Maimy

freewill also has healthcare directives! if you have ever been concerned about your partner(s) being unable to visit you in the hospital or make medical decisions for you if you are unable to make or communicate your own wishes - especially if you are unmarried/poly - you should have a healthcare directive. they are extremely easy to put together and you can designate multiple people as agents; freewill's tool also lets you designate people you do NOT want making decisions for you (for instance, your very Catholic parents.) if you're outside the US you can search "advanced healthcare directive (country)" and usually find a toolkit; often end of life advocacy-type organizations will have them.

I'm talkin white people selling rattles and dream catchers, white people banging First Nations style drums, white people teaching talking stick workshops, that kinda shit

So what do you do when you see this crap? How do you show your disapproval in a way that makes them give a shit?

I'll tell you what I do. The point is to show them that appropriating Indigenous cultures will lose them customers.

When I see fakey Native art I say something like "Oh wow, you make dreamcatchers! What nation are you from?" (Use tribe in the states)

I used to ask point blank if they were Native, but I'd nearly always get some Cherokee great grandmother bullshit, or even "I'm not sure, I could have some Native in me!"

Most of the time they don't know what I'm talking about, because they're not Native and don't know that this is a very normal thing to ask when meeting another Native.

When they ask me what I mean I say "I mean your tribe, which First Nation are you from?"

This is the point where they sheepishly mumble that they are not First Nations.

I let my face fall and say something like "Oh. That's disappointing" or "Wow. Unfortunate."

I let it get awkward. And then I leave, shaking my head in disapproval.

You may feel like you need to educate them on cultural appropriation but here's the thing: it's 2025. They know. Brenda the middle class reiki shaman is FULLY aware that her smudge fans are stolen culture. She doesn't care. The only way to make them care is to hit them where it hurts: the wallet.

Make them think that you would have purchased what they are selling if it was AUTHENTIC.

If you wanna go the extra mile send an email to the organizers, in your best white people voice, and tell them that you are disappointed that they are facilitating culture theft.

2) Her work is all really awesome! And she’s got a ton of short stories available for free online. Some of my favorites:

“Bluebeard’s Wife” -- what would happen if a woman Bluebeard married just didn’t look in the room?

“The Dryad’s Shoe” -- an aroace Cinderella who has zero interest in the ball or the prince but does love gardening

“Jackalope Wives” -- takes the skinshifting conceit of selkies and applies it to jackalopes (folkloric horned rabbits) in the American Southwest. Also stars the absolutely iconic Grandma Harken, whose left to clean up the mess when her grandson tries to catch himself a jackalope wife. This one won a bunch of awards and there’s an audio version read by LeVar Burton.

“Sun Moon Dust” -- a young farmer inherits a sword bound to the souls of three warriors, all ready to teach him to be a hero... but he has no desire to be anything but a farmer. A very sweet M/M story!

“The Seventh Bride” which I love

you tricksy woman!!!

Japanese Knotweed is highly invasive and can overtake native ecosystems so fast. It's a lot like kudzu in that way. Y'know, "the vine that ate the South"???

Knotweed often gets burned (with permits to do so, because you really need to know what you're doing to stop it spreading because it can propagate again from very little if it's moved off site as mentioned) but the rhizomes can survive burning because they grow to 3m~ deep and fully removing these is a nightmare in general. A lot of the time it gets buried which also needs a specialist involved so it can be buried properly and STAY buried for 50+ years so we can comfortably know it WILL die and won't breach containment. There's a bunch of crazy specific criteria required to meet for burial, it's not just digging a hole and throwing it in and it's a niche specialist task to properly manage for a reason

This was literally the 8th result:

this was the 13th result:

you only have to scroll to page 3 to get this:

this justin chatter guy has uploaded tons of unabashed holocaust denial and neonazi propaganda.

i should not have to say this but this is obviously dangerous and hateful content that could lead to radicalization.

Compare this to rateyourmusic, a website I have been using regularly for years. They are also very anti-censorship and include Nazi material on the site as it is meant to be an encyclopedia of all the music of all time. However, they put warnings on any page that contains Nazi material with a disclaimer that the site does not support that content and that it’s simply there for their mission of cataloging music. RYM also is made up of user input. If a user uploads something that isn’t tagged properly as containing Nazi material, their upload will be rejected. Other users vote on whether a submission is adequate.

Here's what RYM puts as a warning on their site: