Just watched a documentary mini-series on how Ukraine was regaining its independence in 1991.

The way the US tried so hard to preserve the USSR. That goddamned "Chicken Kiev" speech from George Bush.

And then that ultimatum that the US would only recognise Ukraine's independence if Ukraine gave up its nukes and a significant portion of other weapons, because for some reason they thought only russia had the right to have them.

Ukraine did agree to this ultimatum. It signed that goddamned Budapest memorandum. The US and UK said they, along with russia, would guarantee Ukraine's safety. And then in 2014 Ukraine, having gotten rid of most of its military potential, got invaded by russia. And the UK and US did NOTHING. Then in 2022 russia escalated its war to all out genocide. Entire cities are completely razed to the ground, tens of thousands of people are killed, millions lost their homes, thousands are subject to torture and forced deportations. Only then the US reluctantly started providing help, which is MUCH appreciated, I must stress on that, but Ukraine still has to keep begging. For its very existence. That was "guaranteed".

And in the midst of this, a lot of USAmericans are like, "why would we care about these millions of people (that we gave security guarantees to) that are being subject to genocide when the roads in my town are bad and the streets are filled with garbage? They must all die because there is garbage on my street!"

lead balloon (the tumblr post that saved me)

if this comic resonated with you, it would mean the world to me if you donated to this palestinian family's escape fund.

--

no creative notes because this isn't that kind of comic.

I know I don’t owe any of you anything but I still felt compelled to write about my long term absence. And I feel far enough away from the dangerous spot I was in to be able to make this comic. I have a therapist now, and she agreed that making this could be a very cathartic gesture, and the start of properly leaving these thoughts behind me. I am still, at seemingly random times, blindsided by fleeting desires to kill myself. They’re always passing urges, but it’s disarming, and uncomfortable. I worry sometimes that my brain’s spent so long thinking only about suicide that it’s forgotten how to think about anything else. Like, now that I've opened that door for myself, I'll never be able to fully shut it again. But I’m trying my best to encourage my mind in other directions. We'll see how that goes.

I am still donating all proceeds from my store to Palestinian causes. So far, I've donated over $15K, not including donations coming from my own pocket or the fundraising streams which jointly raised around $10K. In the time since I made my initial post about where this money would be going, the focus has shifted from aid organisations to directly donating to escape funds.

If you'd like to do the same, you can look at Operation Olive Branch, which hosts hundreds of Palestinian escape funds or donate to Safebow, which has helped facilitate the safe crossing and securing of important medical procedures for over 150 at-risk palestinians since the beginning of the genocide.

The Biblically Accurate Trio in TLT

I know I'm a week late but I do think people are misunderstanding the point of the Anthony Bourdain quote about Kissinger

The point was never "Anthony Bourdain has good politics and is an unproblematic fave," the point is that even someone with mainstream liberalish politics who goes to Cambodia for a food tour - a, let's be honest, very bougie type of trip to be part of your job - and has a basic understanding of history and a bare minimum of human decency can come away from that bougie food tour wanting to murder Henry Kissinger with their bare hands. The point is that Henry Kissinger fucked up this country so bad the only reason he wasn't lynched decades ago is because it's on the opposite side of the world and the people who were in proximity to him never really saw what it was. The point is that if we could see firsthand what our First World politics do to the Third World we would understand that monsters walk among us and it's a cultural failing that we let them die at home at 100 years old surrounded by their friends and family.

I know some dickheads have now decided that Judaism is the "bad, violent, terrorist religion" and Islam is the "good, peaceful" one, which is only to be expected of white people, but how much of an issue is it currently? Like I've seen some USAmericans sharing how the Islamic faith shapes Gazans values and perseverance (good) except with that distinct white hippie "I'm about to imprint on this like the world's most racist duck" vibe (bad), but I didn't think they're already turning on Judaism in numbers.

Do they realize that Christianity is also the same kind of comfort to Christian minorities in Asia and Africa? That it was Buddhists that genocided the Rohingyas in Myanmar and Tamils in Sri Lanka? That Hindu fundamentalists are even now trying to ethnically cleanse Muslims in India? How Hindus and Christians are terrorized and persecuted in Pakistan? That Muslims have a history of persecuting and ethnically cleansing Jews too?

Really tired of asking y'all to be normal about people's religions man. There's no religion that's inherently violent or exceptionally peaceful. It's just like any other ideology that becomes a weapon in the hands of ethnic power. Interrogate power, not religion, and respect people's belief systems insofar as they aren't in your business.

Edit: I've amended the "long history" of Muslim persecution of Jews because it might be misleading in the current political climate. Zionism and antisemitic Arab nationalism are twin births resulting directly from Christian colonization, and Islamic empires tended to actually be more tolerant of other religions compared to Christianity, especially Judaism, which was considered a sibling religion. Antisemitism wasn't ideologically entrenched in Islamic tradition. It's simply that ethno-religious power will lead to ethno religious domination and intermittent cleansing of minorities, and Islam is no exception. Humans be humaning always.

You're not uniquely talented or hard working you just went to the right schools.

Yes, yes! This is exactly why I started Philosophy Tube! Why shouldn't someone else, anyone else, have access to the education I got??? The intellectual and cultural heritage of our species is for everyone, not just privileged people like me! :)

Leg Privileges 🦵

Awh Tommy this all sucks so much, I’m glad he’s comfortable enough to express himself :( I think we should collectively give him a license to kill. Not tubbo, but maybe someone else. As a treat

full reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/tommyinnit/s/LWAlUPAyaC

racism in star wars will have wikis saying shit like "this species that is inspired on a real life non-white people is just too stupid to use the Force"

“crowley and aziraphale aren’t sexual” oh yeah? then explain this. that’s what i thought

he wont admit it but he likes them. blood is easier to clean from darker clothing, you can already barely see it after all.

edit: hi it's me. i made a silly little sequel to this. check it out if you want :D

Accessible infrastructure is such an afterthought. The simplest of tasks get comically failed consistently because those whose job it is to manage infrastructure just look at it and say, good enough.

I put in a complaint about a curb cut that was dangerously at the wrong angle and nearly threw me into traffic. I was going slow. I was being careful. I was lucky, someone grabbed me. Local government said they'd look at it within a week. They didn't. They never did.

I later hit another curb cut in the same area that threw me onto the road and required repair to my chair. I didn't bother reporting it this time because I know the small number of wheelchair users who hit that curb aren't going to be enough for the local government to bother.

At the risk of being negative, I think that it sucks that even actual danger is ignored. We talk about the curb cut effect, how designing things for accessibility benefits everyone. But somehow infrastructure, including literal curb cuts, continues to be designed carelessly.

I just want to leave my house without being hit by a car. I think a lot of us want that. And there's a long way to go in most places before we can trust that the built environment won't have danger we can't avoid.

When discussing things like privilege and oppression, people seem to have one of two ideas about transmasculinity depending on what suits them best at the moment. They either picture a passing masculine trans man or a femme-presenting non-binary person. Both of these prototypes are skinny and White and relatively palatable to the general public. They find it easy to paint both as basically having cis privilege anyway, just wanting to play up their oppression to make people feel bad for them or excuse their (trans)misogyny. They’ll call the former a misogynistic dangerous Aiden and the latter a basically cis theyfab. There’s no room at all for people like me, people on T but still perceived as a butch lesbian. Closeted transmascs. Intersex transmascs. Multigender transmascs. Gnc transmascs who’ll wear a beard and a dress, but are allegedly exempt from experiencing transmisogyny. And yet even those two prototypes still get discriminated against, assaulted, and killed in cold blood. But that must have been despite their male/cis privilege.

It’s funny that those narratives are so dominant. Have you considered you’re seeing transmascs as privileged because you’re only hearing from the most privileged transmascs? That the handful of skinny White transmasc youtubers and musicians and celebrities you can name only got that far because they fit the picture? But invisibility is a privilege, so I guess the rest of us should shut up and be grateful.

tristamp post-timeskip woowoo!! injecting him with cowboy swag baybiee

also, a little bit of a redraw

One of my biggest pet peeves is the justice league being labelled as " The Avengers of DC" and its like. No? The avengers are law enforcement. The Justice League are volunteers

"white people understand violent resistance when it protects them personally"