And where am I ruling that out? I never said that this resistance would always be peaceful. But the sooner you start coordinating with the people around you, the better prepared for that violence we will be, and the better our chances are to prevent a lot of deaths. You can claim otherwise, but sitting alone while my neighbors and friends die is unconscionable to me.

But what am I deluding myself about? I have literally admitted that what we do may not be able to fix things entirely, but we doom ourselves more if we don’t take action. You obviously know that already, given your statement about your footprint, so why are you arguing against another person calling for direct action?

Even if that is true, why take out your frustration like this, by raging against those of us who are willing to do all the good we can?

I am not promising that we will be able to fix everything. Heck, I don’t even know if we can fully fix anything. But until every last living being is dead, there is something here that deserves every chance we can give or get.

You don’t have to participate, but to argue against this kind of work is like denying pain medication to someone who is dying and justifying it by saying ‘meds will not save you’. If we can’t save the life, we can at least save them from as much suffering as we can manage.

It is going to get worse, but that doesn’t mean we have to accept the full worst-case scenario.

Right now, a lot of people are hurt and scared, and the fascists know that. That is why they are making big waves right now, to try to capitalize on that feeling of dread and despair.

But they had to put in a LOT of work to suppress the will of the people. This is not the result of a single election season, this is the result of a coordinated effort spanning decades. The actions they are taking now are designed to make you think that it is hopeless, that nobody cares, and that the battle is lost.

In reality, the battle is never over. This is the moment that needs to push us to actually working together against them, instead of talking about what the right thing to do is. Talk won’t help, but local action will.

Join a mutual aid group and help safeguard your friends and neighbors from the economic hardship they are promising. Start talking your friends and family into attending boycotts, marches, and, above all, your local government and board meetings. Connect to the people around you, put up flyers, coordinate phone campaigns, and get people into these meetings to demand protections and change at the local level where it is most important.

Resistance doesn’t come from nowhere. It has to be grown, it has to be planted as a small seed and then watered and weeded and trellised and brought inside from the cold. You may even have to watch it die and then pick yourself up and start from a seed again.

But if we each dedicate ourselves, full time, to a single plant, then we will do far more good than running around frantically worrying about the forest dying. Because yes, the forest is dying, and it is up to us to determine what grows in its place.

We may not be able to save what we have now. But only we can set the stage, as best we can, for those who will come after us. And the more work we do now, the better they will be able to build off of that work, and the better things will be.

Saint Francis of Assisi did this. He renounced his family name, inheritance, and (according to legend) the clothes on his back when his dad took issue with him giving alms. He spent the rest of his life wandering with a small group of other penitents and providing comfort to the sick, especially those with leprosy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_of_Assisi?wprov=sfla1

I am not a woman, but I am a trans man, which he knew as part of my medical history. I have considered if that was a factor, but I am honestly chalking it up to general incompetence given his explanations of criteria and what he would consider an acceptable answer.

For example, me having sensory issues that lead to me sometimes being unable to wear socks didn’t count because I was able to wear different types of socks, and even prefer different types depending on the day. According to him, I would need to have a single, strong preference for a type of sock. According to everyone else I have asked about it, the point of the question is that neurotypical people don’t have days where they can’t wear a certain sock or they will be unable to focus on anything else until they take it off.

I don’t think I am smarter? When I was done, he literally told me that I met the criteria, but that he thought my symptoms were for other reasons he refused to elaborate on. I checked with my therapist, who was the one who referred me, and she confirmed that that isn’t how it works, and that the evaluator didn’t understand how the criteria were supposed to be graded.

Ironically, this is how I found out.

I had four different people with ASD, including one person I met for the first time, tell me that I should get myself checked. One was after I had a several hour long convo with someone who could only normally talk with neurotypical people for about 30 minutes before it became a strain. He was shocked that I wasn’t diagnosed and recommended I get checked.

Now the only reason I don’t have a diagnosis is because the evaluator didn’t understand how the criteria worked. Still debating whether to try again for a diagnosis or not.

I was in NYC for Pride the other year and got a sample of a cannabis drink made by a new-at-the-time company Cycling Frog. Flavor is good for a seltzer type drink, and the inebriation level is tailored to be about equal to 1-2 alcoholic beverages, which makes it easy to dose. Hubby and I loved it and bought a couple of cans on the spot. They are now available in dispensaries near us, and we still pick up a case every few months.

Fellow former conservative christian here, and I share that pain. I eventually came around thanks to a LOT of patience from friends who understood my background.

I try to pay it forward by putting myself out there and extending a hand to anyone looking to understand and accept others. I have had decent success with anyone who asks in good faith.

Birthday sibling! Happy birthday 🥳

Fair, but people have sensitivity and allergy to different things. Adding it to an existing list of potential deal breakers for those who would rather not risk their health is a case of cost/benefit: it costs nothing and benefits many.

…You are aware of how both allergies and air quality works, right? Also, most shows even in art houses don’t include scent effects of any kind, hence the warning. If it were common, the warning would likely be unnecessary.

But lovely of you to claim I am the oversensitive one, as apparently adding a single word to an already existing warning, one that could literally save someone’s life by preventing a physical ailment, is too much for you to handle reading!

Having a warning for that is incredibly important, mostly in cases where people may be allergic or have sensitivity to certain smells. Incense is not something you would expect at a theater performance, so if I went to a showing without that warning, I wouldn’t know to take my allergy meds and may have walked out of there with a migraine or needing my inhaler, depending on what kind of incense they used.

Full article is as follows:

Toronto police sergeant gets eight-month demotion for her role in violent ‘mistaken identity’ arrest of U of T student

Officers were looking for a different Black man — wanted in a domestic incident — when Sgt. Rachel Saliba spotted Hasani O’Gilvie on his way to class. The “mistaken identity” arrest ended with O’Gilvie being Tasered and the subject of a knee-to-neck restraint.

Sgt. Rachel Saliba, one of two Toronto police officers who pleaded guilty to misconduct charges in the “mistaken identity” arrest and Tasering of Hasani O’Gilvie, a Black university student, was penalized with an eight-month demotion on Monday.

Saliba pleaded guilty earlier this year to an unlawful exercise of authority in making an unnecessary arrest that she initiated — even though O’Gilvie had identified himself — triggering a violent take down of an innocent man.

The fact that you also posted this to Lemmyshitpost is telling.

One of my favorite songs from Jim Croce, Rapid Roy the Stock Car Boy, has a whole verse on this!

Rapid Roy, that stock car boy, He’s the best driver in the land He says that he learned to race a stock car By runnin’ shine outta Alabam’ Oh the demolition derby and the figure 8 Is easy money in the bank Compared to runnin’ from the man In Oklahoma City With a 500 gallon tank

Not necessarily. I have had plenty of very good chocolate that uses cocoa butter and/or plant milks like oat milk in place of dairy. Or they could make their dark chocolate orange without milk with little to no difference in taste and texture.

If they had any sense, they would release a chocolate orange that doesn’t have milk ingredients. Too many people can’t have milk due to intolerance and allergies nowadays, and I miss being able to enjoy chocolate oranges around Christmas.

When I was about 12 and searching the local paper to learn local rent costs. I was looking with the plan that I would move out at 16 and take my sister with me so we could escape the abuse we were suffering from our mom.

As a short dude (5’ 0"), you give short dudes a bad name.

You assume you know everything about everyone, you treat people like walking stereotypes instead of treating them like actual individuals, and you refuse to even consider that people are avoiding you for your personality instead of your height. All the while, you are blaming women for a problem that, even if it did exist as much as you insist, would largely be perpetuated by the men who run the clubs, not the women who can get in for free and usually just want to be left alone so they can dance with their friends.

Are there a lot of areas where we face actual discrimination because we fall outside standard height considerations? Sure, I can think of several. None of them have to do with whether I get into a club. And you don’t make your case by using discriminatory language and being a misogynistic ass.

I can guarantee you that your attitude is hindering your social life far more than your height. There are plenty of women who love short men, but so many of them end up needing to constantly worry about their man’s ego that they don’t think it is worth it.

In other words: men like you, no matter the height, are the reason women choose the bear. Grow up, solve your own insecurities, and stop assuming that you know what is going through people’s minds every minute of the day.