Could you comrades [endearing] please recommend me any books on brain de-worming or non-discriminatory language? Or just guides in general.

I’m sure I have lots of blind spots that I haven’t addressed and a lot of self development to do, I don’t want to hurt a comrade for me to realise what I’ve said/believed is based on, or has connotations of discriminating beliefs/language.

I'm sorry in advance if this doesn't belong here

I have long covid from the single time I've ever had covid. I'm not a singer or a dancer, but if I got all the right training, I think my long covid symptoms limits my ability to physically endure performing a concert. These superstars are constantly sharing air with thousands of people in single nights. In airports, at shows, dance practice, parties, meetings. Are they hiding the news? Do they just view it as the flu and don't think it's worth reporting? What's happening?

Some questions I have:

1. Would you be interested in doing a reading for this?

Obviously the focus of the book is trans liberation, but if you’re cis I highly encourage participating as well. The book covers topics concerning gender that apply to cis people too, so don’t think that only trans people would benefit from reading it. From the book:

And if you do not identify as transgender or transsexual or intersexual, your life is diminished by our oppression as well. Your own choices as a man or a woman are sharply curtailed. Your individual journey to express yourself is shunted into one of two deeply carved ruts, and the social baggage you are handed is already packed.

This is a book that really everyone here should read and it’s not at all difficult to get through.

2. The chapters are fairly short. Would it be best to do 2 chapters a week or 1? There are 8 chapters total.

3. What day works best for posting the threads? I was thinking saturdays but would like to hear other opinions.

4. What comm would be the best place for the discussion threads? I was thinking https://hexbear.net/c/traaaaaaannnnnnnnnns but with another comm be more suitable? Maybe theory? Transby_liberation?

5. Any other suggestions for it?

Multiple European states, including the UK and France, have recently threatened sanctions against specific Israeli ministers and Spain has even suggested an arms embargo against Israel.

I believe most of these nations see Israel as an extension of the US and have long considered the US to be the benevolent overlord of Europe. Are they now doubting the reliability or benevolence of their overlord because of how volatile Trump is? I think it's fair to say the genocide would've progressed in the exact same way if Harris was president but would Europe have reacted the same way?

I guess I'm just asking for people's opinions here because it's hard to know what goes on in the minds of the demons that run Europe.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/5081694

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/5081692

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/5081691

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/5081688

We’ve just been told we can’t remain in the camp anymore. The host community no longer wants us there, and now over 300 LGBTQ+ refugees from Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Congo, and Ethiopia ...have been moved to Juba while we wait for our resettlement interviews.

UNHCR says they’ve run out of funds and cannot support us. Part of this crisis is due to deep funding cuts to humanitarian programs during the Trump administration cuts that are still impacting vulnerable communities like ours today.

They’ve told us there’s no shelter available, and finding a safe house big enough for all of us could put us at even greater risk. So we’ve been told to "blend in" ...but for openly queer and trans refugees that’s a dangerous and impossible ask.

I’m trying to raise enough to rent a small, safe apartment in Juba for myself and a few of my sisters. A place to breathe, rest, and survive while the process moves forward.

🏠 Our goal is $1,200 to cover:

Rent for 1 month

Basic food and water

Hygiene supplies

Emergency transportation or medicine

If you can give..even $5 or $10 it brings us closer to safety and hope. If not, a share can still save lives.

If anyone feels moved to help or wants to know how to support, you can DM me or check the link in my bio.

We are trans women. We are refugees. We are human. Please help us survive this chapter. 💔

Been seeing more and more evidence that mass literacy is both massively diminished compared to the 20th century and accelerating in its decline across the world, especially in relatively highly educated countries. This problem is obviously much more severe amongst the working class than others, as historically tends to be the case.

If we want the masses to get to grips with a communist understanding of the world, which requires a lot of reading and discussion of text, surely this is an issue we need to grapple with. Current political education initiatives usually bring together smaller, highly-literate (typically university educated) groups of people, which tend to remain insular and rarely seem to engage with the broader working class. I am convinced that a significant barrier to mass political education is that so many "literate" people are unable to read a simple paragraph.

How do we rectify this situation? It seems historically unique because in the past, illiterate people had no illusions about the fact that they couldn't read and were enthusiastic about learning (at least, in general). Nowadays, I can imagine that most people would not view their literacy as something that needs to be improved, and many will even react with hostility to such a suggestion.

What's the correct approach? Do we need to emphasise the practical rewards that those who engage with theoretical texts benefit from? Take a direct approach and offer reading comprehension sessions? Interested to hear what others think.

Where are "people" (Conservatives) getting this idea from? Governments do not have total information of the production of all goods produced in the world. How hard is it to understand they just look at the shipping location of items and their classified category?

Hello Comrades, I don’t know how to begin. Things have become incredibly heavy and frightening for me and my trans sisters here in South Sudan.

On May 23rd, the host community in Gorom Camp began pushing hard for our removal. We've faced constant hostility as trans refugees called devils, told we go against their culture but now it’s escalated. When conflict erupted in the area, they warned the UNHCR that they would "take matters into their own hands." That threat has now turned into action.

UNHCR and government officials recently held a general meeting and told us not to return to the camp “before anything worse happens.” Those still hiding in the camp were given only 10 days to leave, and they were clear: transgender people like me would be the first targets.

You may remember when our shelter was attacked. No one was held accountable. That was when we fled to Juba, seeking safety. But Juba is unaffordable. We’ve been surviving at a local church, barely getting by and now even thinking of going back to the camp seemed like an option… until this.

I’m tired. I’m scared. I’m doing my best to stay strong for my sisters, but it’s hard. We’re being forced out again with nowhere to go. I’m sharing this because I believe in solidarity. I believe someone out there will care.

Please share our story. Please speak our names. If you can offer support, even just by amplifying our voices, it means everything.

In love and struggle, Ate Onandrah (A proud trans woman and refugee living with HIV, resisting with dignity

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/5074369

I've been given this responsibility but I have no idea what to do. Right now my idea is to just get all of the songs that have been on the various GTA soundtracks and hope that adds up to something decent.

The MP3 player that this will be on has 64 GB and will be used for nothing but controlling the music.

I don't know if they're scared of Zionist counter protestors, or the state cracking down and arresting people, me losing my job, or what. Tbh, those are all fair reasons to be nervous, but I can't just keep reading about stuff without doing something. I know protests don't do a lot, but I feel like I should do something to start coalition building, organizing, and doing stuff on the streets with actual real life people. And I feel like I have to for all the people who can't for other reasons (social anxiety, disabilities, work schedules, etc).

On the other hand, we have a lot of debt, and I have a job that relies on government funds, plus I'm not the biggest guy, so I understand why she's scared. But I doubt anything will happen and I'll take precautions (leave phone in car, maybe wear a mask). Anyone got advice on how to navigate a relationship situation like this?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/30817458

It is becoming increasingly clear to me that I need to expand my social circle. Most people I'm in a position to see in real life regularly are filled with a lot of brainworms: owning property is seen as a goal that one would be crazy not to pursue, the police and military are seen as sacred institutions, and I even know a few trumpanzees. I need to make new connections, but I'm a weird suburbanite shut-in with a weird demeanor that is offputting to normal people, and I'm worried that trying to meet new friends through my existing friends will just further entrench me into the petite bourgeois crackershpere.

How do you meet based people when you're just far enough from the nearest city for regular travel back and forth to be inconvenient and are bad at making friends in the first place?

Haha jk...UNLESS

Anything y'all would think that would be important to cover / I shouldn't miss? I already have most of it put together, but I figure there's probably some good insights here.

Wondering if anyone has hard numbers on this - for instance, "NYC benefits from $X billions from NY State every year, and generates $X billions back to the state through income tax and other revenue streams every year" etc etc

I asked deep seek and it referenced comptroller reports but it was difficult to parse...

I take for granted that urban centers subsidize suburban and rural areas but would love to see hard numbers

Hello friends my spouse and I are moving to a relatively bikeable town but neither of us currently own bicycles (on account of not wanting to die on a rural highway). I know nothing about bicycles except for how to ride one.

Anyone have advice on what we should be looking for for bikes?

Details:

Spouse will be biking to work most days, about 15 minutes. They have some disability issues though and I think an e-bike would be really helpful for them to make the ride easier.

I will be driving a long distance if and when I get a job, but would still like a bike for around town, on weekends, running small errands etc. Grocery store is about 10 minutes biking, it would be nice to do a good amount of grocery shopping on bike. Hopefully the next place we move I’ll be able to bike to work, in which case I’ll definitely want an E-Bike because I’m the sweatiest person alive, so would ideally want something I could retrofit to an E-Bike if that’s a thing you can do?

Also, what are your favorite comebacks to bullies?

I need to stop trying to change unchangeable people. I've been through so many bad faith people who dehumanize at every turn whenever they feel they won't get consequences. I need to make there be consequences for dehumanization.

Someone said to me "What if there's a predatory creep that you don't know how to socially shut down, and they feel emboldened because you don't roast them?" I said that's happened. They said i need to practice in lower risk scenarios. Maybe I get roasted for calling someone an asshole. One day that can turn into me and the dehumanizer going 50/50, me and them both getting half the roast. But to even get there I have to start by being roasted by bullies.

I won't get anywhere if I don't start clapping back and getting roasted many times by many assholes.

I remember seeing bits and pieces on broadcast television as a child. About 10-15 years ago I downloaded it and watched it except for the very end; it became intolerably bad eventually.

I'm just in the first seasons this time round.

Misogyny, in particular (but not limited to)removed culture, is a notable comedic theme.

Later, the character Klinger who is pretending (? over emphasizing) to be crossdresser to evade military service adds trans misogyny as a comedic theme.

There are undertones of racism, colonialism, anti-communism.

On the upside, there is a pervasive liberal humanism. MASH was thinly veiled metaphor using the Korean war for the contemporaneous Vietnam war. It was ostensibly anti-imperialist, and anti-American. It's hard to write anything apologetic here, but it doesn't all suck.

It is on archive: https://archive.org/details/MASH-Complete-Series

I haven't watched it "Without Laugh Track" that might be a different experience.

IDK shit about AmeriCorps. Anyone got the lowdown on them?

The actual org I'd be working with is an anti-homelessness org in my city. The pay is super low and they were transparent in saying "yeah a lot of the people that work with us have other jobs" but after 2 years of hardly any income, and a chance at a job where I'd actually be helping people, I'd take it in a second.

Guess what I'm looking for here, is "is there anything shitty about AmeriCorps I should know if they offer me a job?"

The white woman was wearing a backpack(looking like a tourist). She was wearing fluorescent, neon colored clothing while everything and everyone around her was colored black and white.

white men can't fly but I need to know can white men boat

how safe is it to go on a cruise ship versus an airplane? Because it definitely ain't that safe to go on an airplane

It's worded funny bc I am on a lot of Allergy pills on accident, hat man says hi.

I went to my town’s memorial day parade entirely to support my kid, who was playing an instrument in the parade. It was a beautiful day and a really pure distillation of America there. Cops, fire department, a handful of veterans (some of them looking young enough to be volksturm), boomers driving ancient convertibles, lots of kids playing terrible music, and loads of fascists and liberals having a good time. A little girl asked if I wanted a flag, and I said “no thanks.” That was about as radical as I got. I thought they would all kill me if I whipped out my Palestinian flag.

My fucking putrid father said he was glad the new neighbors were "not from the city" when he only knew what they looked like (white). Dude, you're not fooling me, I know you're a fucking nazi dipshit. You're not hiding it here and you're not hiding it when you keep referring to animals that breed in the wild exclusively as "sl*ts". Also thinks it's normal to talk about asking ever delivery driver at work "where they're from."

But I hear how he talks to other people not me and he's definitely trying to hide it, but he's too fucking stupid. Meanwhile if I tell fellow family members they just shake it off.