Dead blog walking

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(also, btw, the book links are to the Storygraph, which includes content warnings for each one!)

smth funny and lighthearted about a security robot who’d rather watch TV then do its job? all systems red by martha wells (first novella in the The Murderbot Diaries series, 6 books, ongoing)

a complex, intricate political space opera following a warship AI who’s lost (almost) everything? ancillary justice by ann leckie (first in the Imperial Radch trilogy) (fun fact! bc of space linguistics reasons, all characters in this series are referred to with she/her pronouns, making gender a non-factor - it’s really cool!)

a dark story about travelling between parallel universes and a woman who is dead in almost every single one? the space between worlds by micaiah johnson (standalone) (SO good, i don’t get to recommend it often enough!!!)

a story about grief and letting go, and a unique take on alien invasion? the seep by chana porter (standalone novella)

hey, how abt some dystopian YA, for old times sake? specifically, one with sapphics and sick mechas? try gearbreakers by zoe hana mikuta (first in duology)

or, if you’d prefer something a bit less angsty, YA about a ragtag group of teens and a space heist? the disasters by m. k. england (standalone)

alternate history steampunk that blurs the line btwn science fiction and fantasy? the black god’s drums by p. djeli clark (standalone, novella)

a dark gone girl-esque thriller about clones? the echo wife by sarah gailey (standalone)

poetic sapphic romance and time travel? this is how you lose the time war by max gladstone and amal el-mohtar (standalone)

a hopeful utopian future and a human-robot friendship? a psalm for the wild-built by becky chambers (novella, first out of two) (this author’s got a whole bunch of hopepunk sci-fi novels in general, if that’s smth you’re looking for!)

africanfuturism, coming-of-age, and cool jellyfish aliens? binti by nnedi okorafor (novella, first in trilogy)

spicy lesbian cyborgs? and shall machines surrender my benjanun sriduangkaew (novella, first in the Machine Mandate series, 6 books)

cosmic horror with an autistic scientist, cyborg angels and AI gods? the outside by ada hoffmann (first in trilogy, 2 books are out)

also, if you’re a fan of Janelle Monáe, may i draw your attention to the fact that they’ve recently come out with a Dirty Computer short story collection, each story co-written with a diff writer?

this list is long enough, but have some more authors (who are not cis men) also worth checking out: rivers solomon, yoon ha lee, charlie jane anders, aliette de bodard, xiran jay zhao, mary robinette kowal, corinne duyvis

an important thing to know about Count Binface is that he was previously Lord Buckethead, pictured here with Theresa May in 2017.

Lord Buckethead previously ran against Margaret Thatcher in 1987 and against John Major in 1992. Lord Buckethead ran for the Gremloids party.

Officially all Lord Bucketheads are the same Lord Buckethead who went away for a while and returned; however, it has come to light that Lord Buckethead (1987, 1992) and Lord Buckethead (2017) were two different guys under the bucket.

Following the 2017 general election the original creator of Lord Buckethead (not either of the guys who had worn the costume) asserted his legal rights over the character and 2017 Lord Buckethead acquiesced. and so, Count Binface came into being.

In the 2019 general election Lord Buckethead and Count Binface both ran against Boris Johnson, Binface as an indepent and Buckethead having joined the Monster Raving Looney Party. (NB this Lord Buckethead was a third different guy, not 87/92 Buckethead)

Lord Buckethead won the race (ie, got marginally more votes than Count Binface) but has not stood in an election since whereas Count Binface has been very prolific, running in two mayoral elections, two by-elections, and one further general election in 2024:

He's SO BIG

There’s nothing really that the bronies do or did that are as shitty as the way your average sports fan treats referees.

Gamergate is gravely serious but it also looks pretty tame next to whatever the fuck is going on with the paparazzi.

In this case, accurately assessing their comfort levels might feel like underestimating themselves. But it's necessary to not overexert and avoid further burnout.

These facilities chew you up. They suck the life from you and grind your body to dust to extract every ounce of profit they can.

No, that doesn't mean it's your fault if you get sick because you didn't manage your stress well. For most of us, the stress was something we literally could not control.

People experiencing abuse are at high risk of developing chronic illnesses.

The stress of living in a racist society is considered to be part of the reason why racial minorities tend to be in poor health.

Living in poverty physically ages your body & increases your risk of illness.

It could even be a possible explanation for why trans, nonbinary & intersex people are disproportionately more likely to report being in poor health. It could also mean that being forced to stay in the closet as a queer, intersex or trans person might be even worse of us than previously believed.

Or also that when victims of abuse are not believed & forced to suppress their emotions, that's damaging both for their mental & physical health. Telling BIPOC to shut up about racism or women about sexism might be making them physically sick.

Chronic stress is a public health issue of massive proportions that can't really be solved on an individual level.

The thing is, taking a vacation & relaxing could genuinely do much more for your physical health than anything any biohacker is doing, and why worker's rights are a public health issue, and so is social justice in general. Because the stress from living in a sexist/racist/transphobic society, when you're personally affected by it, and the social pressures to shut up about it & suppress your very justified anger is toxic as fuck.

Acknowledging the role stress plays in health outcomes is the complete opposite of blaming people for their health issues, if you don't see stress as a personal failure.

Which it's absolutely not. Polluted water or air for example can also cause stress on the body. People generally don't choose to put themselves under chronic stress.

Stress management approaches can help on an individual level and if you can, you should definitely give it a try. But it doesn't fix the systemic issues that are causing the stress in the first place.

Some articles on the topic if books aren't your thing:

Stress & Autoimmune Disease: Navigating the Complex Relationship

Stress and Our Mental Health – What Is the Impact & How Can We Tackle It?

Stress effects on the body — Stress affects all systems of the body including the musculoskeletal, respiratory, cardiovascular, endocrine, gastrointestinal, nervous, and reproductive systems.

What's the connection between suppressing anger and autoimmune disease?

What Happens to Your Body When You Suppress Emotions

Being born to abusive parents is shit luck. Being born into a poor family is shit luck. Falling in love with someone who's abusive is shit luck. Being born a minority is shit luck. Having to work an extremely stressful and/or high risk of injury job to support your family is shit luck.

Disability can happen to anyone because poverty, abuse, trauma, injury etc. can happen to anyone. It doesn't have to be that way. A lot of it could be prevented. But the way things are right now?

Many of us started off stressed in the womb, because our parents were stressed, and things only got worse from there — and it was completely out of our control.

But what we all can do is question the toxic culture that's making us so sick and refuse to participate in it any more than we have to in order to survive.

let me take your white ass to funky town.

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