For Anyone Who Doesn't Know What's Going On In Canada Right Now (which, Let's Be Real, Is Probably Everyone

For anyone who doesn't know what's going on in Canada right now (which, let's be real, is probably everyone who's not in Canada):

This week, a mass grave was discovered at a former Indian Residential School, in Kamloops, BC. The grave contained the bodies of 215 Indigenous children.

For people outside of North America, residential schools were places that Indigenous children were sent to, to have their language and culture stripped away from them. They were literally stolen from their families, and scattered across Canada, to ensure that they would be surrounded by children who didn't speak their language. They were given Christian names and forced to speak English. They were horrendously abused, and the survivors have been traumatized.

Hundreds of children never returned. The assumption has always been that they died. This has now been confirmed.

The school in Kamloops closed in 1978. They are now trying to identify bodies to inform family members. The last residential school closed in the 1990s. There is growing demand to search all of them, but the government hasn't responded to that, as of yet. Ottawa JUST gave in to pressure to fly the Canada flag at half mast. They weren't even going to do that.

This is the reality if anti-Indigenous racism in Canada. The residential schools may be closed, but that hasn't stopped the abduction of Indigenous children, let alone the hundreds of missing and murdered Indigenous women.

A reminder to everyone posting about the violence in Jerusalem and across Israel and Palestine...

It is not helpful to post one-sided, nuance-free content. You are no less or no more woke when you include Islamophobic, antisemitic, racist, or downright horrific tropes in your posts that will not end the Occupation, will not end this brutal civil war, you will make no one feel any more or less safe, and will not make our world a better place. Nuanced compassion will help you, and help us.

If you want to begin to understand the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict as a non-Palestinian, as a non-Jew, as an non-Israeli, take a step back. Take a deep breath, and…

…imagine you are a Palestinian father living in an occupied refugee camp outside of Bethlehem who cannot get to his work without going through a security barrier..Imagine the humiliating feeling. Imagine you are an Israeli child living in Sderot, having to rush inside frequently due to frequent barrages of rockets aimed at your home. Imagine that you are a young Palestinian teen living in the United States, unable to return to your grandparent’s birthplace of Lydda due to their forced evacuation in 1948. Imagine you are an ultra orthodox Jewish woman living in a settlement in Gush Etzion, told that if you moved there you would live a more fruitful life - and constantly scared of her Palestinian neighbors. Imagine you are a little boy living in the Gaza Strip or in Ramalah, taught to be scared of Jews and Israelis, due to frequent visits from the IDF. Imagine that you are a young Yeshiva boy living in a settlement, scared to be kidnapped by Palestinians - a fear justified by the recent kidnapping and murder of three Jewish residents of the West Bank. Imagine that you are a Palestinian olive tree farmer, and discovering that your trees have been cut down by settlers. Imagine that you are a Jewish settler living in the West Bank who actively makes deep connections with her Palestinian neighbors, forging peace-building initiatives between Jews and Palestinian that you can only do as a resident of the West Bank. Imagine that you are her partner, a Christian Palestinian man who works hard with her to combat hatred and bigotry.

Imagine you’re a queer Arab Israeli living outside of Tel Aviv… an Israeli teen activist against the occupation… an American Jew who cries when their family in Israel is bombarded by rockets… a young Palestinian man in Greece who has made a life outside of Palestine … a young Christian child living in Jerusalem under a barrage of rockets… a Palestinian teen who is so fed up by years of Occupation that tries to stab an IDF solider at a gate outside of the Old City of Jerusalem…. a young Bedouin child heartbroken to grow up around violence and fear… a Palestinian educator with Israeli friends trying to teach their class tolerance… a rabbi living in Tel Aviv trying to teach their congregation tolerance…

The biggest problem with non-Palestinian (both in Palestine, and in the diaspora), non-Israeli, and non-Jewish discourse around the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict is that those not directly involved, fail to see this conflict from the perspective of those directly involved.

Do the work. And don’t hurt us along the way.

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yes-hey-buddy

4 years ago

hey fully vaxxed (american) people ur still gonna like. wear a mask right. on account of there’s no visual indicator that ur vaccinated. and on account of u wanna give service workers and nonvaxxed people peace of mind when ur interacting with them. and on account of vaccines aren’t 100 percent effective. and on account of so many antimaskers and antivaxxers are gonna lie and say they’re vaccinated so they can not wear one and then ur at an even higher risk. yknow. on account of vaccines aren’t 100 percent effective.

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yes-hey-buddy

4 years ago

This take is pissing me off so Im going to just rant about it to get it out of my system.

Elon Musk’s SNL bits weren’t unfunny because he’s autistic, they were unfunny because he’s an out of touch conservative billionaire with a cult of personality who panders to online nerd communities who are obsessed with 4chan, cryptocurrency, and saying slurs as often as possible. Every time this man says a single thing it’s incredibly clear he has no idea what life is like for the average person and has been spoonfed by others his entire life. He didn’t start tesla, he bought it. He’s more of a detriment to SpaceX than a positive. He’s rich because mommy and daddy being racists in apartheid South Africa. He owns a fucking diamond mine. He calls literal heroes pedophiles for daring to criticize his stupid plans thatd kill innocents. His companies violate almost every OSHA standard (and thats just the shit in the USA) and his space company rains dangerous shit all over American cities.

People don’t hate Elon Musk because he’s autistic. People hate Elon Musk because he’s a Captain Planet villain.

And, trying to level that disgust towards him as disgust towards autistic people is so extremely ableist. Elon Musk getting made fun of for being terrible at comedy and being an unrelatable billionaire is not the same as autistic people getting made fun of for not being able to communicate ideas.

Fuck all the way off.

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yes-hey-buddy

3 years ago

When are we ever gonna be able to really talk about Fiona. She's literally part of one of the most popular and iconic film series, but somehow one of the most underrated animated female leads (if not THE most). Shrek did not let Fiona divert Disney-esque tropes of princesses for her to be forgotten like this 😡

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princess fiona AND LOOK AT HER SHES GORGEOUS and the commentary that beauty standards dont mean shit AND she kicks ass? WHILE she was pregnant with triplets? iconic she is so fleshed out (especially in the fourth movie) but no one ever talks about her OR HER AND SHREK'S RELATIONSHIP its so realistic/mature and yet we know that they can work together through hard times it just-- LETS TAKE SHREK SERIOUSLY OKAY

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yes-hey-buddy

4 years ago