suboficialflores

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"It takes a village," but damn being part of the village doesn't pay a living wage

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call the cops by patrick quinn, 2023, acrylic on canvas, 20 x 23 inches

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Let's highlight a little white privilege for a second, in case anyone is harboring under the delusion that what's going on in the US right now isn't about race.

My father was born in Ireland in the 1940s, immigrated to the US in the late 1950s with his family, and became a naturalized citizen through military service. I am first generation, I have an ethnic name, but genetically I am completely white and speak English with a generic US accent.

In contrast, through a quirk of growing up, I have adopted Mexican grandparents and their whole family is also my family, just not by blood. (By Mexican I mean racially/ethnically, since they are American citizens and Mexico doesn't have one monolithic culture). They are part of the heritage of the border jumped them. My grandpa was born in Texas in the 1930s and dropped out of elementary school to pick cotton, spoke Spanglish but lived his entire life in the states. His children, grandchildren, great grandchildren have been in the US for generations at this point. The family has a mix of typical US and Latino names, some have a slight Chicano accent, some speak Spanish but most only speak English, and for the most part they are brown.

Now, I was just messaging with my prima about everything going on. Which one of us do you think is carrying around their birth certificate in case of an ICE raid?

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Sorry to everyone who’s enjoyed the last 130 years of science and culture journalism, but Disney needs the money to fund Toy Story 9

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I actually do feel like the "unemployed friend on a Tuesday" meme actually helps de-stigmatize unemployment because it frequently affirms that when you don't have a job you're more likely to be getting up to some weird shit rather than just lazing around. But I also feel like the unemployed friend is frequently up to some random shit because there's a whole pile of miscellaneous life tasks that full-time employment keeps people from. The unemployed friend is helping their cousin move, or babysitting, or checking in with a neighbor with mobility issues. The unemployed friend is a walking thesis on the inflexibility of our current labor landscape and just how much work exists outside of work.

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By all means, be gay and do crimes, but don't do them on a corporation's behalf

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sending love to those fighting the job market

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When I was little my mom’s meatloaf was my favorite food. But ONLY her meatloaf. I didn’t like anyone else’s, and she told me that she would teach me how to make it when I was older. And when I was like 19? She finally taught me, but she told me never to tell anyone else and I was like weird but okay

Anyway, she was super fucking homophobic and abusive to me when I told her I was gay, so here’s the recipe

4-6 lbs of Hamburger/turkey burger

1 pk onion soup mix OR ranch mix

1 TBs ketchup

1 Tbs spicy brown mustard,

1 Tbs bbq sauce

1 Tbs steak sauce

1 egg

mix, shape into a loaf in a big pan, and bake at 350 for 2 hrs (maybe 2 and a half if you’re feeling dangerous)

You can get almost all of these ingredients at the dollar store, and have leftovers if it’s just you. The leftovers make great tacos if (taco seasoning is also like a dollar). Enjoy your revenge loaf

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Shout out to my small town Catholic Church who made me, a seven-year-old girl, the priest who listened to the other kids' confessions and assigned penance

I could've been Pope if they hadn't booted me at 8

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ok im going to #seriouspost for a second here. I don't think Harry Potter is a manifesto. I think it was a flawed passion project that millennials latched onto because of the fantasy of sticking it to their mean teachers and arbitrarily categorizing themselves (hogwarts houses; it's the thinking millennial's astrology). I think the fact that the series got popular when and how it did was very much a product of its time.

I don't think Harry Potter is the biggest symbol of JKR's bigotry. I think the most flagrant sign of that was how she responded to critics. I watched her become radicalized in real time. I watched how she doubled down on her racism when she was called out for the ways she promoted her tragically mid fantastic beasts movies. I watched her chase marginalized teenagers with a double digit follower count off of twitter for daring to criticize her thought process, and no one with any kind of power standing against her because she was the one who was paying them. This isn't to say Harry Potter is without flaws. This is to say she really didn't give a shit about that. Getting rich and powerful is a hell of a drug, and she had enough sycophants that she had no reason to care about what her critics were saying.

She was convinced that she was a martyr; a voice for the unheard; a leader for the ages, so of course her detractors were the bad guys. And I think we should take this to heart. We should see this as an example of how easy it is to get radicalized; if you think of yourself as a paragon of virtue, you are going to think that whatever you see as good and right is an objective fact. Most people don't know this, but the majority of terfs start out as trans allies. You are not immune to propaganda! You are not immune to falling into dangerous ideologies!!!

This is why the most important thing you can do as an activist is to listen. Do NOT think you're above being wrong; do NOT develop a god complex; do NOT form an identity out of being right all the time. Involve yourselves in the groups you claim to speak for. Listen to trans women; share resources that help trans women; familiarize yourself with the diversity of experiences that trans people have and the struggles they face.

No, none of you are as bad as JKR because you don't have her money or her power. You will likely never have the capacity for harm she does. But check yourselves. Do not affirm yourselves into thinking you always have the moral high ground. Watch yourselves; humble yourselves; check yourselves for signs of cult behavior and internalized prejudice. You are always learning. You will always be learning. Do not allow yourselves to get a power trip from brushing off marginalized voices.

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I just cracked open my yearbook from 2001-2002, and I found:

A 9/11 memorial we did

A kid intentionally in full black face

A girl with an assault rifle

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actually yeah, this is not the place for it, but i wanna know

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23/26