Trashpool's Dumpster Fire

“Today, we celebrate an important victory: Wendy and Diana are finally free. We extend our deepest gratitude to everyone who stood in solidarity, raised their voices, advocated, and supported Wendy and Diana throughout this journey. Your unwavering support made a difference,” SMUG said in a post on X.

note: NB/GQ here is serving as an umbrella term for all kinds of identities, including but not exclusively people who describe their gender as just "nonbinary" or "genderqueer." if you would say "yes i am a trans man/woman, and also [insert other gender here]" that would fall under the first option below.

A lot of talk about boymoding and how hard it is but trans men do the exact same thing the other way around and a lot of times specifically because they are forced into sex work

this behavior is nothing new. the global south and everything in it - the people, the culture, our heritage - is seen as nothing more than a decoration or commodity to colonizers. i don't even need to bring up the koh i noor or the entire british museum; these examples are recent and egregious enough on their own.

We analyzed LGBTQ people’s perspectives on police participation in LGBTQ Pride events using data from the Policing the Rainbow study, the first nationally representative survey examining LGBTQ people’s experiences with and perceptions of the police. Respondents were asked to indicate the extent to which they agreed or disagreed with the following statement: “Police should participate in LGBTQ Pride events to show their support.” [...] The Policing the Rainbow survey was fielded in August 2022 through NORC’s AmeriSpeak Panel. The survey used a stratified, multistage probability sample of households in the United States, was administered in both English and Spanish, and was designed to be representative of approximately 97% of U.S. households. A total of 1,598 respondents completed the survey, yielding a response rate of 27.1%. The sample was constructed to produce representative groups of LGBTQ and non-LGBTQ adults. While both LGBTQ and non-LGBTQ respondents shared perspectives on police participation at Pride events, this research brief focuses exclusively on the perspectives of LGBTQ respondents (n = 798).

from "LGBTQ Perspectives on Police Participation in Pride Events" by UCLA's Williams Institute

> that country

I'm scraped so thin I'm basically transparent.

I've been taking care of myself and other since I was 6 or 7.

There was no warning about this when I was getting myself up and ready for middle school. When I was getting my restricted license at 14 so I could drive myself to high school. When I was running the dance team by myself one summer because we were between sponsors but there were deadlines to be met and camp to arrange. When I was doing all of the scheduling and paperwork to get myself to college.

When I was working my ass off through school because I was one of the poorest kids there by far, so what everyone else paid for I had to obtain by grit and elbow grease.

When I was planning and executing my wedding, making my own flower arrangements, designing my own dresses, learning calligraphy to write my own announcements.

Or maybe there was warning, but how could I heed it? When there's no one else to take up the slack, breaks are a fantasy.

Nobody warned me that marrying someone with alexithymia meant my adulthood would be just as bad as my childhood. How could they, when that wasn't something anyone had ever heard of back then?

But it turns out when a person spends 5 decades caring for the emotions of those around them while nobody is caring for them in turn, there's a cost.

Shocking, right.

And now I'm staring down whatever remains of my life and it's bleak. Even typing all of this out is an exercise in futility. But it's that or just sit and think it.

Despite it all, I guess there's still the tiny, flickering hope deep inside that someone, somewhere gives a shit.

Or maybe it's another desperate attempt at being useful. That's much more on brand.

Regardless, there's nothing left of me. The well is dry. The bottom of the barrel has been scraped and then some.

As an example, for his 18th birthday, we had a virtual party. We were also requesting donations to help him go on a school band trip.

Not only did none of my friends donate, they didn't bother to show up to wish him happy birthday, either.

My own father couldn't be arsed to send his only grandchild congratulations on his high school graduation. The man didn't even acknowledge it was happening until I texted him during the ceremony.

I'm scraped so thin I'm basically transparent.

I've been taking care of myself and other since I was 6 or 7.

There was no warning about this when I was getting myself up and ready for middle school. When I was getting my restricted license at 14 so I could drive myself to high school. When I was running the dance team by myself one summer because we were between sponsors but there were deadlines to be met and camp to arrange. When I was doing all of the scheduling and paperwork to get myself to college.

When I was working my ass off through school because I was one of the poorest kids there by far, so what everyone else paid for I had to obtain by grit and elbow grease.

When I was planning and executing my wedding, making my own flower arrangements, designing my own dresses, learning calligraphy to write my own announcements.

Or maybe there was warning, but how could I heed it? When there's no one else to take up the slack, breaks are a fantasy.

Nobody warned me that marrying someone with alexithymia meant my adulthood would be just as bad as my childhood. How could they, when that wasn't something anyone had ever heard of back then?

But it turns out when a person spends 5 decades caring for the emotions of those around them while nobody is caring for them in turn, there's a cost.

Shocking, right.

And now I'm staring down whatever remains of my life and it's bleak. Even typing all of this out is an exercise in futility. But it's that or just sit and think it.

Despite it all, I guess there's still the tiny, flickering hope deep inside that someone, somewhere gives a shit.

Or maybe it's another desperate attempt at being useful. That's much more on brand.

Regardless, there's nothing left of me. The well is dry. The bottom of the barrel has been scraped and then some.

As an example, for his 18th birthday, we had a virtual party. We were also requesting donations to help him go on a school band trip.

Not only did none of my friends donate, they didn't bother to show up to wish him happy birthday, either.

My own father couldn't be arsed to send his only grandchild congratulations on his high school graduation. The man didn't even acknowledge it was happening until I texted him during the ceremony.

Epstein and Ehud Barak (former PM of Israel) were partners and worked closely with Mossad as well. That's not even a secret. Every news organization has reported on that fact for the last few years.

I do think this is one where we need to be a bit more careful about how this is being discussed. Gazillionaires laundering atrocity is not new nor a conspiracy but the way it gets discussed sometimes is.

98% of these conversations are based in reality, but sometimes there is a twist at the end that dramatically changes the implication.

It's also very similar to how people are realizing just how much is tied to Israel. How many partnerships there are. How many people are shaking hands. How many orgs are in symbiotic relationships over Israel. Then they conclude "oh Israel is controlling the US." Everything was true until the conclusion, which is how some "Epstein Class" conversations are happening.

Epstein Class aka "a simultaneously hyper-exclusive and far-reaching cesspool of corruption and atrocity that is managed by the connection of the wealthiest people on the planet backing one another"

vs

Epstein Class aka "...and the architects of this are Jews."

Personally, I do not like referring to it as the epstein class at all for this reason. I think there is too much misuse, especially as more far right goons follow Tucker Carlson in the schisms into more overt right-wing "anti-Israel" movements (and subsequently get adopted by big tent liberals and "leftists" going "wow even x got it right")

I think everything that falls under "epstein class" could be referred to with other terms that connect it back towards anti-capitalism, opposition to white supremacy, and genuine anti-zionism that keep it from steering towards "paid for by soros" levels of critique.

At worst its antisemitic conspiracy, at best I think it does what "alt-right" does and creates a vague notion of already well-defined action and ideology that allows for people to make horrid shit more palatable.