helioskat

[helioskat]

when i first moved in with my roommate, she was constantly throwing up and attributed it to some unexplainable chronic issue. after a year with me here, she's learned a lot about proper food preparation and storage, as well as having me sort of on top of managing groceries, and she almost never gets sick like that anymore.

anyway i think that woman might be one of a kind but just in case she's not: if you find yourself having frequent tummy troubles with no clear explanation... maybe just. try refreshing your food safety knowledge. (also don't forget to wash your water bottle). like, chances are you've been doing everything right and there's some other reason. but there's a nonzero chance that something you assumed was common sense is actually incorrect and you've been repeatedly making yourself sick.

people think kitchen management is totally easy and intuitive (prolly something to do with it being degraded as "women's work" but i digress) but there's science to food safety. and the people who raised you may have failed to teach you properly, whether through negligence or through not knowing everything themselves. it can't hurt to double check your knowledge here, just in case.

[helioskat]

I’m not sure the precise number of people I need to say this to but the answer to “reduce human suffering” is not “destroy suffering humans” much in the same way that setting your math test on fire in the exam room does not assure you 0% wrong answers and an A+ by default

[helioskat]

The Roblox situation is being used as a Trojan horse to pass the KOSA and SCREEN act! Remember to fight back against that, too!

Keep calling, reposting, posting, and saying NO!

Not only are these acts HUGE security risks, but they also do not protect children, instead focus on censoring their world views and basically brainwashing them, but it's also just another way for big companies to get more information on consumers...

The timing isn't a coincidence either, some speculate that the situation is social engineering at it's finest!

I STILL DO NOT CONSENT TO YOUR BULLSHIT CENSORSHIP UNDER THE GUISE OF "PROTECT THE CHILDREN"

SORRY, NOT SORRY!!!!! I STILL DON'T CONSENT TO WORLDWIDE CENSORSHIP AND CONSTANT ONLINE SURVEILLANCE!!!!! FUCK YOU!!!!!

[helioskat]

[helioskat]

Spoopy Season Safety

[helioskat]

I haven't seen dancing pumpkin guy ONCE this year, are you guys okay?

[helioskat]

I think teens need to be able to go to trusted adults and say “I saw something in a porn video that freaked me out and now I’m worried I’ll have to do it too” and then the adult can say “it’s ok to be nervous about sex, but remember that you don’t have to do ANYTHING you don’t want to do, ever, no exceptions” and this should be an ongoing conversation to remind young people that sexual desire isn’t monolithic and they are not uniquely weird, cowardly, or undesirable for expressing their feelings, and they deserve sexual partners who prioritize consent & autonomy always

[helioskat]

its so fucked that not only did they erase our languages and beat and kill our people for using them but they stole the words of important tribes and important people and used them for the military and for trees and for food and for summer camps. average native american name is seen by non ntvs as a joke or something to use or consume, not a human being

[helioskat]

If I ever wrote a superhero story I’d want there to be a recurring shitty C-list supervillain in the background whose power was changing something’s colour and all her villainous plots would be colour-themed things like “If the city council doesn’t give me a million dollars, I will turn the city of GREEN Bay into the city of RED Bay!” and she’d turn the Golden Gate Bridge magenta or whatever.

So it’s all low-stakes villainy, but everyone absolutely hates fighting her because her very shitty superpower works really really well, and there are dozens of background characters who’ve fought her that are just permanently green now

[helioskat]

Yall are making slurs and being racist to a group of people that doesn't even exist yet (robots). Unbelievable how frothing at the mouth you are to have an acceptable target, no wonder there's no much prejudice in this world if you people are like this!

[helioskat]

it's true and you should say it.

[helioskat]

If you wanna protect AO3 or character ai. Or Wattpad. Or Tumblr. Or discord. Or even the right for undocumented people and minors to use the fucking Internet reblog this I swear to God. Reblog this and reblog as many KOSA posts as you can go on their website and contact your Representatives. Do it. Do it. Do it.

[helioskat]

I know things are hard right now for people in America, the UK, Australia, and Canada, but I don't want anyone to give up because that's exactly what they want you to do. They want you to feel powerless and unable to stand up to the establishment. They want you to feel alone and isolated. Do not let them win by giving in to defeatism. Do not surrender to the system.

There can be a day when YouTube drops its AI age verification policy and returns to its old self. There can be a day when MasterCard and Visa relent to their customers and tell Collective Shout to go fuck themselves. There can be a day when the Screen Act, the BEARD bill, and the HR 9495 bill go down in flames. There can be a day when KOSA is no more, and there are no bills to replace it. For those in the UK, there can be a day when the Online Safety Act is completely removed. For those in Australia, there can be a day when the restrictions for minors are lifted and ID is no longer required. For those in Canada, there can be a day when no more KOSA-like bills are introduced.

But to get to that day, we must work together. We must make our voices heard by any means necessary. If we must throw bricks or start fires or march in the streets, we shall. If we must drag the people who forced these bills and acts upon us out by the hair of their heads, we shall. We will get our point across, and they will hear us.

[helioskat]

Okay, here's my criticism of this post I keep seeing -- and no, it's not what you think. I know, my longtime followers who know the kinds of things I post about a lot are probably thinking, "Oh, I know what their objection is going to be. It's going to be that 18-19 year olds are adults who can date older partners if they choose to." But no, that's not it this time! Yes, I do believe it's fine for young adults to date older adults if they choose to (and am accordingly rolling my eyes at all the "This should go up to 25!" comments in the notes), but. That's not my issue here. In fact, precisely because I believe that young adults dating older adults is morally neutral, I'm not at all concerned about the efficacy of the messaging against it. My concern is that underage minors being in sexual/romantic relationships with adults is actually harmful and dangerous, and therefore young people actually should be warned against it, and this is not an effective warning.

Fellow old people, do y'all remember being 14? At all? Would you have found this warning effective and compelling at that age?

I for sure would not! I did not! Quite the opposite!

Put yourself in the young person's position here. You have no rights. You're treated as someone with no agency. Your parents, teachers, government, and society as a whole treats you as some combination of "nuisance," "ticking time bomb," and "unthinking blob." Developmentally, you're at a phase of life when you should be transitioning to a more adult role, but everyone around you demonizes you for that desire. All your thoughts, feelings, and opinions are dismissed as the inconsequential ravings of Just A Dumb Kid Who Doesn't Know Any Better. You meet someone who treats you with basic human politeness, tells you that he likes you and that you're mature, actually treats you like you have two brain cells to rub together. Of course you're going to be drawn to him. And then when other adults warn you that obviously of course he doesn't really like you, that's impossible, of course you're not really mature, no one could possibly see you that way; actually you're naive and incapable of making your own decisions, and the way your parents/teachers/society treat you is completely justified. Are you going to heed those warnings?

Why are adults absolutely constitutionally incapable of giving good, necessary advice to teenagers without fucking insulting them in the process? Of course teenagers don't listen to it! Why would anyone??

"Oh, well, of course teenagers don't listen, because they're stubborn, and immature, and biologically determined to make bad decisions, which is all the more reason they need to be controlled," say adults, completely oblivious to the actual problem.

When I was a teenager, the big moral panic at the time was teen pregnancy, and we were all inundated with the least effective cautionary tales in the world: "If you get pregnant as a teen, you'll have to leave your parents' care and function as an adult!" Which left every girl who'd intentionally gotten pregnant for the explicit purpose of escaping her abusive parents saying "Yeah, that was the goal." And every girl who was looking for a way of escaping her abusive parents to think "What a great idea!" Today the big moral panic is older partners, but if the appeal of an older partner is that he treats you like someone capable of making your own decisions, why would you be persuaded by a counterargument of "Don't listen to him, of course you're not capable of making your own decisions!"?

Again. I'm saying this because I agree that adults dating minors is a bad thing and that minors should be warned against it. EFFECTIVELY.

That said, this is my advice to any 17-or-younger person being pursued by an 18+-year-old partner: Listen. You deserve so much better than the way society treats you. You deserve to be taken seriously. You deserve to make your own decisions in life. You have a mind of your own, and people should recognize that instead of treating your pesky "free will" as a personal affront or an inconvenient glitch. You can and should think for yourself. You deserve, and I hope you have, relationships with older people who validate those truths about you. However. You are still legally and materially powerless. I don't have to tell you that. You live it every day. Someone older than you -- and therefore, inherently, legally, more powerful than you -- should not be trying to extract things from you. Money, sex, unpaid labor, anything of value. Someone more powerful than you who truly values you, values your friendship, values you as a person, will be mindful of your status and not try to extract anything from you. Cross-age friendships are good. Older people can and should genuinely like and appreciate you, and you can and should genuinely like and appreciate them. But if they try to extract anything from you, run away.

[helioskat]

GET KOSA TRENDING.

STOP SCROLLING NOW!

AS OF FEBRUARY 21ST, 2024, WE GOT FIVE DAYS UNTIL THE DAY OF DECISION OF THE KOSA BILL, WHICH WILL CAUSE MASS CENSORSHIP ROUND THE INTERNET IF PASSED. WE NEED EVERYONE TO KNOW ABOUT THIS AND CONTRIBUTE. I'M NOT GIVING UP ON YOU ALL.

(IMPORTANT UPDATE: Kosa will not necessarily pass on the 26th. It only has the support to pass in Senate, and we STILL HAVE TIME. That being said, time is of the essence.)

WE'RE DOWN TO THE WIRE BUT WE CAN'T GIVE UP YET. IF WE GIVE UP, EVERYTHING IS OVER. IF WE DON'T, AT LEAST WE HAVE A CHANCE.

I'M THE ONE WHO SOUNDED THE ALARM, AND I'M NOT GOING TO CURL UP AND DIE YET.

Reblog this post in every LEGAL way you can under the Tumblr guidelines with the appropriate tags. TELL AND TAG EVERYONE YOU KNOW, then add the tags to see below... and more if you can think of any complying.

Visit badinternetbills.com if you want to find a way to defeat KOSA. It WILL NOT take much of your time. Reblog with any other information or sources, too-- but make sure to reblog if you can.

Reblog if you support lgbtq+ content.

Reblog if you support questioning queer youth and/or abused youth getting the information they need.

Reblog if you support Ao3 and/or other sites that wholeheartedly preserve talentedly made media.

Reblog if you're going to repost this on other sites than Tumblr and spread the word across Twitter, Tik Tok, Pinterest, or elsewhere, alongside the link to badinternetbills.com.

Reblog if you think KOSA is unfair and shouldn't be anyone's problem -- including the adults ALL OVER THE DAMN EARTH forced to face the mass censorship it causes because "think of the American Children!".

Reblog if you support internet activism and Palestine.

Reblog if you hate fascism or censorship, and don't want actually serious and helpful conversations censored on the internet.

Reblog if you value the internet in any way at all whatsoever.

CHECK THIS PETITION, TOO! https://www.change.org/p/stop-the-kosa?recruiter=1331807538&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=sms&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial&utm_term=psf&recruited_by_id=57368c40-d0fd-11ee-98f7-2175430f819f&share_bandit_exp=initial-36809664-en-US

(Also, please reblog with at least "stop kosa" as a tag and not "kosa". I made the mistake of not adding just "kosa" as a tag...)

We won't let this stand any longer. Let's start a riot and get this trending.

(Update: this is outdated, but we should still talk about it. Get Kosa trending.)

[helioskat]

see what you get on this quiz about your risk of joining a cult. please answer honestly, not what you wish were true of you!

[helioskat]

While it's true that mandatory identity verification will inevitably be leaked on a massive scale, the thing you need to understand when framing these arguments is that a lot of the folks in favour of such measures don't see that as a bad thing. Full de-anonymisation of the Internet is their explicit goal. Like, the actual objective here is for everyone to have a public record of everything they say and do – online or otherwise – linked to their government ID. The universal panopticon is the good ending as far as these people are concerned.