This is the way.

Hear hear!

Exactly. I don’t wear it all the time, but I’m one of the few people at my job that wears a mask (although it’s mainly because I work around people that open mouth cough and sneeze into the air without covering it 🙃). I just try not to be in the office or around people when I’m sick, but I for sure still wear my mask regardless cause I just prefer not to be sick.

I love everything you said, but badmouthing pigeons by comparing them to the far right loonies makes me sad lol. Pigeons are lovely, smart(ish), and sweet creatures!

Everything you’ve said here resonates with me. I’m also all for reclaiming words used to harm and repurposing for empowerment. One community that is really good at doing this is the drag/LGBTQ+ folx. Love this!

This, 100%. Did I have a hard time being called a weird kid growing up? Absolutely. I feel how this might make someone very uncomfortable. I embrace being called weird now after much struggle, and use it as a badge of honor. And currently, that exact flippant energy being used at people who can only parrot hateful things? That’s my bread and butter now, baby.

Soooo many microplastics leach from tea bags. I dunno, don’t do it OP… I strongly suggest loose leaf in a tin.

Your feelings are well warranted. I can’t stand how invasive just about every device is these days. From apps to cars.

This is where I’m at. It’s “you do you” so long as it doesn’t harm yourself or others.

Truth. Furthermore, accidents involving a bike and a car have mostly happened because of a lack of infrastructure and options for safe travel on bikes. Public residential streets, for example, are for all modes of transportation, not just cars. Car brains are hysterical and don’t like that, and my life has been threatened many times while riding my bike on residential streets. I even had an older woman match my speed, roll down her window, and say “Next time I see you I’m running you over.” Cyclists do absolutely nothing to deserve this, and even if they’re holding up traffic, it’s no excuse for homicide.

Precisely this. People are taught by the wealthy class to devalue certain jobs because they are deemed “lesser than,” and that the people that occupy those jobs are “not worthy” of a living wage, benefits, a stable living situation, respect, and more. This systematic dehumanization prevents us from realizing the true harms that working class people of all backgrounds are experiencing. Of course, the harms are compounded if you identify as a woman, a person of color, a queer person, as having a disability, or if you don’t speak the native language.

Environmental Justice is what we need - a sense of community, mutual support, and a collective realization of past harms that have been baked into every policy, from the local to the federal level. These harmful policies have to be disrupted and dismantled, which can only be possible through education and action. The more people that engage in collective action under the banner of Environmental Justice, the better chance we have of really making meaningful, positive change.

/rant