It wasn’t boomerswho made it impossible to survive on a librarian or gardener’s salary - it was rich people.
Plenty of boomers work as librarians, teachers, gardeners, and so forth, and are finding that as the cost of living skyrockets and corporations take over more and more of the world, that their salary is no longer able to support them.
And thus you have boomers - who understand how much you want to be a librarian because they also work as librarians - going bankrupt, losing their homes, drowning in debt, and dying because of unaffordable healthcare. And they get why you’re becoming an IT specialist instead of a librarian - because they! Know! That you can’t survive! On a librarian’s salary anymore!
On the flip side, the rich people sucking money out of every service and person they can! Aren’t! Always! Boomers! Tons of them are Gen X! And an increasing number are millennials! I haven’t seen a Gen Z billionaire yet but I’m willing to bet there’s a couple by now!
Oh, and it’s not like they “don’t know” how much people want to do these sorts of jobs - they do! That’s how they justify underpaying people, because it’s your passion, you don’t ~need~ to be paid a living wage for your passion.
You have more in common with poor boomers than you do with Kylie Jenner (born 1997). Go and talk to them. Organize with them. You’ll find they have a lot to offer once you stop dismissing them as rich old folks who ruined the economy.
psa for everyone coming from dt twitter to dt tumblr:
DO NOT START SHIT W PEOPLE. WE DO NOT CARE. THIS IS NOT A REPLACEMENT FOR TWITTER.
some tips for u! stay out of places u:
A- are not interested in.
B- see any fandom discourse u are uncomfortable with.
C- see a blog w opinions u don’t agree with.
im so serious, just hit the block button. genuinely no one on here cares abt ur thoughts on the situation if it’s unprompted, unwelcome and on someone else’s post. this is a social media website that is literally curated to ur interests. if u have to go out of ur way to find a post to talk shit on it GO BACK TO TWITTER.
This is almost fifty years ago: I added psych as a major so I could access the books on homosexuality in our university library. They were locked in the back and you had to go through the librarian to get them. If you were not a psych major the Dean of Students would interrogate you as to why you wanted to read such deleterious material.
Seeing the newspaper that one of my professors and his friends had been arrested at his own house, having a barbecue in the backyard, for “associating with a known homosexual”. Believe me, these things twist you, and make you think twice when invited to a party at someone’s house.
Having a handsome young stranger make eyes at you at the all night diner as you study for finals, and wondering if he is one of the detectives assigned to entrapping gays. Going through the teeter totter emotions of wondering if he might be the love you are looking for, or is he the trap that will flush your whole life down the toilet.
Coming to barracks at the end of the day in the Air Force, and watching the swarm of OSI and Security Police escorting a friend out under arrest for having gone to a gay bar. Wondering if he would name you, because that was the only way you could stay out of jail – by naming at least five other gays.
All of the above were common experiences for many gays in America, not that long ago. Those of us who went through this are still among you. Don’t take for granted the new freedoms you have. Get out and vote this election no matter what. The Republicans mean to send us back to all this.]
This shit just fucking breaks my heart.
When old white farts at Trump rallies say “This country used to be great! I want to go back to the way things were!” this is the kind of shit they’re reminiscing about.
I hate how a lot of cultural appropriation discourse has forgotten the reason why it started appearing. It wasn’t meant to punish white people for being ignorant and ban them from partaking in other cultures.
It was a discussion meant to draw attention that people of colour were constantly being overlooked or punished for the exact same things that white people were celebrated for. It was meant to elevate people of colour to an understanding and respect that white people had been afforded for years, often unearned.
So seeing people go “white people don’t partake in anything that isn’t white” misses a lot of nuance in the discussion, because a lot of different cultures ARE willing to share and allow people into their culture on their own terms and in a respectful matter.
There’s a massive difference between a white person going “I just invented the BEST version of this” where everything had been watered down and stripped away versus one going “I try out this thing to appreciate cultures and viewpoints that aren’t my own”.
As a first generation Asian Australian whose own cultural identity is a massive clusterfuck I do think we need to remember that cultural exchange and sharing is incredibly important for an ever changing and global culture.
My white American friend who lived out in China was out walking one day when a she was stopped by a group of aunties flogging traditional style winter coats. Well she loves Chinese stuff and she ended up buying 3 coats. When I asked when and where she’s gonna wear them she said “Oh just at home, I don’t feel comfortable wearing them out because I don’t want people to think I’m culturally appropriating.”
O.O
This is a woman who loves Chinese culture so much she went to China and learned to speak fluent Chinese. And yet, the online discourse has somehow managed to make her feel like partaking in that culture is somehow wrong ot shameful.
I’m not white but I can attest to the same feelings. I love collecting traditional Japanese kimonos, but for a long time I was afraid to wear them out because I was scared some nutcase would stop me and accuse me of cultural appropriation. Actually when I finally worked up the courage to wear them out I got compliments from a lot of people, including Japanese people.
Cultural appropriation might’ve started as a well-intentioned idea trying to protect certain groups, but now it’s become a monster that we need to lay to rest. Frightening people from cultural exchange will not lead to good outcomes such as better mutual understanding. We should be encouraging cultural exchange, not the opposite.
So, something I see (and say) a lot is that fat/plus size folks should be able to go to the doctor to get medical treatment and not have everything be made about their weight. And I hear a lot of pushback to that- “Shouldn’t doctors bring that up? A doctor is SUPPOSED to care about your health!”
So I figured I would give y’all an example of what I mean when I say “I want to be able to get medical treatment and have it not be made about my weight.”
I’ve been to the doctor for breast pain twice in my life. Once when I was in my first year of college, and once during my last year of grad school. The two experiences were vastly different.
First time around, I go in because I’m having pain in my left breast. I don’t feel anything, but something hurts. I sit down in the doctor’s office, in she comes. I tell her what’s going on. And right away she hits me with “Well, maybe losing some weight would help.” Didn’t examine my breast. Didn’t ask me much else. Just spent the next ten minutes telling me that it probably had something to do with me being fat and then sent me on my way. I learned basically nothing, just that I “probably” didn’t have fucking breast cancer.
Second time. I’m in grad school, and this time I actually feel a lump, so of course I panic. I go to the doctor. She has me take off my shirt and all that, and then asks me some questions. When did it start? Is the pain worse or better than when I called about it? Can I still feel the lump? Has this happened before? I answer, she gives my boob a few good pokes and all that. Checks the other for good measure. And then gives me answers.
She tells me I have fiberous breasts, which is normal. Tells me it was probably a cyst, since that happens sometimes and, given my symptoms and the exam, it seems to be gone now. I tell her I get those in other places a lot and she nods and says “Yeah, probably a cyst.” She tells me to keep an eye out and call her if I feel any more lumps- even if it is just another cyst, she wants to make sure. She says I could go for a mammogram but because I’m only 24 and the symptoms are subsiding it isn’t needed, in her opinion, but she would be happy to set one up for me to put my mind at ease. Then she shakes my hand and leaves. We spent about 30 minutes together.
This is what I mean when I say “I want medical treatment without it being made about my weight.” The first doctor assumed, right away, that the problem was because I am fat. And because she assumed that, she didn’t check me, didn’t ask me questions she should have. There are horror stories out there about people who had treatable illnesses that later killed them because they weren’t caught in time.
“Shouldn’t doctors care about your health?” well, only one of these doctors actually seemed to. The one who did her job, who checked me out, who gave me answers and not only made sure I didn’t have something serious going on, but who put my mind at ease about my health. Who gave me signs to look out for and things to DO if this ever happens again. The other… The other lectured me about my body size and then shooed me out of her office without saying the words “lump” or “exam”. That, to me at least, doesn’t sound like caring about my health. The words “health” and “body size” are not synonomous and, in this case, my size didn’t have anything to do with it. There was no reason to bring it up because it wasn’t part of my medical concern.
I want to be able to walk into a doctor’s office and say “I have a problem” and have the doctor go “Okay, let me take a look at your problem”. I’m lucky and privileged that I have managed to find doctors who do that- who address my issues and history and ME as a whole person. But I’ve also had a lot of experiences with doctors who respond to “I have a problem” with “Well try losing weight”, no matter what the problem is. And that’s not okay. That KILLS people. And that’s why quality medical care for fat/plus size people is such an issue.
seeing “balanced” takes on abortion makes me want to state for the record i love abortion. I love it. Unapologetically. I love all my friends who have had abortions and all the reasons they’ve had them. i love people who treat abortion flippantly I love people who have a lot of emotions about their abortion. I love people who will have only one abortion in their whole life and people who will have many. abortion is great, no caveats. Its not a moral quandary. if someone doesn’t want to be pregnant they should have safe access to rectifying the state of their own body
May 13th, 1989: 300,000 Chinese students mobilize in Tiananmen Square for hunger strikes. The Tiananmen Square protests were from April 15th to June 4th, 1989.
Incredibly fucking crucial information for Americans where period tracking digitally is concerned: DELETE YOUR DATA, DELETE YOUR ACCOUNT AND DELETE YOUR APPS
We all make mistakes, We couldn’t be human if we didn’t, They say learn from your mistakes, But maybe it isn’t that easy.
I realise now, Maybe it isn’t the mistakes we make but our attitudes around them, Maybe it is time we stop trying to fix the mistakes we make, And rather move on and leave it in the past.
If we stop dwelling on our mistakes maybe we will be better, Maybe we won’t blame ourselves anymore, I have finally had a revelation, We need to not punish ourself and try to fix our mistakes, But leave them in the dust and continue our lives.
If you are looking for an emergency exit from Ukraine, Poland will open EIGHT safety points on the border with Ukraine (you will get warm food, medical help and from there you will be guided to safety) in two of our voivodeships: lubelskie and podkarpackie. It is confirmed by the Polish Secretary of State in the Chancellery of the Prime Minister, Paweł Szefernaker.
Sorry to be an ugly fun-killer but in light of the recent Invasion I urge you all to be mindful of the things you reblog and the memes that you repost. Please remember that behind every “world war 3 lmao” post there is a reality where real people are going to be displaced from their homes and are going to lose their lives.
Before you laugh at that tweet that talks about the draft or whatever ask yourself: are you laughing because it’s funny? or are you laughing because you’re safe and comfortable in the West and it’s not a direct problem for you?
“News coverage of digital forensics often celebrates its role in prosecuting serious felonies. But when it comes to reproductive rights, Conti-Cook says, the same tools “will be a powerful [asset] to police and prosecutors in a more criminalized landscape” for abortion seekers.” [Mother Jones]
“Unlike medical records held by doctors and hospitals, the information collected by health-focused apps isn’t covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), a 1996 federal law that limits where healthcare providers can share your health information.
That means health app makers are mostly free to do what they want with the data they collect. […]
What’s more, even when your data is de-identified by removing identifiable information such as your name or email address, it can be combined with other information—such as your location, contacts, or unique identifiers in your phone—and traced back to you, research suggests.” [Consumer Reports]
Twitter thread from user @nandoodles about men in adtech who want to sell your period app data to law enforcement:
If you don’t think these people won’t use your data against you, I advise you to reconsider in light of Texas’s offering bounties. And that there’s other states considering offering bounties and vigilantism as well.
I’m sorry, this is not fair and I know it’s a pain in the ass to have to note all your info yourself in a journal, but it’s better to NOT give these people another tool to exert control over the bodies of people possessing the potential (regardless of how remote) for pregnancy.
im running so late to this but holy fucking shit this is historic
last thing - while unions are obviously a collaborative effort and this incredible victory is the result of the hard work and sacrifices of many different people i think it’s absolutely essential to highlight the role of ALU’s founder chris smalls rn
chris was fired by amazon in 2020 for organizing a walk-out in the wake of their absolutely criminal handling of covid protocols in staten island. in a meeting with bezos and other amazon execs amazon’s lawyer was caught bragging that he wasnt “smart” or “articulate” enough to organize against them…now he’s helped facilitate the first successful union vote in amazon’s history - eat shit!
[image descriptions:
First image is a screenshot of text reading “With 2,654 votes in favor and 2,131 votes against, the overwhelming victory will allow more than 8,000 workers at the factory to team up with the Amazon Labor Union. The ALU was formed last year by Chris Smalls, a process assistant at the warehouse who was fired in March 2020 for organizing protests over Amazon’s COVID-19 protocols.” /end first ID.
Second image is a tweet by Amazon Labor Union @amazonlabor on April 1 2022 reading: “It’s official‼️Amazon Labor Union is the first Amazon union in U.S. History ‼️ Power to the people! #UnionStrong #ALU for the win! /end tweet text. The words “US history! Power to the people! Union Strong” are in all caps. /end second ID.
Third and fourth images are of Chris Smalls, respectively speaking at a rally and burning an Amazon Prime box. In both images he wears a bright red shirt, the color of the ALU, and dark sunglasses. He has brown skin and a short black beard. /end third and fourth ID.
this has probably been said elsewhere and better but i miss the days in star wars when the oppressive empire was made up of white men with british accents. that wasn’t an accident and it wasn’t a trivial decision, like they are the face and voice of power and oppression both in the past and today. giving these roles to women and people of color feels like… idk obfuscating or something? like don’t get me wrong i very much want more diversity in star wars, but the empire being a monolithic sea of white men with imperial accents, and the good guys being a diverse crowd of allies from all demographics, it implicitly communicated something important.
wait op are you talking about the poc inquisitor
yeah i made this post after watching the kenobi trailer and seeing reva, but i was also thinking about moff gideon in the mandalorian, trilla in the jfo game, and the character design choices of the bad batch tv show. i was thinking about how there’s a pattern in making the empire and the villains more diverse, but the heroes are somehow still white, and how the implications of that are bad.
i’ve gotten plenty of anons about this post and i just want to clarify a little bit. 1977 star wars combined the dress and ranks of nazi germany, the weapons and aesthetics of the american military industrial complex, and the accent of what americans consider to be the most privileged, powerful, and patronizing people they know, the ruling class of britain. that’s the formula for an evil space empire: a white supremacist, exploitative, genocidal oppressor that had to be destroyed by a diverse coalition of allies. i personally think that the selfish, dangerous bad actors in our society today happen to be the same rich and powerful white men as were the problem when star wars was first created, and so i think maybe we shouldn’t be in such a hurry to replace the face of that fictional fascist empire in our cultural mythology with token diversity and make it so that, for example in the kenobi trailer, a black woman gets to oppress the white posh male lead. i don’t really care at this point if there’s an interesting narrative reason that she was coerced into becoming the oppressor, that’s a story that really deserves for her to be the main character, with her actress in the leading role. unfortunately that seems like it might be unlikely to happen, as we saw what happened to john boyega, how finn didn’t end up the main hero in the sequels and instead, they asked us to identify with rey, a white woman with an upper class british accent, and encouraged us to sympathize with and forgive the fascist kylo ren. this is all very frustrating and concerning to me. i think we need to keep in mind that it’s very possible to personally enjoy these awesome nonwhite, female, and/or queer coded villains, as i am sure that reva will be badass, but also use critical thinking about the reasons why they are there.
