I attended a conference on activism this week (with a specific group, but I figure it's better to keep it vague when posting online). The organizing board led a structured Q&A session where one of them (an elderly black lady) happened to mention she'd been arrested during a protest before. When they opened the floor to questions from the audience, I got the first question, and I asked "So what's it like to be arrested?"

I was genuinely curious. I haven't found myself in that position through my activism yet, but I figure I might in the future.

She said, "Oh it's all planned" and then went on to detail how she and many other members had been through a specific training on being arrested during activism, that they each left for every protest with $50 and the business card of the organization's lawyer, and that they predetermine who is going to be arrested before they go out.

Another member then explained that when they protest in D.C. at the Capitol, the Capitol police are very used to this, so there's basically this theatrical performance that takes place where they protest; the Capitol police show up and warn them that if they continue, they will be arrested; the people who are not predetermined to be arrested leave; and the remaining people wait for the police to come back, handcuff them, and lead them out of the building. It makes the headlines, they go to jail, and then they get let right back out same day.

This is something that I knew happens, but I left with the impression that a large percentage of the people you see getting arrested in activism went out with the intent to have that happen. Additionally, the board members are all volunteers, so some have day jobs. They predetermine who is going to be arrested basically based on whose life will and won't be wrecked by it. The board members with serious jobs that would fire them if they found out they were arrested at a protest are never in the arrest pool. The elderly black lady who was speaking is retired, so an arrest record can't really do anything to her, therefore she's always in the arrest pool.

Side note: They also told us about a member in a powered wheelchair who tries to get herself arrested at every event just because the police don't know what to do. When last did you see a cop car that could take a person in an electric wheelchair? I find that hilarious.

Long story short, some people you see at protests really are risking it all, but there's also a significant portion of people who are literally trained in being arrested at a protest, so if you've ever felt bad for fearing what a police record could do to your life, just know that that's a legitimate concern that large organizations take into account when deciding who to place in conflict with police. Also know that you don't have to completely wing being arrested at a protest if that's something you're willing to do; you can seek out an organization that will offer you training and backing in exchange for your willingness to be arrested for publicity.

Yeah quiet quitting is great and all but have you tried chaotic working?

Like. I remember back in my grocery store cashier days I did so much crazy shit.

When WIC (Women, infants, and children voucher program to help low income mothers/families with children) people were in my line I would pretty much know who they were. Before the cards they had to tell us upfront they were WIC and show us their vouchers for what they were allowed to get (it was awful some times. Like. 2 gallons of milk. $4 worth of vegetables etc etc). They’d always have items hanging back, waiting to see what the total was and if they would have to take it off the belt.

I began to place the fruits/vegetables a certain way on the register scale so that like 1/2lbs of grapes read as like .28lbs or something. Then act shocked when I said that they still had X amount of lbs left. They got all their fruit and vegetables.

I think it started to kinda? Catch on to the women? Because I would have the same moms in my line month after month. And even after they switched to the cards (they worked like food stamp cards?) I’d still do the same thing. They were able to get more produce for whatever shitty max amount Indiana gave them.

Anyways. Be chaotic. It’s more fun that way.

classic way

Am I BAWLING my eyes out? Because all Jack Rackham wanted to do was leave a mark on history? And be remembered?? And despite years of attempting to emulate the physical toughness and swashbuckling bravery of his fellow pirate captains of legend, it was in fact his pedantic little obsession with getting the right flag art, an action so wholly and undeniably HIM, that ensured his mark on history in the end??? That it's HIS jolly Roger that has endured through time and history as the very symbol of piracy itself????????

If anyone needs me, I will be marooning MYSELF on skeleton island!!!!!!

MBTI & Celebs (x)

Mandy Patinkin: ENFP

I cannot get over this omfg

hey here's a website for downloading any video or image from any website.

works w/ youtube, soundcloud, twitch, twitter (gifs and videos), tumblr (video and audio), and most other websites you're probably lookin to download stuff off of.

Hebden Bridge, Calderdale, West Yorkshire (England)

imagine you go out to watch something completely bad and unenjoyable. something like the emoji movie. imagine watching the emoji movie for the first time. and you walk out of the theater like “wow that was absolutely terrible, they completely bombed that film. lol i can’t believe they thought anybody would like that”. anyways you go to any social media on the car ride home and you see at least ONE 30 year old posting like “i’m really fixated on the emoji movie rn🥺 this is my fanart for my emoji movie au including my emoji movie ocs”. that’s my tumblr experience every day

i hate when i send someone a meme in another language and they're like "uhm... translate? 😒" fucker i sent you a meme where 90% of the words have an english cognate and/or you don't need to know what they're saying to find it funny. can you at least TRY

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If you're having trouble keeping up with what's going on in Palestine because of US news coverage of university protests, here are some articles you can read and a video you can watch:

While CNN & all the other mainstream media try to paint the university protests as "pro terrorism" (which they're not, they're literally anti-war protests.) Palestinians are being slaughtered by the minute.

Please don't stop speaking about Palestine.

So Fox News ran a story about how they think libraries are turning into drug-infested sex dens and I am shocked, shocked that I was never offered any drugs during my 15+ years working in libraries.

i think the thing that vexes me the most about the columbian exchange and its consequences is that the origins of all of these different plants, fruit, vegetables, grains, get twisted and some of them, like potatoes and tomatoes, become part of the european canon in a way that erases the history of that exchange, and the cultural significance that those foods had for the indigenous people that cultivated them

and then some origins become intertwined with the ways colonisation kind of homogenised the places that were colonised, made them interchangeable. pineapple is from central america, but we associate it with hawai'i, because of the colonial pineapple plantation. the movements of different crops, even flowers like the hibiscus between different tropical places, until it is unclear where they originate from

imagine the scenario where europeans didn't widely adopt and spread food like corn and potatoes and they only just re-emerged in the western market now. they'd be called "super foods" and exoticised as "ancient grains". the world would look completely different because those new crops were integral to colonial capitalist expansion and wealth. corn fed enslaved people for cheap. potato supported population expansion in europe. it would be completely implausible to imagine those foods as part of a medieval european story. like hobbits eating quinoa or acai bowls or something.

when frantz fanon says that the wealth that smothers europe was stolen from the underdeveloped peoples, that europe stuffed itself with the gold and raw materials of colonial countries, i think about tomatoes, potatoes, and corn, just as much as i think about enslavement and extraction and stolen land

Elon Musk bought the company. He has nothing to do with the development. #CosplayEngineer