felix-the-obscure

[felix-the-obscure]

I feel like too many consent-related posts focus too much on giving and getting consent, and not making sure that people feel comfortable not consenting. We talk too much of consent as if it is a given, as if you just have to ask and then you’ll get it. 

like, there are so many things that boil down to “before you have sex, ask for consent” rather than “don’t assume you’re about to have sex unless you know for sure that the other party/parties want to, and even then they could change their minds”.

Which is just really unhelpful. The whole point of consent shouldn’t be “you should always ask for it and then you can have care-free sex”. That still assumes that you’re going to have sex, when the whole point of asking what people want to do is that it should be possible to say no.

Consent and dissent are both equally valuable. It’s OK if someone asks you if you want to do something, and you say no. And whether you say no for today, for a week or forever, it’s all fine.

Because you know that there are going to be people who think they’re so ~progressive~ and so ~feminist~. when they ask their partner(s) if they want to have sex, but then won’t be able to handle the word “no”.

[felix-the-obscure]

i cannot keep quiet about this anymore.

if you're in the US or Canada and interested in learning a language using a free app please get a library card and download MANGO. it's very good and extremely free with a library card (there are many public libraries and universities using the service, so make an account and use the search feature here to find out if there's one near you).

mango currently has 72 available languages and dialects (that's right! different courses for french or canadian french! spanish or latam spanish!). it's set up basically like an audiobook with text. the idea is that the narrator explains the words while you read, and you repeat after them or say the translation out loud when prompted. there's a daily review where you go through flashcards. you can also use the flashcards at your leisure and create your own. at the end of each chapter there's a listening comprehension quiz and a reading comprehension quiz. i cannot emphasize how effective this all is. and it's free with a card.

if you're not in the US or Canada and/or looking for something more like duolingo (don't use duolingo btw tldr they fired translators and replaced them with "ai"), then try BUSUU! it only has 14 languages atm but the lessons are really descriptive and effective. it also has a feature where you can correct other people's open-ended speaking/typing exercises. you set your fluent languages, and exercises by people learning those languages will appear in your feed for you to correct. you can even add others as friends! and, much like duolingo, it has a streak and leaderboard system for you to strive for, minus the guilt-tripping owl.

busuu is free (you watch ads to unlock lessons and they're all skippable after like five seconds), although it also has paid premium/plus versions (i don't use the paid version—the language courses are available for free, and the ad system is Really unobtrusive).

so that's my wisdom for the day. mango and busuu. please check them out :)

[felix-the-obscure]

<3333

just in case you need to hear this today:

you are not a failure

you are not a waste of space

you are loved

you are wanted

I believe in you

you can do it!!!!

[felix-the-obscure]

By now, you all must have seen the news that Gaza had officially run out of food, as one of the main aid suppliers in Gaza, World Food Program, had announced that their stock has been completely depleted, leaving just a few days for community kitchens to function.

This comes after more than 50 days (and counting) of Israel's complete closure of the borders, preventing food and medicine, among other life essentials, from entering Gaza. There are children crying out of hunger with trucks loaded with over 100,000 tons of food mere minutes away from them, which Israel continues to prevent from entering besieged Gaza.

This also comes after Israel had deliberately destroyed swaths of farmlands in Gaza, specifically targeting them with bombs and chemical weapons that destroy the chance of growing crops. Israel also made sure bakeries are destroyed as well as water sources.

Diabolical is an understatement when it comes to the Zionist entity.

There are still things you can do. On top of raising awareness and protesting when possible, independent organisations like APN are working directly with farmers in Gaza to rehabilitate the agricultural sector and restore local food systems to combat famine, counter the blockade and build food sovereignty. You can donate to their Revive Gaza's Farmlands initiative here.

Additionally, keep in mind that this means whatever food supplies remain available in Gaza now costs astronomical amounts of money, so keep sharing and donating to individual fundraising campaigns. Gazafunds is a good source if you're not sure where to start. Remember that your donations and shares are often the only source of hope for these families.

[felix-the-obscure]

*runs in frantically* i‘m alive i swear!!!!

so a couple of things:

there will be new zines posted here soon! (+ on bluesky which i srsly need to post more on lol) this will probably happen in the next week or two because i have a bunch that i’ve made and not posted lol

im considering getting an insta but i need some zinester opinions - i would literally just use it for posting the zines and like nothing else lol

and i‘m working on starting to physically distribute my zines! i still need to sort out stuff with my printer before that can happen, but that’s in the works!

[felix-the-obscure]

nothing funnier to me than when AI does math wrong. like I get why it happens, it's a language model that's treating the numbers you feed it as words rather than integers and then giving you an answer based on how those words typically appear in a block of text instead of actually performing a calculation. but the one thing computers are genuinely incredible at. you fucked up a perfectly good calculator is what you did, look at it it's got hallucinations

[felix-the-obscure]

as a trans guy, this is so fucking real

i have more sophisticated thoughts on this but like my brain is broken atm

No one is ever actually in trans men's corner. We're freaks and stupid little girls to the right. We're gender traitors to the left. If we say anything, we're sexist, misogynistic liars, at best. White trans men eventually die from su*cide. Trans men of color die from worse. And then we're erased from history - any impact on the world rewritten as having been done by cis women. The feminist movement seems to have moved backwards and trans men are now excluded except for being the safe punching bag. We'll eventually disappear and shut up though, not because we're were told to our entire youth or after we transition to the wrong kind of man, but because we're tired.

I'm tired.

[felix-the-obscure]

[felix-the-obscure]

fondly remembering when pope francis said he hopes hell is empty. top pope francis moments. right up there with him saying some seminaries are too faggy

[felix-the-obscure]

“I didn’t like that intersex person/trans masc and what they were saying, so I aggressively called them a cis woman over and over until they left in tears” that’s called misgendering and bigotry actually and you should be deeply ashamed of yourself . what the fuck is wrong with you

[felix-the-obscure]

To my uk trans people and allies out there.

[felix-the-obscure]

I think the sky is trying to say something? 🤔 👀 🏳️‍⚧️

[felix-the-obscure]

the thing that pisses me off the most about this whole "haha trans men in womens bathrooms will make them reconsider" spin going around is that it basically pretends trans men and mascs of color dont exist and arent in very real danger

like, think about for even one second how, historically, white women have weaponized the perception of moc as inherently masculinely savage to get them killed for being threats to fragile helpless white girls

do you think the lady who calls 911 on black men birdwatching in the park is going to see a trans man of color in the womens bathroom and go "gosh! i never thought about it that way. you've really exposed the flaw in my arguement"? no. shes going to call security and that man will be brutalized or killed

(and dont even for a second think that woc will be safe either. i was getting side eyes and pointed questions long before i ever came out because my skin was brown and i had short hair. tmoc and our sisters arent fucking safe and we deserve better than being used as some white posters pithy "gotchya")

[felix-the-obscure]

I take immense schadenfreude in Elon Musk spending $25 million to try to influence an election in Wisconsin only for the candidate he was backing to lose by a larger margin than was predicted before Musk got into the race. Like how tf do you dump that much money into a state supreme court election and get not only nothing out of it but LESS than nothing. That's a truly impressive level of failure. I'm watching Elon become the most hated man in America like the Sickos yes hahaha yes comic

[felix-the-obscure]

[felix-the-obscure]

didnt expect to be talking abt starbucks so much after i quit but it just keeps getting worse

8 human trafficking survivors are suing Starbucks, exposing years of forced labor and child labor. the article starts with the story of a man who was enslaved at age 16 and was just rescued last year. if nothing else has convinced you to boycott, please let this sway you...

it also says the NGO CoffeeWatch is filing a complaint with US Customs and Border Protection attempting to block these corporations from importing coffees produced wholly or in part by slave labor in Brazil.

but this isn't unique to Starbucks, this is the unspoken truth of many of our goods in the west, relying on the exploitation of people in the global south. i pray all the survivors secure a massive payout, but still.. i cant imagine anything would ever make up for this kind of treatment.

[felix-the-obscure]

<3