Not Into It.

This isn't going to become some anomalous method of arresting people. They will be shocking people like this as a matter of course.

He didn't do it.

The cops very clearly planted evidence on him because they had to make an arrest because all eyes were on them and whoever actually did the deed was making them look stupid.

Why would the real killer hero have kept the weapon on his person and traveled two states over while carrying it and a manifesto in his bag, conveniently turning the crime into a federal matter? The same guy whose bag they found in a park, filled with monopoly money? Why did the police turn off their bodycams, take Luigi's stuff, drive a block away, turn their bodycams back on, go back into the restaurant, and then arrest him?

@modestilly I think it's a clear case of putting theory ahead of people's actual lived reality. If your theory says "masculinity is always rewarded", then it's an easy assumption to make. But it doesn't actually correspond to reality. Many, many women are barely allowed to have short hair without ridiculous backlash. The pressure on women (and all other people forcibly classed as women in our society) to avoid anything that even remotely makes them be perceived as masculine is EXTREMELY strong.

Extremely fucking stupid bc genuinely who cares. Walking sticks are literally for anyone. They help you when you walk around. Perfectly healthy and abled bodied people use them while hiking because they just work.

And what if it was just a fashion thing? It used to be trendy. It gives your outfit a different vibe. Experimenting with fashion is fun, there's literally zero things wrong with using a cane because you like the way it looks or how it makes you feel.

Every single person choosing to use a mobility aid in public normalises their use, and makes it less likely for me to get harassed out there. It just becomes a regular thing you see while out in public. And that's the exact thing ableist TERFs like Stock are actually against - Not even mentioning the absolutely obvious misogyny here.

@plasticfangtastic The potential physical harm of misusing mobility aids is WILDLY exaggerated to pressure people into not using them.

Hugh Laurie, as you said, never used it properly (or frankly in a way that would feel natural to most cane users imo), and he did so for many hours of filming over many years. There should have been a safety assesment, risk mitigation, a physical therapy consultant, etc. Because that was a professional environment and no one's job should injure them, ideally.

However in actual reality, most people who find mobility aids more damaging than helpful will simply stop using them way before any permanent damage is done.

Potential, hypothetical damage is not more important than the actual real damage many people are doing to their bodies right now, because they don't feel they can use a mobility aid without facing ridiculous scrutiny and judgement.

I actually did get injured because of mobility aid use. I was bedbound for several years, so when I got my rollator, I was desperate to go out to the park across our street and not be trapped at home, and I overdid it. I was out using it for too long, my posture and grip wasn't ideal, and I wasn't used to engaging those specific muscles - I ended up with costochondritis. Very scary because intense chest pain is terrifying when you don't know what's happening. It sucked, but I got through it, adjusted my rollator use slightly, and it is still an amazing mobility aid that greatly improves and enriches my life years later.

Avoiding that potential episode would not be worth it at all, if that meant not using it in the first place. I would be damaging my body in a different way every time I have to drag myself to a doctor's appointment, instead of supported and protected by my mobility aid, once the issues were sorted out.

For many disabled and chronically ill people, our reality is simply that we don't get to fully avoid negative consequences no matter what we do. A cane might put strain on your shoulder and make it hurt, but not using it would make your lower back hurt worse instead. For many of us, it's always choosing the best possibility out of a bad bunch.

Someone who doesn't need a mobility aid will simply stop using it eventually, because unless there's tangible benefits to your life, it is fucking annoying. Sometimes it's because there's another mobility aid which would fit the particular circumstances better, but if you have no issues not using one, you just won't. There are no perfectly physically healthy people fucking up their bodies through mobility aid usage. It's genuinely just a right wing boogieman.

We can reduce injuries due to mobility aid usage by making doctors and physical therapists both more accessible and more accepting of a patient's choice to use one. By destigmatising their use, promoting safety tips, and having information more widespread and freely available. Not by trying to make the stigma worse and making up this whole 'social contagion' bullshit, while doubling down on medical misogyny.

You can genuinely just read up on how to size a mobility aid correctly for your body, and you'll be fine. The people working at mobility aid stores can help you with it. Look up "how to properly use X" and read content written by other mobility aid users.

"Needy, unable to cope" (<- you try coping with chronic pain)

"Comfort seeking" (<- you mean.. having a preference for not being in pain.. how criminal)

"Using or trying to obtain drugs on a long-term, chronic base" (<- do you understand what 'chronic pain' means.)

"Asking for pain med then returning to sleep."

"States he’s level 10 pain, but does not appear to be in pain (or ‘5= on appearance)." (<- it is well-known that chronic pain patients tend not to display pain in the same way as acute pain patients)

"Dramatic response to pain" (<- notice how this directly contradicts the comment above. you cannot win)

"Gets IV med, then leaves unit to smoke or walk around" (<- wow requiring medication and then going off to do something you needed pain meds to be able to do is so suspicious)

Oh also! Both for pride and because I want to post more of my original stuff here, here's a zine I made for my recent screenprinting class! :p It's called Masculine Women and it's about being masculine and a woman! Fun fact, also, when you unfold the real thing, there's a big poster on the back! It looks like this:

we're looking to create an AI policy, and when we were talking about this, my boss (older millennial) was genuinely shocked to hear that younger people do not (seem) to view AI positively (a la the recent commencement speakers being booed)

please rb for larger sample size!

Question 1/3

Thank you for helping with this data collection. Please rb for as big a sample as possible!