Diary of an ADD kid.

"And remember kids, it was Trump who started all of this. And if he comes back on the 19 of January, saying that he is making sure that tiktok is not getting banned, coming from a German, this is exactly what a certain painter from 1933 did back then to get the sympathy of the masses.

"I beg you, I beg YOU, to not sympathize with him. This is all a plan, this is all, the only thing that they didn't consider was all of you marching over to Rednote. It TikTok stays because of Trump, this app will be run over by Republican propaganda. Fascist propaganda, the same as it happened back in 1933 in Germany. Our version was burning books, their version is deleting every information that is not serving their worldview.

"Please don't let history repeat itself.

[Image ID] Tweet from me It's been about 25 years since #Xena gave Gabrielle that speech about the pebble being thrown into the pond and I just used most of it explain my views on how trauma can change us forever to my therapist.

The things that stick with you.

[/end of description]

Xena: See how calm the surface of the water is. That was me once. And then [throws the rock in] the water ripples and churns. That's what I became.

Gabrielle: But if we sit here long enough it will go back to being still again. You'll go back to being calm.

Xena: But the stone's still under there. It's now a part of the lake. It might look as it did before but it's forever changed.

I mean that's not what happened like right after that conversation but a queer nerd can still dream, right?

Also, I, "an old" didn't realize this happened 27 years ago not 25. Because apparently I still think it's 2020.

Passover: They enslaved us, God freed us. Remember this via a big ceremony/feast and then don’t eat bread for a week. This is a big one; you’re going to have to clean your house and host all your relatives.

Tu B'Shevat: It’s Earth Day, let’s eat some fruit.

Simchas Torah: We read the entire Torah every year, and we got to the end! Let’s have a dance party and then start all over again!

Tisha B'Av: They destroyed our temples. That sucked.

Rosh HaShanah: Happy New Year! It’s time to ask (and grant) forgiveness for the wrongs done in the past year, pledge to do better, and wish for a sweet new year. And go to synagogue for HOURS.

Yom Kippur: Rosh HaShanah’s somber counterpart. God decides on this day your fate for the next year. Repent your sins, hope for forgiveness, and fast. (And go to synagogue for HOURS.)

Yom HaShoah: Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Sukkot: Harvest festival! Sleep in a hut under the stars.

Shemini Atzeret: Man, I don’t even know?

Shavuot: God gave us the Torah! That was pretty nice of him.

because if a stressor is predictable and you feel a sense of control over it, you habituate and stop reacting to it,

but if it’s random and unpredictable you have the opposite response and become sensitized, so your reaction actually gets more and more extreme.

(if you hear a loud noise at predictable intervals you’ll soon stop noticing or reacting, but if you hear it at random intervals you’ll become sensitive to it and anxious.)

so one way to help people who have adverse reactions to reminders of trauma is to give them control over how they’re reminded of the trauma,

because it helps the brain practice responding to stress in a safe way so you can habituate to the stress response.

which is why if someone tags something for a trigger and you still choose to look,

it’s actually an act of healthy resistance against your reaction to that trigger (because it teaches your brain to habituate),

but encountering something triggering in a random and unpredictable way actually increases your stress response and makes you more sensitive to the trigger.

so people who are against trigger warnings because “you have to learn to cope” are actually taking away your tools for learning to cope,

because encountering stressors in a way that further strips you of control over your trauma is never, ever helpful.

Christmas in Las Vegas, December 1979

Two Xmas trees on Plaza Hotel. Fremont Street closed for roadwork in Fall ‘79, and the city kept it closed for the rest of the year in an early trial period to turn this stretch into a pedestrian zone. When the road reopened on New Year’s Day, the traffic was one-way. 

@serialreblogger​ here you go:

The Squishing of the Squash!

What is happening is that Georgian dancers and ballet dancers are pretty similar when it comes to the effort they must use in order to show themselves as graceful on stage as possible, but while ballet dancers are using pointes to hold themselves on their toes during certain movements, female Georgian dancers wear shoes that have a bit of high heels and are, more or less, tiptoeing across the stage, with steps as small and quick as possible so the audience doesn’t have a chance to pay attention to the way their skirts spin everytime they take another step.

tl;dr The secret is that they are tiptoeing as fast as they can in the rythm of the music while keeping up the appearance that they are gliding across the floor.

So Hungary, as you may’ve heard, has put out some anti-LGBT legislation that would ban the depiction or promotion of homosexuality to people under 18. It’s not quite law yet but it’s just got to get through their president Viktor Orban who is, unfortunately, a shit.

Meanwhile, football, no the other kind of football- the one with the round ball, is currently having a big European tournament. Euro 2020. Yeah, they didn’t rename it. Doesn’t matter. Germany were due to play Hungary last night in Munich and they asked the governing body of the tournament for permission to light up the stadium in a rainbow. Like this:

But they said no. Specifically, they said no while dressed in a rainbow pfp and claiming that the rainbow isn’t a political symbol:

And Germany, bless them, looked at that and said, ooh bitch it’s on now.

Munich city hall got out the banners

Here are the fans going to the match

The German captain Manuel Neuer in his rainbow armband (which UEFA had previously made noises about disciplining him for, because they’re bastards all around)

A brief selection of the many stadiums across Germany that lit up in solidarity

And last but not least this absolute madlad who ran onto the pitch during Hungary’s anthem

(also, just as an aside: i think how germany as a country responded is fantastic but that any alignment of hungary passing this law and the team being knocked out is a little fucked up.  the team is not the government– some have even outright spoken out in support of queer rights– and the actions of the fucked up government are not representative of the hungarian people as a whole and it’s really important, i think, that those things not be conflated)

first, chronology:

euro 2020 started with the first matchday on june 11

hungary passed its repulsive anti-queer law on june 15

manuel neur, the captain of the german team, has been wearing a pride flag-patterned captain’s armband since germany’s opening match

uefa investigated neur wearing the armband to determine if it was political speech and determined that while the pride flag is a positive symbol for diversity, it is not itself a political statement and does not violate uefa’s requirements that athletes not make political statements

in response to the hungarian law being passed and germany’s upcoming game in munich against hungary, the mayor of munich put in a request to uefa to allow them to light allianz stadium in pride colors for the match

uefa declines the request on the basis of it being a political statement

there’s a key difference between neur’s armband– which was clearly decided upon prior to hungary passing this law– being a symbol of support for queer rights and munich wanting to light up their stadium like a pride flag in direct response to hungary passing this law.  the munich request was, in fact, a directly political one– one that i think is great, to be clear– because the point of it was to criticize a hungarian law when a shitload of hungarians would be watching and viktor orban and a collection of his cronies would have been in attendance.  neur wearing an armband during pride month is not a political gesture in response to something any of the opposing teams did.  uefa’s response, while not one i like, is reasonable and in line with their stance on political neutrality.  both decisions make sense within uefa’s existing policy framework.

the issue that’s getting glossed over in all of the discussions here– people are mad at uefa and shouting about hypocrisy and inconsistency in rulings between the neur one and the munich one, calling out fake allyship, etc etc– is that uefa considers itself a politically neutral organization.  and while there are arguments to be made that organizations like uefa and the ioc and whatnot should be politically neutral because bringing people together over a common interest who would normally never interact is good, the fact remains that the problem with this whole situation isn’t that uefa enforced its existing political neutrality, it’s that uefa is determined to maintain their stance as “politically neutral”.