Spoonie living with POTS, MCAD, depression/anxiety, CPTSD, and just a hint of EDS for extra pizazz. Welcome to my hodge podge mix of chronic illness, pokemon, fish, geckos, and other such squiggly things.
I would like more people to understand that the real test of anti-Semitism, will not be, and will never be, will the people who are otherwise agreeing with you be anti-Semitic to you. It is, will they be anti-Semitic towards the people with whom they disagree.
It doesn't mean anything when a proudly anti-Zionist Jew in a watermelon kippah and a keffiyeh is welcomed by a pro-Palestine encampment.
It doesn't mean anything when a proudly Zionist Jew draped in an Israeli flag is welcomed by a right-wing pro-Israel counter-rally.
The test of anti-Semitism is what happens when the Zionist Jew walks into the pro-Palestine encampment and what happens when the anti-Zionist Jew walks into the pro-Israel counter-rally. How fast do people resort to anti-Semitic canards? How quickly is that person treated as the worst sort of example of what the other camp hates?
And it's that last example that is scaring me. Because that's where I see the anti-Semitism spike.
People who are loudly and visibly Jewish are often the most cheered on by those who agree with them, especially in movements where they are a minority. The flipside is that people who are loudly and visibly Jewish are often the most virulently harassed by those who disagree with them.
A general reminder—periodic cicadas pose no threat to anyone and their plant damage is limited to nipping off the ends of twigs. Please do not hose them with pesticide. They are slow and clumsy and confused and only want to make friends with other cicadas and eventually die of sexual exhaustion.
Yes, the screaming is a lot, but they’ve been extremely quiet neighbors for thirteen years, cut them some slack as they go through the most fraught time of their lives.
Dog toy plushies have fundamentally different souls than that of regular plushies. Unlike regular plushies, which are content with just existing (and just go to regular heaven when they get destroyed and don’t mind being resurrected), dog toys seek Valhalla. This is why you don’t need to feel bad when your dog/cat/especially strong bird rips it to shreds, because this was the warriors death they were seeking all their life
I feel like a good shorthand for a lot of economics arguments is "if you want people to work minimum wage jobs in your city, you need to allow minimum wage apartments for them to live in."
"These jobs are just for teenagers on the weekends." Okay, so you'll use minimum wage services only on the weekends and after school. No McDonald's or Starbucks on your lunch break.
"They can get a roommate." For a one bedroom? A roommate for a one bedroom? Or a studio? Do you have a roommate to get a middle-wage apartment for your middle-wage job? No? Why should they?
"They can live farther from city center and just commute." Are there ways for them to commute that don't equate to that rent? Living in an outer borough might work in NYC, where public transport is a flat rate, but a city in Texas requires a car. Does the money saved in rent equal the money spent on the car loan, the insurance, the gas? Remember, if you want people to take the bus or a bike, the bus needs to be reliable and the bike lanes survivable.
If you want minimum wage workers to be around for you to rely on, then those minimum wage workers need a place to stay.
You either raise the minimum wage, or you drop the rent. There's only so long you can keep rents high and wages low before your workforce leaves for cheaper pastures.
"Nobody wants to work anymore" doesn't hold water if the reason nobody applies is because the commute is impossible at the wage you provide.