In other words, “no, I won’t stop desperately trying to reform an unreformable system and ignoring that it is working exactly as it was designed to, instead, I’m just going to insist on playing by the rules of this system that was designed to work against me over and over and over again expecting a different result to magically manifest in to reality”
Or, and hear me out - stop desperately trying to reform an unreformable system and ignoring that it is working exactly as it was designed to, abolish it, and build something better instead.
Which is excellent.
Just to be clear, I’m not criticising anyone who is reeling and scared right now, or you personally, or even the post itself, I just think it’s long past due that we stop wasting our collective energy and power on focusing on and trying to fix the symptoms, instead of their cause, because that’s never going to work.
But that’s still settling for suffering, which is always to be undertaken by those already most vulnerable and marginalised in society (E: as I mention, even when the “lesser evil” wins, they continue to actively target us).
And this willingness to settle for suffering is partly how we got to this point (it’s functionally how the Overton window shifts).
Aim for more.
Demand more for yourself.
This probably won’t make anyone feel any better, but here in the UK we got the “lesser evil”, and all of the threats that existed before, still exist now. They are going ahead with cutting benefits and making them harder to get, they are continuing their attack on trans people, they are not opposing genocide in any significant way., they continue to favour rich over poor.
The problem isn’t who sits at the head of the pyramid, the problem is the pyramid itself, because by definition someone always has to be at the bottom and bear the brunt of those above.
As bad as they are, we must stop focusing on the symptoms, and address the cause - abolish capitalism, abolish the state, abolish hierarchy.
This.
One of the best ways to confront a bigot is by pretending to be completely naive of their intentions, and getting them to dig their own hole by repeatedly asking them to explain what they mean.
When I was a kid my parents wanted to open up an existing cavity under our house to build a basement, and that never happened because it (E: was discovered during the building inspection that it) was full of Radon. I guess I’m desensitised (but possibly slowly decaying a little faster than I should be…).
They can find another line, or skip trying to be funny altogether if the only way they can think of is gendered and they can’t be arsed to check the gender of the person they’re talking to.
And lets be honest - it wasn’t that good a joke.
Either way, it really isn’t fucking difficult, and is definitely easier than whatever the fuck this mess is.
Your app would ideally just respect display names and it would require no extra effort on your part to gender people correctly.
Even if pronouns aren’t displayed, it takes even less effort to use neutral pronouns for everyone unless you know otherwise.
That’s not an excuse nor justification for misgendering anyone, neutral pronouns exist, use them.
I uh, I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect people to check others profiles to ensure we are correctly pronouning them
And yet, in that little whine right there, you managed to use the very gender neutral pronoun that would have saved you all this hassle (including the hassle you’re making up of having to go and look up the pronouns of every individual you interact with).
So you know it exists, and you know how to use it, but you decided to try and be funny instead, and it backfired.
You misgendered someone, and now have to deal with the most minor of minorest consequences for harm you caused to another.
You are still free to create 100 different accounts on 100 different instances, just not the one where you broke the rules. No one owes you a platform, deal with it.
Your choice now is to double down and make it worse, or you can be an adult, admit you made a mistake, and learn from it for the future so you don’t repeat it.
I dare to say you have already chosen, but feel free to prove me wrong.
Yup. I’ve had to stop using ebay because even when you check out with your own card, it goes via paypal, and they have misused my data too many times for me to keep putting any trust in them.
It sucks, because a lot of mutual aid is done over paypal too, but I’m really struggling to justify leaving my account open (and I’m not even in the US where op applies).
Came here to make a similar comment having had a similar experience.
Judging how “easy” someone might have it based solely on age is a ridiculous thing to do.
Mental illness and or abusive parents or siblings (E: or as someone else mentioned: grief) don’t suddenly stop existing when you’re on holiday, if anything, being away from your own safe space and comfort zone, and in a strange place you don’t know surrounded by people you might not even be able to speak to, never mind ask for help, and your abusers potentially feeling more free than they would at home, can make everything significantly worse.
There’s plenty of shit to criticise in the world we live in, emo kids reaaaaly shouldn’t be one of them.
Ha, fair enough, still not sure alcohol and chocolate are comparable in terms of addiction, but mostly poking fun, don’t worry about it…
Paychoactive and addictive?
Have you been buying your chocolate from the dispensary again?
Letting oil barons, war mongers, and other billionaire scum off some really big hooks with that “entirely” part…
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And quite frankly, we’re long past that point.
If you think there is any other way to fight fascism, you’ve not been paying any attention, and clearly don’t have a fucking clue what fascism actually entails and how it functions.
ETA: moreover, fascists, who are the actual terrorists literally holding the world ransom and exploiting us all and destroying our habitat for their own gain, count on people like you to turn on people like me and call us the terrorists to ensure they maintain their power. You have a choice to make.