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Our good old friend Bildad is always ready to lend a bony shoulder for your weary head and soft words to lessen your worries about Falling🥰

This was my piece for the @bildadzine and it's this month's ρατreοn postcard!

Patreon

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goddess of love herself man

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Hi, Mr. Gaiman.

I’m writing to you as an (ftm) trans minor who is honestly scared.

I live in the U.S., and the current state of politics is completely absurd. There have been 617 anti trans bills in 2024 alone, despite the fact that we make up at most 5% of the U.S. population.

The reason I am writing to you is to ask for support. I often see celebrities refuse to talk about trans rights or ignore the subject entirely, purely out of fear of public backlash. I hope you can understand that we are, quite frankly, under political attack from the right, and public backlash should be the least of anyone’s concern. Our entire identities are being politicized and demonized, and I think myself (and other trans people) really just need a moral boost to help us through this.

Thank you for your time.

Hang in there. I'm sorry this is happening, and I'm sorry that it's not easier for any of you.

If you can vote, vote for politicians who are less likely to support anti-trans legislation.

In the UK this reminds me so much of what happened in the 80s with Clause 28 and the demonization of Gay people under the guise of "supporting families".

History will be on your side. For now, hang in there.

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Cozy under their wings. 💙

@neil-gaiman sir I hope you like it-

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You deserved that, Ed. Izzy needs a fokkin' break.

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Go on, burst every one of his bubbles why don’t you

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sauntered vaguely downwards

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It’s essential for someone on stage to be distractive enough for the magician to do their trick undiscovered

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Maybe he just needs to accept what's offered. Like a kick in the arse. (drawn before S2)

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I'm back, please wake up

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I believe there is a problem that affects the entire world that we are failing to acknowledge and address; a problem by which mankind has screwed itself. And I realize also that the excision of this problem is going to be very painful and very difficult.

But it is the stock market. The existence of a parasite caste that not only survives but grows fat by feeding on the working class.

And if you don't know about this problem I'll do my best to explain.

It started when people had the idea of selling shares of a potential business idea they had in order to have capital to begin the business.. If the business did well then the people with the shares could trade them back in for that percentage out of the value of the business. Which sounds fine, right?

Where we got into trouble was the practice of trading shares on a marketplace, which meant that startups had to compete with each other directly to get people to invest in them. They had to offer the best return. And it was no longer about people liking the ideas and investing because they wanted to see that thing brought into the world - it became about profit and nothing else.

The other major ingredient in this fuckup salad was that companies would sell as many shares as they could to amass capital. Then spend that to make themselves look more successful and drive up demand.

The issue with that is that the shares in the hands of the shareholders end up being worth more than the typical large company has in available liquid assets. In short, if the shareholders were to start cashing in, the company wouldn't be able to afford to pay them and would go out of business.

And since the shareholders have gotten used to living off of the growth of the company shares, if that growth stops, they will indeed cash out and find another new startup to invest in. So the company promises growth, and has to find ways to increase profit every year. Which is very difficult once they've expanded to fill their market. Once there's no more room for natural growth, they have to start finding other ways to increase profits.

They'll look for cheaper means of production, offer less for the same price, start firing employees, cutting corners on safety regulations... They wind up trimming their own fat to feed the parasites.

And they've dug in so deep, their heads are buried so completely in the thick skin of the world's economy, that I don't know how to extract it.

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Everyone, but Especially Americans should be aware of the 2025 Project. It is a massive mission statement from an influential GOP organization that seeks to make it illegal to be 'visibly trans' in the United States, and ban media that mentions queerness as anything other than evil, among other absolutely horrific things.

The Heritage Foundation is not just a fringe group, and there are a lot of people who have the same opinions, and only need a little nudge to act on them. I take this threat very seriously.

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I was ever chasing fireflies Izzy grew up near a shipyard, where the air was too polluted for Britain's delicate glow-worms - so Ed had to make sure he got to see them in the New World.