There’s evidence that Palestinians in the mass graves (including babies, children, people in medical scrubs) were buried alive.
This revelation and the news they had to cut a baby out of the womb of its already-dead mother to save its life is making me wish the protestors were armed with [ballots] to [vote out our elected officials through peaceful legal means]
Sources:
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/baby-gaza-saved-womb-mother-killed-israeli-strike-2024-04-21/
If you dare come at me about banning straws, I will throw you into the sun cannon. I’m disabled, I’m crippled, I need disposable plastic straws, and all those pricey ridiculous alternatives aren’t working as well. Plastic straws were invented for the disabled.
Way to shit all over a vital access need because you think straws are worse than corporate greed.
We all care about the turtles, the seals, the oceans, obviously. Notice how the easiest thing to yell about was something that would barely affect anything but appealed heavily to emotional discourse.
The disabled community is huge, and it can be joined by anyone. Most of those As Seen On TV products were invented for us. Society still mocks us and ignores us, and often outright harms us in multiple ways.
Communicate better. Listen better. But stop putting us out in the cold because you are inconvenienced by our simplest needs.
i have an environmental degree and i’ve been saying this since this straw ‘debate’ started: its all a tactic by those in power to distract people’s attention from bigger issues such as fishing waste. don’t fall for it. and don’t be a dick to disabled people who need straws to make their lives easier.
That’s the best analogy. Thank you.
There are single-use plastics that don’t need to exist (don’t kill me, let me finish, please). Spices are the most obvious to me—yes, a lot of spices need to be finished off before they expire because otherwise they’re not as potent/don’t taste as good, but salt? Ground pepper? Dried onion? There are other shelf-stable spices that are good for YEARS—slap a best-by label on each batch, put it in a bulk dispenser, and have customers write it on a sticker and put it on a reusable bottle. Customers who care will do so, customers who think “it all tastes the same” won’t but won’t be bothered. Sell reusable bottles or let customers bring their own containers and sell by weight. A few isolated places do this (Winco comes to mind), but very few.
But some stuff can’t be reused, or can technically be reused but it’s really not safe (for example, syringes). We need to focus on things that do not impact QoL, and stop throwing disabled people to the wolves.
Genuine question,I feel like there must be something obvious that I’m missing: what disability prevents one from using a paper straw?
Some people have allergies to wood pulp. Any organic material will have this issue, unfortunately, and people with the kinds of disabilities severe enough to need straws almost certainly have comorbidities such that anything potentially triggering to the immune system could be a problem. As some examples consider chemo patients, organ transplant recipients, and people with autoimmune disorders.
Paper straws also dissolve, which can cause problems for people who need to drink more slowly to avoid choking (there are a TON of disorders where this is a problem), and people with Parkinson’s, some forms of cerebral palsy, and similar conditions may need a straw that bends, which paper cannot do. People with Alzheimer’s struggle to drink and may reject an unfamiliar kind of straw because they can’t process new information, and low-functioning/high support needs autistic people may require assistance drinking but find that paper straws are a Bad Texture, and thus avoid them to the point of dehydration.
@thebibliosphere has a fantastic chart on the different kinds of straws and what the pros and cons of each are for disabled people, and the reality is, only plastic ticks the boxes that cover everyone, and some straws are simply impractical for daily use (figure out how to carry a glass straw in a purse!). (Joy, if you see this, I don’t remember a single stitch of text from that post to look it up on your blog, could you do me a solid and share the link?)
Also aren’t paper straws like, not gluten free? Or at the very least they trigger people who have a gluten intolerance/celiac/similar things (I know I’ve seen ‘not gluten free’ come up before as an issue with, some kind of not plastic straw before). So like, that’s ANOTHER big problem there.
I think you’re thinking of a similar type of biodegradable straw that’s made of wheat something-or-other. I know the one you’re talking about, the details are just failing me at the moment. It’s not paper, but it’s marketed along the same lines.
The glue used on some paper straws uses wheat, so they are not guaranteed to be gluten-free either.
And I’ll do you one better, here’s Jessica’s video and the straw ban:
And here’s the chart:
Apologies for the lack of image description, I’m on mobile and my crippled hands hurt.
I will point out that I know some people who are allergic to disposable plastic straws (if having a mast cell disease has taught me anything, it’s that your body can develop a reaction to anything) but as you can see from the chart, disposable plastic straws are the most allergen-friendly next to glass.
Unfortunately, glass is not safe or accessible for many disabilities (my own included) so disposable plastic straws remain a vital necessity for disabled people.
I really don’t want to get back into the straw debate, but I have seen numerous variations of these tags popping up a lot in my notes since I reblogged this earlier, so I’m just going to draw attention again to the chart up above where biodegradable straws are listed as allergens – and yes that includes biodegradable plastic.
Many are made using corn, cactus, potato starch, and occasionally wheat starch. Supposedly, they have been processed to remove the allergen, but speaking from personal experience, it’s still possible to react to them.
I found out in a fricken hospital that the hospital canteen had switched to biodegradable cups and straws and ended up needing to be treated for an allergic reaction on top of the reason I was already there. All I drank was water. There was nothing else I’d ingested during my time that could have caused the reaction. I also had blisters on my lips and tongue where the straw touched me, so it wasn’t a mild reaction either. All from a biodegradable straw and cup.
Single-use plastics are a vital necessity for many individuals.
The sooner people make their peace with that and start targeting the industries doing actual quantifiable harm to the world, the sooner we can fix this shit, and disabled people like me can stop being worried we’re going to be harassed for using disability aids.
The vitriol I received back in 2018 for saying I need plastic straws to drink so I don’t risk aspirating is so bad that I won’t use a straw to drink on stream. I am that self-conscious about it.
I know I shouldn’t be. I know ableists can go fuck themselves, and I should be telling them to fuck off, but the trauma caused by people telling me over and over that the world would be better off without people like me in it because my existence contributes to the pollution killing the planet is real and lasting to the point where I’ll risk choking in front of a live audience to avoid someone commenting on my use of a straw.
And I know that’s bonkers! I know it is! I know I’m being irrational, but that’s what this site put me through in 2018 when the initial straw ban debate broke out, and I’m still processing it in therapy.
People who I thought were friends told me they’d rather I was dead than keep using plastic straws because it was “killing the sea turtles.”
A lot of left-leaning people who think they are disability allies need to unpack the eugenics in their green-washing. And it can start with people minding their own damn business when it comes to single-use plastic straws.
Just going to nip this in the bud now, but I will not be entertaining any "but what about/have you tried" suggestions in my inbox re: plastic straws.
If you message me about this, I'll be soft-blocking you.
I don't care how well-meaning your intentions are; your intentions don't mean shit when what you're actually saying is, "I am uncomfortable with your clearly stated needs as a disabled person and would rather you harm yourself than do something I have deemed immoral based on corporate greenwashing."
This is not up for debate. You either need to unpack the problematic elements of greenwashing on your own time and continue to be an ally to disabled people, or you need to own what you're actually saying and fuck off.
Anyway. Peace and love. Don't be ableist. Save a sea turtle, kill a big oil CEO ✌.
hi look at me real quick please stay with me for this i love you and i’m scared i’ve never done this before hi
so here’s the deal i got rear ended and i sustained a neck injury and my car is totaled and i have to buy a new one in order to live and work and survive AND we’re also probably moving in the next three months and between all of these things i am anticipating coming up way too short on funds.
my gf is unemployed and we’re already struggling to make it month to month so if you have some extra money, any at all, and you feel like helping out a trans couple in need, i’d really appreciate if you would consider kicking a few bucks my way so i’m not drowning in this.
thank you thank you i love you
cashapp: $wormhag
venmo: @olamarca99
if you're wondering why THIS tiktok ban bill made it through the senate unlike last time...
Also, numerous politicians who originally did not support the bills switched to support for it after fearmongering about "anti-israel propaganda on tiktok" began to spread in liberal circles post-Oct 7th.
had a dream where Matthew Lillard was running for a government office and his tagline on posters said "with Scooby-Doo ass villains like these, why not rely on a true member of the Mystery Gang" and in very small print on the bottom "I was also a serial killer in case that doesn't work out"
the idea that restrooms, locker rooms, etc need to be single-sex spaces in order for women to be safe is patriarchy's way of signalling to men & boys that society doesn't expect them to behave themselves around women. it is directly antifeminist. it would be antifeminist even if trans people did not exist. a feminist society would demand that women should be safe in all spaces even when there are men there.
btw this is maybe the single most key distinguishing feature of the terfy strains of radical feminism, the seed all the rest of it springs out of: they have absolutely no faith in the ability of feminism to actually destroy patriarchy. they do not think feminism can truly build a better world. they cannot really even imagine that possibility. they think patriarchy is an inevitable natural consequence of unchangeable biological facts, and therefore the goal of feminism can only be to mitigate the worst effects of patriarchy, not to get rid of it.
they can imagine a society where women get some designated safe spaces without men around. they cannot imagine a society where the presence of men is not inherently a danger to women.
Lmao how is this real, "the ambient sounds of the world were wrong, sir"
Imagine paying Columbia-amounts of money to be taught by someone with kindergarten-level art literacy. Like, motherfucker, the wholeass point of 4’33” is to emphasize how every performance of live music is inextricably linked to the ambient sounds of the context in which it is performed!!!!!!! Paying attention to and thinking about the context of the performance is the point of the song!!!! If the point was to hear birds chirping and people walking, John Cage would have fucking recorded that instead. Insisting that art is only good when contains good things and makes you feel good things is baby-level art criticism. How the fuck is this dude a professor.
Actually I’m not done going off yet. This pisses me off so much. How can you teach the humanities and be so obstinately ignorant? Like bruh, if the chanting outside makes you feel uncomfortable and upset, maybe you should take about four and a half minutes to contemplate why you feel that way. During that time, you might consider things such as: why are there students chanting? What are they protesting? Why do they feel so strongly about this issue that they’re willing to disrupt their lives to bring attention to it? Should I also feel as strongly? Should I be protesting with them? Is my desire for silence more important than the students’ desire for justice? Why do I find the noise they’re making more upsetting than the genocide they’re protesting?
Being like “loud noise make me angy 😠” is so fundamentally incurious and baby-brained it’s honestly unbelievable
me defending trans men online: we’re actually oppressed for being women
trans men get to argue that we are women for the purposes of disavowing any male privilege we have while still being able to maintain the legitimacy of our transmasculinity. the inverse is true for trans women, whose oppression disappears if they were to ever attempt this same trick. and the reason is because these are literally terf beliefs, they are bio-essentialist beliefs, that trans men are divinely ordained as feminine, permanently cast as pure victims as a result of this female assignment at birth - we are women for the purposes of dismissing the privileged position of our manhood and we are men for the purposes of legitimising our experience with transphobia. our victimhood is absolute and comprehensive. trans women, under this same formulation, are made invisible, literally made non-existent; they cannot make any claim to experiencing misogyny as a structural force in their lives because they are basically, at the end of the day, men. denying the very banal, basic fact that trans men experience the privilege of being men is literally just transmisogyny. nobody is fooled by your bullshit!
Did we miss the part where Biden's stance on Palestine is uniquely aggressive and oppressive even in the context/low bar of American politics. I feel like I'm losing my mind everytime someone brings up a hypothetical "well it could be worse" when the Gaza strip has dealt with the equivalent impact to a fucking nuclear assault.
the Columbia University arrests are worse than they seem. They're arresting protesting students for trespassing. It goes without saying students cannot meaningfully "trespass" in the common areas of a university they attend. So Columbia University has suspended all student protestors from their institution, in the process revoking their access to housing, their belonging, and most crucially damaging their academic futures. We are witnessing full scale silencing and removal of anyone of conscience from the next generation of academia.
beyond that the columbia common is literally an open space during the day; the gates are open and it's possible to pass through it like you'd pass through a regular block. even after my student ID expired i was still able to walk through the commons bc ID is not requested until you enter an actual building. it's quite common to see parents, toddlers, and such who are clearly not enrolled just hanging out. so not only were the students not trespassing at a SCHOOL THEY PAY FOR, there was also not a precedent for non-students to be disallowed from the grass and walkways.
WTAF. I spoke about this a few times before. People in many parts of West Asia/many Arab people have been wearing keffiyehs for CENTURIES. They represent many things, and yes -they do symbolize Palestinian resistance and solidarity -and if you have an issue with anyone wearing a keffiyeh in any space you're a genocidal apologist.
This is BEYOND ignorant and IS discrimination. I hope we see a class-action lawsuit that sues the provincial government for doing this/normalizing this because it's ILLEGAL. These politicians (especially the PC's -who were shouting no to overturn it and one of them saying they felt UNSAFE... the audacity) are just racist bigots.
Today's Seal Is: Unlimited Scraggliness
just curious as they're always things i've never questioned just doing but people in my life are often surprised that i don't mind doing them alone
🔁 pls reblog for sample size
