#when you claim to be anti abortion?

[sybbi]

As someone who had a recent pregnancy scare, I want to wholeheartedly tell the people who stand in front of Planned Parenthoods that they are NOT, in fact, helping women, and that they ARE, in fact, in dire need of a constructive hobby.

#you wanna know who helped me? the pp staff who not only helped me find out i am NOT pregnant #(cue Maury style celebration) #but also helped me sign up for a program that makes my birth control and things like paps free for a year #so i hopefully wont have another such scare! #bc im currently unemployed while trying to get a state license so i can start working #and ya know!! that great setup where health care is tied to employment really facilitates unwanted pregnancies!! #like once again how can you be against social programs and general reforms that would make more ppl probably choose parenthood #when you claim to be anti abortion? #anyway this has been a rant

[xxthefairywitchxx]

I'm gonna say this really slow for some people. Being proship is by default being anti harassment. This isn't "no true scottsman" it's literally on the tin. People can be for shipping problimatic things and still harass people, but those people are not proship because being proship means being anti harassment! If someone misuses a label that doesn't mean the label means something else. If I call a knife a spoon, that doesn't make the knife a spoon no matter how many times I say it. If someone says they're proship but they harass people, they are not proship, they just think they're an exception to having to be decent fucking people.

#proship #proship stuff #proship safe #antis dni #I just woke up and saw some stupid shit #if someone claims to be prochoice but shames people when they need an abortion #they aren't prochoice #same fucking logic #and yet Some Of You can't get that through your heads

[thebreakfastgenie]

It is extremely disturbing how many posts I see claiming that Roe v. Wade was overturned on Biden's watch and blaming him and the Democratic Party for it. It's disturbing on a number of levels.

First, it was Trump and Bush-appointed justices who handed down the Dobbs decision. This is a flagrant example of blaming Democrats for things Republicans did, and not coincidentally is one of the the most widely felt differences between the two parties. As a result, it's usually the first example Democrats and their allies point to; this misappropriation suggests a deliberate attempt to undercut that fact.

Secondly, and related to the first point, it obfuscates who the real enemy is, and I am comfortable using word "enemy" to describe the Republican Party because of the policies they advocate and enact. The truth is that states controlled by the Republican Party were where the effects of Dobbs are most severely felt, while states controlled by the Democratic Party are passing laws to protect abortion. It is important to know which party opposes abortion and which party supports it. If the Republicans gain control of the House, Senate, and White House, they will pass a national abortion ban, as they have done at the state level in several places.

Thirdly, blaming Biden for Dobbs demonstrates a very concerning lack of understanding of how the government functions. The judiciary is its own branch of government; judges are appointed by the president and confirmed by the senate. It doesn't matter who is president when a decision is handed down, it matters who was president when the justices were appointed. People sometimes react to this by moving the goalposts and claiming the real issue was a failure by Democrats to "codify" Roe v. Wade. I am not sure what "codify" means in this context, and I'm not sure they are either. One thing it does not mean is that congress can pass a law saying "abortion is legal forever." Republicans could easily repeal such a law and it the federal government cannot necessarily prevent states from restricting abortion at the state level. Roe v. Wade was a ruling stating that the constitution guaranteed a right to privacy, which included the right to have an abortion. This prevented abortion restrictions in a way federal law cannot. That doesn't mean passing federal law protecting abortion is a bad idea, but it isn't a foolproof protection. It's fair to argue that the Democratic Party and the left of center generally were complacent about abortion. The form of this complacency was not taking the courts seriously, while the right spent fifty years openly filling the courts with anti-abortion judges.

The last thing that worries me is that this is popping up phrased almost the exact same way all over the place. I am afraid that it is not merely incompetence, but intentional misinformation, that is then repeated by the incompetent who believe it.

I know some will probably dismiss this post as being from a "vote harder" liberal Biden supporter, but whatever your feelings about Biden, the Democratic Party, or the democratic process in the U.S., you should care about the truth. The truth is that Roe v. Wade was overturned by Republican-appointed judges and abortion bans are being enacted by Republican elected officials, and Joe Biden opposes these things. You can do with that information whatever you wish, but you denying it is dishonest.

#you can't build a leftist movement on dishonesty #i might have to mute this one too but i needed to say it

[lordgrimoire]

So, an Idea, or AU I had regarding the good ol DPxDC.

I’m not sure what sort of disaster Amity’s ghost problem would be classified as, but think of what would happen if the local EMS (Emergency Services like Fire Departments, Law Enforcement, Emergency Medical, etc.) pretty much started jumping over the Mayor from the get-go? What if hard proof of these hijinx, for a brief time, were able to get out of Amity?

Well the Governor would probably have someone take a look, and once nonsense is confirmed (especially of its weird nonsense that looks a little to close to supers) they send in the National Guard, at first to keep an eye on the situation.

Then comes the Ghost Investigation Ward, and things go from moderately worrying to “WTF” real quick. And things start looking less Small Town USA and more Stalins Town USSR, at the height of Stalins Purges.

Admittedly it’s not immediate, and during the time between being put on “Indefinite Alert” and actually being relived this unit (I’m thinking a Battalion Sized force so about 1,200 soldiers/guardsmen total) ends up befriending the locals, and much to the Mayor, and GIWs, frustration, Phantom, as well as Red Huntress.

This leads to a standoff, the GIW can really only do what they want because of the Governments permission for them to do so, but engaging National Guard, who had not been federalized, may cause an issue or two. So they bring up the issue with someone who they think will back them up, their new boss Lex Luthor.

Now Lex isn’t a fool, but he figures out how the Justice League isn’t being called is due to a jammer the GIW set up and figures he can take a look around incognito like, or more accurately get trusted members of The Goonion, who he had Federally given approval to, to go take a look around.

When Alex gets the full story, and not just the GIWs original story but also updated info from the Doctors Fenton, who are now VERY worried, because they were wrong about Ghosts in more ways than they originally thought they may have been. Suffice to say, when Lex manages to get a copy of "The History of The Infinite Realms" and finds that Krypton's Afterlife is GONE, as in they did something similar to what the GIW is planning, he starts hitting the "Abort" Button with fury. Only to be told "Too late we're underway, we're going through a tunnel, what? What?" And now Lex decides Enough is Enough. Lex does two things, first he sends the GO order for the National Guard Battalion in Amity Park, then he starts trying to get a hold of the Justice League because "Listen I know you dislike me but I am willing to drop it all if you HELP WITH THIS BS THAT I JUST INHERITED!" Meanwhile back in Amity Things go from 0 to 100 faster than an Flash, that being the National Guard heard "GO" and immediatly started blasting. The Townfolks: Confused The Ghosts: Confused Team Phantom: Confused and Afraid The Ghost Hunters who are now studying Ghost Culture and the like: Very Confused and sorta getting Arrested. The GIW: Full of Bullet Holes, Screaming, and On Fire Meanwhile, The National Guard are waiting around two hours later with Phantom for any "Federal" News to come through: So the New President decided the Anti-Ecto Acts are BS, unfortunately they haven't been overturned yet so we're all most likely going to be marked as traitors. Mind if we hide out somewhere our bosses can't find us? Also the Justice League never actually knew any of the BS we've been going through, GIW Had some Jammer set up.

Phantom, Tired of all the damage and killing the GIW has caused in Amity Park: I'll try, but I'm not sure how much good it will do if the League shows up.

TLDR: Amity Park during it's entire run has a Battalion of US National Guard camped out in the outskirts/abandoned parts of town and they figure out most of the situation regarding Phantom not being the Villain Mayor Masters and the GIW Claim him to be. Following this logic they turned around and at the first opportunity attacked the GIW and pushed them out of Amity Park.

#dp x dc #danny phantom #dc x dp #danny fenton #dpxdc #dcxdp #dc x dp prompt

[decolonize-the-left]

I've noticed a rise in radfems/TERFs in feminism tags and more specifically trying to rebrand as The Real Feminism or True Feminism since it's "for the girlies" or whatever.

I am begging you all to help me bury them.

Because as a teen who grew up during the peak of exclusionary "bi/pan/aces aren't vaild" and "kill all men" era where the concept of misandry THRIVED I'm telling you this feels extremely similar.

And radfem/terf ideology got mainstream from those sentiments being so popular and so easy to tap into. It was framed as being righteous since men were oppressors.

"Women are good and men are just mean oppressors! Look at everything they've done!" is such a common sentiment in those circles.

It also completely lacks critical feminist thought.

And we're STILL dealing with the affects of it over a decade later.

.....So let's talk about JKR since she's currently the Figurehead and favorite of the movement that's trying to rewrite feminist history.

It's 2023. It's a year before a US election where Project 2025 and Trump would happily create a road for trans and queer folks to be imprisoned if not worse.

Which is I'm sure why JKR has been photographed and interacting with multiple members from The Heritage Foundation, people whove spoken for them, and people who attended theyre meetings. She even enjoyed watching Magdalen, who who she credits for becoming a TERF.

But do you know who Magdalen is? Or what else she was saying? What about any of the other people in the photo? Do you know the scope of what JKR was internalizing and how bad it was? Do you know she has ties to conservative anti-abortion groups?

Do you know what The Heritage Foundation? Probably not and they're the worst so let me tell you why it's such a huge red flag for her and other so-called TERFs and radfems to be associated with them.

Because I can tell you right now she heard a lot of things from those people and there is no fucking way in hell that it was just about queer people or just some sex-specific concerns. And it wasn't just passive bigotry.

Anyone who doesn't conform to the idea of a white, straight nuclear family (re: single mothers, leftists, immigrants, gay couples, etc) is made out to be an enemy of the state.

Anyone they can justify as a "national threat." Yes, they call us all a national threat on their site, their book, and the pamphlets they pass out to politicians. The details are listed on their website including the Mandate For Leadership which is their instruction guide for the next president.

I'm not exaggerating when I say it calls for genocide, prison camps, and eugenic cleansing.

Several people in that photo don't even support abortion, a basic women's rights that JKR claims to care about deeply.

JKR was consuming white supremacist dogma under the guise of feminism.

And she's not willing to admit or correct it which is where the problem lies. She won't even admit to herself that she was fooled or that it's bad or hypocritical.

My concern is that she is not the only person who's fallen for it and there are more everyday.

So it's very important to me y'all learn how to filter out what Actual Feminism is in this age where literal fascism is attempting to take its place.

Firstly,

Real, actual feminism will be welcoming to EVERYONE

Because the patriarchy doesn't only affect women or cis people or white women and it's an insult to every previous feminist icon to say otherwise.

Feminists have been fighting for decades to unite people under the concept that Patriarchy is a system that will be brought down with allyship and solidarity.

They've been fighting so hard and so long to prove that everyone deserves the same rights as men.

That women are just as capable as men and shouldn't be stopped from entering fields of study and sports dominated by men. They've been fighting to prove that women are just as capable and smart as any man is, that men would benefit from it dismantling patriarchy too.

Women fought side by side with the queer community to get Roe v Wade passed in 1973. You know why? Because despite what radfems and TERFs will tell you trans women benefit from protecting and standing up for bodily autonomy.

Do not let bigots tear drive a wedge between two groups that experience gender based oppression and would benefit from the same exact rights.

We have changed history together and they're terrified we'll do it again.

A screenshot from the largest feminist organization active right now, The National Organization of Women.

Notice how the T is included. They even posted this video two years ago when LGBT and specifically trans rights started really coming under attack in 2022.

Trans women are women.

Trans men are men.

ALL women deserve rights.

Every gender deserves equality and fairness.

And feminism is for all of us or it is for none of us.

Because nobody deserves to be treated the way patriarchy treats us.

#feminism #feminist #equality #gender #trans rights are womens rights are human rights #trans rights #womens rights #human rights #intersectional feminism #solidarity #leftist

[cherryg]

The internet censorship is coming..(again)

There are two well known censorship bill known as KOSA and the EarnIt act.

These bills both promised that they will protect children but unfortunately these are misguided bills that says they’ll do something but then they will do the opposite or make things worse.

Both of these bills are serious threat to the LGBT community and will censor a lot of content especially there

the EarnItact will also get rid of NSFW content and deem it as illegal, and will also get rid of section 230

The KOSA act will let attorneys from Florida and Texas take control and decide what people could and could not watch and sue websites and anything they don’t like and will not protect children but mostly put many vulnerable teens and children at risk while going as far as to even censor important information like sex education, health issues, suicide prevention hotlines and many more

We have stopped these bills from passing before but the cofounder Richard Bluemenhal is clearly not giving up and trying hard and hard again to push these bills back on congress

Last year more than 90/100 human rights groups urged lawmakers and congress to not pass KOSA in the omnibus bill and it got shelved and the same then happened to Earn it last year on February/March

But now he is trying a third time,using and manipulating grieving parents and young people into supporting and lobbying his bills, whiles even accepting anti trans and LGBT groups into supporting his legislations. He’s trying to find any type of scandal a platform is currently facing and turn and twist it on behalf of his agendas.

He says he supports abortions and the LGBT community but his bills will censor those things he claims to support. He can’t have it both ways.

But he was stubborn enough to ignore every criticism and scrutiny he gets about the legislations, being childish and all.

Not to mention that they are also both privacy nightmares to everyone and globally too

That’s why it’s important that you call and email your representatives and lawmakers and urge them to drop Kosa and the earn it act

Let any human rights group you trust knows and tell anyone you trust about it weather it be a friend or family member.

For more information, click these links below ⬇️

You can also help us by joining our discord server on how to stop internet censorship

There also a petition made from Fightforfuture recently about the KOSA act

(Update # 2)

Hey guys I’m back to warn everyone about yet again another bad internet bill it’s called the safe tech act

This act is supported by 7 democratic senators including bluemenhal which is never a good sign with him when it comes to internet bills.

This is a misguided 230 reform and when reading it, all it shows is that these people have no understanding of 230 whatsoever.

It’s just another dangerous censorship bill that threatens everyone’s free speech. The creators claim that it’s won’t hurt free speech but it actually does and they do not understand how important 230 is in its current form right now!

Here is a good article explaining the safe tech act really well and why it’s dangerous :

Also talk to your representatives about this and why it’s bad and if you can, try to explain to them about why section 230 is important. Support digital advocacy, human rights and any other groups that supports free internet and expression and let them know about these legislators and their bad ideas!

Update 3

The EarnIt act is sadly coming back after failing two times, now they are trying a 3rd time.

This legislation is dangerous for privacy and free expression and speech. It will bring lots of surveillance and is just as bad as the restrict act.

https://act.eff.org/action/the-earn-it-act-is-back-seeking-to-scan-us-all

Now it’s being reintroduced by two senators and two representatives if you don’t know what this bill actually does there is more information about it here from these links : https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/04/earn-it-bill-back-again-seeking-scan-our-messages-and-photos

The second one is called KOSA (KidsOnlineSafteyAct),

now this bill has failed to pass last year because a lot of opposition from 90/100 human rights.

It claims it’s would protect kids but it’s actually has a lot of censorship and is very dangerous to lgbt/trans kids and many other kids that are in abusive households. It will actually hurt them instead of protecting them.

If that’s not bad enough it’s tragically gaining momentum and attraction by these child advocacy groups and being sponsored by Dove and Lizzo. And there has been petitions in supporting this unconstitutional bill, One of them having somewhere around 30k signs…

I really wish I could say I’m joking but this is sadly true.

If you want more info on KOSA here they are:

https://www.fightforthefuture.org/actions/censorship-wont-make-kids-safe/

Please everyone call your senators and representatives and tell them to oppose these bills. We really need help into fighting off these bill so we could keep a free opened internet!

#stop kosa #earn it act #im sorry #fuck censorship #net neutrality #lgbt rights #fight for your right #i’m so tired #trans rights #lgbtq #transgender #lgbt #safe tech act #section 230 #important #censorship #technology #politics #stop censorship #anti censorship #antifascism #government #congress #lgbtqia #activism #human rights

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Liz Skalka at HuffPost:

Former President Donald Trump hasn’t ruled out backing restrictions on contraception, and suggested Tuesday that limiting access to the morning-after pill should be left up to individual states. Still, the former president mostly dodged the issue when pressed by an anchor for Pittsburgh’s KDKA News, teasing the release of a “very comprehensive policy” in “a week or so” to address contraception, which includes various forms of birth control. “We’re looking at that, and I’m going to have a policy on that very shortly. I think it’s something you’ll find interesting,” Trump told the anchor.

When asked specifically about the morning-after pill — a type of emergency contraception, which does not cause abortion — Trump said the issue should be up to the states, echoing what he’s said previously about abortion access. “You know, things really do have a lot to do with the states, and some states are going to have different policy than others,” Trump said in a video of the interview shared with HuffPost. [...] Project 2025, the policy plan drafted by a group of conservative policy organizations aligned with Trump, suggests that he revive an 1873 anti-obscenity law that bans using the mail for anything “intended for producing abortion.” That law hasn’t been enforced for decades. [...] In a follow-up post on Truth Social on Tuesday, Trump said, in all capital letters, “I do not support a ban on birth control, and neither will the Republican party.“In a followup post on Truth Social on Tuesday, Trump said, in all capital letters, “I do not support a ban on birth control, and neither will the Republican party.”

In an interview today with KDKA's Jon Delano, Donald Trump stated that he won't rule out backing backing restrictions on contraception. Trump later backtracked on it, claiming that Republicans don't support contraception bans (even though there is ample evidence of Republicans giving support to such bans).

Trump is coming for birth control and contraception, so it's imperative to keep him out of the White House.

See Also:

Daily Kos: Trump threatens 'interesting' policy to let states restrict birth control

#Donald Trump #Jon Delano #KDKA #Contraception #2024 Presidential Election #2024 Elections #Abortion Medication #Morning After Pill #Birth Control #Abortion #Project 2025

[radicalgraff]

Another “crisis pregnancy center' was vandalized, this time in West Asheville.

Folks busted out the windows and the main entrance and left messages that said "If abortions aren't safe neither are you"and "No forced births” along the walls.

Centers like this one are a key part of anti-abortion disinformation and harassment networks. These disgusting and dangerous sites tell pregnant people that abortions cause breast cancer and severe mental health issues.

They pressure and traumatize people with their evangelical propaganda, fear monger with no valid or scientifically accurate claims, and most often times have little to no training- including when they attempt “abortion pill reversal” - the unscientific and unethical practice of injecting high-dose progesterone.

They also overwhelmingly lack medical professionals and any real resources in their centers, offering little more than a pregnancy test and psychological pressure and severe trauma.

#defend abortion access #jane's revenge #vandals #anarchy #anarchist #graff #graffiti #anarchism

[mariacallous]

It’s telling that both Dave Chappelle and Ricky Gervais decided to end 2023 by releasing specials in which their comedy pivots to poking fun at the disabled. Could they be more obvious about finding new ways to punch down than targeting people physically unable to fight back?

In a false promise near the opening of his brand-new special and seventh for Netflix, The Dreamer, Chappelle boasts: “Tonight, I’m doing all handicapped jokes,” because “well, they’re not as organized as the gays, and I love punching down.”

Similarly, Gervais decides to have a bit of fun at how we’ve decided as a society to say “disabled” instead of “handicapped” and what that says about us, and suggests further in his special Armageddon, released on Christmas Day, that he’d mock Make-A-Wish kids if given the chance to make videos for them.

And, of course, both men take yet more cracks at the trans community.

Early in The Dreamer, Chappelle tells the audience trans people make him feel like he has to go along with them pretending, as if they’re method acting like Jim Carrey as Andy Kaufman: “If you came here to this show tonight thinking that I’m gonna make fun of those people again, you’ve come to the wrong show,” only to keep going back on his word.

He says he hoped to “repair” his relationship with the LGTBQ+ community – by writing a play for them in which a black trans woman only identifies as the N-word to trip up liberals. He also jokes that if he went to jail in California, he’d identify as a woman so he could tell the other inmates to “suck my lady dick.”

But it’s all just jokes, right? Can’t we just take a joke? Have we lost our sense of humor? Or have they?

Earlier this month, we lost two pillars not just of the comedy community but of our American community writ, as Norman Lear and Tommy Smothers stood taller than most anyone and everyone else in television, standing up to the establishment and protesting the powers that be for the sake of civil rights and humanity.

Now we’re left with Chappelle and Gervais—two titans in terms of Netflix ratings and paychecks—who are fighting for… the right to utter slurs onstage and tell already marginalized people that their existence is a joke for reasons that are nearly impossible to divine. Especially when there’s so much in the world to talk about right now, that they’ve chosen anti-trans rights as their comedy cause célèbre is dispiriting. As Mae Martin said in their 2023 Netflix special, Sap: “Big multimillionaire comedians in their stand-up specials are, like, taking shots and punching down at a time when trans rights are so tenuous and slipping backwards.”

Lear and Smothers used their clout on TV to speak truth to power about America’s involvement in Vietnam and Southeast Asia, the hypocrisy of religion, racism, abortion, homosexuality and civil rights. While great trans comedians such as River Butcher and Jaye McBride resorted to releasing their stand-up specials straight to YouTube this year, which famous straight comedians can you recall sticking up for the rights of trans people in America?

It feels so frustrating to sit and watch comedians with the stature of Chappelle and Gervais devote so much of their time and energy to bullying the LGBTQ+ community when they could be doing anything else on stage. And then they have the temerity to question us, the audience, for not laughing with them.

For his part, Gervais willingly misdefines and misuses “woke” by suggesting, “if woke now means being a puritanical, authoritarian bully who gets people fired for an honest opinion or even a fact, then no, I’m not woke. Fuck that.” Is Nazism or transphobia an honest opinion that shouldn’t get you fired? He then claims in his closing bit that “all laughter’s good,” a concept that would be news to 2005-era Chappelle when he cut ties with Comedy Central precisely because he could hear racism in the laughs during a taping of Chappelle’s Show.

In his Grammy-nominated lecture to students at his alma mater, Duke Ellington School of the Arts, What’s In A Name?, Chappelle claimed: “The more you say I can’t say something, the more urgent it is for me to say it. It has nothing to do with what you’re saying I can’t say. It has everything to do with my right and my freedom of artistic expression.”

But that’s not comedy, either—much like Gervais’ admission in his special that as a university student, his idea of a joke was calling his mother and pranking her by saying he was hospitalized and potentially blind. Gervais said her mom could’ve had a heart attack, but in his mind, he remembers it now as “they could take a fucking joke, right?”

At least Sam Jay, in her 2023 HBO special Salute Me Or Shoot Me, wrestles with her conscience and moral compass over the use of certain words in her act and concludes that having empathy for others is key. “How do the rest of us get here? I don’t know… I’m not going to pretend that I have the answers,” Jay says, adding: “So we’re doing things like we’re policing words, but we’re not policing behavior.”

Anthony Jeselnik, who has built his comedy career on brandishing himself as an offensive caricature of a comedian, told fellow comedian and podcaster Theo Von earlier this year that too many stand-ups would rather get into trouble by saying the wrong thing instead of focusing on their job and saying funny things.

“People think — oh, as a comic your job is to get in trouble. But they don’t want to get yelled at. It’s like, it’s OK to make people mad, but they don’t want any push back. And I think that’s wrong,” Jeselnik said. “As a comedian, you want to make people laugh. This is a quote attributed to Andy Warhol that I love: ‘Art is getting away with it.’ You know, if you put out a special and everyone’s pissed, like, you didn’t get away with it. You know. You need to make everyone laugh that they’re like, ‘Yeah, he talked about some fucked up stuff, but we’re all happy.’ That’s art. Otherwise, you’re just a troll.”

Kliph Nesteroff, a comedy historian whose newest book is Outrageous: A History of Showbiz and the Culture Wars, similarly told me last month that some while comedians see themselves sometimes as “philosophers” he believes they are “betraying their job description because you’re supposed to make people laugh, and philosophers are supposed to philosophize.”

Comedians may claim they can’t joke about anything anymore, but they joke about more now than ever before. The real problem with stand-up today is that too many comedians would rather kick people when they’re down, then lecture us on how we’re too sensitive for not laughing about it.

When Chappelle, Gervais or their acolytes have to incessantly explain that their jokes are just jokes, then they cease to be great comedians—or even comedians at all.

[qqueenofhades]

Do you think part of what makes people feel like voting isn’t worth it because things don’t get better under democrats is because we can’t see what would have happened? Like I see a lot of people saying “well biden hasn’t made america much better so there’s no point” but it’s like they don’t understand that under a republican they would actively do everything they could to cause more harm. It’s like they don’t understand that 1. The president can’t do much, and 2. IT WOULD BE WORSE. like they don’t understand the possibilities. Idk people just frustrate me

I'm sorry, as I know you're just relaying what these people think and not claiming so yourself, but the whole "things don't get better under Biden/Democrats" line to which we are subjected so very, miserably often is a lie!!! It is demonstrably a lie! It is peddled by people who deliberately live in their echo-chamber leftist misinformation bubbles and either don't read the news, don't accept anything less than the Magical Socialist Revolution Now, and don't think partial or incremental progress (aka the only kind of progress that exists) is valid. "Biden hasn't single-handedly fixed everything wrong with America and the world after the most damaging presidency ever to exist and 250+ years of flaws, while other countries actually are their own actors with agency making complex choices, so we shouldn't vote for him" is a bullshit lie and I'm tired of it!!!

(Again. Sorry. This is not directed at you. This is just my frustration with this entire ridiculous situation speaking.)

We have had multiple elections now where people voted for Democrats, which resulted in abortion protections, protections for LGBTQ people, the biggest climate legislation ever to pass Congress/be signed into law (the Inflation Reduction Act), vast improvements in the job market, executive actions both large and small, improvements in labor and the economy, a general democratic system, a defense of the rule of law, a warning against fascism, and everything else that Trump trampled on in 4 years and will finish the job of doing if this godforsaken country is either right-wing-zealot or left-wing-zealot enough to put him back into office. (Like, people. Google is free. You're welcome to look up the improvements Biden has actually made, but that would harm your Narrative.) So much of this misinformation is also peddled by people who are proud that they don't have a clue how the American government works and/or deliberately lie about it: see all the claims that it was Biden's fault for not magically stopping a Trump-stacked SCOTUS, selected for the express purpose of overturning Roe, from overturning Roe. Because the president could just unilaterally overturn the Supreme Court with no problems at all if He Really Wanted To, I guess. Even if that is literally not the way it has ever functioned in history.

All the noxious Republicans in state legislatures passing anti-trans/anti-abortion/anti-voting laws ARE NOT SOMETHING BIDEN CAN STOP. If you're going to criticize him for not doing something, for God's sake at least make it for something he can do (like not calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, though I would argue he's already taking a more nuanced approach than the entirety of the American establishment during the War on Terror). And then vote for him when/if he follows it up, not just throw your hands in the air and scream about how you Can't Possibly Sully Yourself (especially when there is some very selective support going on here and a deliberate white-washing of how many orders of magnitude worse absolutely everything else in America and the world would be under Trump. So.)

I'm tired of it. I'm really, really tired of it. I've been trying to cut back on my politics posting because my mental health is bad right now and I often feel like a broken record screaming into the void. But. Yeah. Anyway. Whoof.

#plantsandothers #ask #politics for ts

[anonymous-witness777]

Hi. Noticed you reblogged my Frankenstein post with a pro-life tag.

Btw the creature also kills several people in the novel, one of which is a child. Also I love abortion and I think it should happen more often xx

Take my post off your blog, cunt.

Hi, when I reblogged your post and tagged it, I wasn't claiming that you or even Mary Shelley was pro-life -- only that that quote matches a pro-life worldview.

Pro-abortion people often claim that if a disabled or sick or impoverished child is born, they will have a life of suffering, so they should just be aborted anyway. As a disabled person myself, I disagree STRONGLY with that and find that quote a great response. Pro-life, to me, isn't just about being anti-abortion, but about supporting disability rights, elders' rights, anti-racism, anti-unjust war, helping the poor, etc. It's about uplifting any human bodies (yes, including unborn bodies, but not only them) that are subject to dehumanization and degradation.

The idea that suffering does not negate the value of life -- that's a pro-life idea.

#pro life #answered asks #anti gnosticism

[sigmatiqvevo]

The entire Bayonetta charade is fucking hilarious and heartbreaking at the same time, speaking as someone who never played the games and is looking at this thru the lense of "i worked in the gaming industry".

Here's a recap:

OG VA Helena Taylor posted on TWT that she was offered 4k for her to reprise her role as Bayonetta in B3. x

Taylor asked for us to boycott the game (first link) and send money we would've otherwise spent on B3 to charities instead. x

Support from the VA community and scrutiny both ensued

Local xenophobe and deplorable but yet ingenious and beloved Hideki Kamiya posts for the first time (in a long time) in English to call Taylor out for lying. x

His blocking tendencies and general cryptic messaging + the fact he isn't really viewed as the most friendly person on TWT have people siding with Taylor more than before. x/x/x

Hideki's account is suspended/gone from TWT for some time. x/x/x

Taylor is outed as a Blue Lives Matter supporter and TERF x/x

Replacement VA Jennifer Hale makes a statement regarding the situation but it is brief due to NDA x

Suspicions grow due to both Hale and Taylor being union VAs, and the game being union; something doesn't add up

Days after the videos and ridicule Bloomberg releases an article adding more details to the controversy

"Platinum Games sought to hire Taylor for at least five sessions, each paying $3,000 to $4,000 for four hours" contradicts Taylors own telling of voicing the entire of Bayonetta 3 for 4K.

Jennifer Hale is seen liking and retweeting some of the posts regarding the Bloomberg article

Jennifer Hale was allegedly outed as ableist and antivaxx via 5 years old tweets. x

Note about the last one; some people are claiming her apologies are enough, some are saying she's never directly apologized and only claimed she was misunderstood. Come to your own conclusion.

Will be updated when more stuff is known.

Updates 24Oct:

Platinum Games Official Statement.

H Taylor makes an announcement Twitter thread admitting that her initial offer was not 4k but instead 10k, mentioning it was then bumped to 15k.

In the announcement she also mentions that after declining and waiting 11 months in silence, they offered "a flat fee to voice some lines for 4,000 dollars."

"There were not “extensive negotiations.”" is in direct contradiction with P.Games's statement.

People keep asking where she's pulling the 450mil figure regarding the Bayonetta games. x/x/x

Personal Note, take with a grain of Basalt:

She claims "Any other lies, such as 4,000 for 5 sessions are total fabrications."; The 4k for 5 sessions, P.Games claims, was for her initial offer she refused. Seemingly, Taylor conflates and confused details from her own side.

Update 28thOct: It got worse.

Jessrine pointed out a very important note regarding the payment discourse/Bloomberg Article

The Bloomberg article stating "Taylor asked for a six-figure sum as well as residuals on the game" while she specified she never asked for $250.000.

New Twitt Thread from H Taylor claiming her post "hit a nerve with a lot of people." x

Down in the thread she lists charities to which you can donate

These tweets sum up the majority public reaction pretty damn well. x/x/x

Note: It's really funny how a UK Based VA is attempting to call to arm for donations to an anti-abortion/pro-life "Charity" across the pond all the way in the US of A. Because BB4Life is Kentucky Based.

#Bayonetta #Jennifer Hale #hellena taylor #Bayonetta 3 #drama #wolf talk #updated #discourse #bayonetta 3 drama

[wiisagi-maiingan]

I sincerely think that people's reluctance to even look at fascist communities for any extended period of time is a huge factor for why so many fascist dogwhistles go completely unchallenged in leftist and liberal communities online.

There's this idea that if you willingly and knowingly look at fascist rhetoric, then it's because you're interested in it and are being radicalized into it, but how can you fight against someone if you can't even recognize the imagery and language they use to recruit?

Yeah, look at lists of common dogwhistles and learn to recognize them, but also be aware that these communities are changing and evolving in ways many leftists are not prepared to acknowledge. There's also sub-communities that are even harder to recognize if you aren't already familiar with their rhetoric and their aesthetic.

Sure, you can safely identify hitlerfangirl1488 as a Nazi. You can see a sun wheel in someone's icon and know that they're a white supremacist. You may even know that "Defend Europe" is a nationalist battle cry against immigration and Islam.

But do you notice when that aesthetic blog posting photos of pretty women features a lot of carefully cropped and hidden white supremacist symbols? Can you identify which beloved and popular memes have barely hidden fascist and trad meanings? Do you notice when cottagecore bloggers tag their posts as "blood and soil" and would you know what that even means? Do you know the difference between reclaiming images and jokes vs uncritically spreading fascist rhetoric? Can you recognize when prolifers hide their anti-abortion stances behind claims of valuing the lives of marginalized people? Do you know the antisemitic implications of pretty much anything connecting reptiles to Jewish people?

Get familiar with this shit. Knowing what fascists are saying is the only way to recognize when they're infiltrating our communities and recruiting people.

#nazi mention #antisemitism #white supremacy

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

You might assume that Dr. Anthony Fauci, after 54 years working at the National Institutes of Health and helping save countless lives, has retired so he can rest. However, Dr. Fauci doesn’t have time to retire.

Last month, Fauci joined Georgetown University School of Medicine’s Department of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases as a Distinguished Professor. He was also appointed to the university’s McCourt School of Public Policy.

“I’ve also been busy lecturing and writing my memoir, and since I’ve been out of the NIH for seven months, I’m not following the ins and outs of the government, but I am paying attention to what’s going on with PEPFAR,” he tells me.

PEPFAR is the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which was signed into law 20 years ago this summer by President George W. Bush. It serves as a conduit to providing HIV medications to individuals in impoverished nations who would otherwise lack access to these drugs.

When I spoke to Fauci a couple years ago on the 40th anniversary of the discovery of HIV, he cited the opportunity to be the architect of the program as one of his greatest achievements. "It is the largest commitment by any nation to address a single disease in history," he told me. "It's been an honor to help lead this. I really value my participation in this program that has already saved 15-18 million (in 2021) lives around the world."

“PEPFAR impact has been truly remarkable,” Fauci told me during our phone call Friday evening. "It is one of this country’s greatest global health policies in history. It’s been a resounding success, and has saved at least 25 million lives worldwide and it provides antiretroviral treatments for over 20 million people worldwide.”

However, groundless claims from anti-abortion activists have put the program in jeopardy. Conservative and anti-abortion groups sent a letter to Republicans in Congress who are responsible for PEPFAR’s reauthorization. The letter said that PEPFAR funds are “used by nongovernmental organizations that promote abortions and push a radical gender ideology abroad.” They provided no evidence to back their claim.

Also, the ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation released a report that said Congress needs to “reassess” PEPFAR. The report claimed, “The Biden Administration has misused the program as a well-funded vehicle to promote its domestic radical social agenda overseas, as it has done with other foreign aid programs.” This so-called report also did not provide any proof.

As a result, Republicans in Congress are threatening not to reauthorize the program.

“The idea that this program would be interrupted, despite its overwhelming success, is unfortunate,” Fauci said. “There’s a real danger to associate the program with cultural issues as opposed to scientific ones that clearly show PEPFAR is saving lives.”

“It seems paradoxical that abortion rights groups who fight for life want to interfere with a program that has saved millions of lives,” Fauci pointed out. “If the program doesn’t function, lives aren’t saved, millions of them.”

Instead of castigating the program, shouldn't these groups, as well as all Americans, be celebrating the 20th anniversary of this milestone? “What’s ironic is that it was signed into law by a conservative Republican President, and it is without question George W. Bush’s greatest achievement. It took years to put together, in a bipartisan way, and it is one of the world’s signature global health initiatives. The thought of it not being authorized is not only dangerous, but disastrous.”

#us politics #news #advocate #advocate.com #2023 #republicans #conservatives #us house of representatives #National Institutes of Health #Dr. Anthony Fauci #Georgetown University School of Medicine #PEPFAR #aids epidemic #hiv/aids #HIV medications #anti-abortion activists #heritage foundation #Biden Administration #president george w. bush #international aid

[shhoup]

I managed to convince an old classmate (with notoriously bad takes like being anti-abortion in a debate with dozens of pro-abortion women as a man) that you know what, maybe Isr*el is the bigger evil?

Basically, on my personal Insta I've been adding pro Palestinian posts to my stories to inform friends who may not know, including posts from Palestinian journalists. This guy responded to a story saying that boycotting isn't gonna work and that Khamas is just as bad as Isr*el and so he was neutral.

After like 2 seperate days, I ended up convincing him that Isr*el is the greater evil, mainly by showing him the sheer amount of evidence that there was against Isr*el and how unfounded anti Khamas claims are, like the 40 beheaded babies claim he kept spouting.

So you know, nothing's impossible, stand your ground when it comes to your opinions and debates if they're backed up by irrefutable evidence and fuck Isr*el <33

#not art #free gaza #palestine #free palestine #fuck israel #gaza #israel is a terrorist state #personal posts #:]

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Jessica Valenti at Abortion, Every Day:

After nearly two years of losing elections, Republicans think they have an answer to their abortion problem: If you can’t beat them, pretend to be them. With Americans furious over bans, support for abortion right skyrocketing, and the issue winning every ballot measure since Roe was overturned, conservatives’ new strategy is to propose ‘pro-choice’ amendments of their own. Disguised as initiatives to protect abortion rights, these measures would actually trick voters into codifying Republican bans. In Arizona, for example, Republicans are considering a ‘pro-choice’ amendment to distract from anger over the 1864 ban and to undercut a real abortion rights measure. A leaked strategy document shows that the amendment would claim to protect abortion up until 15 weeks, but be made toothless by restrictions enshrined alongside it. Republicans are even tossing around feminist-sounding names like the “Arizona Abortion Protection Act” and the “Arizona Abortion and Reproductive Care Act.” The goal is to make Arizonans believe they’re voting to protect abortion rights while directing them away from the measure that would actually do so.

Something similar is happening in Nebraska, where a coalition of anti-abortion groups proposed a measure they hope will distract from a genuine abortion rights amendment. After the pro-choice group Protect Our Rights launched a ballot initiative to protect abortion until ‘viability’, conservatives proposed a similar-sounding amendment, Protect Women and Children. This measure would supposedly allow abortion in the first trimester. But the Nebraska amendment wouldn’t actually make abortion more available. Just like the proposal the Arizona GOP is considering, it’s a massive deception. Nebraska already has 12-week ban; that means this ballot measure would codify a Republican ban into the state constitution, making it virtually repeal-proof. Still, to trick voters, anti-abortion politicians are calling the measure “a second, better choice.” (It is not a coincidence that this amendment has been endorsed by Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, Nebraska Right to Life, and the Nebraska Family Alliance.)

Republicans trying to fool voters by using pro-choice rhetoric isn’t new. When an anti-abortion amendment was on the ballot in Kansas in 2022, conservative groups sent voters misleading text messages telling them to “Vote YES to protect women’s health.” (A ‘yes’ vote would have removed abortion protections.) And when Virginia Republicans were pushing a 15-week ban, they insisted the law wasn’t a ‘ban’ at all, but an effort to “keep abortion legal” for the first weeks of pregnancy. In a moment when Americans overwhelmingly want abortion to be legal, Republicans are desperate to sound as reasonable, moderate, and even as ‘pro-choice’, as possible. Their extremist talking points haven’t worked; that’s why they’ve shifted from taking about ‘bans’ and abortion being ‘murder,’ to using words like ‘consensus’ and ‘compassion.’ Conservatives need voters to believe that they’re seeking some sort of middle ground. The truth? They will say anything to ban abortion and to keep it banned. They’d rather craft elaborate, deceptive ballot measures than lift wildly unpopular and unwanted restrictions. And they’d rather frame their policies as pro-choice than risk losing another vote.

The good news is that all of this means conservatives’ current tactics aren’t working. Their messaging is failing miserably, and every effort to stop ballot initiatives has reminded Americans that Republicans are passing these bans against our wishes. 

Jessica Valenti's latest Abortion, Every Day entry sounds the alarm about the GOP's deceptive use of ballot measures to trick people into voting into codifying abortion bans using pro-choice language.

#GOP Deception #GOP Hypocrisy #Abortion Bans #Abortion #2024 Elections #2024 Ballot Measures and Referendums