#correcting misinformation

[kateeorg]

Misinformation Watch: Matpat

There's been a recent misconception about Matthew Patrick/Matpat that I desperately have to correct.

NO. Matpat is not a politician now.

He is not in Congress.

He did not win any elections.

Matpat (and Stephanie Patrick, for that matter, let's not forget her) are actually working WITH a couple of actual Congressional reps as part of a bipartisan group called the Congressional Creators Caucus, or the Creator Economy Caucus.

They are trying to educate lawmakers about online content creators and their needs, as a couple of long-running creators themselves, as this is an economic space that affects a significant amount of Americans on all sides. They are aiming to influence policy, but are not actually creating policies themselves. Considering the mess that the TikTok "ban" created, this could be such an amazing help.

But NO. Matpat is not in Congress and is not running for an election anytime soon.

Please reblog, pass this around, because I don't want to spend hours correcting every single "Matpat is in Congress now?" posts, especially since I can't tell which ones are just jokes and which ones genuinely believe it.

[ihazyourkitty]

I really try to avoid fact checking people in public comment sections on the internet, but sadly this time I couldn't resist.

There was a reel on Facebook explaining the "sad" reason why cetaceans in human care often receive ice. It's because they're given "dead fish" you see, and these frozen thawed fish contain less moisture than the live fish they eat in the wild, so the ice helps prevent dehydration.

First of all, this is half true. The other half is that many cetaceans just love getting ice.

Supplemental hydration can also include gelatin and squid. The latter two are not unique to cetaceans btw. Squid and specially formulated gelatin based foods are also used in many fish diets in part to provide additional moisture. They also count as enrichment, depending on the context.

In any event, this creator thinks it's sad... that caretakers are providing their dolphins additional hydration? What, does he also think it's sad that they get vitamins? Reptile keepers regularly dust their animals' food with calcium to make sure they don't get metabolic bone disease. Is that also sad? These things are standard zoological practices, not signs of neglect. Wouldn't it be sadder if they didn't do that?

(Reason #423 why framing matters).

"But it's not natural!"

Neither is running on a treadmill, but that doesn't mean it's bad for you. Also, I'm pretty sure ICE is one of the most natural things you could use....

"Well why can't they just give them live fish!?"

Because the logistics of sustaining a live colony for such a purpose would be an expensive nightmare. Do you know how many pounds of fish these animals need to eat in a day? Using them as an occasional form of enrichment might be feasible, but on the regular? Just. No! Tell me you don't know how fish care works without telling me you don't know how fish care works!

It's cruel to the fish, for the same reason that it's cruel to feed snakes live food (assuming they aren't picky eaters). Fish are not just props, they are live animals that can experience stress and pain!

Freezing the fish helps keep it safe to eat.

"Why not just release them back into the wild?"

Because that would also be cruel since they wouldn't know how to survive. Next question.

"How do they get dehydrated when they live in water!?"

Oh man. Oh man oh man.

Cetaceans get most of their hydration from their diet. A quick google search indicted that they can drink some salt water, though I don't know how true that is, and to be clear, their kidneys are likely much more efficient at filtering out salt than ours (someone who knows more about this, please feel free to correct me). Regardless, most of their hydration comes from their food. Lack of food leads to dehydration, both in captivity and in the wild.

But there was one guy who said that dolphins in captivity can't drink the water because it's chlorinated. This is not true. The residual amounts of chlorine left after their water passes through filtration is no higher than what is in your tap water.

(Btw, this is another reason why live fish aren't typically used, because you don't house fish in systems that use chlorine, even in small amounts).

When I pointed this out to the guy, his response was that "most of their diet contains water from the exact same source."

To his credit, he did back down when I pointed out that this was wrong. But come my friends! As a fish person, let me explain to you why this is not correct!

Fish blood chemistry is not the same as the ambient water around them. They would not be able to maintain homeostasis otherwise. You see, their gills and kidneys help them osmoregulate.

Freshwater fish blood contains more salts than the surrounding freshwater, which means the via osmosis, water will enter the body, and unless they can compensate for this, the fish will swell up like a balloon, lose necessary salts, and basically drown. So what do they do? Their kidneys produce large amounts of dilute urine get rid of this extra water. Meanwhile, chloride cells in their gills take up ions from the water to transport into their blood.

Saltwater fish, however, have the opposite problem. Their blood has less salts than the surrounding water, so they need to get rid of extra salt. How? Well, they actually do drink the saltwater, and then their kidneys help filter out the extra salt. They basically produce very concentrated urine. But the kidneys cannot do this alone, so the chloride cells in their gills also help by basically working in reverse. They move extra ions out of the blood.

Elasmobranchs, crustaceans, mollusks and other marine mammals that may also make up some cetacean diets will have their own methods of osmoregulation.

All of this is to say, no, eating saltwater animals does not mean you're literally consuming ocean water, as these organisms have specific mechanisms for filtering out the excess salts.

This is, btw, why you can't just put a freshwater fish in saltwater or vice versa. They will die. Nor is this unique to fish, most organisms adapted for one environment don't thrive in the other.* Case in point: we cannot drink salt water, because our kidneys cannot handle that.

But some animals can! Take the salmon for instance. They hatch in freshwater environments, then move to saltwater, and then back when spawning season comes. How do they do this? Well, there are specific environmental/developmental triggers that cause their bodies to start osmoregulating in reverse. This does not happen instantaneously, however. They need time to adjust. They will migrate to brackish water, and allow their bodies a few days to adjust before continuing.

Some species of fish have higher tolerances for wider ranges of salinity/total dissolved solids (TDS) than others. Fluctuating these levels can actually trigger spawning in some species too! Discus, for instance, can be maintained in relatively harder freshwater than what they'd experience in the wild. But for breeding purposes, it's recommended to use softer water with lower a TDS. Given that discus can be more finicky, however, any of these adjustments should be made gradually.

On the other hand, there might be another species where a more sudden change is beneficial. Tropical fish native to floodplains that will experience sudden onsets of flooding from the rainy season, for instance, may need precisely that sudden rush of freshwater with lower pH and TDS to trigger spawning. Even if spawning isn't the end goal, simulating these seasonal fluctuations can be a very effective form of naturalistic enrichment!

....Oh dear, I went on a very nerdy tangent, because SCIENCE!!!! Enjoy.

*this can actually be taken advantage of in certain treatment contexts! Saltwater aquarists will sometimes do what is called a "freshwater dip", where the saltwater fish is very briefly immersed in freshwater to help rid them of harmful external parasites or bacteria. Usually, it's used when fish are first brought into quarantine. It's not 100% effective on its own, but it's one of the many tools in an aquarist's arsenal. Oh! This can also be used on sea turtles in some rescue situations! Again... SCIENCE!!! >:D

[spot-the-antisemitism]

https://www.instagram.com/p/DKIDRFsvo7d/?igsh=MXBwaHhrbzUxcGN6Yg==

Thoughts? Not in a like “gotcha” way, but in a “I genuinely want to know what you think about this” way.

Jewitches is antizionist and Ha'aretz regularly posts misinformation

so before I'd get worked up that ALL RELIGIOUS ISRAELIS ARE EVUL RACISTS, I'd double check the veracity of this graph

So I think it's propaganda to make you hate Jews. The Jews that want more war and actual ethnic cleansing are a minority, just one with a lot of power

Instead of freaking out that "all Israelis are racist" freak out that the few that are rule the country

[stormblessed95]

some are saying that it sounds like yg was bluffing/bullshiting, what do you think?

https://x.com/sosweet_km/status/1940063766370295846

*it's a cute moment if true btw

**ik that it's hard to understand without proper subs

Anon 2:

Live with amazing subs:

No, he wasn't bluffing or joking. I'm so tired of shippers. 😭 Jimin and JK were talking about how much and how hard they practiced singing together while in the military.

Jimin expressed concerns about it still and got lots of praise and support from his members in return. JK about how much it did show and pay off while they were serving together and Jin talking about how he has always been amazing

And Yoongi saying that it for sure does show, agreeing with JK

Jimins confusion came from the fact that he was in the mindset of while in the military with JK, he was like what, you didn't hear us practice?

And he remembered exactly as soon as Yoongi mentioned it

So cuteeeee

And his memory of it was foggy at first because they were also clearly drunk 😂

Why would they make up such a random and sweet story?!! Why would they lie? What reason would that serve?? Let Yoonmin drink and jam together all night. And give me a subunit from it!!!

Shippers are the worst and everyone needs to stop paying attention to their bullshit PLEASE. This was an adorable little tidbit shared and it was so sweet and happy. Just let it be that??

[aqlstar]

Posts like these do nothing to combat bigotry against Muslims. People will not take you seriously if they can tell you are being dishonest.

It is dishonest to pretend that all of European concerns about Muslim conquest were “fearmongering,” when different Muslim empires did conquer significant portions of Europe.

Perhaps the most famous example would be the defeat of the Byzantine Empire by Mehmet the Conquerer in 1452.

(Hadiths compiled in the centuries after Muhammad’s death contain his prediction that a Muslim army would take Constantinople.)

And guess what? Still not an excuse to dehumanize Muslims.

[the-catboy-minyan]

I would like to publicly apologize for spreading misinformation on my blog. it was irresponsible of me, I should have made the proper research before publicly posting false information, and yet I've recklessly spread Israeli propaganda multiple times. I'm deeply ashamed for my actions now that I see the truth, and I will reflect on my actions and try to do better in the future.

hamantachen with poppy seeds actually tastes really good.

[walks-the-ages]

For the record, no, there is not a "heat anomaly of 30c/86f hitting the North Pole on February 2nd 2025".

The current forecast for the North Pole on the five-day outlook (it's January 28th 2-25 as I post this, in response to a post from January 27th 2025) is between -15c to -22c. The high temperature for the day has a high of -13c, aka +8f.

There is absolutely no forecast I can find saying there's going to be "a high temperature of +86f in the North Pole", literally the highest temp I can see in a monthly forecast is a high daytime temp of 26f and 12f overnight, which is -3c to -11c.

No, the entire North Pole is not going to melt on February 2nd 2025.

The world is not going to end in a week.

All life on earth is not doomed by 2050.

Yes, call your reps, fight for climate protections, but don't go around screaming at people online that we're all "literally gonna die in 2050" because that's just straight up fearmongering and literally does not help anyone in any way.

Doomerism and panic does not do anyone any good, especially if you're spreading misiformation and fear mongering that is so easy to debunk.

[weemietime]

Y'all are stupid if you don't understand that the IRGC are directly responsible for a significant portion of current anti-Israel sentiment in the West. And their goal, in case you don't understand this, is to increase support for radical Islam.

The IRGC itself took over Iran and forced its citizens to adopt Islam, and it's so insidious that people to this day who cry about Israeli "colonialism" actively call Iran an Arab country.

I will give a shit about your Israeli "colonialism" when you give equal air space to Arab and Islamic imperialism and actual colonialism which is why Hamas openly says that their goal is to destroy Israel and replace it with yet another Arab and Islamic ethnostate.

People use the term ethnostate to apply to Israel when Israel is the single most diverse and liberal country in the Middle East while ignoring that every single Arab country around it is an ethnostate that rejects those who aren't Arab or Islamic.

I will give your arguments weight when you can point to a country in the Middle East other than Israel who have a 20% Jewish population with equal rights as the Arab citizens. I'll bring some popcorn and then starve to fucking death before you are able to do so.

The Houthis perpetrated a genocide of 200,000 people and the IRGC actively encourages Westoid idiots to make Tik Toks saying shit like "based Houthis," and then "I oppose genocide" lmfao, gooooooooo fuck yourselves.

Zero Jews in Yemen, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. All Jews ethnically cleansed or murdered. Israel has a 20% Arab population with equal rights as its Jewish civilians but Israel is the ethnostate, and y'all don't even realize that this rhetoric you are spewing comes from an Islamic imperialist state who actively work to destroy Iranian and Persian culture.

NEW IRAN. WOMEN, FREEDOM, LIFE.

[gregoriaofnyssa]

"Conviction Culture" and "Sororal Correction" in Protestant and Catholic Women's Ministry Culture

An inescapable fixture of Protestant women’s ministry is church-body-sponsored external spiritual advice. The congregation pays to bring Bonnie Bible, Susane Savior, or Clara Consince into the auditorium or gathering hall to give a talk on some issue of lifestyle-related controversy. It could be relationships, marriage, children, modesty, work, or leadership, but the topics float around these areas. The stated goal of these talks is to help women with their husbands, their troubled daughter, their walk with God, purity within marriage, or a difficult coworker, but the actual purpose of these talks is far different. Their emotional purpose is to “convict” women. 

2. A certain kind of Protestant woman froths at the mouth to be told what to do, or what not to do. They call this “being convicted”. Bikinis, for example, are an issue of controversy in Christian circles: are they little more than underwear? Is it context-dependent? How much midriff and buttcheek is too much? There is no shortage of speakers with all kinds of opinions on the Bikini Question. The speaker could tell these women that bikinis are infernal inventions from the hands of literally Satan, and they’d cheer and chant “Amen!” The speaker could say all women ought to wear at least a skirted suit and rashguard. “Hallelujah,” they’d say again. They would still affirm this even if they don’t fully agree with it or ever plan to wear anything besides a bikini. Furthermore, after these talks, the women in attendance will get together and impose (more like suggest) even stricter standards on themselves. You’d hear, over bad parish hall coffee, “I wear those high-cut bottoms, but I don't even think that’s acceptable. I’ll fix to wear a little something over top of that.” The woman who offers this restriction probably means to follow through, but who knows if all the women who affirm her ever will. 

3. There is a certain kind of Catholic woman who is the exact opposite. She will learn theology, seek out books and priests and knowledge from wherever she can get it, pray and discern, only so she can get out of Roman Catholic obligations. I once had a conversation with a Catholic woman who insisted that it didn’t break her eucharistic fast for her to have a latte 15 minutes before Mass, so long as the milk used was skim, “because coffee is basically water and skim milk is basically water, and because it doesn’t have any fat, it’s fine.” I made an attempt at arguing with her, but I didn’t get very far. She rattled off a series of CCC numbers and something or other she heard from a priest. What I eventually said was, “Oh, uh-huh, totally…” but what I should’ve said was, “This is Talmudic and I rebuke it!” Collecting religious knowledge to skirt obligations is sacrilege in the highest order.

4. These are the women with whom I spend most of my time– they are otherwise very kind and pious women. I’m concerned about this because I love them, I work with them, I pray with them, and I live with them, and it disturbs me that this attitude is so common.

5. This is not something I am disconnected from or something that doesn’t involve me. I got my theology degree in Catholic theology at a Catholic university.  I am involved with Catholic culture, as is the majority of the world; It’s a public institution that warrants public critique.

6. Because Catholic women are very unlikely to criticize other Catholic women on anything, it’s mostly non-Catholic women, both in person and online, who try to call Catholic women to something higher. This is yet another thing that allows this kind of woman to shut her ears to pious suggestions; it's easy to dismiss the idea that you actually shouldn’t eat or drink anything an hour before Mass, that you should dress modestly, or read the Bible, when a non-Catholic woman is giving the suggestion. They will say, “Who are you to say? You’re not even Catholic!” You’d’ve thought with all the philosophy they read to get out of things, they’d discover the basic fact that what is true is true, regardless of who says it. I say that as if it isn’t clear that these women wouldn’t take criticism any better if it came from a fellow Catholic woman. Citations from this priest or that saint, this council or the next, the “you’re not catholic” card, and whatever else, are not reasons; they’re excuses.

7. One unintentional, social result of the Roman Catholic Church’s promulgation of the Universal Call to Holiness is that “holiness” has been interpreted as “ecstatic sainthood”. There is a belief that all people are not called to holiness in the sense of virtue, repentance, and love, but extraordinary feats of monasticism and evangelization. This is self-evidently stupid. Most people are not called to starve themselves all Holy Week or travel to Sudan and be martyred. But this is how many members of the Catholic laity have interpreted their call to holiness. Therefore, when they end up unable to eat plain oatmeal all of Lent or wear pebbles in their shoes for the sake of mortification, these Catholic women then believe that they, in the mediocrity we all share, have reached the ceiling of holiness. Their devotion must be equally as great as those saints who saw the Uncreated Light. There is nowhere better to go, there is nothing more pious to do, there is nothing more loving, more sanctified, or pure than what they’re already doing right now. If anything, they struggle with scrupulosity, and they should really be doing less.

8. No person can maintain either their spiritual well-being or their personal happiness in this state of exceptional, delusional pride. You’d have to leave yourself in an off-grid, one-room cabin to be able to sustain the belief that there is not more you could be doing spiritually, that you’re the holiest person on Earth. Everywhere you look, there is someone who is a better ascetic than you, a better spouse than you, a better Christian than you.

9. This is why a great portion of Catholic Women’s Ministry is about giving women skills to soothe this cognitive dissonance. Stories of Sainthood focus on obscure ‘Blesseds’ who were married, unmartyred, and non-evangelistic. This, in itself, isn’t bad (there are plenty of holy people who lead simple lives), but these people are given preference to the exclusion and even defamation of other saints with grander stories of mysticism, martyrdom, or self-mortification. The Apostle Paul is a subject of particular and great ire among these women because he is constantly demanding things of his congregations. Not only is he demanding, but he is constantly giving excuses for those who fall short of the demands. This should be comforting, but it is very painful to admit we fall short and are in need of Grace. It is a pain that these women build their whole intellect around resisting.

10. As an aside, this problem is mirrored in Protestant and Catholic men. You can’t tell a Protestant man diddly-squat, especially as a woman or as any Christian outside of their denomination. Be he conservative or liberal, he, like his kind of Catholic woman, has built his spiritual life around the shrine of getting out of crap. Say he should fast, say he should read scripture, say he should go to church, say he should stop fornicating, and you’ll get a line of sola-inspired excuses: “I don’t gotta do that, I am saved by faith, not by works!” as if John Calvin would say that joker is getting past the pearly gates. It isn’t faith; it’s an excuse.

11. Catholic men, on the other hand, treat “getting convicted�� (what they refer to generally as “self-mortification” or in more Thomistic terms) like a social activity. In the same way Protestant women froth, a certain kind of Catholic man fetishizes. They’re always looking to be told they’re not doing enough, that they could fast more, that they shouldn’t use contemporary banks, and that they should whip themselves with a scourge. I could dress up like a man and start a podcast about cutting off one of your testicles for the sake of the Kingdom, and there’d be a movement of tradcaths behind it, despite the fact that this is a magisterially condemned practice. Like Protestant women, I’d guess very few tradcath men are actually doing the things they say are holy– in many cases, I’m sure it’s better that way. The point is that they aspire to great feats of piety. 

12. Catholic women waste their intellects and spirits on what is essentially an entire cultural and parochial infrastructure of cope. This is not healthy, and it is not Biblical. You are always called higher, you always need to do better, because you will always fail. Paul says in Romans 3: 10-12, quoting Psalm 53, “There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside.” Paul is not talking to you, reader, about your enemies– abortionists, the fornicators, this modern scourge of a world. No. He is talking about you, and he is talking about me. It is a cultural stereotype that “Catholic Guilt” and “scrupulosity” are pervasive issues in Roman Catholicism, but in my experience, Catholics do not have nearly enough guilt. They need profane guilt. 

13. Profane guilt is not the same as moral guilt. Moral guilt is the guilt you feel for something wrong you’ve done– if you insult a relative, if you steal something, or if you fornicate, etc., you feel moral guilt because God is calling you to repent. Profane guilt, on the other hand, is guilt for the crime of being: not being holy, not being pure, not being God. Essentially, it is the shame of nakedness. There isn’t really anything wrong with nakedness. It's not an injustice. You’re born naked, you bathe naked, and so on, but it’s shameful and humiliating to be naked if you’re in the company of clothed people. In a similar way, before God and before Holiness, and holy people in general, we feel the same guilt. It’s important, as Christians, that we befriend this guilt and use it as God intended. Profane guilt lives in us so that we don’t get complacent in our spiritual lives. 

14. It is exactly as disordered, if not more so, to attempt to hide from the profane guilt of lackluster prayer as it would be to hide from the moral guilt of cheating on your spouse. Adulterers give excuses for their crimes against Love and Fidelity: He was mean to me, She didn’t want to have sex with me, He let himself go, so on and so forth, till they’re blue in the face. Catholic Women’s Ministry would not build itself around coddling these excuses. Rightly, it would seek to have adulterers face their guilt and repent. Even if a cheater goes on cheating, it would be better that they feel guilty because at least then they’d be in some kind of alignment with reality. Likewise, an aspiration to and admiration of greater piety, even if it is never achieved, is better than languishing in and exalting whatever spirituality we’re currently settled with.

15. So, what’s the solution to this? It’s simple, and it doesn’t involve a seat on the parish council, parochial money, or a degree in ministry. Catholic women with good heads on your shoulders, you are all your church needs. There are plenty of you, and I know you see these problems, because you, too, are my friends, my coworkers, and my classmates. I hear you complain about it. We complain together. All that’s keeping you from offering sororal correction is social pressure. Because there is such a fixation, both in "The Culture" and within Christianity, on 'uplifting women', 'supporting women', etc., you can feel like you’re just tearing other women down, even when you offer a suggestion into the ether, to no one in particular. But it isn’t “negative” or “judgmental” to know that your sisters in Christ are capable of and called to much more than they’re being given. To Love someone is to will their Good. It is to will their purification and their piety.

16. Show them that it isn't a sad and awful life to acknowledge your failures, both voluntary and involuntary, of word and of deed, committed in knowledge or in ignorance. It doesn't make you reprobate to be a lousy prayer, or a lazy faster, or a distractible parishioner. It doesn't make you exceptionally unholy to fall short of what the Church teaches, your priest recommends, or cannons suggest. You know, as the Church knows, that it just makes you what you are-- fallen, human, and in need of a savior. Show them the joy you've shown me, that the Savior has come, has paid all our debts, and only cares that we realize there is a debt to begin with.

[charliettea]

Hi friends, I've seen multiple people share posts about how Canada has added a number to call for US folks in crisis. This is unfortunately false. There is no evidence for this claim, and to make things worse, the number they used in this post (and others) is Canada's trans lifeline number. They are not equipped to deal with the influx of calls they've had due to these false posts.

I know it would have been amazing, but please fact check, especially when it sounds too good to be true. And please report posts for misinformation when you come across them.

https://translifeline.org/clarifying-misinformation-about-our-hotline-number/

Numbers you CAN call: 988 is still up and running, as well as the trevor project

1-866-488-7386

[spot-the-antisemitism]

Is there a reason why Israel is so widely considered an "apartheid state", despite Jews not being the only ones allowed to live there? Like, did Israel, at some point in its long history, implement a system even remotely close to an apartheid and that's why this idea is still so prevalent in many people's mind? Or is it really just antisemitism ignorance?

Dear anon,

This one has a simple answer!

it's because the Soviet Union was cashing in the trend of boycotting South Africa for being an Apartheid state and decided to spread lies that Israel was one to promote Boycotts. BDS is actually functioning off this soviet propaganda and not a grassroots movement

Israel was never an apartheid state at least within the parts that are the state of Israel

yours,

Cecil

[stormblessed95]

https://x.com/bunnyspeaches/status/1936901430541181109

hey just letting you know that there’s no evidence that jikook attended a calligraphy class together, a calligrapher just asked for their autographs. the k-jikooker JAKSAL who posted the autographs clarified that they only signed.

Oh cool, thanks so much for letting me know! I'll edit/add this to my post about it 💜

How does one get their hands on an autograph by BTS/Jikook? I need to start working in a really cool store they might walk by 😭😂

[barbielore]

As we come into the end of Hispanic Heritage Month, I wanted to talk again about Barbie's best friend Teresa.

I previously made a post about Teresa in which I said that it was ambiguous whether Teresa was intended to be perceived as Hispanic.

It was subsequently pointed out that in Barbie Dreamhouse Adventures she appears to be depicted as unambiguously Latina based on her character design, the fact that she is presented as a Spanish speaker - and of course, her canonical surname in both Dreamhouse Adventures and the doll-line is Rivera, which technically could be an Italian surname, but it does seem most likely that Mattel has intended her to be a Hispanic/Latina character.

So please do consider this my correcting my past misinformation - and my sincerest apologies if I have used inappropriate terminology to refer to her race and/or culture.

Some of Teresa's best looks or most interesting appearances from throughout the years in my personal opinion are...

NSYNC Number One fan Teresa.

Spanish Teacher Teresa.

Flying Hero Teresa.

Teresa more or less stopped appearing in the doll line in the mid 2000s - since 2003, she appeared four times in 2007 and once in 2021.

However, this year is the 35th anniversary of Teresa as one of Barbie's friends, and as a result Mattel have released an anniversary edition Teresa as part of the Signature line.

[mirrorofliterature]

if people could stop spreading the myth that tasmania, the australian state, legally protects asexuality/aromanticism, I would greatly appreciate that, thanks

the tasmanian government acknowledging asexuality/aromanticism in their lgbtqia+ acronym does not equal legal protection.

tasmania's definition of sexual orientation is actually quite restrictive and quite clearly does not include asexuality or aromanticism

but! there is currently an australian jurisdiction that protects legally both asexual and aromantic people from discrimination.

it's the northern territory

and (potentially, but it's vague) victoria

and queensland will next year and nsw will protect asexual individuals (not aromantic though)

we love correcting misinformation! this particular piece of misinformation is quite virulent. the northern territory and queensland are right there, my friends.

[lem0nademouth]

i want experts in all the fields michael hobbes has discussed on ywa/tmp to reblog this with their corrections bc apparently this man talks out of his ass regularly and i am desperate to hear from actual subject matter experts

[roseverdict]

the link to the post "correcting misinformation" doesnt lead anywhere lmao. another tumblr "sourceless contradiction of sourceless posting" situation 😔

shit, i forgot about that. i was so caught up in the euphoria of being able to post again that i forgot i lived in a world where dead links existed. gimme a sec to see if it at least pulls anything up in the internst archive