Orion|He/him or They/them| queer af
The Booksellers (D.W. Young, 2019)
This documentary is sooooo good!
Books have literally been dying basically since Guttenberg. I am 1000% serious. There are pamphlets and journals and letters dating back hundreds of years that discuss the book as a fad.
i was playing scrabble and i had a B, U, R, G, E, and R and i thought “aha burger, one who burgs, but my mom will never accept that as a word” but then i remembered burger is actually a word
one time I played the word “am” and I thought, they can totally let that slide because of AM radio and A.M time.
then i remembered
Scrabble does things to your mind that you can never come back from.
I once was playing and put down ‘cow’ but in my mind I was saying it so it rhymed with ‘crow’ and I told my friend that it might not be a real word but I’m playing it and he can’t stop me and he looked me right in the eye and said it like how ‘cow’ is supposed to be said and I was so mad at myself I nearly flipped the board.
My brother played the word ‘scrabble’ and my mom said, “I actually don’t think that’s a word.” And I said, “yes it is? ‘scrabbled eggs’???”
once I was like, “You know how at the end of old books where instead of saying ‘the end’ in English they say it in italicised Latin to be all posh? I wish that was a word in English - fin.”
but what’s even better is that my friend didn’t immediately realise it either and was like, “Yeah, that’s too bad! Wait…”
what a deal.
And then your hip would break because their medical staff is garage and they don’t have the same regulations as over so no you’re back to square one you fucking tool
that is american propaganda used to justify their lack of a working healthcare system. it’s not true and even if it was what good would having slightly better healthcare do if it’s only accessible by the richest members of society?
The american middle class thinking they have access to the best medical care in the world is always depressing. For some treatments even the upper middle class would need to spend most of their wealth just to get the same level of healthcare available for free in other developed nations (and some underdeveloped ones). It’s one of the many reasons why life expectancy in the US is ranked on the same level as several third-world countries.
Additionally, american medical research is fantastic, but your works and guidelines are more beneficial to other countries than yourselves due to your fucked up healthcare system.
Do they genuinely think that since they pay more, they get better care?
Also, do they think Europeans live in a fucking swamp or what? “their medical stuff is garbage” sounds like we have an expert here lol. How fucking offensive.
It’s darkly comical to me that the same people who claim that Europe is full of left-wing over-regulation, will also bleat, “Uh, but, the US has medical regulations!!!!”
My dad and his girlfriend were like “Yes, going antique shopping is worth my life and other people’s lives. :)”
I will never understand educated people believing that everything is okay because the governor decided that suddenly it’s okay for everyone to be out and about despite experts saying that it’s not okay.
This is why it pisses me off that everyone is like “Well people are going out because there isn’t strong leadership! People aren’t responsible for their actions! It’s not their fault if they choose to ignore data and scream at people when they’re told to put on a mask!”
With many people, it’s not even the leadership. They can be told the facts and they’ll just say “I don’t actually care. I want to go out and do things! I won’t get it!” I keep telling people that they shouldn’t acting like business as usual because the pandemic hasn’t gone away, and their response is that they just don’t care anymore. Not “That info is wrong!” It’s “I lost interest in caring.” These are highly educated people. People pay a ton of money for an education and fail to use it in the simplest way possible.
Really, it’s a fundemental American belief that they can defy death, and illness only happens to stupid people and people that deserve it. It’s American selfishness, toxic individualism, and ableism that they refuse to confront. They think that if they just go out and get drinks with their friends or just go out and go shopping, then they can’t possible get sick. They’re just doing something innocent, right? Innocent things can’t lead to sickness, right? If you’re having fun, nothing bad can happen, right? This won’t happen to me, because I’m good and bad things don’t happen to good people. Besides, it’s only the poors and brown people that get it the most.
We cannot be lax with this! It is not over! People are getting too careless because they’re bored and demand things go back to normal.
I can’t do this anymore. I’m being a straight up hermit for real after this. Americans are too stupid for their own good.
“You don’t need to plant a tree to regenerate a forest,” Fleischman tells The Verge. Forests can heal on their own if they’re allowed to, he says, and these forests end up being more resilient and more helpful in the climate fight than newly planted plots of trees. He argues that the best way to ensure there are enough trees standing to trap the carbon dioxide heating up the planet is to secure the political rights of people who depend on forests — primarily indigenous peoples whose lands are frequently encroached upon by industry and governments.
(Also trees aren’t the answer to everything - for example, much of North America is predisposed to being ancient grassland and prairie: restoration of native ecosystems can begin with humans, incorporate humans and grow with humans, following indigenous leadership and the native tendencies of the natural biome - and not necessarily terraforming the world into a mossy Tolkienesque English woodland. The healed prairie will not become an “unspoiled” European forest, but a living prairie in a thoughtful relationship with people. Healing is not synonymous with forests, it is not synonymous with emptiness. The mental picture of the green future should be the restoration of ecosystems, and ecosystems are diverse, and they include people.
This is a passionate, somewhat niche sentiment of mine, and you’ll be familiar with it if you have heard my rants about the Grass Fandom.
This is actually touched on in the OP article, when it is mentioned that some of the proposed trees would have to be placed on Savannah and grasslands.
Savannahs and grasslands are actually decent carbon sinks, since they grow quickly and have deep roots that store carbon in the dirt. And they are also vital and important in their own right, as living ecosystems. So landscaping them into artificial forests to absorb our emissions will not be a Healed Landscape. It will be a terraformed landscape.
Then you need to think about what an ecosystem is: plants, animals, geology, human culture. You need to think about who OWNS that land, if land can be owned. And the people and animals who depend on savannahs to live have every right to say, “destroying MY home ecosystem (with trees) to offset YOUR corporate pollution is not fair. It isn’t for the good of the planet; it’s for the convenience of YOU, because you equate planting trees with easy absolution, instead of the more difficult work of reparation and restoration” and that is a LOT for an antelope to say! It’s putting a lot of unreasonable pressure on antelopes!
To put it another way, the best way to restore ecosystems is to learn from people who know their local ecosystems very well, and to enable the use of this knowledge to heal the ecosystem. Trees are great, but they aren’t the default landscape. And we should move our mental images of “the future healed world” AWAY from the mossy European elvish forest, and TOWARDS restored biomes with their diversity of plants and geology.)
Yes!!! In the last couple of years I have been educating myself on the ways that white conservation efforts have harmed and oppressed indigenous people who are the true experts on how to protect and preserve their land and ecosystems.
-Malcolm X (1962)
5/26 4 officers fired for murdering George Floyd
5/27 Charges dropped for Kenneth Walker (Breonna Taylor’s boyfriend, who police accused of killing her)
5/28 University of Minnesota cancels contract with police
5/28 3rd precinct police station neutralized by protesters
5/28 Minneapolis transit union refuses to bring police officers to protests or transport arrested protesters
5/29 Activists commandeer Minneapolis hotel to provide shelter to homeless
5/29 Former officer Chauvin arrested and charged with murder
5/29 Louisville Mayor suspends “no-knock” warrants
5/30 US Embassies across Africa condemn police murder of George Floyd
5/30 Minnesota Attorney General Keith
Ellison takes over prosecution of the murdering officer
5/30 Transport Workers Union refuses to help NYPD transport arrests protesters
5/30 Maryland lawmakers forming work group on police reform, accountability
5/31 2 abusive officers fired for pulling a couple out of their car and tasing them - Atlanta, GA
6/1 Minneapolis public schools end contract with police
6/1 Confederate monument removed after being toppled by protesters - Birmingham, AL
6/1 CA prosecutors launch campaign to stop DAs from accepting police union money
6/1 Tulsa Mayor agrees to not renew Live PD contract
6/1 Louisville police chief fired after shooting of David Mcatee
6/1 Congress begins bipartisan push to cut off police access to military gear
6/1 Atlanta announces plans to create a task force and public database to track police brutality in metro Atlanta area
6/2 Minneapolis AFL-CIO calls for resignation of police union president Bob Kroll, a vocal white supremest
6/2 Pittsburgh transit union announces refusal to transport police officers or arrest protesters
6/2 Racist ex-mayor Frank Rizzo statue removed in Philadelphia
6/2 6 abusive officers charged for violence against residents and protesters - Atlanta, GA
6/2 Civil rights investigation of Minneapolis Police Dept launched
6/2 San Francisco resolution to prevent law enforcement from hiring officers with history of misconduct
6/2 Survey indicates that 64% of those polled are sympathetic to protesters, 47% disapprove of police handling of the protests, and 54% think the burning down of the Minneapolis police precinct was fully or partially justified
6/2 Trenton NJ announces policing reforms
6/2 Minneapolis City Council members consider disbanding the police
6/2 Confederate statue removed from Alexandria, VA
6/3 Officer fired for tweets promoting violence against protesters - Denver, CO
6/3 Walker Art Center and the Minneapolis Institute of Art cut ties with the MPD
6/3 Chauvin charges upgraded to second degree murder, remaining 3 officers also charged and taken into custody
6/3 Richmond VA Mayor Stoney announces RPD reform measures: establish “Marcus” alert for folks experiencing mental health crises, establish independent Citizen Review Board, an ordinance to remove Confederate monuments, and implement racial equity study
6/3 County commissioners deny proposal for $23 million expansion of Fulton County jail
6/3 Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board unanimously votes to sever ties with MPD
6/3 Seattle withdraws request to end federal oversight/consent decree of police department
6/3 Breonna Taylor’s case reopened
6/3 Louisville police department (Breonna Taylor’s murderers) will now be under review from an outside agency, which will include review on training, bias-free policing and accountability
6/3 Colorado lawmakers introduce a police reform bill that includes body cam laws, repealing the “fleeing felon” statute, and banning chokeholds
6/3 Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announces plans to reduce funding to police department by $150M and instead invest in minority communities
6/4 Virginia governor announces plans to remove Robert E. Lee statue from Richmond
6/4 Portland schools superintendent discontinues presence of armed police officers in schools
6/4 MBTA (Metro Boston) board orders that buses wont transport police to protests, or protesters to police
6/4 King County Labor Federation issues ultimatum to police unions: admit to and address racism in Seattle PD, or be removed
6/5 City of Minneapolis bans all chokeholds by police
6/5 Racist ex-mayor Hubbard statue removed - Dearborn, MI
6/5 NFL condemns racism and admits it should have listened to players’ protests
6/5 California Governor Gavin Newsom calls for statewide use-of-force standard made along with community leaders and ban on carotid holds
6/5 2 Buffalo officers suspended within a day of pushing 75 year old protester to the ground, and lying about it
6/5 2 NYPD officers suspended after videos of violence to protesters
6/5 The US Marines bans display of the Confederate flag
6/5 Dallas adopts a “duty to intervene” rule that requires officers to stop other cops who are engaging in excessive use of force
6/5 Dallas City Manager T.C. Broadnax releases an 11-point action plan for immediate police reforms
6/6 Statue of Confederate general Williams Carter Wickham torn down - Richmond, VA
6/6 2 Buffalo officers charged with second-degree assault for shoving elderly man
6/6 San Francisco Mayor London Breed announces effort to defund police and redirect funds to Black community
6/7 Frank Rizzo mural removed, to be replaced with new artwork - Philadelphia, PA
6/7 Minneapolis City Council members announce intent to disband the police department, invest in proven community-led public safety
6/7 Protesters in Bristol topple statue of slave trader Edward Colston, throw it in the river
6/7 NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio vows for the first time to cut funding for NYPD, redirect to social services
6/7 A Virginia police officer faces charges after using a stun gun on a black man
6/8 NY State Assembly passes the Eric Garner Anti-Chokehold Act
6/8 Democrats in Congress unveil a bill to rein in bias and excessive force in policing
6/8 Black lawmakers block a legislative session in Pennsylvania to demand action on police reform
6/8 France bans police use of chokeholds
6/8 Seattle council members join calls to defund police department
6/8 Boston reevaluates how it funds police department
6/8 Honolulu Police Commission nominees voice support for more transparency, reforms
6/8 Rights groups and Floyd’s family call for a UN inquiry into American policing and help with systemic police reform
No, it’s not enough, but this is only the beginning. Keep fighting!!!
(I adapted this list from this blog post and added sources and new entries. Please reblog with additions.)
So much of managing your mental health is just…learning to parent yourself like you’re a toddler
Like, “Honey, it’s 10 pm and you’ve been up since four in the morning, no wonder you’re emotional. Plus all you’ve had to eat today was three chocolate truffles and a half a protein drink. Make yourself some scrambled eggs and peas, you can even put them in separate bowls so they don’t touch. Then go to bed. You can do more fun things tomorrow, but first you need to sleep. Okay?”
.
In the old days we didn’t call this managing mental health, we called this managing being an adult.
.
Interesting, that.
See, I’m five years into adulthood. I have a college degree (a few in fact), a car, insurance payments, a job, yada yada. I ostensibly joined the Grown Up Club a few years back.
But, having grown up with a number of undiagnosed disorders and mental illnesses, I never learned a healthy style of self-talk.
If I’m honest, between depression and anxiety, the way I grew up talking to myself was abusive. I’m not kidding; if the things I thought to and about myself were said aloud to someone else, it would be considered verbal and emotional abuse.
So this idea of treating myself like a small child? With the same loving firmness and compassion?
This is a radical idea for me.
This is me learning to stop those abusive thought patterns, and talk to myself in a kinder, healthier way.
And it doesn’t have much to do with adulthood. I know adults who have treated themselves unkindly this way for many years. A healthy relationship with yourself doesn’t just sprout once you’re an adult; you have to develop it.
Those are my thoughts anyway. I hope they make sense.
American Girl stories were the best tbh
Dude, read the books, she and her mom freed themselves in Book 1. We don’t disrespect American Girl in this house
Don’t you dare disrespect Addy, or any of my girls for that matter. American Girl used to be legit. Good stories, good dolls, good movies.
Felicity’s story was set in the beginnings of the American Revolution, and addressed the conflict that she faced when her loved ones were split between patriots and loyalists. It also covered the effects of animal abuse, and forgiving those who are unforgivable.
Samantha’s stories centered around the growth of industrial America, women’s suffrage, child abuse, and corruption in places of power. Also, it emphasises how dramatically adoption into a caring family can turn a life around.
Kit’s story is one of my favorites. Her family is hit hard by the Great Depression, and they begin taking in boarders and raise chickens to help make ends meet. Her books include themes of poverty, police brutality, homelessness, prejudice, and the importance of unity in difficult times.
Molly’s father, a doctor, is drafted during the Second World War. Throughout her story, friends of hers suffer the loss of their husbands, sons, and brothers overseas. Her mother leaves the traditional housewife position and works full-time to help with the war effort. They also take in an English refugee child, who learns to open up after a life of traumatic experience.
American Girl stories have always featured the very harsh realities of America through the years. But they’re always presented honestly, yet in ways that kids can understand. They just go to show that you don’t have to live in a perfect time to be a real American girl.
Dont you fucking dare disrespect the American Girls in my house. ESPECIALLY Addy!! That was my first REAL contact with the horrors of slavery, as I read about her father being whipped and sold and her mother escaping with her to freedom, but also how freedom was still a struggle.
A slave doll. Please. Read the books.
Don’t forget Kirsten, the Swedish immigrant who had to deal with balancing her own culture and learning the english language and customs of her classmates, or Kaya (full name Kaya'aton'my, or She Who Arranges Rocks) , the brave but careless girl from the Nez Perce tribe, or Josefina, the Mexican girl learning to be a healer.
And then there are the later dolls, that kids younger than me would have grown up with (I was just outgrowing American Girl as these came out), like Rebecca, the Jewish girl who dreams of becoming an actress in the budding film industry, or Julie, who fights against her school’s gender policy surrounding sports in the 70s, or Nanea, the Hawaiian girl whose father worked at Pearl Harbor.
These books, these characters, are fantastic pictures into life for girls in America throughout the years, they pull no punches with the horrors that these girls had to face in their different time periods, and in many cases I learned more history from these series than social studies at school. And that’s without even mentioning the “girl of the year” series where characters are created in the modern world to help girls deal with issues like friend problems, moving, or bullying. We do NOT disrespect American Girl in this house.
American Girl is probably going to be the only exposure young girls are going to get to history from a female perspective. This is actually kind of important considering that in history classes we dont really get that exposure. We dont hear about what women felt and endured during these time periods cause schools are too busy teaching us about what happened from the male perspective, which is not unimportant, but we need both. Girls need both.
These books were such a crucial part of my childhood and shaped my love of history, which still ensures today. These books can be a young girl’s first lessons in diversity and cultural awareness (hopefully burying that insensitive “we’re all Americans” tripe) and looking at history from more perspectives than just that taught in school. They also are an example of how women have ALWAYS been part of history, which some people would rather us not believe.
I think Kit and Kaya were the newest American Girls when I started “aging out” of the books, but hearing about some of these kinda makes me want to revisit them!
I wasn’t gonna say anything, but you know what?
Nah.
OP (of the tweet thread) was either a actively trying to start shit or is just a huge fucking moron. Probably both.
I’d like to point out that the company that makes American Girl dolls actually doesn’t skimp when doing their research and they don’t make the dolls with the intent to be offensive in any way:
I didn’t know that about Kaya! That’s AWESOME.
As someone who worked in the American Girl section of Chapters in Canada, these stories are so very deep and thorough, and the research they do is incredible. They actually had several people work on the design of Addy’s hair to be more accurate to the texture of natural hair. And while they have other dolls in the other branches of their brand, Addy’s hair still remains unique to her alone.
Josefina’s story is about the loss of her mother while she dealt with foreigners and learning to become a healer. She was never in the store I worked at, so I don’t remember much of her story, but I remember a coworker being incredibly happy that it existed!!
Cecile was sold alongside Marie-Grace as a pair, and their story revolves around self confidence, having friends, and learning to pursue your passions in life. They were both retired before I began working there, so I also did not learn their stories as well as I’d have liked to.
The Truly Me line has a variety of dolls with different face moods, eye colours, skin colours, hair colours & textures. You can get them hearing aids, there are bald dolls. There are sets like the diabetes care kit, crutches, arm crutches, wheelchairs, and probably so many more since I left my position in 2017. The Girl of the Year line features many different stories about girls in our present world, featuring girls in STEM, finding passion in arts, dealing with bullying, overcoming adversity and odds stacked against you. There are now boy dolls that has started allowing young boys to grow their interest when they may not have prior to their existence.
This brand means so much to me and to so many others, both young and old. They have given the world its history from a girl’s point of view, and its empowering young minds around the globe, and trust me when I say that. I’ve met collectors from Australia, England, and India, and that’s only a short list off the top of my head.
We do not disrespect American Girl in this household
