The Silent Jester

“I’m genuinely touched by the sudden influx of attention, but I want to humbly remind everyone that each protester you see in this video is now either in jail, in exile or in some form of hiding. Most can’t escape, and now that the decades-old Hong Kong democracy movement has been completely crushed, they’ll likely live the rest of their lives under Beijing’s authoritarian rule. The protesters knew it would probably end like this, but they did it anyways, hence the rallying cry of “攬炒”… “if we burn, you burn with us”.

Most of my friends now suffer from PTSD, depression or perpetual anxiety. Words and ideas that were once debated in public are now whispered in private - or not at all - out of fear that a neighbour or co-worker or family member overhears and decides to report you. I don’t think calling Hong Kong a police state is an exaggeration anymore, and it’s only the beginning.

Maybe it’s too late for Hong Kong, but you can still learn from what happened here. I hope you realise that you’re not alone, that your pain and yearning is shared by countless silent strangers, and that when enough people speak as one, you can move the needle of history. I’ve seen it happen.

Most of all, I hope you remember us.”

I cannot begin to describe the feelings I have seeing this post here. Grateful, but sadden.

The information here is correct, though the shut down of the Apple Daily, the pro-democary paper was already months ago.

One of our biggest concerns now is the National Security Law, which allows the government to basically arrest anyone and ban anything that speaks against them. Movies and documentaries about the protests have been banned in Hong Kong. (e.g. 少年'May You Stay Forever Young’ and 時代革命 ‘Revolution of our times’, which got the Best Documentary award in Taiwan’s 58th Golden Horse Awards. )

A lot of our protestors are jailed. Our pro-democratic socities have disassembled. Our democratic politicians are facing charges or have been jailed. Candidates for our upcoming election for the legislation council are all more or less pro-beijing, and even publishing a poll that shows people are choosing not to vote for anyone this year risks breaking the law.

The situation is pretty bleak, and a lot of us have plans to leave Hong Kong because of it. Especially teachers, who are either unwilling to teach students propaganda and only information about how great China is, or fear that they will say something anti-China and will be reported and have to go to jail.

People mostly avoid talking about politics now. Whereas once we all talked about it openly, you can feel that we are all censoring ourselves now. And even if they do, it is mostly behind closed doors or whispered between friends or using really watered down facing.

(and whereas once I would talk and post about all this in IG, which is popular among HKers, I do not dare to now. Tumblr still seems safe. Hardly anyone know about Tumblr in HK)

It has literally always been a lie.  These lies have killed millions of Americans over the years.  It has cost the US Trillions of dollars in lost efficiency and higher healthcare costs over the years.  It has helped drag down the life expectancy of the US, meaning, ultimately, that Americans have lost hundreds of millions of years from their lives.

you a bitch

“You and this perfect person, who you’ve never met before, to come out of nowhere, fit into your life perfectly, complete you, and make you whole for the first time in your life, like your mother did for me.”

And even though what he said sounds sweet and whatever, the way it manifested to my seven-year-old self is, “If you are not with someone, you are broken. If you are not with someone, you are incomplete. If you are not with someone, you are not whole.”

And that’s not just something that my dad made me feel, that’s something that we as a society for the last 40 years has made every single child feel. Every Disney prince has a princess, every princess has a prince, and every television show or movie always has a character in it that doesn’t want to be in a relationship. They’re happy with who they are. But guess what, by the end of the series? They were wrong! They were wrong for wanting to be alone, the fucking idiot!

It’s all to do with love. Everyone needs someone. And when you raise children in that world, where everything points towards love, when you’ve raised them for 18 fucking years, when you become an adult for the first time in your late teens and early 20’s, we’re so terrified.

We’re so trying to be an adult that some of us will take the wrong person, the wrong jigsaw, and force them into our jigsaws anyway. I’m going to force this fucking person into our lives because it’s much better to have something than nothing.

Then five years later, you’re stood looking at this jigsaw you don’t recognize, being like, “Ah! There’s a fucking cunt in the middle of this!” And in that moment, you have a very, very difficult question to ask yourself. Do I admit the last five years of my life have been a waste? Do I waste the rest of my life?

“As the fight for LGBTQ rights became more mainstream, corporations have latched onto Pride Month as a way of courting the LGBTQ community, an important source of customers and skilled employees.

But do these corporations really support the LGBTQ movement? Popular Information has identified nine rainbow flag-waving corporations that gave $1 million or more to anti-gay politicians in the last election cycle.

Deconstructing corporate pride

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the most prominent organization dedicated to LGBTQ rights, produces a “Corporate Equality Index.” In 2019, 572 companies earned a perfect score. HRC says these companies are the “Best Places to Work for LGBTQ Equality.”

Popular Information identified nine corporations that received a perfect score from HRC but donated $1 million or more in the last election cycle to politicians that received a zero on the HRC Congressional scorecard. The donations were all from corporate PACs to politicians or their leadership PACs.”

Read the full piece here

Reminder that Billie Joe Armstrong publicly came out as bisexual in 1995!

“I think I’ve always been bisexual. [...] It’s ingrained in our heads that it’s bad, when it’s not bad at all. It’s a very beautiful thing.”

1. Open your devices Alexa app

2. Go to settings

3. Select "Account Settings"

4. Select "Amazon Sidewalk"

(Dated May 2018 - it's ongoing and pertinent to current events)