Guten Tag!

After a long and heavy silent pause, I leveled what could only have been a very angry look at him and loudly asked “What kind of a husband films his wife sobbing without consoling her?”

He tried to back it up, chuckled to himself, and put the phone away. She attempted to relay the joke by pointing one back at him as if it were in good humor.

My grandmother smiled and immediately told the story of how I became part of the family again including exactly how happy she was that I was there.

I can’t agree more with OP. We have to remember that in the age of digital records, it takes a cold heart to film people when they are vulnerable.

Bugger (American: fuck/fucker)

Flat (American: apartment, “my place”)

Bloke (American: guy, asshole, dude)

Queue (American: line, checkout line)

Cuppa (American: cup of tea, hot tea)

Shite (American: bullshit, shit, crap)

Bin (maybe sommme Americans use it? But mostly trashcan, garbage)

Lift (American: elevator)

What this is flagging is that the words you are using—in dialogue or narration from an American POV—don’t fit what we use here. and if that’s something that concerns you, or if you want your readers not to get hung up on (to steal an example from the comments) “Why is Midwesterner Dean Winchester talking about a torch??”, these are the words we actually use.

"After they overheard that ICE was at the courthouse to arrest someone, they improperly accessed court databases to determine who was not born in the United States," a DOJ detention filing says. "They then snuck every suspected illegal alien who was at the courthouse out a back door, where ICE, who was waiting in the parking lot for their target to leave the building, could not see them."

forgot about mr. beard but yeah that made so upset on his behalf!!!!!

no this too. i do feel there's this. expectation. that all nonbinary people will be rather apathetic about their genders, that the "good" nonbinary people (who isn't "crazy" and "dramatic" and "trying so hard to be woke") don't really care about what pronouns or nouns you use, will be binarize themselves in whatever way is easiest for the binary people & system around them, will be largely unobtrusive about their gender unless it can be a funny joke for binary people (even "inclusive" ones).

Guys guys guys guys guys guys

Aaaaaaaaaa

I am feeling so fucking emotional about the fact that not only did this guy read a huge chunk of my essay, but he spent so much time backing up what I said with video clips and photos.

I cut down the video so that Tumblr would actually post it — it's almost 25m long — but please go watch the whole thing and let him know I sent you. It's a REALLY good video.

So here's the thing.

There's someone else on this thread who was banned from TikTok in 2025 for posting screenshots of that essay, specifically for the slurs. In addition, this gentleman is cishet. With both of those things in mind, and noting that he posted uncensored screenshots, I don't mind at all that he didn't read out the slurs.

To pick the most obvious comparison, if I were reading out an essay or poem with words in it that I simply should not ever speak, I wouldn't read them out loud. In the case of the obvious one that jumps to mind, I have in the past just either said "N," and then made a sideways gesture with my hand, as if physically indicating "n-----", or said "ends with a," and "hard r," in situations where I needed to differentiate between the two words because both were used in the piece.

Every choice like that is going to require the speaker to ask themself, "is it better for me to leave this piece alone, and not read it out at all, or to talk around this word as respectfully as I can?" That's contextual, and people can and will disagree in good faith about who can and should in good faith read aloud different pieces containing words they should not or do not feel comfortable saying.

Personally, I'm absolutely delighted that my essay was quoted in his essay. I feel like he engaged with my writing honestly, sincerely, and earnestly; he clearly spent hours backing up my words with historical images; and he contextualized my essay in a way that has me breathing some pretty rareified air and keeping some dizzying company.

I dont care if 9/10 of the people who use the wheelchair ramp arent actually in wheelchairs. As long as the 1 person who needs it has access to it.

I dont care if 9/10 people who use the automatic push button on the library door can actually push the door open themselves. As long as the 1 person who the door is too heavy for gets to use it.

I dont care if 9/10 people who buy the can tab opener, or the little guitar clamp that holds the chords for you, or the hand grip that helps you hold chop sticks, don't need any of it and just get it to "be lazy". As long as the one disabled person who needs it gets access to it.

I do not care. Oh my GOD I do not care. As long as there's a disabled person on this planet who the accessibility device will benefit, the accessibility device is necessary.

We have got to stop using it to imply "malingering".

And yeah, the curb cut effect is great.