therapist, through gritted teeth: and once again, that's the end of your time. please put that 20 dollar bill away. i already told you you can't extend the meter. it doesn't work like parking.

me: i PROMISE i'm almost at the part where i intend to harm myself or others

people keep reposting my comics without credit or permission so heres a dump of my comics frome my twitter @/cuptoast

You're like, holy shit, what the fuck, and the murderer is like "Hey man. I'm just trying to afford college. Have you seen tuition rates? And like. I didn't know I'd be in charge of murdering your family. Honestly I thought I'd be like, maybe doing some kind of deskwork to help in the larger project of murdering your family, I didn't think I'd be holding the gun! I don't wanna be doing this either, man"

And then the driver who delivered that person to your house specifically for the mission to kill your family is like "Yeah dude, take it easy. We're ALL victims of capitalism here. You think he KNEW he'd be killing your family? You think I knew I'd be driving him to your house to kill your family? We were exploited. They said by doing this we'd be able to avoid student debt. Don't be angry with us, be angry with the system."

And then the guy who killed your family starts weeping and freaking out because like, holy shit, how is he supposed to live with himself? And he goes "Ugh it's gonna be so hard to get through college with all this trauma. This isn't easy you know" and the driver is like "There there. We didn't even want to do this. We were trying to get the people in the neighboring house anyway"

these kind of incidents are a pretty small fraction of the violence we face but it's fucking wild to hear this acknowledged by a county prosecutor.

The official response has been for the city to clear these camps in the name of "reducing gun violence." The camps existing is generating "gun violence", so these people who already have so little need to have all their shit destroyed in the name of public safety. They will not provide special services to help these people, they will not even have a cop car watch a camp. We are justifying anti-homeless measures by invoking the moral panic of "gun violence." Of which these people are victims.

This most recent episode is also interesting because it surrounds a land owner who has been trying to protect this camp. The city has been trying to force him to clear it for some time now and he's refused. So now, in the name of "stopping gun violence" and "public safety" they're terrorizing these poor people. After something so horrific. And they're suing the fucking land owner to get back the money they spent on the operation to clear the camp.

That's why a children's book that says "Be yourself! Everyone is different! You don't have to fit in!" is "pedophilia," but Trump raping a 13 year old girl isn't -- it was done to her against her will, so it didn't facilitate her dangerous autonomy. That's fine. Like child marriage -- it's perfectly fine, because the parents force it on the children. Parental authority is preserved.

A point my partner has made is that discussions of historical or cross/cultural variations in "age of majority" really underestimate the depth of patriarchy. "At what age is a girl considered a woman?" presupposes that a woman can ever meaningfully be considered an adult, which, in many forms of patriarchy, she really can't.

In the broadly liberal tradition, "children" are, broadly, defined as a class of people denied bodily autonomy and civic rights, but spared from the responsibilities of hard labor and harsh punishment; while "adults" are defined as a class granted bodily autonomy and civic rights, but subject to hard labor and harsh punishment. Which is why ageists (and ableists who infantilize disabled people throughout the lifespan, sexists who infantilize women throughout the lifespan, etc) think they have a real gotcha with "Well if you think young people (disabled people, women, etc) should have bodily autonomy and civic rights, then they have to have jobs! And go to prison! Or else you're Having It Both Ways!"

sonic would've laughed with me. maybe i should call him...