#and my mum was still anti vax

[oifaaa]

Anyway the good news is I'm vaccinated the bad news is that I have two younger siblings

[firespirited]

everywhere but here, I am the mom.

not the 'mom friend', not fun aunt or godmother, the big sister type you go to when you're at the end of your tether and you need a mom to clean up something nasty, kill a spider, unload on someone who can handle it and not make it about them, help you pull the trigger on a hard decision you've already taken but haven't accepted. I make things happen, I connect people, I do mediation and emotional prep; I tell people their full options and help them weigh it all up. You were pondering it for a while but you left here with a lawyer's appointment and a loan we both know is a 'pay it forward' gift. I carry the secrets and the bad memories so it makes sense you move on without me when all's well. The big sister thing means I feel like family and shelter but not really like an everyday friend

Here, I get to be Saffy, bit of a klutz, silly brained with a childlike wonder for creatures and well-designed things who can talk about fear of crowds, slowly healing the relationship with my own mum, I watch horror and post about my dog. That's who I want to be, a large facet of who I am internally buuut life rarely fits the idea we have of ourselves does it?

Part of repairing the imbalanced relationship with mum was letting her do some protective mothering so i can fill the desperate ache to have one person in the world who has my back, while making my support of her more streamlined and unspoken. You know the concept of the toilet paper fairy who makes loo roll appear and always knows when to buy more, that but for groceries, electronics and paperwork, and big decisions we carry together but it has to be very businesslike and unemotional: she's as much a big sweetheart as she is fiercely independent (and ashamed/angry her daughter had to carry half the load). So now she's the one who notices or who I go to when the world has asked me to be The Mom again.

I imagine it's a lot like gay penguins: there's an ecological vacuum of big sister-mom types and some of us just have the vibes.

This winter I've done a metric ton of non-judgmental, non-condescending temporary 'parenting' of women with parents who are gone or who can't handle it and friends who aren't friends-for-that-kinda-thing. I'm really good at it, at weathering a storm for someone and being an anchor. It doesn't hurt any more because mum can be an emotional mum to me.

but I'm never sure how to talk about it here between dolls and shitposts and if i'm not specific... I mean... "chronically ill/special needs person currently or previously in abusive relationship with parent/partner who takes a while to realize and accept abuse isn't just fists but sleep depravation and symptom minimization and all sorts of tiny things that add up to life-threatening injury to the body and mind" applies to many of us dollblr folks as it does like 80% of my social circle offline.

and there's no way of saying that being around some folks is like experiencing a slow motion train wreck without sounding like an asshole.

I am that asshole.

I am goatsed out and want to be a hermit.

Did I tell you guys my doctor vented for 45 minutes about having to put her "dumbass hysterical" sister (deaf and never put in school) into care and the paperwork involved in getting disability (the thing that took me 14 years and she got her sister's transferred in 3 weeks). and I truly empathize but that wasn't very professional and your sister is a person. please.

and I can't cut M out of my life now that her kid is, as predicted, like her (and the facebook-chosen not-yet-divorced deadbeat-dad of 3 special needs kids), an adorable barely verbal two-year-old. She won't be able to navigate special needs care alone but she's still staunchly anti-vax and had a diatribe of ableism mixed with mystical pseudoscience for me, interspersed with thanks for being more family to her than her sister in helping her know how to leave a bad relationship. hokay not making this easy.

S is going to be on the hook for tax evasion if she stays with the shady useless guy she's been babying (and resenting) for 20 years solely because she doesn't like to do activities alone. three times now I've been cornered for the vent sesh. I am sitting on the floor the next time, I need blood in my brain to emote properly. and that unneutered bulldog living in the south is a crime, it can't breathe it can't think, it's all hormones and anxiety covered in fur, of course it's a nuisance around the house.

and there's more but i'm tired of typing and thinking.

[life-with-my-three]

Influenza has been rough.

Fletch had a slight cough after kinder on Tuesday over a week ago now. By Wednesday he was full blown miserable and couldn’t stop coughing.

Aaron and I were both fine when we woke Thursday morning. Aaron went to work, I picked my mum up from the airport bus as she had just got back from Thailand. Almost simultaneously Thursday afternoon we both developed a cough that was constant and causing us to vomit from the non stop nature of it.

Riley was still fine and went to school Friday. I tried to push through, but I couldn’t open my eyes from the pain in my head and body, and wasn’t holding much down. So I ended up at the hospital. I didn’t realise how bad I actually was until the triage nurse looked at me and said “I’m sorry I couldn’t get to you faster, you look so sick” took my vitals and put me through as a category 1 patient. I spent the next 24 hours admitted but after lots of pain relief, anti nausea meds, and whatever else (I have next to no memory) I was allowed to go home on the proviso I was to rest.

Riley came down with symptoms on Saturday and we all pretty much just laid motionless on the couch for days with one movie after another going.

Harriet was the only one who stayed fairly lively. Of course she was the one out of the household who had, had her flu shot. She does have a snotty nose and cough, but she definitely got out of it the best and is proof of flu shots! We did all mean to get a flu shot this year, but because of constant sickness, appointments and therapies every time we arranged one, we’d have to reschedule.

Next year as soon as the flu vax is available we have a family excursion. Even Riley who would have a complete screaming meltdown at the mention of a vaccination has pretty much begged to get his flu shot now.

We’re now day 8 (well fletch is day 10ish) and my throat is still sore and I have minimal voice, but slowly improving.

The hospital did a quick bedside ultrasound of baby girl and she looked fine. We have our proper 13 week scan on Tuesday.

[sugdenlovesdingle]

What is your opinion on non vax cast members. I can’t say I was a big fan of Sam or Nate anyway but it’s made me dislike them even more.

nate too?? is he as batshit crazy anti vaxx like james/sam??

I mean i never liked them - though they both had their moments... but yeah this makes me dislike them more. There's a Dutch singer I used to love who is anti vaxx/anti covid restrictions... and just... he's turned into such an entitled asshole... I unfollowed him on all social media. i just can't deal with him (or any other celebrities who are so openly anti vaxx) anymore. Not after almost 3 years of this shit.

I just don't understand why anyone who can get vaccinated would choose not to (and then after an OD facebook ends up like James). I'd rather feel shit for a few days after the jab than end up in hospital - or have my mum or someone else end up in hospital because of me.

and like... it's free... how many other healthcare related things are FREE?? You can protect yourself and people around you for free. and people still say no.

[confluence-and-drift]

So I just heard that the brother who I don’t get along with’s anti-vaxxer wife is half-dead of covid again, and is promising those who’re having to drop everything to keep an eye on her that she’ll get the vaccinations...  thought that’s about as likely as last time.  Rant below the break.

  Now when my Mum was telling me about this, I had to stop and express my utter disgust and contempt.  I flat out told her that for me it’d be a dealbreaker in a relationship, since I couldn’t trust anybody that fucking stupid to act rationally in any situation.  Now it’s worse with marriage....I fucking HOPE they don’t have kids, since then not only would the stupid moron be endangering herself and acting as an incubator for deadlier variants etc, but she’d be endangering helpless life at her complete mercy and my wee brother, he’s got  a masters in biomedical science and elected to not bother trying to convince his wife not to be a fucking idiot.  I just...can’t comprehend tolerating such stupidity at such close proximity.  It’s...staggering.   And then my Mum tells me off with, I’ll quote “Look, this is the modern day, you can’t just expect a woman to obey her husband anymore, I know this one guy (an older couple, middle aged) who begs his wife to get vaccinated but she refuses and that’s just how it is these days”.

  I had to explain to her that I’d be just as disgusted and appalled if it were a husband not listening to the smarter individual in the relationship.  It was a bit jarring since its me being abruptly reminded of what Pakistani culture is like, since my Mum, inadvertantly, makes a valid point; my brother’s dumbass wife (who is apparantly supported by her equally anti-vax family, many of whom have skirted literal death due to covid in the last few years but...fuck if that makes them change their mind, bar maybe temporarily at the peak of their suffering) could easily claim he’s being patriarchal by ‘commanding’ her....but fuck dude, maybe I really don’t understand, since I’d be like “well, here’s your divorce papers, now kindly fuck off”.   Hell, I couldn’t even concieve of even getting into a relationship with someone without knowing how they feel on these all important issues....  but then again, my brother was always a bit of a fool when it came to these kind of things and my parents effectively pressured him into a pre-selected marriage but still, I’d have hoped he had gotten to know her, but na.  I bet he just thought “cor, she’s hot, I’ll accept”.  Fucking hell, have I mentioned I find the concept of arranged marriages to be bizarre and alien?  Because I find them to be bizarre and alien.    Still, I genuinely can’t scrounge up an iota of sympathy for the half-dying fool of a girl.  I know that probably means there’s something kind of wrong with me, but maybe its my autism but I CANNOT IGNORE THE BIGGER PICTURE.  I cannot ignore the willful ignorance involved and the cost in human life and misery.   Like, I told my Mum, regarding the other couple she mentioned, that that guy’s wife is not only middle aged and set in her ways, but was raised in Morrocco, whilst my wee brother’s wife was born and raised here in Scotland and isn’t even 25 yet, with access to a full and complete education and she’s even in bloody university, or at least was, I haven’t kept up with them for obvious reasons, but it’s just....  such a childish, fucking stupid lack of responsibility, and thanks to that, she’s upsetting my mother and hell, even my brother, with her easily preventable suffering and possible death.   I have nothing but contempt for these kind of willfully ignorant individuals and the concept of actually being in a relationship with once is staggeringly offputting.  But then again, my brother always was good at ignoring the implicatoions.  Whilst I struggle to ignore the bigger picture, he’s an innately self-centred individual.  I bet he never even considered the possible consequences and apparantly just shrugged and said it’s ‘her choice’.  Yes, and it should be your subsequent choice to cut all relations with her, the fucking petri-dish of a woman.  *shakes head*.  A cynical part of me thinks that almost losing his wife might actually improve my brother’s rancid character, but that’s giving him a bit too much credit I suspect...   What also pisses me off is that my brother and his wife have been semi-regularly visiting my parents too and...my Mum is one of those ones who could very easily die from covid even with her vaccinations and my Dad isn’t that far behind in terms of how fucked he’d be due to pre-existing health conditions.  But I genuinely doubt my brother could think that far ahead... and you might think “hey, you’re being unreasonable here”....no..no I’m not, that’s the fucking terrifying part.  Keep in mind that this is the brother I punched in the face last I met him AND keep in mind that I am by no means a violent person and that it takes a LOT to push me towards such.  I also haven’t forgotten that that petri-dish of his was egging him on during that incident and he was falling for it.  I mean I guess it’d be easy for me to blame her, but I’ve known that boy since his birth, he’s the next one along from me and we basically spent our entire childhood together.  He was always a peice of shit.  I even remember how he’d steal money in three digits from my parents...even though he got caught a few times, they never realised where it was going and I couldn’t be bothered getting involved so I never bothered bringing it up that the boy was stealing hundreds out of the till that times he rather than I was helping out at my Dad’s business.    *sigh*.  It’s just annoying you know?  I loathe that there’s actual scum-of-the-earth anti-vaxxers, that my parents were foolish enough to set him up with a woman so fucking intelletually vacuuous and he was desperate and dim-witted enough to actually go for it, and now my own Mum looks at me askew for not pretending to have sympathy for the rat-licker.  I told her flat out, that if she died, I’d be more symapthetic towards her for inevitably having to help out that ingrate of a son of her’s after he publically humiliated her in front of rat-licker’s family because he doesn’t understand how much our parents suffered for him in particular.  Sure, that makes me sound like the cunt since I am literally expressing how I don’t care about someone seriously ill,  but look, if you want me to give a shit about your suffering, you need to not have a headful of utterly rancid ideals.  It’d just be dishonest of me to suddenly feign sympathy for someone like that.    On top of this, I’m ill for the second time in that many weeks and hence am in a bit of a bad mood anyway.  I don’t think its covid, but it’s not impossible, I think something like 1 in 18 people have it in Scotland atm =/. 

[lindsaywesker]

Good morning! I hope you slept well and feel rested? Currently sitting at a desk, in the Mi-Soul studio, attired only in standard DJ garb, enjoying my first cuppa of the day and few McVities Chocolate Digestives.

Seems as if the disease-spreaders are block-booking the booster shots and not showing up. No wonder some people can’t get a convenient day and time! As you need to register for appointments, the anti-vaxxers can be traced and should be prosecuted for this criminal act! Astonishing that these criminals are going to vaccination sites and screaming, “Murderer!” The people delivering vaccination shots are murderers? You only have to think about that statement for a few seconds to appreciate the ignorance of these people. Why is there no more polio and small pox? Yes, you guessed it: vaccines. And these doctors and nurses are murderers?

I wonder how many disease-spreaders use Viagra? And do they know it’s manufactured by Pfizer? So, it’s okay for Viagra to help you with erectile dysfunction but it’s not okay for Pfizer to create a Covid-19 vaccine?

The new variant really seems to be spreading like wildfire, or maybe people are just trying to have some kind of social life? Those that are raving right now (even those double-vaxxed and boosted) know they are taking a risk but – hey! – getting into a car is a calculated risk. I guess I must be very lucky? I went to two events over the holiday and I’m still testing negative. Maybe because I left before it got too busy? I finally have a free day, so I’m booked-in for my booster on Thursday afternoon!

Today, I’m sitting in for my brother George Kay on Mi-Breakfast. George will be back tomorrow. Getting up early is difficult enough but then doing three hours of live radio takes physical strength, powers of concentration and huge buckets of happy demeanour. I am full of admiration for the job George does, and all of our brilliant day-time presenters too; the high level of consistency is simply awesome! And today marks the end of a very, very busy Christmas period for me: ten live radio shows, two club events, a two-day trip to Hove to see my mum. There was a point in there where I wobbled and almost couldn’t meet one of my obligations, but I got good sleep and let my body heal itself. I may not be a muscle-bound hunk but I am a very strong man; I get the job done!

For those of you new to my Facebook page, I am, first and foremost, a writer. I’ve been writing plays and scripts since the late seventies, and I now have three novels available via Amazon. Check out my second novel ‘Whatever Makes Them Dance’ to get you started. It’s a love story about a DJ so, if you love music and you love romance, it will amuse you.

Thanks for reading all the way to the bottom of my status. Pucker up! Special snogs for you. Have a tremendous and tumultuous Tuesday! I love you all.

[actualhumancryptid]

I’ve been thinking about antivaxers a lot lately. Talked to my therapist about how I was raised in the new age/hippy/alternative culture of the 90’s. We were antivax before antivax was cool. (My mum has long since dropped out of this kind of thinking. She even urged me to get the cervical cancer vaccine when I was 20ish).

I was telling my therapist how I didn’t even think about it. It was just assumed that you didn’t get vaccinated. I couldn’t tell you why. In the environment I was in, it was more ‘it’s your choice’ rather than anything as militant as today. Though I’m sure there were militant pockets. The only time vaccinations came to my school we were all told it was up to us if we wanted them. But we weren’t given any education about it. Mum said it was up to me on the day.

I incorrectly remembered I was around sixteen when this happened. But I looked up when the MMR came out everywhere and I realise I must have been 11 or 12. I recall just being scared of the idea of needles and so I didn’t do it. A huge chunk of my class didn’t.

Imagine asking a 12 year old to make this kind of healthcare decision. After bringing them up to be wary of immunisation and having a homeopath be their main doctor (at that point at least. Thankfully we stopped going to him eventually. For the uninitiated, homeopathy posits that if you put a few drops of a solution into water it somehow becomes more potent. It is a pseudoscience).

See, this was pre-internet. So that should have been my clue as to the timeline. If I had been given the choice at 16, I may have just gotten the shot. We had the internet by then. This was still before Google was widely used, it was all about Altavista. But I know I would have gone online and asked a doctor (allexperts.com still existed then).

My therapist asked me if I thought my health has been impacted by this (I have a chronic illness and lots of mental health challenges). I honestly don’t think so? But that’s due to the luck of growing up in an era of mass vaccinations and herd immunity. And also the luck of not being a child during the pandemic. I still hear things about my old school. Because it really is like a small town. The head of the college of teachers is firmly pro-vaccination and has apparently spoken publicly about it. Which makes me feel validated, as he always seemed somewhat reasonable. Honestly I think the school would lose funding if it had an anti-vax stance and teachers all refused to be vaccinated. But I have heard that heaps of them have opted to retire early rather than get the vaccine. What a hill to literally die on. I wonder how many of them are teachers I know. So many are already gone.

[dontfuckmylifewtf]

This is more of a serious thing.

I know I haven't been posting and that usually isn't something to worry about. I just deleted the Tumblr app so I can focus more on school. It worked, I wrote some good grades that I'm happy about.

But it's not what I want to write about.

My parents have been saying a lot about COVID-19 and the vaccine and that it doesn't work and might even kill people... I kind of believed them until just a few minutes ago.

My dad came home, angry and stressed from getting the groceries. He hates wearing the mask, because he thinks they don't work and because his glasses get damp. It didn't help that in the background in the shop's "radio" vaccine propagande or advertisements were played.

He started ranting about how the food prcies are going up while not paying the employees more, which turned into him talking about propaganda and that the vaccine kills peopel and doesn't do anything. His general opinion is that it's so unbelievable that it works so good, and that it's wildly unstudied, the government is making us infertile to decrease the population (it's actually not that far fetched, I once saw a petition to reduce birth rates by forbidding people to have more than one child with a lot of signatures), that it kills people because the protein maked the immune system turn the body against itself, and that it's still in testing and what you have to sign only gives you damage payment for three days after getting the jab. All that stuff.

I always kind of believed him.

But the first red flag was this: he doesn't support trand people. There is inherently not a lot wrong with that, you don't have to support someone to respect them. But he said it's a scientific fact that 99% (or smthn) of all trans people want to reverse the hromoen therapy. "Based on studies". And of course anything else like non-binary is fucking nonsense.

Another flag was a few days ago at the lunch table. There was some conspiracy talk and I said "Well at least you don't believe in the 5G thing". And then they said "It's microwaves they'll harm us". I just shut my mouth.

Next big red flags were this evening.

After his rant I told him that most people take the jab with the dead virus in Romania. Then we starte discussing about the Johnson&Johnson vaccine. My mum said it's not a dead virus, but a monkey-virus with spike proteins. My mums said the Sputnik vaccine has proper dead viruses but suddenly my dad interrupts. He starts talking about how they're lying and that it's not true and that they're spike proteins and shit and...

(note: in Germany any vaccines with dead viruses are banned. It's definitely sus because the healthcare minister isn't a medic in any way and worked with Pfizer (I think, I don't remember))

(another note: my dad is chronically depressed, traumatised from a narcissistic mother and never got what he wished for in life. He lost his job and has been home for many years now and is constantly on his computer playing video games. He is very pessimistic and thinks the world is bad and that another holocaust is approaching)

I just couldn't.

After that discussion my mum suddenly started reading a book summary with so much conspiracy shit that I just said some stuff along the lines like "that's bullshit" and went upstairs with my phone and scarf that I'm knitting. What I said was more polite though.

It was kind of a braking point.

I closed the door to my room and began crying with thick tears. I usually don't do that.

I need help from you, I need an opinion I can trust and people I can talk with. If I say something conspiracy wise, anti mask, anti vax and so on I... I guess I'm just trying to make sense of a few things.

I really need your help right now.

[anxiety-and-witchcraft]

Hot take no. 2 / life advice: essential oils work as amateur medicine as long as you get the nice stuff.

I know this from experience because my mum has a whole cabinet of essential oils which she mainly uses for soap making, but also makes roll-ons for me and my siblings whenever we’re feeling a bit ill, but not ill enough for proper medicine. I know a lot of people say that oils are just for superstitious anti-vaxing entitled mums, but just no. Firstly, my mum is not an entitled anti-vaxer. Secondly, notice I said amateur medicine, like for a stuffy nose or a bout of nausea, or just for when you’re in a bad mood. Even the smell of my favourite ones (I’m partial to the smell of citrus and flower oils, eg. wild orange, lemon or lavender) in enough to make me feel good. I’m not saying that modern medicine isn’t good, because it’s really great, but the natural stuff humans had been using for thousands of years before modern medicine came about is still valid too. I’m going to go ahead and explain what a few of the more common ones are good for, to make sure that if you are going to take my advice and buy some of the nice, usually more expensive (seriously, in this case, cheap = bad quality. I suggest buying from the DoTERRA company) oils, your money is well spent.

Lavender: This is quite a soothing oil, good for bruises, and also smells really good.

Peppermint: cooling, great for rolling on the back of your neck if you have nausea or on a hot day, you could also put it in tea.

Wild orange: Uplifting, can encourage contentness, but it’s also good if you have a mouth ulcer.

Lemongrass: This is better for cleaning. Put a few drops onto some kitchen roll, it may help you clean off that irritating sticky residue from barcode stickers that don’t come off properly.

There are about a gazillion more useful essential oils, but that’s about as much as I can think of at the moment. Just, please at least think about my advice - it may be incredibly useful to you one day.

[cognacdelights]

i didn’t get the hpv vaccine bcs my mum wouldn’t give permission bcs it hadn’t been around long enough and my friends sister got hives from it and still gets them ill need to get it on my own some time

wait how long has it actually been around? my mom like actually forced me to get it bc i hate needles and at the time i was severely anaemic and had a habit of fainting so i worked myself up into such an anxious mess ab it

see my dad was never vaccinated bc at this time the autism rumour was in full swing so my gmas first set of kids were never vaccinated but then she vaccinated her second set so i guess attitudes had changed by then. my dad isn’t anti vax (like he has the covid vaccine and a few others and i have all mine) but his childhood ones? nope and bc of that he just hasn’t cared for them since??? like my mom was shocked that there was a conversation about it bc she just thought it was standard that everyone got vaxxed as a kid

also i’m fretting sure you have to have certain vaccines to get in certain countries like i remember vividly having to have a malaria shot (that might not be a vaccine???) and several for yellow fever when i went to africa

this went so far on a tangent i’m sorry

[robron-til-the-end-of-time]

Hi Hannah, I wish your mum all the best and hope that she'll be fine. That virus is horrible. Maybe this'll change her mind and she'll get her second shot in six months. I'll keep my fingers crossed for the both of you.

Going on recent experience, it won't.

My boss was in hospital with covid back in October, she's still anti vax. Another colleague caught it in June and has long covid, and she called me an idiot for getting the third jab. I have no idea why that THIS still doesn't make them change their minds. There simply is no talking to them.

Thank you for the good wishes though, I appreciate it.

[radramblog]

Who should I vote for in the WA state election?

Full disclosure, this is directly inspired by this article, by someone from my high school as part of a youth newspaper he was working on. Considering said newspaper hasn’t updated since, oh, 2017, I think it’s fine to step on a few toes.

According to the ABC there are 19 parties vying for votes in the 2021 Western Australia State Election, which is coming up on Saturday. Some of them are good, some of them are very very not. Let’s go through each!

Animal Justice Party

The Animal Justice Party is a single-platform party masquerading as a multi-platform party, and while they have bland but reasonable positions on common issues everything, and I mean everything, on their page circles back to animals. Mental Health? Animal therapy and volunteering are good for that! Foreign Policy? We only care about trophies and wildlife trade! Domestic Violence? Abusers kick puppies, not just spouses! You get the idea. They mean well, but I don’t think they’re even close to a top pick, especially considering some of their odder platforms (banning processed meat sales to minors like they’re cigarettes, sure ok).

Vote for them if you’re the epitome of the obnoxious vegan.

 Australian Christians

I mean, obviously I’m not religious, but I’m pretty sure these folks don’t speak for all Christians. They’re first on the list of whackjobs, anti-abortion and same-sex marriage, pro “sexual morality” (read: puritanism) and have out-of-context bible quotes on their statement of intents. Oh, sorry, statement of beliefs. Clicking on this webpage made my skin crawl- protip, if a person or party claims to support “family values” or “Christian ideals” 99 times out of 100 they’re just using it to justify bigotry.

Vote for them if you’d feel right at home in Cromwellian England.

 Daylight Savings Party

This one’s website was broken for me, so I couldn’t really get a hold of anything beyond the name and what was on their facebook page, which is pretty much just what their mission statement is- Western Australia but we have daylight savings time. Despite being ridiculously sunny all the time. But….but why though….

Vote for them if you enjoy changing your clocks twice a year, like a weirdo.

 The Great Australian Party

There are two really obvious jokes here screaming at me to be made. The GAP wants to make Australia great again, and despite the name it doesn’t involve jeans. These guys think taxes are bad but it would be good if they were instead handled by corporations, which is the most laughably stupid idea that itd be enough to bottom-vote them just on that- fortunately, their stance on firearms (we’ll get to it later) and immigration (withdrawing from UN treaties, seriously?) make it pretty clear they’re just a bunch of cunts. Their policy pages complain about political correctness and want to make fucking with a flag a crime like it is in the US, so the comparisons to a certain US party keep going.

Vote for them if you’re the proud owner of a red hat that your children will burn out of shame.

 Health Australia Party

The fact that these people have an entire page dedicated to going “no, we aren’t anti-vax, we just have a lot of concerns” answers any questions you could possibly have. They also advocate for “natural medicine” to be placed on equal footing with, you know, medicine, which is obviously not a great idea.

Also, that they spell it “anti-vacc” and that their policy list is in fucking Calibri bugs me to no end.

Vote for them if you’re on a lemon detox.

 Legalise Cannabis Western Australia

Take a guess. Take a wild fucking guess what single issue these guys are about. I don’t even have anything against this idea, their policies aren’t awful or anything, but it’s a heck of a hill to spend so much of your time on.

Vote for them if you’re high off your tits, I guess.

 Liberal Democrats

What is this, libertarians? I’ll be frank, most of their policies are rooted in economics stuff I don’t really understand, but they’re against COVID lockdowns. You know, despite how effective they’re shown to be around here since we don’t fuck them up (mostly).

These guys seem to be one of the bigger of the small parties but their website is super unhelpful so ???

Vote for them if… I dunno?

 Liberal Party

The first of the two major parties. They lost power in the last state election, and I couldn’t be more thankful- they’d been doing nothing but cock up for years at that point, and the premier was a fucking joke. Considering that their leader has apparently already conceded defeat, I suspect they aren’t looking to repeat the process.

The Liberals seem to be the default for a lot of people, thanks to their incalculable media bias and being one of the big two. I suppose if you’re reading this, you aren’t voting for them anyway.

Vote for them if your mum voted for them and you’re proud of that for some reason.

 Liberals for Climate

If you voted in the last election, you might remember a party called the Flux network, which was a party where their policy was just online voting for everything. This is, uh them again? But they seem more concerned about climate than last time.

Vote for them if you haven’t watched this video.

 No Mandatory Vaccination Party

…no. just no.

Antivaccination is an opinion that makes my skin crawl. The fucker that effectively started the movement, Andrew Wakefield, effectively did so for the money, and as such is indirectly responsible for thousands of deaths. The people who believe this shit know nothing of chemistry or medicine but hear a few buzzwords and do a google or two and think they’re the greatest geniuses of our time. They think they’re soooo fucking smart. Confident incorrectness can be funny at times, but not when such a huge issue is at stake.

Vote for them if you want me to call you out on twitter dot com.

 Pauline Hanson’s One Nation

Oh christ she’s still trying this shit? For reference, in the last election these xenophobic cunts were rightfully punted out of our state, despite massive campaigning, proving that we aren’t the bogan capital of the country quite as much. Their policy pages make me want to vomit, but who the fuck voting for One Nation reads the fucking policy page?

Pauline Hanson was a fish and chip shop owner who made a political party to get her xenophobic bullshit out on the national stage, and was arrested for election fraud, yet still is allowed to run a party for some reason. She’s switched the target of her ire from China to the Middle East to reflect modern bigotry better, but it’s the same old shit. The only good thing ever to come about her was the Pauline Pantsdown song, and she obviously wasn’t involved in that.

Vote for them if you’re interested in joining the Proud Boys.

 Shooters Fishers and Farmers

Oh and the hits just keep coming. Funnily enough I don’t have an issue with their fishery policy, but that’s not the main one, obviously. Australia has harsh gun control laws on account of a mass shooting back in 1997, and we’ve stayed that way for 23 years with, shockingly, no further mass shootings (that I’m aware of). You can disguise your policy by saying its for the sport all you want, but I’ve got no interest in bringing guns back to WA.

Vote for them if you think the NRA having massive political sway in the USA is a good thing.

 Socialist Alliance

Full disclosure, I consider myself a socialist, so I’m probably a little biased here. But yeah, these look like good policies. They want to remove the USA military presence in Australia which I am personally very for, they support royal commission into the big banks which should have been done a decade ago, and they want to lower the voting age to 16 which considering that the youth are generally more politically minded these days seems fair enough to me. I’m for it.

Vote for them if you would have voted for the Greens, and don’t know which to put higher.

 Sustainable Australia

Despite the name, the policy of this party is more concerned about population than climate, an issue I’m not sure is especially pronounced in this neck of the woods. I’d put them fairly middle of the road, seeing as they have some policies I’m for (no new coal mines or fracking) and some I’m very against (increased police funding, lowered immigration).

Vote for them if you too don’t know the common usage of the word Sustainable in modern times.

 The Greens

Why everything is alphabetical until this and the next one are beyond me. Regardless, I suspect you already know if you’re voting Greens, but bluntly: They’re basically the only ones with a real, functional plan about Climate Change. And considering that’s the biggest problem facing humanity at large right now (yes, including COVID), that’s a pretty solid claim.

Vote for them if THERE IS NO PLANET BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

 The Nationals

The nationals end up in coalition with the Liberals basically all the fucking time so if you’d vote for the Libs you’ll vote for the Nats. They’re basically the liberals, but they pay lip service to caring about poor rural areas while continuing to suck big buisness’s cock like a kid with an icy-pole.

Vote for them if you’re a genuine country bumpkin.

 WA Labor

I’ll be frank, I don’t think there’s a single way Labor doesn’t win this election. Mark McGowan has developed a minor cult of personality, and they’ve handled the old COVID situation remarkably well. I don’t agree with everything they’ve done in the past 4 years, but their track record is certainly better than the Liberals. Still, they’re not going to be the top of my preference sheet.

Vote for them if you don’t know what small parties to preference first.

 WAxit party

I’ve admittedly entertained the idea of a Western Australian Secession, and provided it is handled well am not entirely against it. It does make me feel vaguely Texan, though, and that’s not a position I enjoy being in. This party wants to massively invest in defense so WA can protect itself from an invasion- one that will never, ever come, and I really don’t expect to eat those words. We don’t matter enough to target.

Vote for them if you think Brexit 2 sounds like a good idea.

 Western Australia Party

Look at this point I’m fucking sick of all these parties. They have Family Values on their policy list so I’m just taking that as a red enough flag not to vote for them.

Vote for them if you actually read their shit and were a fan of it.

 And that’s…everyone. Wait no not everyone hang on.

Independents

I must confess, I basically always forget to read about the independents prior to an election. This is going to be different in every district, so do your research- or just do what I do and stick them all smack bang in the middle between the parties I like and the parties I don’t like.

 Ok now that’s everyone. This took a long time and a lot out of me, so I hope you appreciate this shit. Hopefully you are now prepared for what may come on Saturday the 13th, and won’t be too disappointed when your minor party of choice doesn’t win the seat because everyone in your area votes Liberal for some fucking reason.

[undefeatednils]

okay so basically my mom is anti vax and believes the earth is flat. For two months now I've been hiding my lil peep vinyl from her because I was afraid what she might think of me when she'd see it. Today she saw it and disappointedly said "i just want an honest relationship to my children". Thing is im getting vaccinated in two weeks without her knowledge. I feel like i should tell her, i need encouragement. I feel silly writing this

1) Get vaccinated no matter what. Now I don’t know where you live, but there are several US states where that is perfectly legal for you to get vaccinated without parental consent (here is a link which explains that quite well).

Now you probably have already looked into what it takes for you to get vaccinated, but still, just to be sure.

2) Unless you live in an area where it is 100 percent legal for you to get vaccinated without parental consent, don’t tell your mum ahead of time, because she’d have the right to cause a massive scene if you were to defy her that way. You might wanna consider telling her afterwards, but, again, I don’t know the legal situation where you live, so be cautious.

3) As someone who has had serious troubles with one of my parents (in my case my dad), it’s totally reasonable to ask people for help, to not be open towards that particular parent, and to hide stuff from them (both objects and feelings) in case you feel like there might be negative repercussions. There’s no need to feel silly because of you reaching out to people for advice.

I wish you the best.