It's going to be alright.

It's the thousands of followers who react to your secretly taken videos of noble good deeds with encouragement. It's them feeling cheered up, day made, hearts filled with warmth by your brazen voyeurism.

It's scrolling past a Tumblr post of a reddit post of a Twitter screenshot of a father and daughter sharing an intimate, family moment, oblivious to the tweeter taking a photo of them.

It's minding your business at the grocery store, hearing a weird noise, and realizing some teens are filming a tiktok dance and either did not notice or did not care that you are in the shot.

It's walking home with a mask on because every single condo and floor apartment in your neighborhood has Ring and you don't know what that means for you yet.

It's thinking about talking to a PR person just in case your recurring nightmare of your mental breakdown in the parking lot suddenly going viral comes true, hoping against hope a professional knows the magic set of words that will mitigate the harassment, stop you from losing your job.

It's that reddit post of the Sikh woman who found her and her mustache on the frontpage, forced to turn public humiliation into a teaching moment. It's some jackass redditor posting a couples photo, ostensibly to mock that his fly was down yet 70% of the comments target his girlfriend's appearance. It's seeing a top reddit pic with a headline demonizing a person in it months after you saw this same pic taken down after mods discovered op was lying. It's a lot of reddit.

It's wondering how many times your face has been posted online and if it was in a positive context at least.

I am not uptight about privacy because I'm hiding something. I'm uptight about it because the people who dismiss my right to privacy are dangerous to you and me and our families, personally, all the time.

There is a story I cannot bear alone, and a heart I cannot let break in silence.

My friend Abdul Rahman… a young man I knew for his resilience, his kind heart, and his ability to endure hardship. But what he is going through today is beyond anyone's capacity to bear. He lost his mother after a battle with cancer and also lost his brother in the genocide in Gaza. Now, his nephew urgently needs surgery and requires 500 euros for the procedure, and his condition is deteriorating at an alarming rate. All he needs now is a chance… just one chance to save him, to get the necessary funds for the surgery, and to receive treatment before it's too late.

The costs of the surgery and treatment are beyond his means, and time is running out relentlessly.

Therefore, I am speaking to you… not as a published writer, but as a human being who sees a friend drowning and is trying with all his might to reach out and save his nephew who has lost his father.

Whoever can donate—even a little—is giving their nephew a life, giving their nephew a hope that was about to fade.

And if you can't donate, just share this post… it might reach the right heart at the right time.

this feels like something i shouldn't be pressed about, like i'm overreacting about a little joke, but i don't think i am! the states have been encouraging illiteracy and a lack of education for a while now. people are out here proudly admitting to that. they're never gonna see consequences for that-- who cares that they didn't technically pass high school, no child is left behind. just pass them on to the real word (a real world that favors the ignorant).

it just sucks to see the world grow bleaker. to watch the people around me jump gleefully into decay. seeing all the people who have "embraced the future" proudly admit to their follies. because decay is good. decay is the only way.

Denied water, blankets, and most of their clothing.

Forced to kneel for hours and kicked if they moved or spoke.

Moved from room to room periodically to deprive them of sleep.

Locked in a darkened container.

Serious injured in their eyes, ears, and rib-cages with tasers.

Beaten by multiple soldiers, breaking ribs, fracturing vertebrae.

Stripped, sexually harassed, and groped.

Sexually violated, anally raped, and forcibly penetrated with a handgun.

This is what Israel did to people who were only under their control from Tuesday to Friday, less than a week. This is what Israel did to people from Germany, Italy, Spain, France, and others of the global north. This is what they did to protesters showing solidarity on a global stage who have lawyers and news attention.

Imagine what they do to Palestinians every day.

Please help my friend Mahmoud to support his family in Gaza. His family's campaign is vetted by @90-ghost, shared by fairuzfan, and hosted by my wife @cannilyuncanny. She transfers donations directly to Mahmoud's sister Mahrah (@mahrahpalestine), who lives in Gaza with her elderly parents.

When a child cries, parents are supposed to comfort them, not punish them

Parents are, in fact, supposed to want to spend time with their children

Children too have a right to privacy, meaning parents are not allowed to read their diaries etc and then punish them for the thoughts they found about

Children are allowed to be upset and cry

Children don't have to earn the love and attention from their parents by performing various things

Children are not supposed to be scared of going home and/or their parents

Children are not supposed to be physically abused and even a little bit of hitting is actually physical abuse

Parents are not supposed to expect that children are mentally as mature as other adults

Children are not supposed to be told that they're an accident, a burden, or something the parents regret