gaslight gatekeep girlfailure

The medieval peasant I went back in time to give a bag of Doritos to, concerned: what terrible and powerful sorcerers they must have in your age, to be able to veil the vault of heaven itself from view, as you say

Me, sniffling: I didn’t realize, I can’t, it’s so much, I, I… are the chips good, at least?

Employers liked offering this structure because then they didn't have to like, try to guess how long the invasion of spain will take and then carry 800 coins per soldier around the battlefield where it could be captured. It also gives them the chance to budget around the assumption that they take an enemy city and *find* vast sums of treasure even if they don't have the full value at the beginning of the war.

The main flaw of this system is that it's very easy to end up in a scenario where if you have, say, 50,000 guys that have been fighting for 800 days, you now owe 40 million silver to your army, and if the budget has not worked out to a 40 million surplus, you literally can't afford to end the war, but you can probably afford to pay them for a couple more weeks. So then you have to start thinking creatively.

Not all of us know how or have the ability to sign! Even if someone can sign, this also requires someone else who can in order to be understood by others.

Just because someone has a hearing aid/implant/whatever aid, does not mean it is a perfect solution and that they will be able to hear you as well as a hearing person. Wearing an aid can also be extremely overstimulating for many people, so they may choose not to wear one, or not use it in certain situations.

Actually *ask* your loved one to hang out, even if it’s an open invitiation to something like a Discord call. I don’t like joining other people’s conversations without an explicit invitation since I probably won’t be able to follow a conversation, especially if there’s a lot of people.

In group hangouts, I find it beneficial if there is an activity the group is doing that doesn’t involve audio cues (card games, crafts, etc). That way if I can’t follow a conversation, I can still feel included.

Please make sure that movies/shows/whatever have closed captions or subtitles.

Make sure you have someone’s attention before speaking to them, especially if they are not facing you. Ask how they would like to be alerted to speech, common ways are tap on the shoulder, flickering lights. Do NOT just start shouting at someone or act like they are daydreaming.

Speaking louder is not always better. Please attempt to speak clearly and enunciate words properly.

Hangout spots that don’t have a lot of background noise (music, lots of people talking) are better. When possible, try to limit these things if you are just hanging out at home.

Please be understanding that some of us may speak “funny”, or have trouble properly articulating our thoughts. I much prefer to communicate via writing over speaking.

Some of us will need extra help when interacting with unfamiliar people. Strangers are more difficult to understand than people I am familiar with.

Double check to make sure that they are aware of important information that might have gotten missed or confused. Write down important dates, phone numbers, whatever.

Christians love doing stuff like this and making such a person the face of their religion then turn around and get mad when they're (correctly) seen as insufferable.

it was a 0 out of 25 points. that's not even a huge deal.

she only wrote 650 words.

the girl didn't do the actual assignment; she just wrote what she felt like and submitted it.

the class was a PSYCHOLOGY course yet her essay was about her religious beliefs and provided no citations or psychological basis. she simply insisted her argument was true because the bible supposedly says so.

her entire essay is a mindless rant about how strict gender roles must be upheld and trans people are "demonic"

her writing—and i cannot stress this enough—is on par with that of a child who doesn't want to do an assignment. it's so bad i genuinely thought i was reading a satire article.

the student is a fucking college JUNIOR writing like a 10-year-old. she is also a psychology MAJOR who thinks everything in the bible is literal and that her religion is the only source anyone needs. this is someone who intends to go into mental health care. she is dangerously bigoted and ignorant, and her professor saw this and was punished for grading accordingly.

here's a line from her essay:

"Women naturally want to do womanly things because God created us with those womanly desires in our hearts. The same goes for men. God created men in the image of His courage and strength, and He created women in the image of His beauty."

here's her teacher's reasoning for the grade:

“[I am] not deducting points because you have certain beliefs" but rather because the paper "does not answer the questions for this assignment, contradicts itself, heavily uses personal ideology over empirical evidence in a scientific class and is at times offensive."

the girl is a hate-filled bigot. she is a white christian girl who is now being championed by fox news and turning point usa while her professor sits on fucking forced leave. this is disgusting.

1. The teacher who has been suspended is transgender.

2. Multiple teachers in the faculty room marked the paper. Only the transgender teacher has been suspended.

3. The student in question broke this story through the incredibly transphobic organisation Turning Point USA.

4. The student's mother has been posting hideously transphobic things on right-wing social media.

Dear Representative [Name],

I am writing to express my strong opposition to H.R. 8250 (The "Parents Decide Act"). As your constituent and a concerned citizen, I believe this bill introduces unprecedented risks to digital privacy and security.

Specifically, I am alarmed by:

SEC. 2(a)(1)(B): Requiring age verification to even use an operating system creates a mandatory "hardware lockout" that ends anonymous computing and forces users to hand over sensitive identification data to major corporations just to power on their devices.

SEC. 2(a)(3): Mandating that OS providers create a system for all app developers to access verification data is a massive security vulnerability. This effectively creates a centralized API of user identities accessible to thousands of third-party developers, many of whom may lack adequate data protection.

This bill does not protect children; it creates a centralized surveillance infrastructure at the OS level. I urge you to protect the privacy of your constituents and vote NO on H.R. 8250.

Sincerely,

[Your Name]

Given that, in the wake of this mandatory identification policy, my country seems to be moving to hand over its citizens biometric data, like fingerprints, Face ID files, and identification documents, over to the USA and to ICE to maintain the visa free travel (ESTA) we have, I strongly urge any US resident to send these emails, or make calls.

But if you can’t do that, the most powerful thing you can do is spread the word. Tell your friends, family, coworkers, anyone who can help.

My reach will likely be small, and so I don’t know if this will mean very much in the grand scheme of things, but I cannot stand to see this tracking happen to another population as it did to mine.

And if you think it won’t affect you, it will. All anonymity goes out the window when your accounts can be linked via your personal ID

Instead of simply reminding them about the event, just ask them about a specific detail involved in it instead. If you know that The Thing is on next week's friday, and the last moment you need confirmation whether they're coming or not is this thursday, instead of texting

"Hey you remember we have the thing on next week's friday, right?"

you can text some specific question - regardless of whether the info itself is important to you or not - that clarifies when the event is, like

"Hey are you going to be driving to the thing next week's friday, or is someone giving you a ride? We'll need to plan parking beforehand."

Because in case they did remember the thing, they can just answer you for the question you asked. And if they didn't remember and go "OH SHIT IT'S NEXT WEEK I COMPLETELY FORGOT", you still gave them the reminder they needed just the same.