Bad Book Covers

I had to turn this off, but it's something that allows Windows and anyone using your device to generate text/images.

i'm in Ireland and the search for that bastards name is still blocked and hidden... the legnths the british go to defend and protect their instruments of colonialism and violence is beyond belief. no justice for the victims and yet every measure taken to protect David James Cleary and his fellow murderers.

This immediately put paid to any plans I had to sleep as I read the first two stories. ‘The Last American’ was a hell of a ride from first to last, and left me eager to finish the collection.

I made one comment, and it was this:

my worst relatives try to sneak meat or meat products into my food despite the fact that I'm a vegetarian

my ex's brother gave his mother an edible without her knowledge and when she got freaked out and paranoid they laughed, and people I've told that go "yeah that's shitty but it's just weed"

when I go to the doctor and ask them to describe what they are going to do before touching me they get frustrated

when I ask a friends of a friend who is a small influencer to keep me out of frame in videos they film for social media in public they look at me like I've pissed in their cereal

in most every society and economy, children have no rights to bodily autonomy. a child must be educated in their body and their rights to it to know that their body is being abused by a parent or family member. they must know how to speak about it to report it. they must TRUST someone to do so.

that person must then trust their report. then intervene. the family must believe the victim - and more importantly, they must care. they must care enough to remove the abuser and block contact with them.

this is difficult if they are financially or physically or otherwise reliant on the abuser

the abuse must not be normalised in the family. they must have resources to call on. education to engage with. there must be help available for them to ask for. everyone must care.

for all of the above, people have to be able to talk about it. express it. discuss it. and yes, make art about it.

all these pressure groups are always concerned with western family values, and "family values" say "protect the children", but the people who are meant to "protect" those children are typically the patriarchs and matriarchs who supposedly do so by having absolute power and control over those kids

when family matters above all, when the priority is always to "keep the family together", "protect the family unit", when protecting kids is thought of in the same breath as keeping them together with their parents or grandparents or other blood connections, what do you do when those people abuse?

and don't get me wrong, the reason that giving those kids over to the state is because the state will also allow those children to be abused. many foster parents are abusers, and children's homes and young offenders' wings and other institutes are rife with abusers. you're just not related to them.

no matter where kids go, they don't have rights. their words aren't respected. they're treated as talking points and possessions to be passed around at will - they have no agency, no autonomy, to the point that a child WANTING autonomy or agency is literally treated as a joke

god forbid any of us talk about that. the world would fucking crumble if we started talking about incest and incestuous abuse as a pillar of our society, constant and continuous, committed by parents and grandparents, siblings, loved ones, and not by some stranger danger creepy distant uncle