A small white girl in my line at work couldn’t open her big pink unicorn wallet/pocketbook and she asked for a pocket knife. The large black man behind her handed her this giant folding knife so big it looked like a machete in her hands as she wielded it–and she sliced open the pink unicorn wallet. Everyone was in shock. She looked at me sheepishly and I smiled and she finished paying for her groceries and smiled again at me before leaving. I honestly fell mildly in love lmao

ovopack:

番兵さん

brbgensokyo:

we really dont fuck around and wake ancient gods enough 

codenamecesare:

spaceasianmillennial:

the-daughters-of-eve:

sixth-light:

heyheyrenay:

I am going to tell everyone a secret, especially people in rural areas. 

You…can do a slow social progressive takeover of your local Democratic party, probably. You just need to carve out some time for it.

“Renay”, you say, exasperated, “that sounds fake, but okay.” But I’m here to tell you that if you’re in a rural/red state (or even blue states), you have an excellent chance of infecting the Democratic Party in your area with some straight up radical empathy. And you can do it in sneaky ways. It’s a long game. Here is a list:

1. Find your county Democrats. You may have to start at state level, but eventually you should be able to track down the chair of the county party and find out where and when they meet. Start attending meetings. If they’re not having meetings, hoooooboy. That’s a totally different thing. I spent two years fighting that battle, but if you want help, ping me. 

2. At the very first meeting, if the group isn’t using a microphone, bring it up. Ask if the committee can invest in a portable PA system to bring to meetings to help people who have trouble hearing. If they balk (ables often will), don’t worry. Make the request once, and then make the request at every subsequent meeting, kindly, until they get so sick of you they cave and/or start empathizing with you. My position here: who cares why it gets done. Just get it done.

3. Keep going to meetings. Generally county parties meet every month.

4. If there are nametags at meetings, always use them and put your pronouns on them. Yes, even you, cis people. ESPECIALLY YOU.

5. At your third meeting, if the group is using sign in sheets, ask the secretary, or meeting chair if the former is unclear, if the sign in sheets could have a field for pronouns. It’s not about getting people to use it yet—that’s later—we just want it on the template so YOU can use it and set an example. Yes, you can make this request even as a cis person. In fact, it’s probably better that you do because it will cost you less. You can do the emotional labor instead of making trans and enby friends do the labor. This goes back to nametags: if you do it, you create a safe bubble for others to do it, or a social pressure situation for people to do it. Social pressure is sometimes toxic, but we can use it for positive things!

These are Very Simple things you can do to Increase Inclusion in local Democratic spaces and shove them left. This is just the start, too. There’s language scrubbing (kind of advanced because you need to have relationships with the people), requesting the committee invite guest speakers from marginalized communities, and becoming a delegate to the state party annual convention. This is Very Advanced because it generally means travel, but I plan to do it myself because in two years I’m going to make the Arkansas DPA adopt gender neutral language in their platform instead of this “he or she” business.

I mean, maybe you think of going to county meetings and go, “ugh I would rather eat glass” but you can always take an ebook on your phone or something (I do this…soon I will have time to knit again and I’ll be doing that). Take 3-4 hours out of your month and invest it.

What shoves the Democratic Party left? We do. A bunch of people taking small steps in their local communities. And then the candidates coming out of those committees get more progressive and thoughtful, too.

The world doesn’t change just because we want it to. We make it change.

Go do the work.

Additionally: show up to enough meetings and there’s a non-zero chance you could be running things, which is also helpful for the whole slow radicalisation process.

(in NZ if you show up to enough local meetings of a major political party you basically get elected to Parliament if that’s a thing you’re into, you think I’m joking but I’m not really, so I figure for the US ‘running things on a local level’ is totes achievable)

All of this. I started showing up to the meetings and a few months later they put me charge of communications (social media, website, email). It was two years of an infuriating clusterf*** but I dragged them left. Now there’s a trans woman and a gay teenager on the DCC (county party governance) and I pissed off all the old dixiecrat guard so much that they all quit in protest.

Decisions are made by those who show up.

There are varying ways to go about this. I did it in the social media space since the Texas 2018 midterms. I started sharing information about downballot elections and news about voter suppression. The admin of a Flip the House page was so impressed by my commitment that she asked if I could become a Mod. At first, I refused, but then I realize I could make a wider impact with that position–besides, it was a very loose commitment.

Let’s just say that I am now the Mod of at least two groups that are comprised of middle-aged or elderly voters, those kinds of old white liberal spaces that have certain blind spots in progressive matters. When I become a Mod, I had an easier time keeping certain members’ vocal prejudices in check.

I must note that many of said middle-aged or elderly voters are happy to get new information or new angles out of me and have been receptive to my input. They’re keen on learning. 

The advantage is that I get to share donation links and voting rights grassroots and toolkits to their spaces so they can learn things they wanted to learn but haven’t done so.

So show up to those meetings. In-person meetings are the best, but getting involved in the virtual can also have an effective reach.

TIPS

• If you are posting bad news, ALWAYS have a “What Can You Do About It.” Have donation link(s) to organizations that are fighting this bad news. 
• For example, if you’re posting about the Ohio voter purge, give a donation link to an Ohio voting grassroots.
• Even if it’s GOOD news you are sharing, give them a link to an organization fighting for those kinds of rights and urge them to join or donate.
  
• Because there’s so much hype and focus on the presidential elections remind the group of any downballot elections coming up, be it seats for legislative, judicial, council, etc, since downballot seats do impact the elections of larger seats. Plus, downballot candidates can bring about immediate change to a small community.
• If you have a presidential candidate who signed this 2020 Down-Ballot Pledge, then share down-ballot elections on group pages related to your presidential candidate and remind people to watch out for local elections in the spirit of the Down Ballot Pledge.
• Share LOCALLY-WRITTEN articles, over nationally distributed sources like CNN. This is to help local news, since the growing local news deserts can actually stoke fascism.
• Share sources that white liberal spaces don’t tend to circulate, like LGBTQ-focused outlets or climate crisis-focused outlets like Grist.
  
• Learn how to register voters and build your voting literacy since a lot of erroneous paperwork gets votes thrown out. Your nearest nonpartisan League of Women Voters chapter tends to have free boot camps on registering voters.
• Try to encourage sustainability action within your groups.
• You might want to delve into the subject of gerrymandering, the act of redrawing district line to gain electoral advantage, and how to fight it.
• Join a social media group pertaining to a location you have an intimate connection to. For example, I no longer reside in Texas but I still join Texas political groups online and circulate useful information.

Lastly, these are voting rights organizations you can share around.

• League of Voters (@LWV) - They might have a local chapter nearby to join. You can volunteer without official membership at most chapters. Paying for membership can get you into leadership positions to decide pivotal organization choices.
• Common Cause (@CommonCause) - This organization has been doing a lot of work fighting gerrymandering.
• Spread the Vote (@SpreadTheVoteUS) - an organization dedicated to helping people get IDs ahead of Election Day.
• ACLU - The American Civil Liberties Union
  
• TRANSform the Vote (@NCTEActionFund), an org that fights transphobic ID voter laws.
  
• Apia Vote (@APIAVote) - Bridges language gaps for marginalized communities.
• Rock the Vote (@RocktheVote)
• Black Voters Matter (@BlackVotersMtr)
• Fair Fight Action (@fairfightaction) - Founded after Brian Kemp’s rampant voter suppression during the Georgia 2018 gubernatorial election.
• Jolt Initiative (@JoltInitiative) - To motivate the Hispanic vote as well as fight language barriers.
• TN Black Voter Project (@TN_VoterProject) -  A Tennessee org that turned in more than 90,000 voter registration applications and they’re now fighting a load of voter suppression by Republican bills criminalizing voting registration.  
  Tirrc Votes (@TIRRCVotes)
• Four Directions (@4directionsvote) - Fighting for Native Americans’ voting accessibility.
  
• Kentuckians for the Commonwealth (@KFTC) - KY voting rights, which is big for the battleground to unseat Mitch McConnell.

@cygnaut: #this is how republicans took over local politics

Decisions are made by those who show up.

deafblinddisaster:

trans-axolotl:

people need to stop leaving intersex people out of conversations about reproductive justice. 

intersex people are routinely sterilized at birth, and the choice of whether or not we want to have children is taken from us before we even can reach an age where we would be ready to make that choice. 

intersex people and their families are lied to about surgeries that have no medical benefit, because doctors are so worried about making sure that they uphold the binary system and create people who look “normal” instead of preserving our right to consent to what happens to our bodies. 

intersex people are often denied access to fertility treatment, or have many barriers to accessing infertility treatment because it is believed that we will not want to have children, or that we should not want to have children. 

yet, intersex issues are rarely, if ever, brought up in the context of reproductive rights, despite the fact that bodily autonomy and reproductive justice is a huge issue for the intersex community. 

if you’re fighting for reproductive justice, please consider fighting for our rights to choose as well.

This includes putting a stop to people spouting bullshit that intersex people are all or mostly inherently sterile.

Our variants aren’t what make us sterile in most cases, it’s the fucking doctors.

glitchlight:

mario: bowser stole-a the princess, this keeps-a happening-a

donkey kong: someone stole my bananas

yoshi: someone stole my baby

zelda: link is the chosen hero who will bring balance to the world after ganon destabilized it

pokemon: be the best and/or catch them all

fox: andross is attacking again gotta go stop that

metroid: samus is a bounty hunter and traumatized orphan, the sole survivor of a massacre who was raised by a gay couple from a now extinct race, and is constantly on the outskirts of society, always falling into impossible situations and fighting her way out of them, yet not without further traumas along the way

kirby: not even god himself could stop me from eating this cake

missmentelle:

It can be really difficult to tell when a relationship has become one-sided or when a partner has become self-centered: sometimes there is naturally a point in a relationship where one partner has to rely more on the other, sometimes people who are generally overwhelmed with their lives take this out on their partner, and sometimes a partner may be self-centered from the very beginning, which makes it hard to point out to them that there’s a problem. Respect can also be a tricky subject - some relationships naturally have more of a “joking” or “teasing” element to them, and it can be hard to tell when someone is crossing the line into disrespect. At the end of the day, you have the ultimate say in when you feel you are being disrespected, and you are the one who gets to decide that your needs aren’t being met. 

There are, however, a few warning signs you can look out for that indicate your partner doesn’t respect you and isn’t treating you as an equal partner:

• They don’t do their share of the chores and responsibilities. If you have shared responsibilities with your partner - financial responsibilities, household chores, pets, kids, a business you run together, etc - then you both need to be doing your share of the work without being asked or reminded. There may be times when one partner has to take on more than 50% of the load, due to the other partner’s illness, school schedule, mental health, etc, but the other partner needs to continue to do what they can. Taking care of your share of the responsibilities is a way to take stress and burden off your partner’s shoulders, and show them that you care about their quality of life. Treating your partner like a combination waitress/housekeeper, on the other hand, is hugely disrespectful - it shows that you don’t care about their well-being, and you’re willing to sacrifice their time and happiness to make your life a little bit better. A partner who always has an excuse for why they can’t step up - or a partner who only does the dishes after you chase them down like a misbehaving child - is not a partner who respects you. 
• They push or break your boundaries. No means no, and no continues to mean no when you’re in a committed relationship or marriage with someone. A person who feels like your boundaries don’t apply to them is a person who doesn’t respect you. If your partner continues to try to initiate sex after you’ve told them to knock it off, or if they continue to call you by a nickname after you’ve told them you find it insulting, they are being disrespectful of you. By pushing your boundaries, they are showing you that your comfort and safety are only a priority until they get in the way of your partner getting what they want. When you respect somebody, their comfort is a priority, and you trust that the boundaries they’ve set are necessary and inviolable. 
• They are intentionally hurtful towards you. When you respect someone, you don’t belittle them, mock them, call them cruel names, or go out of your way to make them feel small. A self-centered partner is not interested in having arguments in good faith in order to achieve a greater understanding of one another - they are just interested in “winning” and getting their way, and they’ll use pretty much any tactic they can in order to accomplish that. A person who is willing to intentionally shatter your self-esteem and cut to the core of who you are as a person in order to  win a squabble about whose turn it is to do the dishes is not a person who respects you as a partner. 
• They are inappropriately sexual or romantic towards others. In most committed relationships, part of your commitment involves not behaving in certain sexual or romantic ways towards others. That can still be true in polyamorous relationships, by the way - many poly people will ask that their partners at least give them a heads-up before taking another partner, some people may require an in-depth discussion, and certain people (like exes or siblings) may be entirely off the table. A partner who violates those sexual and romantic boundaries is disrespecting you, and they are disrespecting the relationship as a whole. A partner doesn’t even have to actually cheat in order to disrespect your romantic boundaries, either - if your partner is lavishing affection on someone of their preferred sex while ignoring you, constantly brushing you off to spend time with someone of their preferred sex, answering someone else’s texts at all hours of the day and night or making profiles on dating apps “just for the self esteem boost” and you’re not expressly okay with those things, they are being disrespectful of you, and placing their whims above the bond you have with them.
• They don’t listen to you or take an interest in your life. Your partner doesn’t have to know every detail of your every day, but they should have a general clue of what’s going on in your life. When you talk to them, they should care enough to remember the key points of what you said, and take the initiative to ask questions or follow up later for more information. That’s a bare minimum expectation. If you tell them that you’ve got a big job interview coming up, or that your grandma is really sick, or that you’re worried about getting into grad school, they should at least take enough of an interest to remember what you told them, and follow up with “hey, how are you feeling about that thing that was bothering you?” at a later date. Honestly, Siri is capable of doing that; it’s not too much to ask that your life partner care about you as much as your iPhone does. A partner who can’t be bothered to keep up with the events of your life is a partner who probably thinks mostly of themselves, and doesn’t plan on making you a priority anytime soon. 
• They belittle your dreams and interests. Again, your partner does not have to share all your interests and hobbies, but they should at least respect that your interests and hobbies and career goals are important to you, and take them seriously. A person who does not respect your passions does not respect you; when you respect someone, you trust that they are capable of making the right decisions for themselves and you offer them support rather than tearing them down. Even if your partner has their own busy career, they need to also support you in yours, whether that’s by cheering you on, offering you a sympathetic ear, or even just giving you the space you need to work - regardless of how much your dreams pay or how prestigious (or non-prestigious) they are. If your dream is to write a screenplay, a respectful partner will offer you encouragement - even if they don’t know the first thing about screenwriting - and they won’t be offended when you need time by yourself to do your writing. They will respect your dream, and in turn, respect you. A disrespectful and self-centered partner, on the other hand, may feel entitled to poke fun at your dreams, tell you that you’re wasting your energy, and intrude freely on the time that you’ve set aside for your writing. Asking someone not to piss all over your dreams is a pretty bare minimum, and it’s not negotiable for a respectful relationship. 
• They reduce you to ethnic or gendered stereotypes. If your partner turns to ugly gendered or racialized language when you argue - like calling you hysterical, accusing you of “thinking with your dick” or asking why black women are so angry - that’s a glaring red flag that they don’t respect you as a person. You are a complex individual, and in a world that will so often judge you by your race and gender, the one person who is supposed to see you as a real, multifaceted person is your partner. Turning to stereotypes is a sign that your partner cannot be bothered to see you as a complete person or learn what makes you an individual. Instead, they are content to disrespect you by lumping you in with frustrating and ugly stereotypes, no matter how inapplicable they may be. 
• They don’t make you a priority in their life. Respecting your partner means respecting their time, and putting them ahead of other things in your life to show them that they matter to you. If you are the one who always has to rearrange your life to accommodate your partner, while you exist only on the fringes of their schedule, that’s a pretty clear sign that your partner doesn’t respect you. It is not unreasonable to ask that your partner carve out quality time for you every week (except in the case of extraordinary circumstances, like if they’re in their final week of cramming for the bar exam), and it’s not unreasonable to ask your partner to occasionally give up an outing with their friends or a usual activity of theirs to do something special with you (as long as you are also willing to extend the same courtesy, and as long as both of you still get time with friends). A partner who frequently cancels on you at the last minute, stands you up, shows up extraordinarily late, complains excessively about having to make time for you, or refuses to budge on their plans no matter how important an event is to you is a self-centered partner. Your relationship exists as a matter of convenience for them, and they intend to keep it that way. You should never feel like you are begging your partner to spend time with you - a respectful partner is mindful of your feelings and your time. 

Again, it’s important to remember that the line between “selfish partner” and “good partner going through a tough time” can be difficult to draw. Trust your instincts - if you feel like the relationship would completely collapse if you stopped putting in effort, or if you feel like you’re pleading with your partner to even acknowledge you, there’s a good chance your partner is putting themselves first and that they no longer respect you or the work required to sustain a happy relationship. Be especially wary if your partner’s behaviour is a long-standing pattern, rather than something that’s only developed at a particularly stressful time in their life. Everyone deserves a partner who pulls their weight in the relationship, and puts effort into making their partner feel loved and seen. If you’re feeling like your partner is more of an anchor you have to drag behind you, weighing you down, it’s time to see if there’s something you can do to reel in that anchor - or maybe just let it go entirely. 

Best of luck to you!