A lot of brewskis have noticed my slow down these last few months and this is the major reason for it. Yes, a person at my work has been following me at the beginnings of my shifts and has not gotten any repercussion. I don't feel safe anymore. My partner and I are moving, but even still we don't feel comfortable with me working at that place, however it's difficult as I don't have a college degree and this place pays more than most jobs around here.
We have some plans in place, but I'm financially struggling. I hate to do this, but I created a ko-fi to help with relocation and to help stifle some of the burden of quitting this job. All the money would go towards things like rent, groceries, and car payments. I do have a Patreon, but it isn't bringing in enough to help with this issue and I'm debating about deleting it due to me not being able to keep up with things over there.
Anything helps, but don't donate if you can't---reading this and sharing it will be a massive help still <3
Are you a student who is unable to donate to Palestine, but still want ways to show your support?
Me too! Unfortunately, searching up ways for students who can't drive, spend money, or drop school for a week to show solidarity for Palestine just comes up with "centrist" (if not blatantly pro-israel) articles for teachers telling them how to stay neutral during discussions with students. So! Here are some ways that I've thought of to bring pro palestine sentiment into your school and community! You are more than encouraged to add on any ideas of your own!
Wear shirts, pins, or anything outwardly pro palestine. If you can't find something, make it.
Email your representatives. Email Congress. Email the White House, or whatever your country's equivalent would be. Let the people in charge know you want a ceasefire
Talk to your local library about holding an educational night about the genocide, and/or about Palestinian culture.
Talk to your peers. Find people who share your views. Create a fuss together.
Talk to your teachers about it. Having an authority figure on your side could make things so much easier for you.
Make stickers, posters, pamphlets, etc to put up around your school, town/city, anywhere you can.
Educate yourself on anti-palestine talking points and how to refute them in a calm and logical manner. (Palestinian Toolkit is a great website for that)
Speak up! It's fucking scary, but if you can, don't let people's bigotry go unchecked. (You can use knowledge from the last point to make it easier to talk)
But also, know when to give up. It sucks, but not everyone is worth wasting your time debating. Some people won't change their mind no matter what.
Simple things you can do right now to support Gaza if you can't strike by staying home from work/school
queue posts about Palestine to regularly post throughout the week to keep them visible. Check tags like: #strike for gaza, #free gaza, #ceasefire now. I'm going to share posts from Bisan and other Palestinians on instagram.
don't spend money on nonessentials. if you didn't have time to prepare for the strike and still need to get groceries/medicine/etc, get it now to prepare for not spending the rest of the week! striking for even part of the week is better than not participating at all.
read bit.ly/StopGazaGenocide, this is a document put together by the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR) with lots of good information and graphics and link to art you can freely use to spread awareness. There is also a link to email your representatives to urge them to stop supporting the occupation and the email is pre-generated! it took me one minute to send emails!
email your representatives that you are striking for Palestine!
keep talking about Palestine. keep reading about Palestine. keep caring about Palestine. If you make even one person pay attention, you've done good work! keep going!
Do what you can! Doing ANYTHING is better than doing nothing.
Now that the quality of Duolingo has fallen (even more) due to AI and people are more willing to make the jump here are just some alternative apps and what languages they have:
Language Transfer (Languages: French, Swahili, Italian, Greek, German, Turkish, Arabic, Spanish, English for Spanish Speakers)
"I want a good audio-based app and money's no object"
Pimsleur (Literally so many languages)
Glossika (Also a lot of languages, but minority languages are free)
*anecdote: I borrowed my brother's Japanese Pimsleur CD as a kid and I still remember how to say the weather is nice over a decade later. You can find the CDs at libraries and "other" places I'm sure.
"I have a pretty neat library card"
Mango (Languages: So many and all endangered/Indigenous courses are free even if you don't have a library that has a partnership with Mango)
"I want SRS flashcards and have an android"
AnkiDroid: (Theoretically all languages, pre-made decks can be found easily)
"I want SRS flashcards and I have an iphone"
AnkiApp: It's almost as good as AnkiDroid and free compared to the official Anki app for iphone
"I don't mind ads and just want to learn Korean"
lingory
"I want an app made for Mandarin that's BETTER than DL and has multiple languages to learn Mandarin in"
ChineseSkill (You can use their older version of the course for free)
"I don't like any of these apps you mentioned already, give me one more"
Bunpo: (Languages: Japanese, Spanish, French, German, Korean, and Mandarin)
Glad you deleted Test Subjects. Felt like you were fetishizing and invalidating victims of sa
I've been honestly ignoring them but honestly kinda had enough of it.
I was going to address why I took that fic down and also, thanks for naming it. Very nice of you. Fuck it. I'll address it here and now:
I was pulling from my own experience of being groomed and sexually assaulted when I was 14. I was putting how I felt and what horror I went through during that situation. This was a personal project I wanted to share and write. So good job on insulting a victim
I was going to be much. And I mean MUCH harsher in my response. But I'm going to say this:
If you see media regardless being fan made or original works and it has dark topics with CONTENT WARNINGS AND TAGS and you go past those barriers and GET MAD IT EXISTS. That's a YOU problem. Not MY fault you got upset that you lack the comprehension of understanding media literacy.
Legit shit like this is why I'm excited but hesitant to release Eliot's story. Oh no I'm tackling known information 'bout Eliot's childhood.
That's all I'm gonna say, watch this video. It's a good video on the topic of not looking at media at face value thanks