#current events

[transfaguette]

I hate the conversation minefield of trans people who are also bad people. I do not want to be arguing for why you should be respecting the pronouns of a child murderer, I don't find that position enjoyable. I wish that identity was not even a factor in this conversation at all, but as trans people, we are not afforded that luxury.

[decolonize-the-left]

"I have been kept away from my family and only seen them a few times over the past 47 years. It is more than hard, especially when the kids write to me and tell me they want to see me and I cannot afford the cost of travel. If I was free I would build me a home on my tribal land, help build the economy of our nations and give a home to our homeless children,” Peltier said in an interview conducted over email via one of his approved contacts.

Peltier, an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa tribe and of Lakota and Dakota descent, was convicted of murdering two FBI agents during a shootout on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota in June 1975. Peltier was a leader of the American Indian Movement (Aim), an Indigenous civil rights movement founded in Minneapolis that was infiltrated and repressed by the FBI.

The 1977 murder trial – and subsequent parole hearings – were rife with irregularities and due process violations including evidence that the FBI had coerced witnesses, withheld and falsified evidence. Amnesty International, UN experts, Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama and the Rev Jesse Jackson are among those to have condemned his prolonged detention as arbitrary and politically motivated and called for his release.

[multi-lefaiye]

yes i hate tiktok as a platform for the most part. HOWEVER. the proposed ban would do exponentially more harm than good and would set an incredibly dangerous precedent for censorship and lobbying to ban competitors

like i know the US gov is basically four-five corporations in a trenchcoat at this point who get what they want by throwing money around, but if we want to at least *pretend* it's not just that, then this can't go through.

[sroloc--elbisivni]

Fascinating article on how the datasets that train AI and the cultural assumptions they make and enforce become visible in something like smiling.

[r0semultiverse]

blaming “trans people” who aren’t actually trans to create a bunch of mini reichstag fires across the United States, like wow get some new material you absolute bozos

[thepeacefulgarden]

[bare1ythere]

I try to keep my blog mostly for fun and hobbies but jesus christ. Watching the UK + USA slowly become more and more anti trans over the past few years is genuinely scaring the shit out of me. It felt like things were getting better in the mid 2010s but now US conservatives are so loudly anti-trans that it's only a matter of time before it leaks up into Canada too. What the fuck are you even supposed to do?

[sassquire]

I was gonna do something cool and uplifting for my 1year tranniversary post but I guess im probably gonna have to make a ‘t didn’t make me a violent killer’ psa

[mexashepot]

[socialist-microwave-laser]

lately i've seen an uptick in people asking queer folks from "red states" why we stay here, why we love it here, aren't we just asking for these repressive laws. yesterday, one of the worst laws to date was passed in the state of kentucky after the governor had vetoed it, even after hundreds of people showed up inside and outside the state capitol in opposition. i wanted to share this clip to answer those questions and show why some queer people in "red states" choose to stay

the majority of kentuckians were against this bill passing. most people who came to speak in favor of it were from out of state. appalachians have a tradition of not backing down from a fight, especially when that fight is against greedy entities trying to strip our humanity away from us

kentucky is a family. we showed up outside the capitol as a family, we are working to prevent this law from going into effect as a family, we will survive as a family

[pinklady6457]

I don’t here a lot of people talking about the Restrict Act on here, so I’m hoping that this gets people more aware!

Meta, the company that owns Facebook, Instagram, and etc., has been lobbying congress to ban TikTok. And while I know TikTok is a bit of a joke on here, it really has shown me what’s going on around the world (the Iranian Revolution, the French Protests, educating me on more of police violence on POC and issues that POC face in general), and congress wishes to ban it, and me and many others believe it is because we can see what’s happening around the world now and that people in other countries are fighting back against their governments. The Restrict Act just doesn’t ban TikTok, the act will give the government power to ban anything they don’t like online. And if you do go on TikTok or those other forbidden sites, you can face prison for up to 20 years, and be fined for up to one million dollars. This is literally a bill to restrict on American’s citizens freedom of speech and right to privacy.

Call your representatives, tell them you don’t support the Restrict Act and explain why and what you would do in order for them to on their side if they already are not. Deactivate your Instagram and Facebook, pretty much all of your meta accounts, don’t just delete them. Make them lose money. A lot of people on congress have recently bought Meta stock as well. You might just see it as a TikTok ban, but this is much, much more.

Besides, what do we do if congress decides to declare Tumblr a threat?

[tippenfunkaport]

there is something so darkly comical about tumblr potentially outliving twitter

tumblr, which is held together with duct tape and madness, run by three raccoons in blood stained Yahoo! hats and a handful of crabs, its only discernible source of income the sale of shoelaces from an inside joke so inside no one knows the original source anymore and fake blue checkmarks... that website still lives on

truly the cockroach of social media and I love it for that

[xiranjayzhao]

Video Source

The French president Macron is trying to raise their retirement age from 62 to 64 (and 67 for some?). French people have protested peacefully for 2 months but yesterday his government went ahead and invoked an article in their constitution that allows them to force the bill past the National Assembly without letting its deputies vote on it. Now Paris is burning ☺️

The trash collectors have gone on strike and so 7000+ tons of garbage has been piling up in the streets, then they get set on fire by protestors at night ☺️

(Source)

(Source)

If you’re wondering - “Retirement age at just 64 and they’re burning shit down? In my country I can’t retire until 65/67/70+!!”

French people have kept it low BECAUSE they burn shit down if it’s threatened ☺️

[esoanem]

[decolonize-the-left]

End blood quantum now

Blood quantum is how much native blood you have in you and it needs to be a certain threshold to qualify you as a tribal member. Blood quantum varies from tribe to tribe.

It means my mom is a tribal member but because my dad is outside of my tribe... I don't have enough tribal blood to enroll. Neither does my daughter. Our "official" indigeneity ended with me.

My dad is still native tho. Just southern native. Others have two parents enrolled in separate tribes and can't enroll in either one despite being Full native because their parents were mixed with other tribes so they don't have enough blood of Any tribe to qualify.

And to what end are they doing this?

Under the treaties the US govt can lay no claim to native land. So how do they fix that? Get rid of the natives, of course.

And since they can't slaughter us in broad daylight anymore they did the next best thing. What the colonial government has ALWAYS done to us and other poc.

Made up a bunch of arbitrary laws to restrain and limit our power and numbers.

And this can't continue. We are the only race who needs to apply to be part of the community we were born into. The only race who needs to prove our blood.

And that's the thing: it's not even based on blood. Racist scientists defined who was a full-blooded native based on things like shoe size, head circumference, and skin pigment.

Not blood. And besides that it wasn't uncommon for outsiders to become part of a tribe!! You didn't need to be native by blood to be native! Blood quantum has made it IMPOSSIBLE for them to qualify and made it impossible for tribes to practice that long time aspect of our culture.

So please share this post. So many people legitimately think natives are extinct and even less are aware that we do more than just sit around drinking all day. Few people have good feelings about us and within that there are a few who actively help. Please be one of those few.

We need support and allies and for our voices to be heard. Please don't let this post just be me screaming into a void. We need people to know what blood quantum is, how archaic and harmful it is, and to help us spread awareness to people who otherwise would ignore us. Use your privilege.

[moonlayl]

The Death Toll of the Earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria may have reached 20,000 people, and that’s outside of all those who are injured and lost.

If you could donate PLEASE do!!!

Here’s a post full of charities you could donate to, but I’ll add my own trustworthy ones here:

Islamic Relief:  teams are on the ground right now providing emergency food assistance, shelter, medical supplies to hospitals and clinics, as well as blankets and tents for those made homeless by the quake in Turkey and Syria

Molham: The team at Molham are currently on the ground helping displaced families in Turkey and Syria who have been affected by the earthquake   

The White Helmets: The team are on the ground in Northwest Syria searching for survivors and removing the dead from the rubble.

MSF: remaining in close contact with the local authorities in northwestern Syria and with the authorities in Turkey to extend their support where it’s needed. They’re providing essential life kits to displaced people in the region

please PLEASE reblog. Syria and Turkiye need our help!!!