journalofimprobablethings

[journalofimprobablethings]

i don’t know how to explain to you people that no matter what a country’s government is like i do not and will not support the US indiscriminately bombing that country’s civilians and i don’t know why that’s a controversial take tbh

[journalofimprobablethings]

“Women don’t have rights in Iran, they are homophobic in Iran!”

A black woman’s dying body was used to incubate a fetus because the state said so and the Supreme Court, regurgitating debunked talking points, ruled that trans kids could be denied gender affirming care that is proven to save lives. Does that justify a foreign power bombing New Jersey indiscriminately? Like some of y’all don’t give a fuck about LGBTQ Iranians or women in that country because I never saw a people get free through just having their shit blown up

[journalofimprobablethings]

From A tehrani resident who barely got out let me inform you of some of the things currently going on here:

Israel bombed two of the highways leading out of tehran, both are blocked now. The remaining highways had heavy traffic until few hours ago. After israel bombed every oil tanks and refineries around tehran, a shortage of petrol happened. Now most petrol stations are out of work and if you're lucky enough to find one that's still operating, you have to stay in hours long lines in hopes of getting max 15 liters of petrol. So even with a car, it's not guaranteed you can get very far from the city.

There's also the matter of where to go and stay. The bank system is half working, no cash available at the time. And you can't exactly sleep in the deserts around the city. Most people still stuck in tehran don't have anywhere to go and they don't have the money to afford relocating themselves (it's always the lower class that gets the worst hits)

All of these are beside the fact that most people can't leave the city under any circumstance. They have chronic illnesses, they have sick family members who needs care, they work as emergency workers and can't leave their lines of duty.

But these mfs don't care about human life getting destroyed. It's just numbers to them, expendables. Our own government has abandoned people to die horrible deaths, they never cared and they don't care now. People of iran are worth nothing to nobody. It's Gaza all over again.

I have family and friends still in tehran who can't leave. I'm bracing myself for the worst case scenario. I hope all those who start war, add fuel to the flames of war, encourage it and cheer for it, burn and rot in hell. I don't really believe in hell and afterlife, but I hope it's all real just to see these people get what they deserve

[journalofimprobablethings]

One of the things which I think should be most shocking to people who have no experience with Homeless shelters is how often they have policies which *actively make it harder for their residents to find or keep a job*.

What happens if you have a strict curfew but the bus back from your new job only comes once every hour? Better hope you don't leave work even five minutes late, otherwise you ain't getting to sleep indoors tonight! Hope that doesn't impair you at work tomorrow!

Also, better not try to get any swing or night shift work!

This is so obviously stupid and counterproductive that I think those of us who have never had first-hand knowledge of being homeless can't imagine that this kind of stuff is *normal* in American shelters.

Like legitimately they seem designed to keep people homeless.

[journalofimprobablethings]

I keep remembering a run of Hamlet I saw a few years ago, where the Ghost was costumed in full plate armour which was very noisy, and instead of muffling it, they had him crash across the stage, stomping so the whole set rattled, and he said all of his lines in a bellow, like he was furious with Hamlet.

And the thing that made it absolutely terrifying was that Hamlet was the only one who reacted. He was cowering, and covering his ears with both hands, and yelling to be heard over the noise.

And no one else seemed to know why he was doing that. The other actors didn't even raise their voices.

That's scary, something so loud and painful, and REAL, and the people around you don't even notice it, and think that you're the crazy one.

[journalofimprobablethings]

Hot take but I really do think that some of y’all need to consider how/why/when/how often you’re making fun of straight people for being straight

I do it too, I’m not going to pretend I don’t make jokes about the hets, or the down with cis bus, or whatever

But I recently befriended a cis, straight dude and I have watched him be dismissed, degraded, and unambiguously insulted for the perceived “crime” of being straight — all in queer environments where he is allegedly “completely welcome” and surrounded by “friends”

This guy is not a toxic person! But I have seen him be made to feel so small and like his comfort and safety in those spaces are conditional on his silence and acceptance of being treated like a human dunk zone, and I think that some of y’all have had so much shit from straight/cis people that the second you feel like you’ve got an inch, you want to luxuriate in the perceived catharsis of bullying someone who— actually —doesn’t deserve it

And until he very, very carefully mentioned to me in private that it makes him feel bad, I didn’t even clock that I was involved in doing that, that it had become so instinctive for me to make casual jokes like that, and that— well meaning or otherwise —I had been contributing to an environment that made someone I really really like feel like shit

So, I dunno, I think maybe some of y’all should think about that too

[journalofimprobablethings]

for juneteenth the innocence project sent out a collection of reading material on their mailing list that i thought i should share with all of you-- a reminder of how the us prison system is a continuation of slavery, and how we must keep fighting for justice and equality. they also are accepting donations if you have a few bucks to send their way: every dollar counts!

How the 13th Amendment Kept Slavery Alive: Perspectives From the Prison Where Slavery Never Ended

On Juneteenth, Here Are 5 Ways to Be a Better Ally

Race and Wrongful Conviction

How a Wrongly Incarcerated Person Became the ‘Most Brilliant Legal Mind’ in ‘America’s Bloodiest Prison’

A Mistaken Identification Sent Him to Prison for 38 Years, But He Never Gave Up Fighting for Freedom

‘The Dungeon Was the Last Place I Wanted to Go’: An Exoneree’s Story of Survival at Angola Prison

Book an Innocence Project Speaker This Month

[journalofimprobablethings]

if you don't do anything else today,

Please have a moment of silence for the people who were killed instead of freed when news of emancipation finally reached the furthest corners of the american south.

have another moment for the ledgers, catalogs, and records that were burned and the homes that were destroyed to hide the presence of very much alive and still enslaved people on dozens of plantations and homesteads across the south for decades after emancipation.

and have a third moment for those who were hunted and killed while fleeing the south to find safety across the border, overseas, in the north and to the west.

black people. light a candle, write a note to those who have passed telling them what you have achieved in spite of the racist and intolerant conditions of this world, feel the warmth of the flame under your hand, say a prayer of rememberance if you are religious, place the note under the candle, and then blow it out.

if you have children, sit them down and tell them anything you know about the life of oldest black person you've ever met. it doesn't have to be your own family. tell them what you know about what life was like for us in the days, years, decades after emancipation. if you don't know much, look it up and learn about it together.

This is Juneteenth.

white people CAN interact with this post. share it, spread it.

[journalofimprobablethings]

happy juneteenth but dont forget that prisoners are legally allowed to be subject to slave labor and also black people are disproportionately arrested and subjected to that legality. happy juneteenth but slavery still lives in america. america is still dependant on slave labor.

[journalofimprobablethings]

THE ENTIRE WEST IS BEING PUT UP FOR SALE AND I AM BEGGING YOU TO CALL YOUR SENATORS

Trump’s budget bill has many, many things in it, but buried amongst it is the MILLIONS OF ACRES OF PUBLIC LAND FOR SALE.

This is the entirety of the Arizona state forests, the entire Cascades mountain range. Swathes of pristine desert around the national parks in Utah. On the doorstep of Jackson Hole.

THIS BILL IS BIG, BUT IT CAN BE AMENDED AND ABSOLUTELY MUST NOT PASS AS IS please.

If you have ever enjoyed the wilderness, we stand to lose it all forever.

CALLING your senators - NOT JUST IN THE WEST. ALL SENATORS, is CRUCIAL.

Outdoor alliance has a great resource for reaching out.

I don’t have a huge following but please, everywhere I have ever loved, the forests I grew up playing in, the land I got married on, is all at risk and I am begging.

[journalofimprobablethings]

Nothing shuts down a bougie conversation like "well, when I was homeless—" Nothing. It's one and done. They are fucking taken out. The conversation is dead. Done.

[journalofimprobablethings]

I saw a post going around a while ago (including from a non-US moot) about getting comfortable lying to law enforcement

Here's the thing. In the US.

DO NOT TALK TO LAW ENFORCEMENT IN THE FIRST PLACE.

If you are in a situation where you're lying to law enforcement, you are already interacting too much. STOP TALKING.

You can ask if you are free to go. You can keep asking.

Per the National Lawyers Guild, ESPECIALLY do not lie to the FBI. Do not say things to them that could be construed as lying. Those are serious charges. The best way around that is NOT TALKING.

In the words of the National Lawyers Guild: SHUT THE FUCK UP.

[journalofimprobablethings]

It is a police tactic to divide and conquer social movements for liberation and justice for the public to categorize protesters as either “nonviolent” or “violent.” This is what the police want, for us to police ourselves so they don’t have to. I’ve even seen the “peace police” turn protesters into the actual police at anti-police rallies! How is that not collaborating with the enemy we’re protesting and oppose?

If you catch yourself castigating certain protesters as “violent,” you are helping the very institutions we want change from evade accountability. The people in charge want you to waste your time with ineffective protest strategies and methods because it incurs no cost to them to continue to abuse people. That’s why we have to make it as costly as possible for them to abuse us. That’s how we win.

[journalofimprobablethings]

HEY

so if you know someone who went to the LA protests today no you don't actually! All of those people have no identity. You've never been to a protest, you've never seen someone at one, and you certainly have never known the names or faces of any individuals associated with the protests.

[journalofimprobablethings]

if you can't get to a protest today but still want to support your community i would encourage you to donate to a bail fund such as the immigration bond freedom fund or jail support la.

also, if you are protesting stay safe, wear a mask, stay hydrated, and do not sit down. i keep seeing people online recommending this if violence breaks out, supposedly to single out agitators, but it's just a good way to get seriously injured - either kicked, trampled, or hit harder with rubber bullets, which are meant to be shot towards the legs/ at the ground and bounce. there's a time and place for sit-ins, and it's not during a march.

[journalofimprobablethings]

Also how are people repeating the phrase "preemptive strikes" unironically? Does anyone even question the words they use and circulate? How can "preemptive" be used to describe deadly strikes by a nuclear power? How is it not the most obvious case of manufacturing consent for a blatant act of aggression?

It's not preemptive, it's unprovoked. That's the word.

[journalofimprobablethings]

I need the gravity of laws like this to be understood.

Your discomfort with seeing visibly poor people in public will never be remotely equal to what they face.

As a homelessness survivor (4 times, most recent bout ended in March 2025) I have been in so many rooms where people said awful shit about the unhoused and assumed everyone agreed with them. That some people don't deserve help, that they don't want help, that somehow shelters are safe places to go rather than abusive institutions that separate you from your family.

Tent cities are a way that unhoused people get a kind of autonomy that they do not experience within the shelter system. You can come and go from a tent in a way you cannot in a shelter. You can have a midnight snack. You can have some semblance of privacy.

This is not the only city where people who live outside are being stolen from their communities and then ruthlessly exploited by the prison system. A criminal record is not liberation. It is not help.

Paternalism is not care. It is a way of telling people that you would rather they die out of your sight than live in it.