I used to talk more openly about my experience as a trans person, which is why I think so many people started following me. At some point last year, as I was about to hit 3 years of transition, I became deeply uncomfortable with trans community, discourse, & my lack of privacy.

My own gender dysphoria & internalized transphobia came raging back in ways that I didn’t expect it to. I’ve been struggling for the better part of a year. I rarely take selfies anymore. I closed my DMs, which I used to use to support others. I don’t talk about being trans much.

I spent most of 2020 becoming completely disillusioned by the effectiveness of hormones. Basically, I’ve built up a lot of resentment about finding myself on the wrong side of YMMV. I feel miles behind where I should be when comparing my experience to that of my peers.

In therapy, I’m back to working primarily on gender dysphoria, positive self-talk, & proactivity in transition. Like many people, my transition stalled completely in 2020. I accomplished nothing new, practically speaking. No documents signed, no dates set, no dreams coming true.

My therapist & I are working on learning to be happy if - hypothetically - transition were over right now. No more puberty, no surgeries, no changes. How do I go from feeling unsatisfied, jealous of others, & resentful to feeling happy, hopeful, & secure in my body & my identity?

Clear communication is so important in times of national crisis. With no articulation of the goals and challenges, there is wavering trust in our leaders to lead us through this long dark period of Canadian history.

This is true for all levels of health care administration.

With the Covid pandemic, physicians and nurses locally rallied to the cause. We enjoined with our leaders on this great and patriotic national enterprise to keep our patients and our communities safe.

We were all in it together; and then we were not.

I am, through daily conversations with nursing and physician colleagues, coming to the sad realization that many health care providers now feel abandoned.

We know vaccinations are coming on stream and though we are seeing Covid patients, we also realize that there are individuals and communities in greater need and that we will have to be patient.

What is truly irksome is the total lack of communication from health care authorities and leaders.

They operate behind shrouds of silence. Information is limited, is released in dribs and drabs and is generally unhelpful.

When Leah talked before a grand jury in 2012 many of her immediate friends leaped to her defense. Thankfully it was rather easy to box largely apolitical kids only passing through the punk scene out of anarchism forever. I worry the coming wave of repression will be far messier.

Today many folks see social media spaces like twitter *as* the movement or scene. And many folks less committed AFK can be louder on here, which means the housemates and buds of a snitch might create giant flamewars online, also making it harder for onlookers to discern norms.

Further, the next wave of state repression is probably going to look more like the 00s Green Scare than the 2012 Grand Jury, that is to say, *many* trials simultaneously. And *a fuck ton* of people snitched in the Green Scare.

I chalk the mass snitching in the Green Scare up to 1) many of the targets and their circles being only loosely ideological / firmly in the scene, and 2) the sheer scale of the repression, which sometimes let snitches bond together.

In contrast situations where Grand Juries failed usually involved highly ideological, highly committed people, with intense binds to the anarchist AFK scene. Folks for whom "I guess we're just going underground / serving time" was not a surprise development.

well, the new york deadline is sunday so i am finally applying for health insurance today. (i wouldn't be able to use the insurance until february 1st anyway, so i put it off.) i played through demon's souls FOUR TIMES in the past month and i still don't understand this system

the psychopaths in charge talk about how valuable "choice" is, though literally all of the plans offered to me have a three out of five star rating. except the "new" plans, which i guess will be three stars next year. also notice a column for an attribute which is ALWAYS "no" lol

this baroque, bizarre, unreadable-on-a-mobile-phone website logs me out automatically seemingly every three minutes, always without warning, usually while i'm entering data. click "next," get an error. it took me two months of such trials to get all my info plugged in for today.

i don't understand the differences between any of these plans. i have been on the phone regularly with my doctors these past couple months, trying desperately to find a plan they all agree on. i narrowed it down to four plans. three are $1200 per month. one is $957

i have a higher IQ than any sitting US senator. more importantly, i have beaten BERWICK SAGA for playstation 2 more than twice. i still don't exactly understand what a deductible is lmao

Like @ezraklein I was born and raised in OC and educated at a UC. He is right to point to some of CA's problems. But they aren't a sign "progressivism cannot work here". It's a sign corporate/right-wing power hasn't been sufficiently broken.

In the late 1970s an alliance of suburbanites, corporations, and right-wingers rigged state government to make it nearly impossible to use CA's power to meet the full scope of human needs, from housing to schools to jobs.

Over the last 40+ years progressives have had growing success chipping away at that edifice. But it's a struggle. Props 15 and 22 demonstrate the obstacles that remain.

(Rather, the failure of Prop 15.)

December 14th

Dearest John,
I went to the door today and the postman delivered a partridge in a pear tree. What a delightful gift. I couldn't have been more surprised.
With dearest love and affection, Agnes

December 15th

Dearest John,
Today the postman brought your very sweet gift. Just imagine, two turtle doves.... I'm just delighted at your very thoughtful gift. They are just adorable.
All my love, Agnes

December 16th

Dear John,
Oh, aren't you the extravagant one! Now I must protest. I don't deserve such generosity. Three French hens. They are just darling but I must insist.... you're just too kind.
Love Agnes

December 17th

Today the postman delivered four calling birds. Now really! They are beautiful, but don't you think enough is enough? You're being too romantic.
Affectionately, Agnes

December 18th

Dearest John,
What a surprise! Today the postman delivered five golden rings. One for each finger. You're just impossible, but I love it. Frankly, John, all those squawking birds were beginning to get on my nerves.
All my love, Agnes

The real Xmas miracle is thinking Katherine Murphy is one of the nation’s best political writers, and that The Guardian is left-wing.
She’s not.
It’s not.
Confusing #ScottyFromHillsong with the PM shows how effectively the PMO spins stuff to the Gallery.

Like her colleagues on #Insiders, Murphy laps up the spin and regurgitates it as her special sauce insight.

It’s not insightful, it’s just stenographic repetition of a failing ideology.
It starts from the false premise that our game of mates system is a democracy.
It’s not.

Journalists love to separate base and superstructure as if the political sphere operates independently from the economy.
It doesn’t.
Capitalism requires a veneer of political democracy built on commodity fetishism to mask the economic inequality that is endemic.
Gallery is blind

to this glaring contradiction because they buy into the systemic lie that a formal equality of opportunity exists and that through application of the Protestant work ethic anybody can become a member of the wealthy elite.
They can’t.
Class inequalities are an essential feature

of capitalism and papering them over with idealist gibberish about democracy just perpetuates class divisions.
Journalists don’t see it because they are incapable of critical, independent, materialist analysis.
They cling to the Fourth Estate delusion of objectivity and balance

not to go anthropological on everyone but america, the nation, truly does not have much culture and very little history.

we do not respect the land and it's people.
we do not respect each other or newcomers.

and although these aren't specific to america, they are stronger here

america is built on capitalism and very few other values under the false pretense of social and class mobility. but if that were true than most everyone in this country would not be as poor as they are. and we wouldn't have billionaires who profit off of dying people.

america might be the land of dreams but like most dreams there is a harsh reality to wake up to. the people here are probably worse off than most other nations under the skewed and inaccurate qualifier that is GDP per capita.

just because america is rich doesn't make it good.

and then there's america's political influence that pretty much forces other nations into becoming capitalistic, thus slowing all social progress in the name of greed.

I don't hate capitalism as much as you'd think but I do hate greed, and capitalism is rarely without greed.

since america is such a consumer culture as well, preservation is often looked down upon. for instance, cutting down trees for wood, or not respecting burial sites or sacred land in the name of progress.

this often has a multitude of consequences and some that we can't fix.

Inside Sales Account Representative - Telco, South Africa (#Johannesburg, South Africa) #job

Accounting Tutor - South

Legal Head - South Africa #LLBTwitter

Account

External Communication Principal - Anglo

Bear with me here for a moment.

There are acceptable "censorships" and censorships which you should stand up against - because sooner or later the latter will bite you in the ass too.

So, on the top of the acceptable so called "censorship" - it's basically platforms and media moderating content published there. It is better when they have their own criteria, more conservative than the legal framework, in order to keep content in line with their goals/agendas.

Under this fall, e. g., news portals moderating comments under their articles and hand-picking their staff and guest authors who are being published on it.

It also applies to fringe portals; Breitbart has a full authority to censor me if I go nuts and decide to comment there.

I will mention here free market for the first time. Free market provides and private media (unlike one owned by the state) are not expected to be unbiased. There are obviously issues with that too, but it's less of a problem than not having them like that.

So, you get it. You run a platform where you publish your content and you want to try and benefit from your consumers' engagement. Please, by all means, do moderate it. I don't care where you are on the political or social spectrum - moderate the hell out of it.

Two years ago next week my whole world crumbled & I’m feeling so many things about it. Mostly, I’m just grateful I’m still alive & I’m doing things I love. But I’m also grieving & I want to share this because I know I’m not alone in going through scary stuff & there is hope.

I experienced some of the most traumatic events of my life in Feb 2019, when leadership of the church I was a part of decided after nearly a year they were not ok with my decision to speak up about abuse I had suffered during my time there.

The leader who assaulted & abused me was no longer there, & up until this point I had believed platitudes that the rest of the team cared about what had happened. But I never saw any actual reform or self-reflection about the fact that this happened to an 18 year old intern.

The trauma from being assaulted was obvious & expected. But the trauma that came from the institutional betrayal was the deepest cut. Leaders who had prayed with me sat in front of me & laughed as I cried over words they had said about me behind my back. I was devastated.

Most of my friendships existed within that institution, & when this betrayal happened those friendships went silent. Overnight, I lost my entire support system, over lies said about me that I wouldn’t have access to read until I got a lawyer & they had to turn them over.

I talk with people I respect and wish to learn from.

I engage in discussion not to prove that I am right, but to test ideas and be open to learning how I may be wrong. Ideas are put through the crucible, refined, clarified, discarded.

Democracy was built on debate.
1/

1/

I try my best to be collegial, but also to appear to be. Twitter format doesn't always make it easy, and sometimes I fall short.

I sometimes worry that we are losing the art of discussion.

2 /

I think to our predecessors who without technology, would exchange and debate ideas across vast distances with lengthy, meticulously handwritten letters.

The act of forging ideas this way likely forced a thoughtfulness...

3 /

The cost of waiting a month for a reply only to have your idea misunderstood or easily refuted is quite high; this placed a premium on critical thinking - best to make your point well the first time.

It's easy to see how cordialities became so common in those eras.

4 /

Best not affront your pen pal after you spent several days composing your thoughts and weeks waiting to hear back.

Great ideas were forged this way. The enlightenment.

Twitter's format does influence how we communicate, how we think, and how we perceive each other.

5 /

I think Romans 14 helps us on the matter of wearing masks, though I am not saying that those who believe we should wear masks are weak in faith.

Remember in Romans 14 the strong believed they could eat foods that were unclean according to the OT (Lev. 11 & Deut. 14), and they also believed that the sabbath and special feast days were no longer mandatory.

The weak thought one should refrain from eating food deemed unclean in the OT and also believed the sabbath and other feasts should be observed.

Paul clearly agrees with the strong theologically. No food is unclean now that the new covenant has arrived and Christ has come (Rom. 14:14, 20). The feast and sabbath days are no longer required (Rom. 14:5–6).

Still, when with the weak, they should refrain from eating unclean foods out of love for their brothers and sisters who think differently.

When you begin to see how many harmful practices are tied to and/or depend upon abortion, you can't ever look at it the same:

- rape
- child brides
- human trafficking
- corporate denial of loss for fetal homicide, miscarriage, or stillbirth
- lack of informed consent for minors

- domestic violence
- marginalization of the impoverished
- ableism against otherly abled
- misogyny of sex selection
- targeting of minorities/refugees/immigrants
- gaslighting of women wounded
- disempowerment of women who want to birth live children
- children seen as burdens

- separation of mother/child bond
- wedge between fathers and mothers
- removal of father's rights
- encouragement to men to treat women as sport
- perpetual dismissal of child rights
- degradation of women's biology
- ignorance of maternal mortality causes/solutions

- doctors pitted against patients
- conscience protection ripped from practitioners
- a shift from triage to hierarchy of human worth
- creating categories of despensible people
- encouraging death in response for suffering
- reduction in the value of human life

- research on humans that gave no consent
- separation, transfer, and sale of human body parts
- eugenics
- attempts to create "ideal" humans
- eugenics in IVF practices
- disposal of millions of embryos in IVF
- commodifcation of humans
- sale of humans in adoption practices

@gettleman only 1.9% of farmers in US are African Americans .. But you yap nonsense about India .. wonder when will you white pigs leave the lands you usurped from natives n return to Europe ? The world has had enough with you white arse h0les.. your entire history stinks

how many overseas bases have you decolonised ? Just last year the ICJ ruled against USA n UK but you white pigs refused to vacate Chagos , you made 1000s of Chagossians homeless for your military base...

USA has used Latin America like it's colony .. you killed people to just make profit out of bananas .. you converted ppl of bikini n Marshall islands to Shitianity but used them as guinea pigs for your radiation exposure tests .. your country should be punished

(Thread)
1/ It doesn’t matter whether you’re black, white, brown, or anywhere in between- if you were born in America, you won the world lottery.

Our nation, which makes up under 5% of the world population, holds the vast majority of its wealth and power.

Long, VERY LONG thread👇👇👇:

1- Reflections on yesterday’s storming of the Capitol, and the responsibility borne by the sensationalist inflammatory indecent dishonest Media of the 21st century for those events, their clones, their antecedents, and their aftermath.

2- To be fair, 21st century media are stuck between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand they suffer a paucity of old-style journalists & beat-reporters; on the other hand they face stiff competition & “news” overkill from new forms of media, what the French call GAFTA;

3- that is to say Google Apple Facebook Twitter Amazon and 24-hour news channels etc.) Thus the Media today are no more than glittering (that is to say cheap vulgar bling bling) platforms for sensationalism, scoops, “citizen journalism,” oversimplifications, jingles, slogans,

4- punchlines, shock-jock “fast-food” type of opinion (not to say opinionated) journalism and talk-show-type “reporting” at the expense of substantive probing investigative journalism and transmission of knowledge.

5- In this world of superficiality, where the “honor” of being a journalist (or for that matter a cognoscenti) is given to those who don’t deserve it, EVERYONE becomes an expert, a pundit, an analyst, an interpreter, a philosopher…