i guess it’s time to talk about halloween candy again! in short: you should eat it if you want to!

a healthy relationship with food absolutely involves what we call “fun foods”– foods you eat bc you enjoy them (taste, memory associations, celebration, etc.) even if you’re not in need of their nutritional value. pleasure is GOOD and it’s good to experience it thru food! and if you are in need of calories and free candy can help provide them, wonderful.

remember the intuitive eating concepts of unconditional permission to eat and challenging the food police. you get to have as much candy as you want, whenever you want it. that means you can have some now, and you can have some later, too. there’s no need to freeze it or throw it out to prevent yourself from eating it–the candy is not dangerous or “sinful.” this is a great opportunity to practice following your body’s cues, and to trust them. 

if you’ve been candy-restricted in the past, you might eat more than you’re comfortable with. you might even feel sick to your stomach. that’s good data! note it, and reject guilt–you’re learning. and guess what, you STILL have unconditional permission to eat. if you find yourself wanting more in the future, you can have it (this also lets you stop when you want to, bc the candy and your permission to eat it aren’t going anywhere). experiment. observe. trust.

so instead of approaching one of the best parts of this holiday with fear and defensive planning, approach it with curiosity: which candies do you enjoy? how much of them feels good? how does unconditional permission affect your candy-eating behavior, in the short and long term? what’s it like to just eat it sometimes, without doing any mental work at all?? have fun! you’re gonna be okay!

You know what I feel we need more of?

Community centers.

Specifically, places where people can gather, have fun, host events or even just hang out. Similar to what libraries are, but not quite--a place where kids can be loud and rowdy and hang out, make friends, practice sports. Though they definitely should still have quiet areas, maybe craft rooms too. A nice place to go to and hang out after school before you're ready to head home--or a safe place to stay if you don't want to head home. Community centers could also still be fantastic for adults too--they could be used as a place to host classes on different crafts, or repairs, etc.--and still be a perfectly valid place to hang out and seek refuge.

Places like these do exist in many places in a few different forms, but a lot of them are directly tied to organizations and groups that may make people more hesitant to partake in them (ie churches, Police Athletic Leagues), or they have a cost barrier to taking part of the amenities (YMCA). While these places are definitely suitable and fulfilling for many people, they're often limiting and stifling for others--if not just flat-out inaccessible. Not to mention, they don't all fill the roles I mentioned above.

I think having robust community centers would be great for societies all over. I'll admit, my imagination is a bit grand--community gardens, sports rec rooms, swimming pools, reading and craft rooms, a repair cafe, a food cafe, maybe a dorming area for overnight stays, soup kitchens, showers, mutual aid closets and such.

Though I guess that brings about the question of how this would be funded. With churches, it's tithes and other forms of community fundraising. With police athletic leagues, its... taxes, I guess? Alongside other donations. And with the YMCA, it's memberships that provide the funding for their amenities. My initial instinct is to say a mix of taxes and maybe some community contributions would be what funds a good community center, but then there comes the issue of some places having better or worse community centers depending on the median income of their area... especially when you see how places like libraries already get little funding in favor of larger policing budgets (the libraries in my city are all closed on Sundays, and have shorter hours in general, for example)

I know I'm just rambling at this point. I just think community centers are cool! They're punk! And we should have them--cool, fun community centers!

Dr. Gachey with foxglove, 1890

Some of Van Gogh’s best work was done during a period of his life that he spent in a hospital being treated for his mental health problems. I could be wrong but I think Starry Night was among those.

This is consistently the case. Creators tend to do their best work when they are in a healthy place and receiving proper treatment and not being self destructive in their efforts to cope. Go figure.

All our experiences, good and bad, inform what we create, but suffering is not the price of great art. Suffering is what prevents artists from completing great art.

Did you know that after they switched to blind auditions, major symphony orchestras hired women between 30% to 55% more? Before bringing in “blind auditions” with a screen to conceal the the candidate, women in the top 5 major orchestras made up less than 5% of the musicians performing.

so I believe it was actually more complicated than that, in interesting ways. Because at first, when they did blind auditions, they were STILL hiring more men.

…Then they put down a carpet, so that high heels didn’t clack on the floor,  and BOOM women were suddenly getting hired.

The testers didn’t even know that’s what they were picking up on, which just goes to show how tiny of a cue it takes for misogyny to kick in.

The case of blind auditions for orchestras and how it dramatically changed the gender makeup of orchestras is a very illuminating example of gender bias, and an interesting possible way of countering it.

You can be sexist without knowing it. You can be racist without knowing it. This is not a moral failing; it is a moral imperative to remember that you are fallible, and take steps to limit the damage your squishy ape brain’s foibles can cause.

The final chapter in Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink (2005) describes this in detail.

What you don’t usually hear about when discussing this blind audition process is that after the blind auditions were implemented, when women had gotten many positions in the orchestra, men no longer saw being a member as prestigious and the salaries for the entire orchestra dropped.

"Refusal to handle military equipment for war in Palestine

While a genocide is underway in Palestine, workers at the various airports in Belgium are seeing weapons headed for war zones.

The loading and unloading of these weapons enables the resupplying of organizations killing innocent people.

We, the different unions active in the ground handling sector, call on our members not to handle flights that ship military material to Palestine/Israel as there were also clear agreements and rules at the start of the conflict with Russia and Ukraine.

We call for an immediate ceasefire and ask the Belgian governments to be consistent and not to tolerate arms shipments through Belgian airports. As unions, we declare our solidarity with those who are taking action for peace.

The common trade union front"

Working Class Solidarity!

Pick a bottle any bottle lol

I recently read an article about a therapy group for depressed people who had all attempted suicide at some point. The breakthrough question for them was, “If your goal was to be just as miserable as possible, what would you do?” Most of them listed things like not getting enough sleep, or isolating themselves from everyone… the list goes on, but the point is, they listed things they already do. But now they saw those “coping mechanisms” for what they really were: things that were actively making their condition worse.

I read that article at 2:00 AM, asked myself, am I TRYING to be miserable tomorrow? And it was easier than usual to put my phone down and fall asleep. Even my intrusive “lying down” thoughts about meaninglessness and existential dread were easier to suppress when I framed them as things I’d think about to purposefully make myself feel as awful as possible.

Fuck that is helpful

badweird feelings

not to be a communist on main but these are literally the modes of alienation under capitalism that marx described

Oh, this guy again:

Anyone believing this shjt is failing an open book test.

- What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat by Aubrey Gordon

Source

It’s that bad, folks

I wanted to highlight examples of actions I've seen people organize to protest the genocide happening in Palestine.

[ID: A tweet by Demilitarize Western Mass @demilitarizewma that reads “BREAKING. We're blockading all vehicle entrances to the L3Harris facility in Northampton, MA. L3Harris is one of the largest weapons contractors in the world, and they profit from war, the prison industry, and the violent occupation of Palestine..” End ID]

[ID: A tweet by Rebecca Pierce @aptly_engineerd that reads “Happening now: Jewish emergency protest blockading the San Francisco Federal building in solidarity with Gaza and calling for a ceasefire and end to US complicity in the occupation of Palestinians.” End ID]

[ID: A tweet by Jewish Voice for Peace @jvplive that reads “JEWS SAY: STOP THE GENOCIDE OF PALESTINIANS! Over two-thousand Jews protested in front of the offices and homes of elected officials in NYC, San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle, Indiana, Florida, and Los Angeles to demand action to prevent the genocide of Palestinians..” End ID]

Last thing I wanted to highlight was this message from Palestinian-American Author Nadia Shammas. You can read the full thread on twitter.

[ID: A tweet by Nadia Shammas @Nadia_Shammas_ that reads “I want to hear non-Palestinians to hold the same faith in their heart as we do that Palestine will be liberated. I dream of a world where, when it’s too painful to keep faith, I can rest knowing they’ll believe it just as hard for me, that they’ll carry it for me just as firm"]

Various actions across the US and Australia have shut down or attempted to shut down branches of Elbit Systems and connected businesses. The Massachusetts location has been hit multiple times in the past two weeks, and the real estate building now as well.

Two of their locations in the UK were permanently shut last year after relentless actions. There are still allegedly a half dozen UK locations, which have reignited action in the UK.

There's planned action against Elbit in Bristol, too.

HMU if you want details.

If someone disabled says something is abelist you shut up and you listen.

If a trans person says something is transphobic you shut and listen.

If an immigrant says something is xenophobic you shut up and listen.

When someone of a marginalized speaks up on an issue you do not shut them down, you shut up and fucking listen!