A Blog About Nothing

[A Blog About Nothing]

[is-the-19thcentury-man-okay]

I don't know what 19th century man needs to hear this, but your whiskers look splendid and manly, your check trousers are neat and becoming, and you have just enough macassar oil in your hair. You should put that piece of bijouterie on your watch-chain, it is an interesting ornamentation that will surely earn you admiring glances.

[A Blog About Nothing]

[thenonbinaryindustrialcomplex]

I want to preface this by saying this is not victim blaming. This not calling people online lazy or grifting or whatever.

But an underlooked proponent on why some people are nearing homeless and crowdfunding heavily rn is bc society has failed you by making it as inconvenient as possible to learn about social systems and programs that already exist to help your situation as well as not having enough programs and aid.

Lemme give some examples. I have been unemployed for 10 months. My mom told me about a paying job training program a month ago after I already decided to mive in with her to find work, because nothing was coming up in my own city. My best friend didn’t know about affordable housing assistance in my state until she talked to my dad about it on a chance encounter. Some people on here have to see posts about much cheaper alternatives to their current prescriptions or medical plans because its not in the interest of their doctors paychecks to tell them about it. I would have waited to get vaccinated and not have crowdfunded for Uber money if I had known they were going to give free vaccine rides the next month. But I wouldn’t have really known this until I opened the app once that program started, because it is in their interest to keep taking my money until its their desired time for me to reap their “generous” services.

What I’m trying to say is that this is an under discussed aspect of how capitalism fails people. When you are forced to make your life and work and finances so singular and self interested, you are cut off from community and equivalent social services to proper government assistance. You literally don’t know that there is help somewhere out there for you unless you’re told.

[memesnotwelcome]

I believe a professor I had called this “cultural wisdom” but I haven’t been able to find the social science articles that expanded on this. It’s a practical knowledge of local systems that allows someone to function and thrive in that system. The example she used was having an understanding that banks can hold your money, but the practical aspect of accessing your money (in a convenient and easy manor) was knowing about ATMs and how to use them. But unless you have an account or someone ready to inform you, there’s no dedicated time or milestone where someone learns this.

And that’s just with a machine designed to give you YOUR money, let alone complex social service programs.

[addamatic]

I want everyone who crowdfunds for hospital bills to know they probably don’t have to oay them at all. Just find the financial aid office of the hospital. It’s on the website BY LAW. Find the form. Fill it out. Get the bills canceled or lowered! You don’t need crowd money, you need the government’s money that’s already set aside for your medical care.

[euphoniousraconteur]

GO TO, MESSAGE, OR CALL YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY. Libraries are focusing more and more on community resources, support, and outreach. If you genuinely don’t know something or feel uncertain or are in a new situation, a reference librarian will not only help you sort your thoughts through their reference interview but then help you arm yourself with knowledge from reliable and often local sources. It doesn’t even have to be a question to Ask A Librarian. You can simply say “I’m in this situation now. I don’t know what to do next./I’m not confident I know everything I should or want to know.”

[dancinbutterfly]

If you are in America - 211 is your friend. It’s the United Way’s database of social assistance resources. When I was doing resource development for my masters in social work 211 was my holy grail. And there’s things that only workers know about that just calling and asking can reach cuz it sets off the social service phone tree. I will say YOU have to be persistent of you want to access these resources. Most of the ngo agencies are most interested in helping the pro-active clients in my experience. But do use the resources. They’re golden.

[A Blog About Nothing]

[zoomar]

Home lessons in massage.

[catboywormkin]

touch his tits tuesday

[A Blog About Nothing]

[hayatheauthor]

The Writer's Guide to Authentic Wounds and Fatalities

Writing fatal injuries in a story requires a delicate balance between realism and narrative impact. The portrayal of these life-altering events can evoke strong emotions in readers and shape the trajectory of your characters' journeys. In this blog, I will explore the intricacies of depicting fatal injuries in a manner that feels authentic, engaging, and respectful to the gravity of such circumstances. By understanding the nuances of fatal injuries, you will be equipped to craft compelling narratives that resonate with your readers.

Keep reading

[A Blog About Nothing]

[pansyfem]

meetcute idea: your packer slides down your pant leg and falls out and you’re mortified as hell but a guy picks it up and puts it in his pants instead and runs away reallyfast so you have to chase after him and get ur oenis back

[A Blog About Nothing]

[prolibytherium]

I will say I get the vibe that a lot of peoples interest and support for strikers is a bit too much for a vicarious ‘burn it down’ thrill, rather than for the actual goals of a strike.

Like UPS has agreed to come back to the table and it is very possible they will concede to Union demands and avert a strike. And if that happens (so long as the union does not make concessions on its key demands) it’s a good thing. It’s a victory for the laborers. It is the same ultimate conclusion that a strike would intend to produce except without the workers having to go on (not so great) strike pay for a week or two.

[clpolk]

also

please pay attention to who gets a strike averting offer and who doesn’t. that’s not about how good that union’s negotiators are. it’s about how bad the bosses will immediately look if a strike happens.

if ups teamsters go on strike, they’re delivering a major blow to consumerism.people will feel it right away.

we’re not going to see the consequences of WGA & SAG-AFTRA for months, and it won’t be as dramatic as “in three days, riots broke out over city wide shortages of toilet paper.” tv will get shittier, but we’re already used to unscripted tv. there are big backlogs of stuff to watch. lots of big budget movies are already in the can. the deleterious effect on us will be hard to see for a long while.

also, you’re not even safe if you win. the harper collins union went on strike, and they reached an agreement, and now a lot of them don’t have jobs because HC closed a successful imprint where lots of those striking employees worked, and i don’t think anyone but the most insider baseball people realized that, even though starbucks has closed down locations with union membership even if that store was highly profitable more than once.

corporate oligarchs settling up fast with supply chain people instead of playing chicken with them is the no brainer move. now they can get ignorant suckers to say, “they offered UPS a fair deal, [insert union here] is just being selfish and refusing to negotiate.”

so it’s not a burn it down thrill for me. and maybe it’s not for you either, person who is reading this who gave a little fist pump every time you heard a strike vote has been authorized. maybe you, like me, felt hopeful that solidarity would turn this hellscape around and were prepared to suffer disruptions to see it done.

please don’t be ashamed of that.

[A Blog About Nothing]

[nudityandnerdery]

[A Blog About Nothing]

[mysharona1987]

[A Blog About Nothing]

[dragonladdie]

Hey remember when they found over 200 bodies of native children buried behind a residential school and the world cared for... what, a week?

They've counted about 6,000-7,000 now, for those of you who do still care

[dragonladdie]

It should NOT fall on Indigenous people's shoulders to keep this known still. We’ve been doing that for generations at this point and NO ONE wants to listen to us.

We’re tired, mourning and constantly reopening our trauma and pain to keep people caring about us. It’s terrible.

[foxgirltail]

I should start by noting that I am white, and not Canadian, and that if op wants me to remove this comment for any reason, please let me know.

This is a map of all the residential schools in Canada:

[link to the article it’s attached to, it’s interactable there, so you can get a better look around]

Each dot on this map represents a residential school. Blue dots mean the school is considered completely searched. Yellow dots mean they are either in the process of being searched or there are plans to be searched. Red dots indicate that no search has happened and that no search is currently planned

There were more than 130 residential schools in Canada. This map suggests that only six have been fully searched, and a little more than a dozen partially searched (I counted 15 yellow dots). That leaves at least 109 schools completely untouched.

Let that sink in; if 6,000-7,000 unmarked, indigenous children’s graves were found by searching less than a fifth of all the schools, how many are still undiscovered.

Wikipedia estimates that the body count could be over 50,000, and honestly, that could be a low estimate

[pronouncingitwang]

[ID: A map of Canada with dozens of dots on it, 6 of which are blue and 7 of which are yellow; the rest are red. Later there is a screenshot from wikipedia reading, “Estimates range from 3,200 to over 50,000 children that were killed. Most of the recorded student deaths at residential schools took place before the 1950s. /end ID]

[broliloquy]

The residential school system was a calculated, open, and forthrightly declared attempt at the total genocide of all indigenous peoples in this country. It was literally meant to wipe them out entirely, through a combination of attrition and assimilation.

Never forget that this is what Canada is really built upon.

[jocarthage]

These are the residential schools in the U.S. I've mapped out the ones in California and there are articles about burials on these sites, some marked and some not.

I hope Secretary Haaland's Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative investigates every single one; their report is Due on April 1, 2022,

[spacelazarwolf]

reminder that genocide doesn’t just include ending people’s lives, it includes eradicating their culture. forced assimilation of an entire people is an attempt at genocide.

[A Blog About Nothing]

[feministism]

[beeperbopper]

It’s called “environmental amnesia” and it’s an actual issue environmentalists discuss how to combat. The climate crisis makes it more widespread but it’s been something that’s happening for generations. The story of The Lorax describes it beautifully. The idea that what you remember is what you consider normal, but if the changes happen slowly over generations, you don’t see how large they are because you don’t personally remember them being very different, even if you were told stories about it.