We are the last generation who can hear from these survivors directly. Do not take that lightly. Do not waste that opportunity. Do not forget your freedom isn’t infinitely guarenteed. And do not, do not, let it happen again.
Really truly, watch the video, reblog it. Teaching about the holocaust is so necessary for our generation before it slips under the rug and people forget about it.
As a former zookeeper we would hear this a lot. “If you don’t study hard you’ll end up cleaning poop for a living.” It’s the one time we’re allowed to go off on the visitors. I once heard my boss rant for five minutes at a lady, in front of her kids, about how he had a Master’s degree, how people literally worked there for free, and how dare she judge people without bothering to know anything about them. Later that day his boss came by and said, roughly, “She told us what happened. Thanks for not throwing anything this time.”
My boyfriend is triggered by Christmas and Christmas music. We were in a restaurant, and Christmas music was playing, and he started panicking so he went outside for a cigarette. The manager of the restaurant overheard him saying he had to get out, and changed the music over for the rest of the time we were there. There are safe spaces in the real world. People are nicer than you think. And bullshit people who try to tell you to get over your triggers, ain’t shit.
Honestly “the world is cruel get over it” is pretty easily translated to “I’m a complete asshole who doesn’t want to be held responsible for my sh*tty behavior”
I was at a hacker conference a few months ago and someone had a panic attack because of the noise levels.
Guess how many rowdy drunk hackers quieted down to make sure the person having the problem was okay because it was all of them, all of the hackers. (500 at this particular party)
The
“There are no trigger warnings in real life” people always get me because there are multiple in place by law trigger warnings on games and entertainment at least, in the US.
Movie ratings? Those are trigger warnings, and the rating always explains what the ‘trigger’ might be. The amount of it and how graphic it is determines the difference between PG, PG-13, R, NC-17, and X (which isn’t used much anymore, it’s been mostly replaced by NC-17. Movies that still get the X rating typically don’t get into theaters.)
TV ratings? Same thing. Sometimes you even get a voice over telling you what the warnings/ratings are for.
Even TV shows rated for violence, sexual content, etc…often open with a warning that actually starts with the word warning that the show contains graphic violence/graphic sexual content/Scenes of *include the potentially triggering thing here*.
Fanfiction hosting sites have trigger warnings built into the tagging system.
Video games’ rating systems are basically, you guessed it, trigger warnings.
Though it’s not much of a thing anymore as most music is streamed or digital, there used to be similar ratings on CDs for the same reason, mostly for violent or sexual content in the lyrics.
Even streaming music providers tend to label music just as ‘explicit’ because, by this point, it’s fairly common knowledge that music marked “explicit” will contain either a lot of profanity, graphic references to sex, graphic references to violence, graphic references to drug use, or graphic references to criminal activity, and you can usually guess which things pretty easily by the title of the song.
Classes on certain topics often contain verbal and written warnings about the content if it’s content that a reasonable person would find objectionable and, “LOL nothing offends me, SJW!” isn’t what anyone would consider a reasonable person (also they’re a person likely to get ‘triggered’ by being told that being an asshole isn’t a positive personality trait to have).
Trigger warnings absolutely do exist in the real world, they’re just called something else depending on where they’re being used or come under the guise of, “We want parents to make sure they’re okay with their child watching/playing this.”
It costs $0 to just realize, “Oh, this warning is not meant for me because this thing does not upset me in any way, but I understand that it might upset other people and that other people would like to be able to make an informed choice before deciding if they want to see/year/experience this thing,” like a normal adult human.
And the world is cruel. That doesn’t mean you have to actively contribute to it.
And the world is cruel. That doesn’t mean you have to actively contribute to it.
“So what can we learn from this study? On the data side, we see that everything is proceeding as planned. Nobody’s paying $50 for a burger at McDonald’s, or $16 for a can of tuna at Safeway. Employers wish their profits were higher, and workers are glad they got a raise, but they wish they made more money. Three years after Seattle started down the road to $15, everything is as it should be. Those apocalyptic claims of destruction and business closures haven’t been proven true. One thing the study didn’t explain was why the sky didn’t fall as promised. Why weren’t workers laid off in droves, or replaced with robots? Why didn’t prices skyrocket? Why does Seattle have more restaurants now than at any point in its history? It’s because those workers who saw a raise now have more money to spend in the city around them. Those restaurant workers are eating in more restaurants. They’re buying more groceries. They’re buying more clothes and cars. That increased consumer demand is creating jobs, and more than paying for the increased minimum wage. The $15 minimum wage established a positive feedback loop that created growth in Seattle by including more people in the economy. In other words, it worked exactly as intended.”
People always gloss over how mentally damaging it can be to work in retail. I fucking hate that whenever I say “I could never work in retail again” someone has to reply “You snowflake millennials can’t take a starter job because you have to INTERACT with other people” No. Fuck you. I’ve worked as a planetarium host. I’ve worked as a public speaker. I’ve worked as a tutor and as a student teacher. I can work with people. I can work with crowds. Retail was fucking different. Retail was being treated as a subhuman. Retail was being treated so poorly that you have anxiety attacks before work. Having to work retail was a factor in my last suicide attempt. If I hear you say one fucking word about retail workers playing the victim I will personally break every bone in your body. Fuck You.
The holidays are coming up. Retail workers are going to be spiraling into a nightmare beyond human comprehension. If you’ve worked retail, you know this. If you haven’t, be aware of it. Please be kind to every retail worker you come across. Please be patient and understanding. It is misery out there.
Dear people who say statements like the above scare away good men,
It fucking doesn’t.
When I started dating my current boyfriend we talked for 6 hours on our first date and 7 hours on our second. We talked about a shit ton of different topics, and one of those topics was politics and the #metoo movement. We talked about sexual harassment and sexual assault.
Every step along the way towards us having sex he asked for my consent. The first day we actually had sex he made sure I was ready and checked in on me several times to make sure I was still enjoying myself. He was amazing.
I had men who were trying to flirt with me grab at me before I even knew who they were. I’ve had creepy old men decide giving me a shoulder massage while I was sitting down the perfect way they could introduce themselves. That is the type of touching we want to stop.
Any of the guys that are scared off by women saying “don’t touch us unless we ask” are the exact type of guys that need to learn about consent, women’s bodily autonomy and personal space.
If you are concerned that becoming friends with a women in the Me Too era will read to someone accusing you of sexual harassment, you need to rethink how you interact with women.
I have a bunch of guy friends, and none of them are afraid I’m going to accuse them of anything. Do you know why? We are friends. We treat each other with respect. Any of them can hug me goodbye or put their arm around me and I know they won’t touch me inappropriately. But when we first met that wasn’t true. We built a friendship of trust.
I am a hugger, I like hugging people. My friends know this about me, but when I meet new people I always ask them if it is okay that I hug them. I have had people say no, and I respect that and do not hug them.
It is not hard to ask for consent.
Looking back on my first date with my ex, not asking for consent is a danger sign.
He’s tall, I’m short. We met online, then got together at a local Chili’s for our first date. In the parking lot, walking to the restaurant, he put an arm around me and said something like, “I just want to try” or “Let me see.” Then he leaned down and kissed me.
I didn’t want a kiss. (I didn’t realize at the time that I’m asexual, but that’s neither here nor there.) But I was shocked, and women are socially conditioned to be pleasing and accommodating – to go along with whatever men want – so I just laughed it off like it was a cute test to see how our difference in height would work.
But through the six years we were together, he never wanted my consent.
Oh, he wanted me to say I’d have sex with him, even when I didn’t want to. He harassed, guilted, bargained, and intimidated me into “consenting” because I was his girlfriend/wife and that’s what girlfriends/wives do – they spread their legs for their husbands.
So please, learn from my mistakes: If he doesn’t look for your consent from day 1, run like hell and don’t look back. He’s not worth it.
Does this look like it has fingers or toes? Hmm? Does it???
None of this is even considering that a fetus at seven weeks doesn’t have the right to violate the pregnant person’s bodily autonomy.
At 8 weeks:
You’re right that the tiny fetus is moving at this point, but plenty of single-cell organisms are capable of moving as well. We don’t throw fits about taking medicine to kill, say bacteria–a single celled organism, some of which have the capability of movement–when we get sick, now do we? But the rest is bullshit:
“Her hands are developing ridges where her fingers will be. However, her ankles, thighs, knees and toes are not yet distinct.”
How can something without proper hands be left or right-handed? Oh right, because this is mindless fear-mongering, outside of the realm of reality:
“Most children have a preference for using one hand or the other by the age of about 18 months, and are definitely right or left-handed by about the age of three.”
Notice how it says children, and not fetuses.
Oh, man, and I forgot to mention, at 8 weeks, it doesn’t have the right to violate the pregnant person’s bodily autonomy.
A FETUS NEVER HAS THE RIGHT TO VIOLATE A PREGNANT PERSON’S BODILY AUTONOMY!
This mindless fear-mongering only hurts pregnant people who seek to have an abortion for whatever reason they’d like, which is, scientifically speaking, NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS.
Anyway, ultimately your decision about what to do with your body is literally up to no one but you. And trying to take that right away from people is gross. Thanks for coming to my TedTalk.
-mod Aleksandr
The thing that’s so wonderfully baffling to me is that 90% of the prolife argument is built on just making up blatant lies like most conservative causes at least make an effort to have an argument but the prolife movement really out here just makin up shit
I keep trying to not worry about rising antisemitism. Antisemitism is nothing new and if we up and left every time someone made a Jew joke, we’d never be still. And since I don’t have the means to leave the country, I can’t spend my emotional spoons worrying myself sick. But I also know that a lot of people who have tried to convince themselves of the same thing ended up murdered, and every community today exists because someone knew when it was time to get out.
I just got an email from my synagogue updating the congregants about new security efforts. We’re a small synagogue. Friday night services usually get around 15 people. We’re out in the boonies. We’re not fancy or rich. We don’t even usually do Saturday services because we’re too small. But the board unanimously decided to have armed guards at every service and event. Someone had already sponsored 6 months’ armed security for our Hebrew school, in case someone wants to come in and murder our children in cold blood. They’re talking of steel doors and a safe room, and self-defense classes for congregants.
Do you non-Jews understand? Do you understand the heartbreak and anxiety that we feel because we KNOW that these are practical steps for a non-zero possibility that someone will want to vandalize us, or set us on fire, or murder us and our children for no reason other than that we are Jews? Do you understand that this is happening in 2018 and it never went away? That your silence is complicit? That every equivocating tweet about “Zionists” and a philosophy you don’t understand, every time you defend kicking Jews out of your so-called progressive movements, every time you tell Jews that they’re basically white and privileged so stop complaining, it is another bullet in the chamber?
i really want to normalise the idea amongst lgbt youth that its okay to switch labels as you further understand your identity. you’re not a traitor or a fake if you realise you’re bi instead of a lesbian, or if you’re a trans woman instead of a gay man. it’s really difficult and scary to be lgbt and it’s doubly hard to deal with a shifting identity amongst all that so… be kind to yourself. you’re learning and figuring yourself out and nothing is set in stone. let yourself figure out what feels most comfortable to you. and for those who are secure in their lgbt identities, particularly adults, don’t make kids feel bad for switching between labels. we’ve all had identity crises in our lives, so provide support and understanding rather than unforgiving attitudes.
this post is not an excuse to jump on the “of course you can’t label yourself at a young age” bandwagon either. young people who stick with and feel comfortable in an identity from an early age are just as valid as you are.
Additionally, on the other side of this – if you know someone who switches labels, it’s also your job to not make them feel like a traitor or a fake. If you’re their friend or you say you support them, then be their friend and support them. If you don’t understand how they could say they were one thing however long ago and now it’s something different, this is your chance to learn, not reject.
And if they later choose to go back to their original label, then they still weren’t faking it. Those were the feelings they had at the time.
wupacing 