confusedandisomorphic

[confusedandisomorphic]

This is the wonderful 'life on benefits' that disabled and sick people endure. This is what Tories and Labour both stigmatise us for. This is what, too often, kills us.

And they don't care.

[confusedandisomorphic]

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Some people have love for humanity, but no compassion for it, no real empathy for human beings that goes beyond the surface level and superficial. Being a misanthropist with compassion is better than being a philanthropist who thinks that there is ultimately nothing fundamentally wrong with the world, who thinks it's okay if all the horrors that humans are subjected to continue to persist, because they think "everything balances out in the end" or because "everything happens for a reason" or some shit. Like I'm sorry, but we definitely tolerate toxic positivity and allow it to masquerade as healthy optimism out of a fear of ever validating anything that seems "too edgy" way, way too much. At some point a desire to only think normal thoughts that aren't cringe turns into intellectual cowardice and moral laziness, and you've definitely reached that point if your attitude towards the abundance of heinous suffering in this world is just, "oh gee well that sure is unfortunate, but you know, ultimately life is beautiful and everything is okay, and none of that stuff really matters in the grand scheme of things, life is still inherently good, etc. etc."

If there is no form of suffering so heinous to you that you would rather vaporize the planet than allow it to continue for one more day, then I'm sorry but you are someone with a hollow and performative affection for your species. Valuing the mere presence of human minds over the actual experiential quality of the lived realities of real humans will always be oonga boonga brain shit to me, I'm sorry. Like your primal drive to support the species' survival is dampening your higher moral functioning. I would rather live in a world where there's just three clones named Sally who are immortal and always happy, than live in a world where millions of people are enduring unspeakable horrors every single day, sorry. "The beauty of life" and "the wonderful tenacity of the human spirit" mean nothing to me when there are people living their entire lives in slavery and little girls are getting gangraped to death. The fact that people regularly take their own lives because their pain is so unbearable that they'd prefer to just cease existing should tell us all we need to know about the value of quantity vs. quality on this issue. Life itself is not inherently good any more than anything else is, and more life does not automatically equal more value and goodness. If you see nothing wrong with throwing new people into this world despite knowing what it could have in store for them, what potential fates they, or their children, could endure, then you only love humanity in the way you love coffee or a good book. You love the idea of humanity. The ideal of humanity. What humanity represents to you. You love humanity as a concept, not as a collection of individual human beings with thoughts and feelings.

[confusedandisomorphic]

Movie recs 🍿

- To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything

- Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

- The Deepest Breath

- NYAD

- The Birdcage

- The Swimmers

- Midnight in Paris

- Mulan

- Inside Out

- Inside Out 2

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Comfort movie

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Journaling loose thoughts for ourselves, written down to process things and see what we were thinking about in the past. We like Zizek's concept of the "Big Other".

[confusedandisomorphic]

The quality you most admire in a man? Courage moral and physical: “anima” — the ability to think like a woman. Also a sense of the absurd. The quality you most admire in a woman? Courage moral and physical: “anima” — the ability to visualize the mind and need of a man. Also a sense of the absurd. -C.H. - Hitch-22

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I can remember losing my virginity — a bit later than most of my peers, I suspect—with a girl who, inviting me to tea at one of the then-segregated female colleges, allowed me to notice that her walls were covered with photographs taken of me by an unseen cameraman who’d followed my public career.

Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22

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https://www.cambridge.gov.uk/services-for-rough-sleepers-and-single-homeless-people

Services for rough sleepers and single homeless people

We and our partners in Cambridge’s Street Outreach Team work to provide accommodation and support to single homeless and rough sleeping people.

This support includes meeting immediate needs. We provide free meals and washing facilities, and try to ensure everybody has somewhere warm to sleep.

It also includes building trusting relationships with repeat rough sleepers. This allows us to start to support them to move away from a street-based life, if or when they are ready to do so.

If you are homeless, we may have a legal duty to help you. Read our page about emergency homeless applications to find out more.

If you’re faced with sleeping rough in Cambridge, there are services that can support you.

You may be eligible for our Single Homelessness Service

If you have a local connection to the sub-region you may be able to access some of the hostels in the city or around the sub-region.

Contact the Housing Advice Service or the Street Outreach Team for further information.

If you're concerned for someone sleeping rough, or are sleeping rough yourself, call Streetlink on 0300 500 0914 or visit the StreetLink website.

Our Team Around a Person service focuses on providing personalised plans to support rough sleepers in Cambridge, providing support with issues such as mental ill-health, or drug or alcohol dependency.

Organisations providing support and information for homeless people and those sleeping rough in Cambridge City

Street Outreach Team (01223 366 292) provide support and advice to help those who sleep or spend much of their time on the streets. The team can help people into accommodation and to address other problems.

Jimmy's Cambridge offers short-term, emergency accommodation for men and women who might otherwise have to sleep rough. In addition to a bedroom and meals, Jimmy’s provide a range of support and resettlement services.

Wintercomfort provides free breakfast, shower and laundry to those sleeping rough or unsuitably housed. They also organise various activities including work placements, training and workshops, with trained staff able to advise and signpost to support services.

Centre 33 offers free and confidential services for young people in Cambridge and South and East Cambridgeshire. They can advise on a range of issues including housing and homelessness.

The Big Issue is an international organisation that works with homeless people all over the world. The Big Issue’s Cambridge office is located at Wintercomfort.

Emmaus Cambridge is a fully self-supporting community based in Landbeach. Companions live by the principle of helping others to live, grow and find dignity through sharing, work and self-respect.

Cambridge Salvation Army has a church, community centre and large charity shop. The community centre and charity shop can be found on Mill Road.

If you see someone who is in need of immediate medical attention, call 999 or 111 (with option 2 for a mental health crisis).

Street Aid

There are many excellent charities in Cambridge who work with us to help people off the streets. One way you can help is by giving to Street Aid, a charitable fund that helps people who have experienced rough sleeping to access support, accommodation and employment.

You can donate on the Street Aid webpage, by text message, or at our contactless giving point at Mandela House, 4 Regent Street, Cambridge CB2 1BY.