The most moderate, nuanced and productive people I have discussed the Israel-Hamas war with have been Jews, Israelis, and people with Palestinian family. Everyone directly affected by this just wants it to stop and to have peace and safety in the region in a way that minimises the casualty count.
The most extreme and performative and vile things I've been told are by people who have no connection to this and like to think they are experts because they have covered adjacent topics during learning, or read stuff online.
If all the randos in the west would just shut up for ten minutes and let those of us actually affected, with an understanding of the history of the land and the culture and the generational trauma experienced by Jews and Palestinians alike talk, we might actually have a chance to salvage this and stop it spiraling
298 notes
·
View notes
Got to explain to our cishet sister that she probably shouldn't be tossing around the word fruity like it's a casual harmless word to use and she took it super well thank fucking god
She didnt know the origins of it because tiktok is a fucking nightmare and once we explained it to her she seemed to internally experience a lightbulb moment of "oh maybe I shouldn't mindlessly repeat words I find on the internet" (not that we are judging her for it because god knows we and most other people do that to some extent, but this seems to be her first exposure to that kind of thing going not well) so perhaps we have helped her learn and grow before she gets punched in the face by some stranger lmao
3 notes
·
View notes
@saintlyseavvitch made a deposit !
➣ "This is just to say I was the sea monster who ate your ice cream that you invested in. It was so cold and delicious. Of course I'm not sorry." Ursula is clearly not a poet but she looks proud of herself.
* unprompted / / ALWAYS ACCEPTING !
♔ — ❛ Es that so ~ ? ❜
♔ — ❛ . . . die. ❜
4 notes
·
View notes
the thing that eats me the most (besides the memory loss) abt having a dissociative disorder that we're still learning how to manage is that some people are inevitably gonna perceive "me" as two faced or dishonest or w/e bc of the differing opinions and actions and reactions across our system
and im not asking people to look the other way when smth comes up either bc thats just not how shit works and in the end we (the system) are responsible for the outcomes of each others' actions
it just sucks sometimes, yknow?
2 notes
·
View notes
One of the most memorable interactions was Saturday. Into our booth strolls a small family, tempted by free samples of freshly brewed tea. We chatter and give them the spiel, that the tea is character merch and we’re a cozy health-based app called Forage Friends.
The young girl zeroes in on our pride pins.
“They have my pin!” She says excitedly. “They have my flag!”
The dad blinks. He is surprised, but also calm and positive when he sees it’s the lesbian flag. “Oh. That’s… different from what you told me.”
“That was months ago, dad.” And she rolls her eyes. Definitely a teenager.
I turn to him and say, “Yeah, dad.” And we share a little laugh about it.
He says, “No, it’s great. That’s amazing, honey. It was just news to me.”
“Well, I guess I just decided to stop lying to myself. About liking guys. Like right now.”
A little lesbian just came out to her dad and he was super cool about it.
I’m standing there in my tie-dye mask and my cheery blue apron pouring tea and making small talk and I’m trying really hard not to cry or compare it to my experience, the fire & brimstone, the disgust, the conditional acceptance as long as I never bring it up.
So as this beautiful bonding is going on, the girl’s even younger brother turns his gaze around. He’s in a snorlax hoodie and bored and wants to go look at the swords across the hall. But on the other side of our booth….
“WHY DO PEOPLE DRAW THAT?” He asks loudly, and we all turn to our neighboring booth.
Our neighbors were extremely lovely people. Every time we had a break we would talk, and we became good friends over the weekend. They kept apologizing that their booth was next to ours and we kept repeating that it was totally fine. Their booth was great. I even bought their merchandise.
The thing that was so contentious, that they felt the need to apologize for, was that they were selling explicit titty hentai stickers of popular characters. They were censored with little yellow R18 labels but the content was very clear.
So back to the family: I freeze and immediately go somewhere else to let dad handle this question. With adult customers I’ve been loud and positive about our neighbors. (“Man, how has it been boothing next to them?” It’s been great! They bring a lot of foot traffic and they’re kind and wonderful professional neighbors. If anything it’s a fun juxtaposition. We believe in artistic freedom. I bought a sticker too!)
But this is a kid, it’s not my place to explain anything…. But I was extremely curious about what this chill dad would say.
“Well,” dad says with a long measured silence between each word. “Sometimes people are horny.”
21K notes
·
View notes