#at a surface level it seems as if she's an offensive depiction of mental illness but once you go deeper you realize shes not for the very- | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

raspberryjellybrains · 1 year

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I've been thinking a lot lately about Delirium and the way she speaks. She talks around a concept, never hitting it head on but glancing off through a series of metaphors and related concepts that explain things far better than wording them straight might. It's very relatable, and I think that's why I like her; that's how I think.

To me, the world isn't composed of precisely defined concepts but a series of interconnected existences which can all, ultimately, be related to each other. I also experience things in the incredibly specific manner Delirium seems to. I have sensitivities largely untethered from aversions, meaning that while I don't often find things deeply unpleasant or intolerable, I still experience them with an unusual specificity which often defies concise explanation. The best way I can convey certain feelings or experiences is through other feelings, experiences, and concepts to weave together a series of approximations that through their similar and dissimilar traits narrow down to what I'm trying to describe. Delirium does this too, and it's treated as a part of her that's no better or worse than any other. There are those that don't understand and those that do, and those that at least try to are awarded for their efforts because finally and most importantly, she genuinely has something to say. Her speech patterns are deceptively rambling because she takes a long time to say what she means to say, while simultaneously saying exactly it.

Delirium is neurodivergent coded in such a cathartic way because of this. I feel her frustration and joy because I know what it's like to be the person trying to explain something that has no words to assign, asking all of the time if there's a word for what she's feeling as a rhetorical and genuine question so that she can explain something without explaining it and call into question why we feel everything must be precisely laid in the place of as few words as possible. She is incredibly intelligent, but loses track of all of what's happening in a far more obvious way than most because there's just so much to keep track of, which is also very relatable as a neurodivergent person. Without putting labels on the experience, she perfectly captures it. I just... I like Delirium quite a lot, and think she'd be very good at post-modern literature.

#i hope to god this comprehensible #im trying so hard to get this shit in a line exactly becaude of why i like her #theres jusy SO MUCH to say its very hard to keep it straight and many more things to focus on beyond it #i love that delirium is treated by the narrative as an intelligent and wise being that just conveys that in an unconventional way #shes like my mirror metaphor. no mirror can light upon the minutae without shattering and no shattered mirror can see the bigger picture.#shes shattered but knows from when she was whole what the full picture looks like but she gets lost in all of the fragments #which gives her an incredibly unique and valuable perspective #at a surface level it seems as if she's an offensive depiction of mental illness but once you go deeper you realize shes not for the very-#reason she at first seemed to be. she embodies what is looked down upon but its told through side comments and events that theres more to-#her than the seeming irrationality.#she picks up and puts things down as she remembers them but that doesnt mean any one thing is any less valuable than any other #the ephemeral quality of her attentions dont diminish their value.#i have a lot of thoughts about her i just. am very fond.#and the way she and dream truly demonstrate the dichotomy of mental illness and neurodivergence makes me froth at the mouth.#he knows what shes saying most of the time and knows where shes at whether he admits it to himself or not because shes just externalizing-#what exists solely internally for him. hes better at masking and that is their difference which makes Such a statement oh my god when you-#think about how each are treated and understood.#it took me like. two weeks to organize these thoughts btw. they float in little brain clouds <3 #i need to watch everything everywhere all at once #anyway #delirium of the endless #the sandman meta #the sandman #raspberry rambles

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thecorteztwins · 4 years

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A Primer for Intersex Characters

I hesitated on writing this, since I am not intersex. But I’ve seen a lot of intersex characters around, a lot of common tropes and mistakes, and not any guides on how to write them accurately or respectfully. I cannot claim to have any experience relevant to being intersex, so I’ve simply tried my best to read the words and voices of many intersex people and relay them here. I welcome correction if something is wrong, since my goal here is to help stop misinformation and misunderstanding, not spread it further. Okay, let’s begin with the physical/medical stuff. - There are multiple terms for people who are NOT intersex, including perisex, endosex, jutasex, and dyadic. Please use any of these rather than “normal”. Cisgender is also not an acceptable substitution, as it conflates intersex with being trans (and some intersex people *are* cisgender) The term “hermaphrodite” is offensive and inaccurate; it is to be used for animals for whom true hermaphrodism (being fully reproductive as both sexes) is the norm, not for people. That said, I have encountered intersex people who use it as a reclaimed term. But if you are not intersex, you should not be using it for your character. - Intersex people are not a third sex category unto themselves ,nor are they both sexes at once. Intersex conditions are variations on male or female, and many intersex conditions are in fact sex-specific. - Intersex is not one thing. There is no single condition called “intersex”. It’s like “mentally ill” or “disabled” it’s a category containing many different conditions, each with different symptoms and presentations. If you are going to have your character be intersex, please have them have a specific condition (even if they don’t know it/have not been diagnosed/etc) and research that condition thoroughly. Being intersex is always attached to a condition, and there are a limited number of said conditions in existence, and, again, each has specific symptoms and presentations, it’s not just a random mix-and-match. - Most of these conditions are not just cosmetic, there are often MEDICAL PROBLEMS. Most of the time it’s bone and/or heart problems and a need for more screening for reproductive/gonadal health issues, but some have more specific issues. For instance, CAH comes with excessive hairiness and ambiguous genitalia in females, but also something called excess natriuresis, also known as salt-wasting, which can lead to death, and a lower level of cortisol in the blood that puts them at a constant risk of adrenal crisis. So it’s not just about how the body LOOKS, or just about reproductive/sexual function, the entire system is often affected by too much or too little sex hormones. Sometimes there are even cognitive effects; Turner’s Syndrome can cause nonverbal learning disorders, difficulty in perceiving spatial relationships, and issues with motor control, while Klinefelter’s Syndrome can cause learning delays in general. Again, please research if your character is going to have this, and consider the effects. - Not all intersex conditions affect the genital configuration at all. For instance, in Persistent Müllerian duct syndrome, someone who looks externally like a completely normal cis man will have parts of the female reproductive system internally; many of these men never know this til they’re adults and it’s discovered in a medical examination for some other issue and it gets discovered by accident. Likewise, someone with AIS is often going to look totally cis female and be raised as such, and only find it out when she sees a medical specialist because her parents wonder why she isn’t getting her period yet. Ultrasounds, blood tests, and genetics tests are all much better indications of an intersex condition than a mere visual examination of the genitals, as well as kinder and less invasive. - Some conditions that DO affect the genitals still don’t make them ambiguous in any way, just not configured in the usual way. For instance, in Mullerian agenesis, a woman is just missing the uterus and thus infertile, but doesn’t have any “male” traits. Nor does having XXX chromosomes masculinize a woman at all, but it is an abnormality of sex chromosomes and thus classed as intersex. Sometimes it’s not about the sex being ambiguous, but about something that’s missing or not arranged as it should be. Again, it’s not a sexy disorder, and can result in a lot of unpleasant medical and mental effects depending just what’s going on. - Most intersex conditions result in infertility. Depending on their particular condition and its severity, someone may be fertile, but they are NEVER going to be fertile BOTH WAYS. There is no such thing as someone who can both impregnate another person and be impregnated themselves, not unless they’re some kind of mutant, alien, etc., and that’s obviously not what’s being discussed here. - Intersex people should not be used as an excuse to make fetish fantasy fuel. If you want to make a beautifully androgynous boy who can get pregnant or an Amazonian goddess with a big dick, just make that and be honest it’s your personal porn fantasy, but don’t call them intersex or claim it’s representation of any sort. Especially since there’s no condition I’m aware of that’s going to result in either of these things. Being intersex is often fetishized or treated as a freakish curiosity, sometimes both at once. If your character is extremely sexual or sexualized, and their intersex status is a large part of that, reconsider. If your character is depicted as bizarre or monstrous, and being intersex is part of why, don’t do that. - It varies with the specific condition, but most intersex people are actually not going to look androgynous like many people seem to think. Most, in fact, are going to look like perfectly ordinary men and women; you probably have met an intersex person and didn’t know it. That said, there are sometimes phenotypical symptoms. Again, this is NOT androgynous beauty or elegant gender ambiguity as I think people often hope/fantastize, but more like, say, the webbed neck of Turner’s syndrome, or the gynecomastia of Klinefelter’s (which are NOT big perky tits), etc. I am not trying to say intersex people are ugly or these features are anything to be ashamed of, but rather that if you are going to represent people with these conditions, to include the real features of their conditions, even the ones that don’t appeal to you, rather than defaulting to, again, fantasies and fetishes. Now comes the real thorny territory--- common ideas and presumptions I’ve seen around what intersex people think, identify as , etc., and addressing those. Again I am not intersex so I don’t want to speak on “what intersex people think” merely relay what I have seen, and what it comes down to is---there is no one thing all people who are intersex think! - Please be aware of the many issues intersex people face, be it medical problems stemming from their specific condition, being used as a political football by other groups, or finding doctors who will treat them respectfully and compassionately. Medical abuse of intersex people and trying to “fix” their genitals via surgery on infants and children is a rampant thing, and something that many intersex people are opposed to. It’s also worth noting that the terms “AMAB” and “AFAB” originated in the intersex community, as it CAFAB and CAMAB. I’m just trying to cover basics here but if you’re going to write a person with an intersex condition, these are all worth looking into further. - Many people with an intersex condition see it as just that, a medical condition. Many do not see themselves as something besides male or female, just as men or women who have a medical condition, and many may in fact be offended by the claim that they are a third category. It is for this reason that many dislike being used as “gotcha” to the claim there are “only two sexes” especially when it’s by people who don’t actually know or care anything about intersex people or the issues they face, and just want to win an argument, because it’s saying they’re NOT a man or NOT a woman because of their condition. - Many also do not consider being intersex to be LGBT and don’t wish to be included under the umbrella as such. - But, by the same token, some DO consider themselves a third category and DO feel that being intersex should be part of the LGBT umbrella. - I’ve noticed there seems to be an assumption that all intersex people are inherently nonbinary, genderqueer, trans, etc. Firstly, that’s not true. Many intersex people identify within the gender binary as a man or a woman, and many identify with their birth sex. I think this idea, while progressive on the surface, actually belies a very cisnormative way of thinking---the idea that the body must match the gender identity, so therefore someone with an “in-between” body must have an “in-between” gender identity! Which is really quite an offensive assumption, and no more true than the idea that everyone with a vagina identifies as a woman or that everyone with a penis identifies as a man. This is not to say that having a genderqueer/genderfluid/nonbinary/etc person with an intersex condition is automatically wrong either, there are non-binary intersex people in real life too, I’m saying that it isn’t an automatic part of being intersex. - Likewise, I see an assumption that all intersex people are going to be queer, pansexual, etc., or that their partners by definition must be pansexual, etc. But many intersex people are heterosexual. Many are also gay, or bi, or ace, and so on. And those who are monosexual are not less gay or straight for being intersex, nor are their partners. Believe it or not, there’s a ton of regular ol’ cishet people who have an intersex condition. - There’s also an assumption I’ve seen that all intersex people are all automatically going to be trans-supportive/trans-inclusive or count as trans by default. This is also not the case. There are seen intersex people who were trans/enbyphobic, just like anyone else can be. Many do not see themselves as comparable to trans people, and resent the idea they are the same or comparable. Some just don’t give a fuck either way. - Some intersex people have deep and complicated relationships with their status as intersex. Some see it as no different than just having diabetes. Some are activists and very knowledgeable about a host of intersex topics, both the physical aspects of various conditions and the political issues surrounding being intersex in general, and are very opinionated. Some people just know about their own condition and nothing more, and have no involvement in any kind of activism, no particularly strong opinions, etc. - Some people always knew they were intersex, some didn’t find out til puberty, some didn’t find out til in their adult life. It depends vastly on their condition and how it presents, as well as the access they had to medical care, whether their doctors were qualified or not, what decade they were growing up in and where, whether their families told them, etc. - There is debate on if PCOS counts as being intersex or not. I’ve seen a lot of people with PCOS argue it does, and a lot of people with other conditions say it’s in no way the same. I am not taking sides, as I don’t have either, just something to be aware of. At the moment though, no intersex rights organization or doctor classifies PCOS as intersex. So basically what it comes down to is that there’s a big diversity of conditions, and likewise a big diversity of experience, identities, and opinions. Do your research, and listen to intersex people, including the ones whose opinions you don’t like or whose opinions are contradict those of other intersex people. Find what fits your character best, think very critically on why you want an intersex character in the first place and why you chose what you did, and, above all, be respectful.

#rp stuff #intersex #out of cortez

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film-masochisme · 5 years

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Midsommar (2019)

Directed by Ari Aster

Doomsy’s Rating: 56/100

Ari Aster certainly didn’t make friends with me with his debut feature. I hated, absolutely LOATHED Hereditary, which was for my money the worst film I saw in 2018. My problems with that film were the unbridled pretensions Aster demonstrated throughout that film, going extremely hard on film-school level stylistic choices and a whole bunch of art-house rip offs that read like that one dorky cousin you have who’s like “OH HEY LOOK AT THIS SCENE FROM SO AND SO MOVIE!, so cool right?” and doesn’t want to engage you in conversation. The script made no sense, and his scenes were played so terribly straight that they were unintentionally funny. Like a lot of the time in Hereditary I couldn’t contain my laughter over how hard it was trying to be **shocking**. As far as I was concerned, me, a seasoned horror fan, can smell bullshite a mile away and Aster was cooking a big, steaming load of it. The entire second half of that movie literally was just people standing around and badly explaining the plot to each other while he stuck on some pathetically surface-level themes about grief and families and whatnot.

When Midsommar was first announced, Aster was one again doing his “list” of movies he’s using for references (read: ripping off) which included things like Tess, Macbeth, Hard to Be a God (come on Ari, chill out... you’re a lot of things but Aleksei German you will never be), I was definitely looking for a trash barrel to vomit in, because it just looked like he was serving a bunch of half-cooked collage art to an unaware mainstream audience who probably hasn’t seen any art house films in their lives (or if they haven’t, they haven’t seen the films he’s ripping off). I’ve had my issues with Quentin Tarantino and Eli Roth doing similarly juvenile things with movie-buff too-cool-for-the-room-asswipe references and pastiches and homages and whatnot, but Aster was making me cringe before his film even premiered. Then I saw the runtime was 150 mintues! Then I groaned again, because what Aster needed was a producer to make him cut shit out to make the story more concise and disciplined, not to add another twenty fucking minutes to fill the prestige market’s sad message to narcissistic young directors that if a film is longer, it’s better. So earlier today I coughed up my eight quid and sat down to watch Midsommar. About two-thirds of the way through it, a strange feeling crept through me. And as the credits rolled, I found myself in an even more insane revelation:

I...

I kinda liked it

I was in genuine shock at how not terrible Midsommar turned out to be. Now, I need to be clear that the movie is heavily flawed and then some, and also I think my reasons for not hating it are much, much different than the general consensus’s reasons for their enjoyment. First of all, I want to state all of the things that are very, very, very wrong with the film. In fact, things that are so wrong that nearly push the film into outright shameful treatment of mental illness, trauma, etc. that is so misjudged and so shallow that if Ari Aster really is that ignorant (which he may very well be) I can’t forgive him for it. Warning, there are spoilers ahead. If you want to skip them, scroll down until you see the next bold marker.

--- SPOILERS AHEAD ----

Midsommar’s opening movement sets up a family tragedy to haunt Dani (Florence Pugh) for the rest of the film. She has a sister named Terri who is depicted as bipolar and frequently threatens or hints at suicide in a way that is casually thrown aside by both her and Dani’s boyfriend Christian (Jack Reynor) until one night when Terri kills her and Dani’s parents, then herself. Now, I don’t know about you guys here on tumblr, but I found the way this was presented as the definition of perpetuating stereotypes about bipolar disorder, namely that they want attention, and/or are monsters that ruin everything around them. I found that initial set up to be bordering on offensive, actually.

After that, we are led to the Swedish village where all the crazy shit takes place and it actually was much more tame than I was expecting. As far as the craziness, it’s initially represented through a crude and (again) stereotyped ritual called Attetsupa, which Aster seems to derive great shock value from an otherwise insidious and calculated bit of cultural revisionism. Then, my other huge issue with the film comes late when there is a sexual assault of a man that is either meant to be played as a joke (in which case it wasn’t funny) or for shock value, in which case it isn’t even shocking, just goofy. All that and more in the sake of a film that ends without a third act, and Christian is literally sacrificed because Dani thinks that he cheated on her when in actuality he was being drugged, coerced, and sexually assaulted? That has to be either a shaggy dog kind of thing, or just weak storytelling. Either way, that bit wasn’t smart and was bordering on juvenile.

--- END SPOILERS ---

So, as you can see, the movie is extremely disorganized and sloppy, and horribly put together from a storytelling perspective. So why did I somewhat enjoy it? A couple of reasons. Firstly, there’s a scene relatively early in the film in which one of the more annoying American characters (who no lie spends the whole movie vaping) walks across the village and takes a piss on a sacred tree, and it was right then that I realized the film must be a black comedy. So from then on, watching the film in that mindset, I actually found it rather hilarious when I thought it was being intentional. It is also gorgeously shot, even if it does occasionally wash over into unnecessarily stylized territory. People love Aster’s symmetry and slow zooms (not me, I hate them) but I was more impressed by his slow and low tracking shots through the village that looked like evocations of the classical Russian sci-fi such as Tarkovsky or Evgeny Yffit.

On a pure surface level enjoyment, the film actually moves along rather nicely, using its length to build rather than explain the plot (cough...Hereditary... cough). I must confess, however, that I struggle to see a lot of the “depth” written about in the overwhelmingly glowing reviews I’ve read thus far. I found it to be very empty and hollow, which isn’t a bad thing the way that I was watching it, but if there was thematic profundity or allegory in any way shape or form, it was completely lost amongst the increasingly ludicrous “shock” scenes which all played at least to me as effective punchlines. I think marketing this as a horror film has greatly hurt its chances at the box office, because it’s neither scary nor shocking enough. Audiences expecting a traditional horror movie will be put off by the weirdness of it more than they will be frightened. Also, I should point out, in the screening I saw it in, there was a LOT of laughter, so again, I’m not sure in what position the film is asking me to watch it in.

But as a comedy, it’s fucking hilarious and a formally impressive one, too. Also, Jack Reynor is lowkey extremely hot and uhhh yeah.

Also, p.s. the movie paled in comparison to the old lady behind me’s reaction to the film as we were walking out:

“I’ve never seen so many penises in one film before.”

Oh boy.

#film #filmreview #midsommar #2019 #ari aster #jack reynor #florence pugh #will poulter #horror #pagan #cults #cinema #movies #folk horror #black comedy #scandinavian horror #so much gratuitous nudity #so so much

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bountyofbeads · 5 years

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https://www.politico.com/amp/story/2019/07/03/border-agency-secret-facebook-group-1569572?__twitter_impression=true

BORDER PATROL KNEW: @CBP leadership was told in 2016 about offensive posts to secret @facebook group — including images of agents simulating sex acts, taking selfies while defecating & one of an agent smiling while holding what appeared to be a HUMAN SKULL

Border agency knew about secret Facebook group for years

Border Patrol leadership knew about photos posted to the group as far back as 2016, when agents reported them, according to a DHS official.

By TED HESSON and CRISTIANO LIMA |Published 07/03/2019 06:02 PM EDT,

Updated 07/03/2019 08:09 PM EDT | Politico | Posted July 5, 2019 |

Customs and Border Protection officials have been aware for up to three years that a secret Facebook group for current and former Border Patrol agents was posting offensive messages — far longer than previously reported.

Border Patrol leadership knew about photos posted to the group as far back as 2016, when agents reported them, according to a current Homeland Security official. The images — several of which were provided to POLITICO — show agents engaging in conduct that includes simulating sex acts and taking selfies while defecating. A former DHS official said he was aware of the Facebook group during the past year.

Neither official knew of any serious punishment ever leveled at members of the Facebook group.

ProPublica reported Monday that comments in the “I’m 10-15” Facebook group posted as recently as last weekmocked the death of a 16-year-old detained Guatemalan migrant, made bigoted remarks about throwing a burrito at two Latina congresswomen, and posted obscene and misogynistic illustrations of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). The group’s name refers to the code used to signal “aliens in custody.”

Top Homeland Security Department officials, including acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan and Border Patrol Chief Carla Provost, denounced those posts this week and pledged to hold any culpable agents accountable.

“Reporting this week highlighted disturbing & inexcusable social media activity that allegedly includes active Border Patrol personnel,” McAleenan wrote. “These statements are completely unacceptable, especially if made by those sworn to uphold the @DHSgov mission, our values & standards of conduct.”

But screen shots provided to POLITICO and interviews with the two DHS officials indicate that the agency wasn't blindsided by ProPublica’s report. Staffers in CBP’s public affairs office monitored the Facebook group over the past year “as a source of intelligence” to see “what people are talking about,” according to the former DHS official.

“We were not talking about ‘10-15’ as a liability or an asset or as an item of concern,” the former official said.

In one screenshot that the current DHS official says was flagged in 2016 to then-Border Patrol Chief Mark Morgan, an agent — carrying a gun in a holster — simulated sex with a training mannequin in the desert. In another, what appeared to be the same agent smiled while holding what appeared to be a human skull. The caption made reference to handling “a little human remains” during canine training.

Morgan, who was recently named acting chief of CBP, did not answer POLITICO's request for comment.

A third photo showed an agent’s unzipped green pants lowered below his knees while in a squatting position, in what appeared to be a selfie taken while defecating in the Arizona desert, according to the tagged location. The image was flagged to then-Tucson Deputy Chief Patrol Agent Felix Chavez, the current official said. Chavez did not answer POLITICO's request for comment.

A CBP spokesperson told POLITICO Wednesday evening that the incidents were reported at the time to the Office of Professional Responsibility, which launched and concluded investigations. The spokesperson said that due to due privacy policies, the agency could not disclose additional information, including whether disciplinary action was taken.

The former DHS official who declined to be identified argued that neither DHS nor CBP possesses the manpower to police all employee social media posts.

“Nobody in government can watch everything that’s being said about an entity in social media,” this person said. “What gets posted at 5 p.m. today will be buried under thousands of messages tomorrow.”

Gil Kerlikowske, who worked as CBP commissioner from 2014 until Trump took office in January 2017, led the agency during the period in 2016 when the images were allegedly reported to CBP. Kerlikowske said he didn't recall being alerted to the “10-15” group.

Kerlikowske also said he wasn’t familiar with any of the specific images from the group that were reportedly shared with CBP leaders in 2016. From their description, he said, they sounded like the type of incidents “you would probably handle at a more local level,” and that “especially the defecation thing seems kind of juvenile.”

The former commissioner added that while the majority of Border Patrol agents perform difficult work in a humane manner, “it’s still no excuse” for anyone to post offensive content.

The DHS inspector general’s office — the department’s internal watchdog — has launched an investigation into the recent Facebook posts, officials said Tuesday.

But given free speech protections granted civil servants, the anonymity that social media provides, and the participation of many government retirees, it wasn’t clear as of Wednesday that either the Trump administration or Facebook would be able to shut the Facebook group down or punish many of those who joined it.

A Facebook spokesperson said Tuesday the company is "cooperating with federal authorities in their investigation" into the 10-15 group, but it wasn’t clear whether the social network would take any enforcement action against its members or remove any of the posts.

Facebook prohibits an array of harmful content on its platforms, from criminal behavior to hate speech to posts inciting violence or harassing individuals. Several of the posts surfaced from the secretive Border Patrol group would appear to run afoul of those standards.

The post that depicts Ocasio-Cortez being forced to perform a sex act, for instance, seems likely to violate the company’s rules against violent and sexually suggestive content.

Others, in which officers talked about migrants in derogatory and dehumanizing terms, could break Facebook’s rules against hate speech. Facebook defines such speech as any “direct attack on people” based on identity markers such as race, ethnicity or national origin. The spokesperson said the company applies those standards “across Facebook, including in secret groups.”

In a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, House Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) said the posts “appear to violate Facebook’s Community Standards,” particularly its ban on hate speech. Another House Democrat, Tech Accountability Caucus co-chair Robin Kelly (D-Ill.), told POLITICO, "It is Facebook’s responsibility to ensure its platform — either publicly or in private messages— is not a refuge for hate."

The company declined to comment on whether it will take any enforcement action against the group, its members, or their posts.

The government’s response, meanwhile is complicated by the distinct free speech protections granted federal employees, according to Shannon Farmer, an attorney who represents employers for the D.C.-based firm Ballard Spahr.

The government, she said, is obliged to protect federal employees’ right to address matters of public concern, and may punish them only if their speech interferes with the performance of their jobs.

“Typically, if people are expressing political views, that is considered to be protected speech,” Farmer said. However, law enforcement officers who use racist or derogatory language may give the impression they won’t be able to perform their job without bias. “You really need to look at the very specific language that they’re using,” she said.

The punishment for such offenses can range from counseling or a reprimand to termination, she said.

Border Patrol isn’t the only law enforcement agency to struggle with workers posting inflammatory remarks or images online. The Philadelphia Police Department in June reassigned 72 officers to desk duty following a review of social media posts.

“Every single law enforcement agency has a group like this,” said one former DHS official.

Both CBP and a union that represents Border Patrol agents have condemned the posts since they became public this week, and said they don’t represent the mentality of most agents.

Still, the posts rattled some former officials. “If you’re going to joke about dead Hispanic babies and raping members of Congress on Facebook in front of 9,500 of your colleagues,” another former DHS official said, “what are you saying and doing in private?”

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