These are the people that are gonna stand up for trans rights

our midwife gave us some very solid advice to talk about with the pediatrician and ended it with "make sure to tell him you got this fror chatgpt and not a midwife, it makes doctors take you more seriously" :agony:

honestly she is such a well of information and such a kind-hearted good person and an elite expert, the stuff this woman can recall of the top of her head is mind-boggling, but gets slandered by our pediatricians boss it's fucking gut-wrenching. They keep saying that she is part of some circle of sheisters that recommend unnecessary procedures to make bank and we know the truth but there's nothing we can do...

• The !asklemmy@lemmy.ml thread: https://lemmy.ml/post/45040130
• The !worldnews@lemmy.ml thread https://lemmy.ml/post/45067752
• The most wretched one, the lemmy.world thread https://lemmy.world/post/44762557

Fill in your lib bingo cards (they are all free spaces) its all on display (slightly) paraphrasing:

• slavery wasnt that bad, ever heard of the HOLOCAUST? The genocide created solely to eradicate jews and did not target anyone else that mattered^[https://lemmy.ml/post/45040130/24779361]
• "Pointless" semantic squabbling (the point is ofcourse to draw attention away from the topic at hand)^[https://lemmy.ml/post/45067752/24791184]
• but china^[https://lemmy.ml/post/45040130/24787830]
• the west is actually taking a stand against oppression olympics^[https://lemmy.ml/post/45040130/24776209]
• the west are actually the ones who care about international law^[https://lemmy.ml/post/45067752/24792260] (said by a german )
• german claims to be part of a non-slaver country^[https://lemmy.world/post/44762557/22884230]
• Holodomor^[https://lemmy.ml/post/45040130/24776247] china famine^[https://lemmy.ml/post/45040130/24787772] were as bad as the holocaust and the trans-atlantic slave trade
• black people arent that innocent either sweetey^[https://lemmy.world/post/44762557/22877835] ^[https://lemmy.ml/post/45040130/24787388] ^[https://lemmy.world/post/44762557/22889476]
• This is only about money^[https://lemmy.ml/post/45040130/24783498]
• I didn't do it, so I shouldn't pay reparations^[https://lemmy.world/post/44762557/22876585]
• slavery is just human nature^[https://lemmy.ml/post/45035509/24779781] ^[https://lemmy.world/post/44762557/22882458] and we have more important things rn^[https://lemmy.ml/post/45040130/24790003]
• this is ancient history and not really all that relevant now^[https://lemmy.world/post/44762557/22888155]

out in full force

I made this comment on vegan@slrpnk.net and it feels like something I want to revisit at some point, or post at others who go on about "easing into veganism" But a random comment might get lost and also I'd like some feedback on it.

The problem with “Eventually affordable cruelty-free meat” is that it gives the fence sitters a cushion to delay making a commitment. And we need people to make a hard commitment, either against veganism (i. e. nothing changes) or for veganism (i. e. suffering reduces). There are a certain type of people that wear cruelty like a badge of honor. There was no convincing them anyway. But for most people I would think the cognitive dissonance “I don’t like being cruel vs. I am being cruel” simply has to outweigh the perceived amount of labor that goes into changing ones habits.

And I understand that meat-alternatives tip the scales by lessening the amount of labor required to change ones dietary habits, which is great. I am hugely in favor of that. But there are a couple things that I feel one needs to be mindful of.

a. The focus gets shifted away from the animals and to the “sacrifices” the (former?) oppressor has to make. E.g. This salami is good, but not as good as the "real" one
b. There is a constant reminder of the "sacrifices" the vegan makes. In contrast to the cruelty that is usually completely invisible to the consumer. E.g. every time I eat some vegan salami
c. Substituting meat with vegan alternatives means that if someone decides they are “done sacrificing” comfort, they can simply substitute back. E.g. It's been such a stressful week, sick of all the vegan salami, just this once...
d. It makes it harder for children of vegan parents to recognise vegan food vs non-vegan food. E. g. Yeah we eat salami at home, so why shouldn’t I eat the salami in the kindergarden? I wish we had more of an alienation from non-vegan food from the beginning with our kids.

It’s the nicotine patches argument all over again. I’m not against meat-alternatives per se, but (here in Germany) there’s such a huge huge trend to offer all kinds of alternatives with little thought given to how we should be approaching this problem. Free nicotine patches to all addicts sounds great but there needs to be a movement for moving past “nicotine addiction” in general which I’m not seeing anywhere.

With the lab-grown flesh stuff I fear all the points above amplified 100fold. It’s functionally flesh, that's the whole point. Plus since it’s not a practicable alternative it has, for the past 13 years, actually tipped the scales in favor of the “cruelty” cognitive dissonance, by giving it an “eventually”. The amount of (perceived) labor seems greater now than it will be once an "affordable(!) flesh-substitute" arrives, which is somehow always right around the corner. The “I'm too stressed to give up smoking right now” argument. Like yeah don’t quit smoking a week before a big exam, but don’t wait until you can afford a beach vacation either.

I hope that makes sense, in a vegan context it’s of course a bit different because the stakes are quite a bit higher. Do give up murdering as soon as possible. An exam is not more important than someones life. But if you're so dependant on your current dietary habits that you couldn't function without it due to some health concerns then lab-grown flesh or other alternatives might be an idea? It is kind of hard because here the oppressors have to police themselves. This is a situation where the oppressed cannot make their voices heard and so we must double and triple-check ourselves and when in doubt go with the more laborious option.

There's also the point about the food traditions we pass on. (Which is the thread that sparked this argument)

Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past. The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living.

Like yeah we are dealt this hand by the generations before us and we have to make the best of it, but lets also be mindful of how we are passing things on. Do we really want the next generation to have lab-grown flesh as a staple in their diet?

Only true patriots will remember

I think this goes here

I am really really enjoying this book lol Terrible shame it's literally written for the US Department of War

The book is ALL THE ARABIC YOU NEVER LEARNED THE FIRST TIME AROUND

https://gulfarabicresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/All-The-Arabic-You-Never-Learned-The-First-Time-Around-by-James-Price.pdf

A properly OCR'd version is available on Annas Archive

Alt text didn't fit so here it is

How Should You Use This Book?

I know that students never read the preface to a book so I am including the material below in this section instead. Yes, I know that you know everything in the world about how to study Arabic and even more about how to work through a self-study guide. That is why your Arabic is weak and your I grammatical knowledge embarrasses you. So take a minute and read the following.

C. The Idaafa

The idaafa is an extremely important construction in Arabic. It is very easy, basic, and bold and uppercase ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL for any student of the language who wants ever to be able to do anythmg at all in Arabic. I am upset about the number of students who have had several years of Arabic and do not know the difference between an idaafa and a noun-adjective phrase. In fact, many students do not seem to know the difference between an idaafa and a French horn. The noun-adjective phrase will be taught in the next chapter. The French horn will not.

Now look at the second idaafa. The first term is مدرس. It does not have nunation because the first term of an idaafa bold and uppercase NEVER has nunation. The second term of this idaafa المكتب is in the genitive case because the second term of every idaafa in the entire length and breadth of the history of this great language is always genitive.

But we have a difference between this second idaafa and the first idaafa. The second term of the second idaafa المكتب is definite. Because it is definite, it will not have nunation. But there is something even more important. Because the second term is definite, bold and uppercase THE ENTIRE IDAAFA IS DEFINITE. Thus, this idaafa means, literally, "the director of the office". This means that the first term of this idaafa is definite even though it does not itself have the definite article. Now hear this: bold uppercase and underlined THE FIRST TERM OF AN IDAAFA NEVER HAS THE DEFINITE ARTICLE. This means that the first term of an idaafa never has the definite article.

I know that this explanation may seem repetitive. But you must know these things. If you do not understand what an idaafa is, or do not understand the relationship of the words in an idaafa to each other, you will never understand Arabic above the level of a two year old, or of an American journalist.

Here are some examples of these things that you should be aware of

1.The director of this office is a moron. 2.The study of Arabic grammar is enjoyable. 3. Her office is a large office.

In both sentences, هذا has been changed to هذه. I hope I do not have to explain this. Now, in both sentences you see that the adjective is now feminine and that all else remains the same with respect to agreement between the noun and the adjective. The message should be sinking in about now. Just in case, here are the rules of agreement between nouns and adjectives.

Change diapers and finally go to bed

Stop جing the camera!