Todd Rokita, that name sounds awfully familiar," you may be thinking of the time in 2022 he said he was going to investigate Dr. Caitlin Bernard for providing an abortion procedure to a 10 year old girl who had fled Ohio to receive care because Ohio's abortion ban did not provide an exception for minor children who became pregnant as a result of rape. Ultimately, Indiana state courts found him to have violated the law and engaged in attorney misconduct due to his public statements on the situation. Yet, he is still AG. This guy has sucked as long as I can remember. He was Secretary of State of Indiana from 2002-2010, then he was a member of the US House of Representatives from Indiana's 4th district (which my hometown is unfortunately a part of) from 2011-2019, and has now been AG since 2021. For perspective, I was born in 1997--the year he joined the Secretary of State's office as general counsel, then later became deputy secretary of state. He's been doing his damndest to ruin this state as long as I've been alive.

Also, his birthday is Friday (February 9th) according to his wikipedia page. Definitely don't give him any birthday presents by way of the submission portal, okay? Good talk

#lgbt rights #trans rights #black lives matter #black history #lgbt history #american politics #PLEASE reblog this lmao #max says things #tori says things

[zzompi-nerddxd]

hey, I’m a pretty big fan of yours and I was wondering if you could use your platform to talk about KOSA. I can’t assume you’re American but it’s a bill in America that might become a law here in four days and it will wipe out a lot of fandom and fanfiction content from American websites and the internet in America. It will also endanger LGBT and mentally ill people. It will censor a lot of things and will track down all your Internet history to where the government will have everything they could ever want on you.

https://www.tumblr.com/finleyforevermore/729304455487602688

just saw this ask, hi.

I'm against KOSA.

I don't get why people can't just have privacy at all-

+

people should have a chance to interact with with informational resources!!

this won't keep people safe, it'll keep them from getting information about topics that they may need to know about such as safe abortions.

it'll also take away people's safe spaces, especially those in the LGBTQ+ community.

It. Is. Bad.

that's pretty much all I have to say about it,

but

DOWN WITH KOSA!!

#kosa bill #kids online safety act #stop kosa #bad internet bills #end kosa #down with kosa

[libraford]

Or it might just be because I'm not american and don't know what issue 1 is is it guns?

No one would blame you for not knowing what issue 1 is about: it is a special election happening in ohio.

Here is what Issue 1 is:

Ohio's constitution currently requires simple majority to make amendments to the constitution.

Let's say for example: you ask 100 people if they'd rather have a puppy or a kitten. If 49 people voted puppy and 51% voted kitten, then kitten would be the clear winner.

Issue 1, among other things, would require a 60% majority. So in the puppy vs kitten debate, there would be no winner. Because the vote did not reach 60%. Neither puppy nor kitten wins.

When applied to laws, this means that any new law not receiving 60% of the votes will get set back, and it cannot move forward.

This vote is happening because a lot of progressive laws are being petitioned in ohio. Including abortion access, LGBTQ rights, gender-affirming care for minors, decriminalization of marijuana, a bunch of things.

Issue 1 is intended to prevent these from getting very far. They intentionally scheduled it for an August election because August usually has a low turnout.

In addition to the 60/40 vote, this also means that any petition needs signatures from all 88 counties instead of 44. This means that a single county can tie up the process and preventing it from moving forward.

Furthermore, there is a ten day grace period currently in place to verify if the signatures on a petition are valid for that county, and to get it corrected. Issue 1 would remove that grace period. If a signature is found invalid, it does not count towards the petition.

You can see why this might gum up the works if you're trying to pass a law about a controversial topic like abortion, and why conservatives would rally behind it.

It is not directly about guns. But it potentially can affect our ability to pass gun safety laws. Or anti-discrimination laws. Or wealth tax laws.

And this affects everyone. Like this isnt just a 'stick it to the liberals' kind of thing- if the conservatives want a law passed they also have to get 60% or no dice. So it really is kind of shooting themselves in the foot.

Anyway, thanks for listening.

[fortyfive-forty]

i've been ruminating a lot on it because i think i'm bad at putting my thoughts into words but i need y'all to understand that while there are absolutely a lot of Not Good Things about the finals being held in saudi arabia for three years...the way people seem to treat is as morally black and white is shortsighted and unhelpful.

realistically the players traveling there will be protected. it may be uncomfortable, it's certainly not ideal, but they will travel there for a few weeks, play their tennis, then leave. there are a lot of women, a lot of queer people who actually live in saudi arabia who cannot just leave, who are actually subjected to laws and social climates...and to me it just seems very disrespectful to that actual lived experience, for everybody to sort of turn their noses up and get on their high horses. of course, if the players wish to opt out, that is their choice, but that is their choice to make. that's their judgement. not ours.

and then, what about a tournament like miami? florida is literally experiencing one of the worst active regressions that i've seen in the us (granted i'm young). things like critical race theory and lgbtq+ ed are being removed from curriculums, rights for trans youth, trans healthcare, etc. are going backwards. abortion rights? gun violence? and yes i know that the laws and climate in saudi arabia are different gravy, i understand that, but my point is, no one would ever DREAM of arguing against hosting a tournament in miami despite all of these issues. and we can extend this to a lot of other tournaments! i mean, all the outrage about fifa hosting a world cup in qatar, but we don't have any of these sentiments about doha? i've seen other people bring up that the finals were hosted in singapore when gay marriage was still illegal there. we've already talked about italy's fascist prime minister. and i could go on and on and on about the war crimes of countries like the us or the uk - is the us not participating actively in genocide right now? where is the standard? if you argue against hosting the finals in saudi arabia for the reason of human rights, to me it seems you have to uphold that standard for the location you do land on. and i can guarantee, you will not find a single country in the world with clean hands.

i want to be clear i am not arguing that hosting the finals in saudi arabia is a good thing, especially for three years, especially because it's definitely going there because of money, and not for any of the "good" reasons i think some people want us to believe about "improving the region" (which is very weirdly white savior-esque anyway). i don't really have an official "conclusion" to this discussion.

what i am arguing is that i think a lot of the protests against saudi arabiahosting the finals are more an example of implicit anti-arab bias and islamophobia, rather than genuine discussion. key word implicit: i don't think most people are purposefully trying to be anti-arab/islamophobic. or at least, i'd like to believe nobody is. but i also think, particularly in the west, there is already so much of this xenophobic sentiment ingrained. and this is why i think it's really really REALLY important to check ourselves when we talk about it instead of just jumping straight to the human rights conversation without a second thought.

i'll say it plainly: i don't think the finals should be held in saudi arabia. but for me, it has more to do with sportswashing, with the dangers of the way money is thrown around in sports, and because i think it's more evidence that the wta doesn't care about player welfare but rather about making a profit (what else is new). human rights are absolutely a concern of mine, but how is it fair to hold saudi arabia to a standard that we don't seem to care about for literally anybody else?

literally look at the us's ugly ugly history, past and present, and tell me why we deserve to host a tennis tournament.

#long post #idk. this is not even all my thoughts #this is long and confusing and convoluted and i'm sorry #but i need y'all to understand it's not as easy as just saying 'oh we can't host it there' #'oh the players should boycott' #it's more complicated than that #and again i'm not really arguing one way or another #i do have my own opinion but i'm not positing that as The Right Choice #i'm definitely open to a lot more discussion on it #because i know i don't have the full perspective either #but i'm tired of seeing takes talking about how 'evil' it is to host the finals there #the way that it's happened and my suspected reasons for it (money)? yeah that's fucked up! #but just the fact that it will be hosted there...hold your horses. slow your roll #saudi arabia is like. a real country with people who actually live there and experience their own regime #god forbid they get to watch some tennis #and again. i just don't think you can ever really talk about these kinds of things and not bring up #the way countries like the us ALWAYS go unchecked #also like. gay marriage wasn't legal federally in the us until 2015. so. were do we go from here

[a-witch-in-endor]

i binged mo in like 2 days omg... i feel like a walking zombie rn how am I supposed to go on AAAAAA my heart is pounding LIKE??? it gave me SOO MANY EMOTIONS CRYINGGGGG this is The Atla Fic Ever

but more importantly, I just want to say that this fic is changing my perspective on religion. im athiest, and quite honestly I've never been able to truly understand religion. I'm a strong believer in science, so religion just has never made sense to me. reading mo though, and connecting with a character who believes so deeply in his religion, and seeing how overall, religion is meant to provide guidance to understanding the world and forming morals, I feel like I've grown a lot of respect for religion in general

it's still hard for me, because a lot of my experiences with religion (or I should say, christianity/catholicism specifically- I feel like I should make it clear that I don't judge people for following religion, I just have never seen/understood the appeal) have been with people around me who are religious and therefore very homophobic or anti-abortion etc. I'm not trying to start political discourse ofc, but experiencing that consistently has not really put religion in a positive perspective for me

but reading mo and taking lots of time to think about religion in general, and how I do have friends who are religious and still supportive of lgbtq+ ppl, or who are even queer themselves, I feel like maybe I've grown as a person to become more open minded towards religion. when someone tells me they're christian, honestly I find myself closing up around them. I don't want to make it obvious I'm queer because I feel like they'll judge or disapprove. but I think that's an unfair assumption to make

I think religion, and how it ties into a people's culture and history, is beautiful. I worry that I'll always be wary around christianity, but I'll continue trying to keep an open mind. I understand now that the original beliefs of a religion and the actions of some of its followers are not one in the same, and that the teachings of a religion can call for peace while some followers ignore this. I realize that I should not judge an entire religion simply because there are some practicers who deliberately misinterpret the original teachings

I know the religions in mo are not quite the same as the ones that I am uneasy around. but nonetheless you've helped me see religion and its followers in a new light. and for that, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I am so excited to see how the story continues, thank you for taking the time to write and continue this story for as long as you have, and for helping people like me expand our worldview and become more enriched

Ah, OP, I'm really pleased to hear that it's been a meaningful experience for you. I know a lot of people have complex relationships with religion. In fact, I think anyone who doesn't have some complexity in their relationship with religion is probably a rare specimen.

Powerhouses like Christianity are hugely affected by the amount of institutional power they've enjoyed, and you know what they say about the impact of power. But there are a lot of beautiful ideas there, too. If you're ever looking for a way to encounter more than the political powerhouse of the church, I recommend reading about liberation theology - and specifically (Catholic Priest) Gustavo Gutiérrez's A Theology of Liberation.

That all being said, I don't want to undermine the fact that there's a lot to be wary of in religious tradition, especially around perspectives on gender, sexuality, and such. It is not my perspective that these things are baked into religion specifically. It's that anything that links us to the what-came-before is going to include the problems of what came before, and religion has a lot to do with tradition, so it often falls into that trap.

I just happen to also rate the part of religion which is also about being in relationship with past and future, about continuous revelation, about liberation and obligation, about living life with consciousness and constantly asking what it means to be human and what we owe ourselves, one another, and God.

Anyway, this was barely coherent, but it comes down to: thank you for sharing. :-)

[iwanthermidnightz]

Just a few excerpts below, but please read the full article, it’s really good!

In their live shows and on The Record, the group take turns singing lead vocals, meaning they regularly get to stand a couple of feet away from the spotlight – which I sense is a more natural position for each of them. “[Touring is] way more fun together, and easy together,” says Dacus, addressing her bandmates. “It’s cute watching y’all have your little bit during ‘Cool About It’, and when you look at each other in ‘Anti-Curse’, I have no choice but to stan.” As a band, they share the weight of responsibility that they usually have to shoulder alone.

The crowds are so deeply engaged, not just because of the emotionally devastating content of the songs, but because of what Boygenius represents. They are a queer-identifying, all-female rock group in 2023, triumphantly landing themselves in spaces that used to be dominated entirely by straight men, such as their Rolling Stone cover earlier this year, in which they playfully replicated a classic 1994 photoshoot of Nirvana in business suits. And it’s not just that: they are rock stars in a very traditional sense – as their bombastic, thrashy live show, replete with stage diving et al, goes to show – who also sing songs every night about how much they love and appreciate one another. “We talk to each other about our feelings and process emotions as adults,” Baker says. “Instead of screaming at each other and throwing handles of vodka backstage.”

The band’s willingness to step up and wade into political issues has further solidified the bond they’ve formed with their fans. Earlier this summer, they performed in drag in Tennessee to protest against the state’s anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-drag laws. In May last year, when it was leaked that Roe v Wade would be overturned by the US Supreme Court, Bridgers shared on Twitter that she had undergone an abortion the previous year, alongside a link to a donation page. Young, vulnerable people are seeing their favourite rock band stand up for them – it’s powerful, and the love and appreciation the fans feel for that is clear during the live shows. At concerts throughout the year so far, there have been reports of people throwing things at artists – phones, wheels of brie, their dead mother’s ashes – but at Boygenius gigs, fans throw pink carnations, in reference to a line that Dacus sings in “We’re in Love” (“I’ll be the boy with the pink carnation pinned to my lapel”). “We’ve given a lot of who we are as people in our art, through interviews and social media,” Dacus says. “I think that’s maybe the silver lining of the parasocial relationship; they might want to treat us the way they treat their friends, instead of a mysterious, untouchable, unfazeable, unhurtable thing.”

Boygenius know that they’re speaking to – and at times, for – an underrepresented group, and it’s a point of great pride, a driving force in their work. “Being into our band is a dog whistle for the kind of kid that has similar interests,” says Baker.

“Like a sensitive gay baby,” adds Dacus.

“That is what makes [the job] meaningful to me,” says Baker. “To be away from my family when they need me to be there, to be doing things that I find inane or self-serving. I’m like, ‘Dang, look at all those kids’. Like, actually, there’s 25,000 little gay kids out there who’ve heard us talk about things like: be inside of your life. Pay attention to your friends. It’s worth it to live.”

The group have become the role models they wished they had themselves when they were growing up. “I think that if I had more queer and trans idols when I was younger, it would have felt more normal to me to engage with those things,” Dacus says. “And it’s gotten to the point of silliness, all of our stage antics and kissing at most of the shows, but I wish I had seen playful, joyful depictions of queerness.”

#boygenius #phoebe bridgers #lucy dacus #julien baker

[captain-sodapop]

As much as I would just like to talk about the MET Gala tonight, if you haven't heard by now, it has been leaked that the Supreme Court has decided to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision protecting the right to get an abortion in the United States. Make no mistake about it: this decision is the direct result of not just the last presidency, of Republicans doing everything in their power to sow violence against women and minorities, but took decades of groundwork that is the direct result of the patriarchy and white Christian Nationalism. This decision will overwhelmingly hurt women, women of color, POC, LGBTQ+ people, Indigenous women, the impoverished, and countless others. It will hurt us. It will kill us.

I don't know what to do tonight besides be angry, but I want to try to be productive here. What I can recommend is this:

Vote for Democrats in your primary and midterm elections this year. There is no other option. Republicans are literally trying to kill us. They are trying to send us back. We will not let them. Vote blue up and down the ballot this year and every year so we might have a chance at codifying abortion rights and other important issues pertaining to labor, climate, voting rights, etc. I am not asking kindly, and I am not going to make it complicated: vote blue, vote blue, vote blue. Do your research on the Democratic candidates for your primaries, but when November comes, VOTE BLUE. EVERY TIME. FOR EVERY OFFICE.

Bug the hell out of your representatives, no matter what their party. Annoy the living crap out of them and let them know that you are pissed about this and expect to see legislation. That the court needs to be expanded. That Thomas needs to be impeached for his and his wife's involvement in the insurrection. Demand to know what they will do about this. At this point, it's worth a shot.

Please, if you have the means to do so, consider donating to Planned Parenthood and their action fund, the ACLU, the National Abortion Federation, and NARAL, and any grassroots pro-choice fund you can find. Here is an article from The Cut with a list of abortion funds you can donate to right now state by state. Please feel free to add others to this post so others can see them and help out if they can.

This is scary and sad and infuriating. We saw it coming for years but it still feels like a shock. But we cannot let up. We cannot quit. That is exactly what they want, for us to roll over and give up. I get feeling helpless - I feel it right now, too - but there are a few things we can do. But I also get if right now we just need to feel scared and upset. I'm just hoping to turn this righteous anger into something productive.

#signal boost #please reblog #supreme court #politics #women's rights #pro choice #feminism #abortion #united states #healthcare #abby speaks

[qqueenofhades]

so how do you think it would be best for American leftists to label ourselves, if not socialist? i've always seen socialism as one of the more palatable terms for leftism. i agree that meeting people where they are + responding thoughtfully and compassionately to their concerns is essential, but i also think we need to use the terms which accurately describe us, and *show* through our community building and efforts that dictators like Castro and Stalin do not represent us

Frankly -- and this is never going to actually happen, but I can dream -- I honestly wish the left would just abandon the word "socialism" altogether. It's never going to be palatable in the American context, there's never going to be a moment where you can just use it and have people immediately know what you mean and/or that you mean the "good" kind of socialism and not the "bad," and it's heretofore been one of the most effective cudgels for the right-wing noise machine to hit us with. Maybe when the older generations all die out, we might have a shot at rehabilitating it, but not until then, and definitely not with the way things are going right now. I'd say that the left can keep it to use among themselves if they have to, but since the one thing that leftists love to do is attack other leftists for being Insufficiently Pure, I'm not even sure it has any use in that regard. It's become an empty signifier and it has, so far as I can see, no real critical use (a bit like "feudalism" to a medieval historian, but never mind that).

Besides, what are we actually saying with the word "socialism," and in some way that we can't rephrase and say more effectively? I would define the progressive/left-wing Democratic agenda as focused on achieving economic and racial justice, protections for women, minorities, LGBTQ+ people, abortion rights, workers, etc., reforming or otherwise significantly changing the late-stage capitalist system, fighting climate change and promoting green initiatives, and other similar policies. How exactly does the word "socialism" signify any of that, and why is it necessary that we keep it? Especially when it's been proven that this does not help us win elections and drives away the Mushy Middle voters that we have to convince to vote for us long enough to actually keep a Democratic administration/Congress in power to make changes, rather than seesawing back to the GOP every few years and putting us even more miserably behind the 8-ball?

This doesn't mean we should BE Mushy Middlemen ourselves, or aspire for some milquetoast centrism that solves nothing and pleases no one, but rather we need to figure out how to make Middle America embrace our policies as they are and how to make them attractive in that context. I think Biden did this very well with his re-election video, where he cast the Democrats as the party of freedom. This is the most American word you can possibly think of, and Americans are predisposed to like anything associated with that word. Heretofore the GOP has had a total stranglehold on it, and defined it very narrowly as military triumphalism and personal freedom to be a dick to everyone you encounter and do whatever you want while trampling over the rights of others. But that's obviously a wildly hypocritical and distorted version of "freedom," in the most Orwellian sense imaginable, and the Democrats actually are the party of freedom: freedom to live your life how you choose, freedom to make choices about your own body, freedom to let your kids be who they want and learn the truth and not get murdered in school, freedom to not live in an authoritarian repressive fascist theocracy. For way too long, Democrats have just meekly ceded the "freedom" word to Republicans, who have shit all over it and made it meaningless the way they have with everything else, and that's a major error.

Likewise, "justice" is another word that the Republicans have appropriated to mean "locking up black people for anything we want and mindlessly worshiping cops," but which Democrats need to get into reclaiming. Everybody can see for themselves how wildly corrupt and unjust the GOP-packed federal judiciary and SCOTUS is (with scandal-a-day Clarence Thomas and the rest of the Federalist Society monsters). The Democrats have a golden opportunity to -- accurately -- cast themselves as the party of justice: economic, racial, climate, gender, etc etc. It's already been proven that "defund the police" is a bad message, so don't SAY that. But talk about an overall scheme of achieving justice, and Middle America likes that! They like to see themselves as generally fair and supporting people who "play by the rules." Yes, of course the law is by nature unjust, but we can still make that messaging work to our advantage to get them to support us.

Basically, I want to see leftists and Democrats alike use the language that the country is predisposed to like: words like justice, freedom, fairness, equality, etc. It's harder to smear somebody as a nasty anti-American socialist (not, of course, that the right wing won't try) if they're talking about those things, especially freedom, and especially in a left/liberal context as the GOP becomes ever more paranoid, fascist, and authoritarian. Besides, they know they're in the minority. Abortion bans aren't popular (they really, REALLY aren't popular). Book bans aren't popular. Attacks on women, LGBTQ+ rights, and trans kids aren't popular. Election denialism and attempted coups aren't popular. Endless and unrestricted assault weapons aren't popular. Yes, a fringe part of this country is awfully and irredeemably poisoned by theocratic fascist white supremacy, but they're still not the majority, and we don't need to act like they are, or write off everybody who's not a Terminally Online Leftist as impossible to ever reach or convince. That just provides a convenient excuse for not doing any work and just letting things get worse.

So like... the Democrats and the leftists alike need to lean into these words and stop letting Republicans monopolize them with their idiot and hypocritical definitions. They also need to reckon with the fact that for a not-insignificant portion of visible and vocal tankie-leftists, they DO want to emulate Castro and Stalin, or at the very least, not care at all about the historical baggage that comes with those names. They feel that any terrible dictator was secretly good if they were a) anti-American and b) describable as "leftist" in some vague and overarching sense of the word, and that's sure as hell not going to convince John and Jane Q. NiceIowaCouple to like them. It sure as hell doesn't convince ME to like them, and I'm already a leftist/liberal who has never voted for a Republican in my life. And because we are at such a dangerous moment where we've escaped fascism but it's still trying with all its might to come back, we really, really can't afford this. It's stupid and it's useless and it's just mean.

Anyway: I want people to stop f'n using the word "socialism," especially since most of them couldn't actually define what it means, what it has meant in the past, or why any benefits outweigh the clear and obvious costs. Start talking about justice, freedom, and fairness instead, show how those things can be improved with Democrats/progressives/liberals in charge instead of Republicans, and then act accordingly. I think that might work better.

#anonymous #ask #politics for ts

[andhumanslovedstories]

Hi Brandon Sanderson apologist here: you said you want to bully him about the Mormonism which I totally get but like half his books are about questioning religion and things you've been taught all your life and he writes women and disabled people really well and respectfully so really makes you think 🤔 anyways

Honestly I don't know how to feel about him! I haven't really read enough by him to say how his religion affects his writing. I respect the statement he made about being Mormon and his opinions on LGBTQ rights. He says that this statement is not going to be enough for many people. I might be one of them, but I like the thoughtfulness of the statement. I'm still uncomfortable that he's affiliated with Brigham Young University, in fact it's my biggest issue with him, but he's clearly not Orson Scott Card and it would be unfair to say he's the same. Honestly he reminds me a lot of my world religions professor in high school who was so cool and so smart and so open-minded and taught me so much about so many different faiths in a way that seemed fair and passionate about all of them, and she was also Mormon. Like, adamantly Mormon. And I have plenty of authors I love who are/were Catholic as hell, a church institution that has got a much longer record of Believing and Promoting Politics I Don't Like. And I work at a religious hospital! I don't support religion dictating what healthcare people can receive, but I still work there. It's complicated. People do and are a lot of things that are complicated.

And I just keep thinking of that incredible complexity of people's relationship with the faith community they were raised in, the complexity of people's spirituality and belief and faith and how that intersects with the rest of their lives. About personal belief and institutional belief and when those differ and how do we trust someone when they say these things differ. Him being Mormon isn't a deal breaker to me as a reader, but I understand why it would be for others. I also don't think I know enough about him and his work to truly feel definitively either way.

I think the rub for me comes from the tithing aspect of the religion. I don't like the idea that even if Brandon Sanderson writes a book about a bunch of homos getting gay married then abortions via elaborate rock-based magic systems over the course of a thousand pages, a portion of the profits is going to be tithed to a church whose politics and missions I do not support. But again. I work for a hospital that prominently features Jesus in its mission statement. When I vote, I vote Democrat. Neither of those things one hundred percent align with all my beliefs (they in fact keep finding exciting new ways of falling short!), but they align with enough of my beliefs that I don't think I'm compromising who I am and what I value by supporting them. But hey, if other people were like "I don't like either of those things," depending on the reasoning, I understand and maybe even agree. I don't think all these things are the exact same thing, but. I don't know! It's complicated. If I ever get around to reading Mistborn, I'll come back and puzzle through it some more.