liquidmooniight

[liquidmooniight]

gunn's clark kent being a very kind and trusting and hopeful person and saying "maybe that's punk rock" i damn near stood up and cheered in the theater

[liquidmooniight]

So a few months ago there was the discourse about would you rather meet a man or a bear in the woods. I didn't want to touch it while the discourse was hot and everyone dug in hard because those are not good conditions for nuance, but I waited until today, June 1st, for a specific reason.

I'm not going to take a position in the bear vs man debate because I don't think it matters. What is really being asked here is how afraid are you of men? Specifically, unexpected men who are, perhaps, strange.

People have a lot of very real fear of men that comes from a lot of very real places. Back when I was first transitioning in 2015 and 2016, I decided to start presenting as a woman in public even though I did not pass in the slightest.

I live in a red state. I knew other trans women who had been attacked by men, raped by men. I knew I was taking a risk by putting myself out there. I was the only visibly trans person in the area of campus I frequented, and people made sure I never forgot that. Most were harmless enough and the worst I got from them was curious stares. Others were more aggressive, even the occasional threat. I had to avoid public bathrooms, of course, and always be aware of my surroundings.

I know how frightening it is to be alone at night while a pair of men are following behind you and not knowing if they are just going in the same direction or if they want to start something - made all the worse for the constant low level threat I had been living under for over a year by just being visibly trans in a place where many are openly hostile to queer people. You have to remember, this was at the height of the first wave of bathroom law discussions, a lot of people were very angry about trans women in particular. My daily life was terrifying at times. I was never the subject of direct violence, but I knew trans women who had been.

I want you to keep all that in mind.

So man or bear is really the question "how afraid of men are you?", and the question that logically follows is "What if there was a strange man at night in a deserted parking lot?" or "What if you were alone in an elevator with a man?" or "What if you met a strange man in the woman's bathroom?"

My state recently passed an anti trans bathroom bill. The rhetoric they used was about protecting women and children from "strange men", aka trans women.

Conservatives hijack fear for their bigoted agenda.

When I first started presenting as a woman the campus apartment complex was designed for young families. The buildings were in a large square with playgrounds in the center, and there were often children playing. I quickly noticed that when I took my daughter out to play, often several children would immediately stop what they were doing and run back inside. It didn't take me long to confirm that the parents were so afraid of "the strange man who wears skirts" that their children were under strict instructions to literally run away as soon as they saw me.

"How afraid are you of a strange man being near your children?"

I mentioned above that I had to avoid public bathrooms. This was not because of men. It was because of women who were so afraid of random men that they might get violent or call someone like the police to be violent for them if I ever accidentally presented myself in a way that could be interpreted as threatening, when my mere presence could be seen as a threat. If I was in the library studying and I realized that it was just me and one other woman I would get up and leave because she might decide that stranger danger was happening.

Your fear is real. Your fear might even come from lived experiences. None of that prevents the fact that your fear can be violent. Women's fear of men is one of the driving forces of transmisogyny because it is so easy to hijack. And it isn't just trans women. Other trans people experience this, and other queer people too. Racial minorities, homeless people, neurodivergent people, disabled people.

When you uncritically engage with questions like man or bear, when you uncritically validate a culture of reactive fear, you are paving the way for conservatives and bigots to push their agenda. And that is why I waited until pride month. You cannot engage and contribute to the culture of reactive fear without contributing to queerphobia of all varieties. The sensationalist culture of reactive fear is a serious queer issue, and everyone just forgot that for a week as they argued over man or bear. I'm not saying that "man" is the right answer. I am saying that uncritically engaging with such obvious click bait trading on reactive fear is a problem. Everyone fucked up.

It is not a moral failing to experience fear, but it is a moral responsibility to keep a handle on that fear and know how it might harm others.

[liquidmooniight]

Heyyy!! It’s BEEN forever omg, but here are some recently sketches!!!<33 😝😝 I love this game so much omg I’m just obsessed bro

[liquidmooniight]

[liquidmooniight]

[liquidmooniight]

Nader @abdalsalam2000 is in Gaza during an internet blackout, he and his family are in serious danger and they can’t communicate it to the world because the internet is cut off and e-sims are very slow. He’s a 17 year old boy who is fundraising to support his family of eight, including his father who is sick with cancer and needs treatment. Please help me share his story while he is away. i’ve only briefly heard from him in the past few days, and the situation is extremely dangerous. He doesn’t have the ability to reach out to people how he usually would, so I hope you will help me share his story and do that for him while he’s away

€59,995 raised, they’ve almost reached 60,000!! Please keep supporting Nader

@tamamita @rhubarbspring @heritageposts @dirhwangdaseul @neechees @butchniqabi @socalgal @finalgirlabigailhobbs @newporters @pikslasrce @vampiricvenus @danlous @loumandivorce @jackiedaytona @deepspaceboytoy @autisticmudkip @nashvillethotchicken @femmefitz @pitbolshevik @innerchildabortionclinic @omegaversereloaded @hotvampireadjacent @boobieteriat @mens-rights-activia @ot3

[liquidmooniight]

Guys, eyes on Los Angeles! The National Guard troops Trump promised to send in to respond to the non-violent protests against ICE are there. Now.

Shut up for a second about the Trump-Elon "breakup" and KEEP YOUR EYES ON THIS. By federalizing the Guard, he's overreaching in a way that hasn't been seen since 1992 after the public got rightly fed up when white cops were acquitted for brutally beating Rodney King.

Governer Newsom is calling it what it is, an inflammatory stunt. He is using this show of force to escalate tensions, trying to make them boil over so he has an excuse to overreach more. With the fucking military.

Protestors were trying to protect their community from sweeping, senseless raids. They were met with tear gas and rubber bullets.

The National Guard have yet to be deployed, but their limbo isn't a mercy. It's a taunt.

Keep your eyes on this, and get other people looking. Both inside and outside the US. Keep your eye on what's going on in your home states and get involved with your community.

If you're protesting, please go with masks & anonymizing clothing on. Don't bring your phone and if you must for the love of god take off any face or fingerprint unlocks. Sharpie a lawyer's number on you and watch out for each other.

[liquidmooniight]

If you're a Youtube creator with monetization privileges, click on the "Earn" tab right now and deal with this if you feel like its necessary. Youtube is going to start running more ads on your videos automatically without your permission, and the ability to opt out will go away in two months.

Youtube is not advertising this anywhere. Checking my "Earn" tab on my own is the first time I'm hearing about it. To me, that suggests they don't want people to know they're doing this, because they want to crank up ad frequency and make more money.

If you've ever seen what happens when you let Youtube automatically pick ad slots like this, they basically try to run an ad every 2-3 minutes. It's a nightmare.

They are going to flood their platform with ads and drive away 70% of their viewership. On the other hand, if you opt out and choose to continue showing fewer ads, you may earn the trust and respect of your viewers.

You have a strategic operative to turn this off before May 12th. If you don't do it before then, it sounds like Youtube will take away your ability to reduce your ad frequency.

[liquidmooniight]

the worst part about ocd and ocd-like tendencies is that you think hyper-analyzing your thoughts and constantly psychoanalyzing yourself will fix you but that's actually part of the disorder. it's the disorder. disordering.

[liquidmooniight]

Weed gummy should cost 50¢ and be sold out of vending machines and at corner stores

[liquidmooniight]

BAN ON CONVERSION PRACTICES IN THE EU. GO SIGN IT. DEADLINE IS FUCKING MAY 17. WE'RE STILL MISSING 800.000 signatures. FUCKING DO IT.

[liquidmooniight]

Hey do y’all remember when Boeing fucking killed a guy last year. And we all said “huh I guess Boeing fucking killed a guy” and then went on with our lives. And everybody knew that Boeing had fully just fucking executed a guy and nothing came of it. Like there was no police investigation no justice no nothing. Like literally EVERYBODY knew that Boeing had full on murdered a guy to silence him and there wasn’t any consequences for them. Kinda crazy.

[liquidmooniight]

West Papua’s Indigenous people have called for a boycott of KitKat, Smarties and Aero chocolate, Oreo biscuits and Ritz crackers, and the cosmetics brands Pantene and Herbal Essences, over alleged ecocide in their territory.

All are products that contain palm oil and are made, say the campaigners, by companies that source the ingredient directly from West Papua, which has been under Indonesian control since 1963 and where thousands of acres of rainforest are being cleared for agriculture.

More than 90 West Papuan tribes, political organisations and religious groups have endorsed the call for a boycott, which they say should continue until the people of West Papua are given the right to self-determination.

Raki Ap, a spokesperson for the United Liberation Movement for West Papua, which is overseeing the call, said: “These products are linked to human rights violations, in the first place, because West Papuans are being forced, with violence, to get off the land where they’ve lived for thousands of years, which has now resulted in ecocide.

“This is a signal to the countries who are dealing with Indonesia, especially those in the Pacific region, to take notice of who they’re dealing with and how they are basically allowing Indonesia to continue the colonial project in West Papua, the human rights violations, and also ecocide.”

West Papuans say more than 500,000 of their people have been killed by the occupation in the past six decades, while millions of acres of their ancestral lands have been destroyed for corporate profit. Indonesia, already the world’s largest palm oil exporter, is now breaking ground in West Papua on the world’s biggest single palm oil plantation, as well as a sugar cane and biofuel plantation that will be the largest deforestation project ever launched.

“West Papuans’, especially the ULMWP, position is very clear: we are a modern-day colony,” said Ap, speaking from the Netherlands.

“Indonesia hijacked the right to self-determination in 1962 when the Netherlands and Indonesia signed an agreement without any consultation in West Papua … After that, in 1969, there was a so-called referendum, which wasn’t fair, which wasn’t under international law, one man, one vote: just 1,025 men were handpicked at gunpoint to vote for integration to Indonesia.

“So this is the foundation of the Indonesia’s colonial project. When we became part of Indonesia against our will, basically the genocide unfolded.”

[liquidmooniight]

the women of Sinners

[liquidmooniight]

Y'all

Civil disobedience is alive and well. Marcy Rheintgen decided to go into a women's bathroom last month in Florida.

This action is momentous, honestly. She entered the bathroom with a rosary and washed her hands, was given a warning before being arrested for trespassing.

Here's what she had to say about it:

I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but she's right. This is absolutely bonkers and it's incredible of her to point this out publicly like this.

She's making good trouble, even before being prompted.

Edit: haha jokes on me. I knew I forgot something. Here's a link to the article

[liquidmooniight]

been getting really into rockhounding lately and the subreddits are great

[liquidmooniight]

i have good and bad news about my friend ibrahim. the bad news: the ongoing famine is hard on him and his family. on top of everything else he’s going through at only 16 years old, he’s starving. think about how much missing even one meal can impact your mood, energy, motivation, etc—and then imagine you have no food at all *and* you’re living under israel’s occupation and i can’t fathom how discouraged and exhausted he must be. when he told me about this i almost starting crying.

the good news: he is only 2,500€ away from reaching his goal! he’s been working tirelessly to raise money for his family and it’s almost paid off. if everyone gives even 5€, it’ll be a big help! it adds up!!

please donate here. additionally, you can help by sending ibrahim @wolf-aid a nice message in DMs! he’s a wonderfully friendly kid and could use some encouragement. i’m very happy whenever i have the opportunity to talk to him about school and life and the like. a few kind words can do a lot. thank you so much for reading and helping