lizardlicks

[lizardlicks]

Hello! Would you like to annoy an asshole Republican U.S. House Representative? Because in addition to not allowing one of my relatives to unsubscribe from his little propaganda newsletters, he doesn't know how to lock down a survey:

Go ahead and vote! You don't need to submit an email address :)

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Lightbulbasaur 💡

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map of US social and cultural regions i made that you can use if you want to start a fight

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say what you want about homestuck but you gotta admit: absolute fire soundtrack for a webcomic, a media type that by all definition has no reason to have a soundtrack in the first place.

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Starting a new sports team called the Tampa Bay Trespassers and they play any sport that they can break onto the field of

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what the hell is going on with texel sheep

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rotate him

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some boys

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Sometimes Tumblr is a lot like trying to explain a toddler that you can't eat bugs and spiders because that's bad for you, and then someone shows up to lecture you about how spiders are a completely different class from insects, also you got "centipede" and "millipede" mixed up, so obviously you don't know anything about what you're talking about.

And if you try to answer like "do you want me to just let this kid just eat bugs or what", they'll get offended because correcting you about being wrong has nothing to do with implying that anyone would be eating bugs off the ground, obviously nobody is stupid enough to be doing that in the first place, that's a straw man and insulting to every group of people ever.

And then you look up at the other side of the yard and the toddler is there right back at it, slurping up centipedes like spagetti.

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"came back wrong" but it's food that you heated up in the microwave

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Saw that "enthusiasm is indistinguishable from academic rigour" post going around again and it led me to two thoughts.

1. Enthusiasts accumulate information while academics accumulate expertise (in methodology, analysis, working with sources, etc.). But enthusiasts seem to think academics are just people who have picked up more factoids than them – not that they're doing a completely different kind of intellectual work – and thus that if they just read enough secondary sources, they'll be at the same level.

2. Academic training is not a guarantee that someone will be a good historian (just as lack of training is not a guarantee of the reverse). There are bad academic historians, who ignore the principles and ethics of their field or who just are not very good at the kind of research and analysis required to produce rigorous history. It's just that in the vast number of cases, academics produce better-quality history than enthusiasts because they have been professionally trained to do so. I'd wager money on the fact that most enthusiasts would not even be able to name the top five scholars in their field of interest, because those folks are usually not the ones putting out pop-hist paperbacks.

[lizardlicks]

hi everyone! i know ive been super offline (for good reason lol) but i did want to share something on here.

the biggest reason why i haven't been posting is because i've been organizing really heavily with the filipino migrant population in chicago with the tanggol migrante (defend migrant) network that is based in many major cities in the us. we provide know your rights trainings, organize support systems for people with uncertain status, and have an emergency hotline for those detained.

recently, we were made aware of 2 filipino migrants in ICE detention in indiana, which falls under our jurisdiction as the closest philippine consulate is in chicago. one is a 71 year old working grandmother named tita r, who is currently in a clark county facility and has been since march, even though she is a legal green card holder and thus a us resident.

as you would expect, the conditions are horrible. she has been shackled, gone days without her kidney and blood pressure medication, and spends all of her time in a windowless, unsanitary hall filled with bunk beds and other people in detention. the only respite is video calls with her family, which cost $25 for 20 minutes, and is incredibly hard to navigate. at one point, she was being transferred so many different places, her family had no idea where she was.

this week i traveled with fellow organizers to kentucky, where her son and daughter are based. we were privileged to meet with them and offer support during this horrible time. tita r had her master hearing, where it was decided she would have to wait until next month to hear the decision of whether or not she will be deported back to the philippines. tita r has been in the country for over 40 years, and has built her life and raised her family here.

every time i am on a video call with her, i always want to cry, out of both sadness and laughter, because she may be one of the funniest people i have ever met. she calls everyone either boo-boo or bobo, which is always an endearment. she was showing the other people in her facility, look how tall my grandson has gotten! it breaks my heart to hear that she thinks she will die in detention due to the conditions. we learned that at one point, her blood pressure was at 204.

the stories of filipino migrants aren't exactly shared often within the us, where the narrative mostly centers around latinos, especially mexicans. but filipinos are the second largest undocumented population in the us. every day, 7,000 filipinos leave the philippines to seek work elsewhere, because us imperialism has destroyed the country's economy, and idea of sovreignty.

we are raising money for tita r, because the philippine consulate hasn't released funds that her family is ENTITLED TO through the assistance to nationals fund, and as a result her family has had to shoulder the burden of legal fees, on top of the unimaginable situation they are going through. tita r's final hearing is next month, august 7th. we're trying to raise as much money as we can, and collect signatures for a petition demanding her release. i will include links here, but you can also go to @tanggolmigrantenetwork or @migrantechicago on instagram to hear updates on her case, or to even get involved, as there are campaigns running across the country right now.

please share this post. i will make a follow up post about the second detainee, a father named tito e who was detained at o'hare when coming back from the philippines, even though he is a green card holder.