The world may be full of uncertainty and danger, but I resolve to continue to find joy in who I am. Be joyful to be kind to yourself and be joyful to spite the bastards who would tear us apart.
HE BROKE THE RECORD
Senator Cory Booker just broke the all-time record for the longest Senate floor speech, speaking for over 24 hours without a pause (no food, no bathroom breaks, only water to drink) as a protest against Trump and Musk and what they're doing.
The previous record was set in 1957, when Strom Thurmond spoke for 24 hours and 18 minutes protesting the Civil Rights Act.
Senator Booker has blown past that record, currently at 25 hours and still speaking as of 8 pm local time. Respect.
emptying and reloading a gun with practiced efficiency so you think i'm an expert marksman but you later find out that's just how i stim
turning the safety catch on and off like i'm clicking a pen until everyone gets really mad at the noise but no one says anything because i have a gun and they don't
my little brother tried to show me a "cool trick" where he entered my name and hometown into chatgpt and tried to get it to pull up my personal info like it did on all of his friends, then was absolutely shocked when it couldn't find anything on me
so. keep practicing basic internet safety, guys. it still works. don't put your personal info on social media, keep all your accounts on private, turn off ai scraping on every site that you can, enable all privacy features on social media apps. our info still can be protected, we have to keep fighting for control
how i'm handling my students using AI to write papers:
-don't accuse them on using AI from the get-go and instead ask them to informally define all the huge words that they used in their essay which i know they don't know the meaning of
-ask to see their original file where they "wrote" the essay. go to version history to see if it was just copy and pasted and then just edited a bit. i keep an eye out for the shit like "certainly! here's an essay about...."
-if they own up to it, they can re-do the assignment for a higher grade even if there will be an automatic penalty. if they don't, i process it like plagiarism and get my supervisor involved.
And this is much better than the immediate accusations. Some students have a good vocabulary. Stop accusing them of faking their essays without proof, and this is a good way to check.
What the media won't show
It’s actually pretty nuts how there is no real mass media coverage of the protests that are happening all over the US. It demonstrates fairly conclusively that the unlawful activities at the White House aren’t just limited to Trump. There’s a lot of wealthy people in powerful positions in the US and around the world helping to support the dismantling of the US federal government.
"Can you help me find my dog?" is a common ruse that kidnappers use in order to isolate their victims.
Logically, it makes no sense. Someone who lost their dog would put up fliers. Or loudly and repeatedly yell their dog's name. Or ask a crowd of people for help. They'd never even consider asking a child who's alone.
But children are not taught to think logically when an adult wants something. Children are taught "when an adult tells you to do something, you do it". Children are taught that it's their duty to sacrifice their own comfort in order to please adults. Children are taught that adults can be as illogical as they want and children still have to respect them.
"Teenagers are assholes."
Yeah. Of course they are. They're treated like shit. They recognize that things are grossly unfair but haven't yet had the chance to figure out what should be done about it, and no one helps them figure that out because everyone is too busy gaslighting them and denying that anything is wrong.
Being an asshole is a natural response to that.
I hope you all have a wonderful autism acceptance month!
Here's everyone's friendly reminder to: -Use red, not blue -Use infinity symbol(rainbow or gold), not puzzle pieces -Say acceptance month, not awareness month -Discourage ABA -Kick ableists /hj -Protect and encourage (safe) stims -Remember you are loved <3
The reason to use these instead is that blue, puzzle pieces, and awareness are terminology and symbols used by an autism hate group (AutismSpeaks; in case you didn't know, they encourage the abuse of autistic people and much more) and ABA is also in most cases abusive so please educate others on why they're bad and what to use instead
Before I go, though: can we please start to normalize talking to people "all day" again?! Sometimes it is difficult for me to believe I'm the autistic one with social skills problem.
Like, bruh, y'all are getting so antisocial I wanna jump out of a bridge. Everyone has their faces buried in their phones for at least 12 hours a day, including during workshifts, but won't take a lil time to talk to their friends! What the heck? And then y'all also don't wanna hang out irl?!
I know I'm not the best person to have around, but I see it happening to normal people as well?!
Come on, don't you remember phones were supposed to narrow the gap created by physical distance???? Instead, we're making it worse.
I am confined to my house in a city where basically everybody despises me for being autistic and, since things began to get weird, I have had basically zero social interactions per day. My friends on the phone were all I had, now I feel like I don't have anything, except for the trivial "check up" messages...
And that drives me crazy cause you'll see an unholy amount of people complaining about being lonely online, but if you try to interact with them, most won't even answer? Or just throw in some automatic, monosyllabic answer? Others will make sure to kill the convo on purpose, leave you on read forever, etc...like, bro, how do you expect me to feel like I should reach out and help you if you don't even want to answer me? Communication is a game of two, I can't guess what's going on in your head.
I know better than everyone else that, sometimes, what you really needed was just a tight hug and a kiss on the forehead, but, since that is sometimes impossible, why did we forget voice and videocalls, voice messages, playing games, sending silly pictures?
I've grown up isolated by my peers, and when the internet gave me the chance to finally find people that would accept me as one of their own, even if they were miles and miles away from me, everything just...collapsed into nothing? The knowledge that there would always be someone by my side (or by my pocket...), even if I was theoretically alone, meant everything to me. The happiness to come back home and rush to my phone cause I knew there were people waiting for me. Be a part of someone's daily routine. Celebrate their victories and support them in difficult times. Learn about things they liked to share their passions with them...
You don't need to spend EVERY FREE MINUTE of your day talking to people, but at least interact with those you hold dearly on a daily basis. Answer them a couple of times per day. Try to actually put effort into answering, not just send stickers or use emoji reactions. Don't ignore half of their messages, at least show you care, try saying: "hey, I'm sorry, I don't know what to answer to this" or "I'm too tired to answer right now, but I'll get back to you later". We all know typing is exhaustive after working/studying all day. Ask them if you can record voice messages instead. I miss hearing people's voices.
My cousin used to call me to watch her play games, do silly make-ups or just draw, cause her parents didn't give her enough attention, and I'd just sit there, watching her, sometimes for 2 or more hours. And I did it with pleasure, because I knew my presence and reassurance was important to her. I knew it made a difference. It made her day better.
I was needed somewhere. Now I lose my sanity by the day. Every: "hi, how are you? Not good? I'm sorry to hear that, I wish I could help. I hope you'll be better soon. Just try to calm down, ok?" makes me wanna commit murder.
I feel like I'm talking to Chat GPT and it drives me crazy. I can't record voice messages or type too many things at once, otherwise, I'll get ignored or get an error message. Everyday, I start typing things I wanted to share with those I love, but then the realization that nobody cares or wants to hear about it hits me and I just delete everything.
Please, break those cocoons you've woven around yourselves. It will eventually suffocate you as well.
😮💨
Have you ever looked closely at a car windshield?
The edge of the glass is painted where it is glued to the car but it has these small dots between the clear and painted glass.
These are there for a reason. When the sun hits the glass the painted areas and the clear areas will absorb heat at different rates. This causes the glass to expand and contract differently putting stress on the glass.
These dots help the glass to warm up more evenly over a larger area so the glass does not suffer stress that could cause it to spontaneously explode.
Fun fact: the Tesla cybertruck doesn’t have these.
Yes, the glass will spontaneously crack or explode in the sun.
i hate capitalism !!!!
i can’t go anywhere without getting so sad seeing the workers bc to me all i see are ppl forced to be doing this useless job instead of their hobbies or passions or anything Real that matters and makes them feel fulfilled
i work 40 hours a week and can’t even afford my own place. so what’s the point of working when it doesn’t guarantee your most BASIC needs are met (food, housing, healthcare)
what are we all doing this for?? i’ve wanted to be a cartoonist for as long as i can remember, now i work at a gas station (w another girl who went to school for animation)
TW: Pedophilia
Teenagers are rarely taught the reason why they can't consent to sex with adults.
And that's because teaching them that would completely unravel our coercion-based society.
It can be difficult to explain in detail the exact reason and all the specifics in a way that they will understand. But the simplest way to phrase it is that in some cases, even when someone agrees to something and even when they appear enthusiastic about it, there's too much of a power imbalance that it's no different than forcing them. Also, having power and being abusive doesn't require a conscious expectation to be obeyed.
Imagine a world in which every teenager understood that and was easily able to call out anyone who tried to convince them otherwise.
They'd know that there's no such thing as an employee consenting to working for a poverty wage, working in unsafe conditions, working long hours, or working without taking breaks. They'd know that there's no such thing as consenting to paying a bank overdraft fee. They'd know that there's no such thing as consenting to student loan debt. They'd know that there's no such thing as consenting to medical bills. They'd know that there's no such thing as consenting to generating profit for banks or landlords in order to have a place to live and being evicted or foreclosed when you lose your source of income. They'd know that there's no such thing as consenting to a police search. They'd know that there's no such thing as a child who's okay with their parents spanking them. They'd know that being dependent on someone does not mean that you can never criticize them. They'd know that if it's considered abusive to simply play along when someone obeys, then it has to be much more abusive to actively expect to be obeyed, which many adults do to them.
And people who benefit from a society based on coercion masquerading as freedom wouldn't like that.
So instead, teenagers are taught something dismissive. They're taught that what they want doesn't matter. They're taught that they're too young to know what love is. They're taught "it's the law". They're taught things that are insulting to their intelligence, which they'll naturally rebel against.
