Bothering the beast

I very specifically remember my biology teacher chiding everybody for wanting to focus on the trial instead of the topic for the day, then giving up and turning on the tv to the trial just before the verdict was read, then getting really into it and providing commentary.

(As for the comparisons to the Simpson and King cases, you are absolutely correct in your recollection; a lot of the O. J. Simpson case—where the defense claimed that the police were setting him up—was viewed through the lens of the police having been caught on camera using excessive, violent force, only to have the officers involved acquitted of wrongdoing.)

I *also* remember, a couple years later, the instruction coming over the intercom telling the teachers to turn on all the TVs so that we could all watch the news coverage of the Columbine school shooting, as it was still happening. Ostensibly, this was to explain why we were all being made to stay in our classrooms while security checked all the lockers for weapons and explosives, but still: TVs on.

For context, some kids would have MAYBE had pagers, but none of us had cell phones, and any cell phone wouldn’t have been a smartphone. The TV in the classroom was how we would have gotten real-time news at the time.

Some of the teachers did put the verdict on and I'm pretty sure they regretted it soon after. My high school was predominantly Black and this actually caused some conflict when it happened. A lot of students danced through the halls chanting "THE JUICE IS LOOSE" and I think it even started a few fights.

From what I remember this was not long after Rodney King and a lot of folks felt this was... I'm not sure the best way to describe it actually.

Karma balancing itself?

I really didn't understand what was going on at the time and just kind of observed it all from my locker.

Reblog In 5 seconds for good luck

Tumblr's reply to the situation with CEO's transphobia is pathetic and you should not be thanking them for doing the bare minimum of saying he's not speaking for them. They fucking thanked that bitch.

The affected trans women are still banned.

A transphobic manchild offered no proper apology. Or stopped. He is also still in his position.

Tumblr is still factually transphobic. Keep pushing.

*Stares directly into the camera*

DELETE THIS POST

“Nobody’s going to want to sit on high-speed rail for fifteen hours to get from New York City to LA.”

Me. I will sit on high-speed rail for fifteen hours. I’ll sit on it for days. I’ll write and read and nap and eat and then do it all over again. I’ll stare out the windows and see America from ground level and not have to drive. I’ll see the Rockies and the deserts and cornfields and the Mississippi River and your house and yours and yours too. I’ll make up stories in my head about the small towns I see as we go along. I’ll see the states I’ve yet to see because driving or flying there is a fucking slog and expensive to boot. I’ll enjoy the ride as much as the destination. And then I’ll do it all over again to come the fuck home.

A little advice from someone studying extremist groups: if you’re in a social media environment where the daily ubiquitous message is that you have no hope of any kind of future and you can’t possibly achieve anything without a violent overthrow of society, you’re being radicalized, and not in the good way.

Americans!

You have until tomorrow (Friday 8th March 2024) to voice your support for a national intercity train service.

You can do so via the link below, use your voice!

i do think there is a degree to which certain kinds of Instagram activists have convinced themselves that traumatising themselves in solidarity is a useful form of activism. "I'm having nightmares and crying so much I want to be sick because of all these videos of dying children but I can't look away while people are getting hurt" I mean don't you think you'd be able to help more if you weren't having nightmares and crying all the time?? don't you think this is a one-way trip to burnout? don't you think maybe increasing the amount of trauma going around is counterproductive? I dunno bro there's something to be said for bearing witness but there comes a point where you gotta look hard at yourself and go "am I helping, or am I just making myself suffer so I don't feel guilty for not suffering while somebody else is experiencing bad shit"

When you say you're anti-CAM what does that mean? Like what does CAM mean in that context? I genuinely haven't seen that acronym before and I'm assuming you aren't anti-camming as in like the form of sex work

Complimentary and Alternative Medicine.

I am capable of turning off my inner annoying atheist, I am incapable of turning off my inner annoying quackwatcher.

I have had real life fights with people I genuinely love about this and I do not regret it. I will absolutely not regret shitting all over someone's $500 herbalist certification.

oh he 100% doesnt know what year it is

the main problem i have with america is that nothings old as hell there. i cant be so far away from a castle it damages my aura