Sotce
while i was trying to wade through the large amounts of people trying to leave the central subway station, everyone abruptly came to a halt in front of the subway turnstiles. two french girls had misunderstood the tap-out process, and one of them was now stuck behind the gate. as i was wracking my brain on how to explain the tap-in tap-out process of the milan metro to both of them with my rudimentary french while they both got increasingly upset at the closed gate between them, a young teenager suddenly pushed me to the side.
i was just about to give him my most scathing disgruntled glare when he took out his ticket and, after realizing they had no common language, started gesticulating wildly in front of the french girl left behind. he pointed at the ticket, then at her, and very seriously said: “on three, we go.” she nodded, and after he counted to three, holding up his fingers so there could be no confusion, they sprinted through the gate together, giggling profusely afterwards as if they had just pulled off the heist of the century,
it was just a small moment during the morning commute. but i realized then and there that the time i had spent trying to intellectualize the problem and wondering if my lack of language skills would be awkward the situation could have already been resolved. and that while i had been mad about being pushed aside, the teenager got it exactly right: no questions, no fear or shyness, just direct action to help where you can and rushing there to do so. i think about him every time now when i run to lift someone’s pram or ask a lost looking person if they need my help despite the fear of being rude. on three, we go.
Today is going to be rough for so many people. It's going to be rough for you. There are things you can't change today.
But you can take care of yourself. Eat breakfast, drink water, take a long shower, put on clean clothes/favorite clothes. Checking in on the politics as needed, rather than wallowing in them all day. Put on a comfort movie or show, and watch that for a while. Focus on your job if you have to be there today. Reach out if you need help.
You can also check in on your friends- making sure they have eaten and had water and showered and have something comforting. Reach out if they might need help. The only way out of this is through, and we need each other to get there.
We will have a long fight ahead of us for the next 4 years. We would have had a long fight ahead of us regardless of who won; only the kind of fight would have been different. This is the fight we have: survival and damage control. Not the fight we wanted, but it is what it is, and we're still going to use tooth and nail.
Today is Day 1.
Today is checking with your clerk's office, if you mailed your ballot, to ensure your ballot got counted. Today is weathering the despair. Today is taking care of yourself and checking on your loved ones to make sure they have what they need to weather Day 1 with you.
Tomorrow is resolving to vote in the next local elections to aid in damage control, and planning the next steps.
Survival and damage control.
Hope is not a fragile flower, easily crushed beneath a fascist boot. Hope is a fighter with blood on her knuckles and dirt on her knees, and we are going to help her get back on her feet every time.
I woke up and checked things and started to spiral.
And then I took a deep breath.
Okay kids. It's time to listen to your organizer elders.
I don't care if every call is reversed and she wins by 30 electoral points.
Get involved. Do one thing to make the world better: mutual aid, volunteer, join your local political groups, read to kids, go to community groups.
Survival on this blue spinning ball means coalition building. It means accepting you save the world by doing what you are good at and sharing it with others.
It means to stop looking for saviors in your political choices, and also not crucifying them. It means getting away from political purity and ideology and fucking working toward the next one and the next one.
Political change is different than political theater. It takes work. So much work. And if you are tired, tap out, but don't leave the game.
Guess what happened tonight?
The first openly Trans woman was elected to congress.
2 black women are serving together in the senate.
It is ugly and it sucks and we need to take a breath, take a nap, and then get up off the mat.
We can do better.
But we gotta do it together.
Wallow as you need but turn that emotion into fuel. Canada, too.
I’m not in the US, but we also recently had a shit of an election. I needed this post.
Come together. The more of us there are, the more we can tap someone else in when we need a break.
Grieve AND organize.
Good article by David Hunter on how to survive the Trump presidency, both on the personal and on the political plane.
This is an excellent article. It talks about the psychology of tyranny, the history of resistance and the paths we have to take to rescue each other and recover.
This is going to fucking suck but I will not do my enemies’ work for them. I will not just roll over and fucking die.
the early 2000s were truly a dire time because this television program is firing on all cylinders trying to gaslight me into thinking this woman is completely and totally heterosexual
that woman made me gay and I had to believe she doesn't want to fuck MILF president Roslin? please
Shout out to all the Black ppl that can no longer participate directly in the fandom they love because of the stresses of racism 👍🏾 you contain multitudes of value and I'm sorry that the color of your skin and the power of your voice makes people not want to acknowledge that.
Yes, nonblack people can reblog. I'd appreciate it, in fact, if y'all took the time to vocally support your Black friends/fans in fandom.
Hello fellow sloppy bisexuals how is not putting away the laundry going
Bumper sticker I saw on my walk today
chronically on tumblr because something’s not wired right inside of me
I can literally feel which of my molecules are polar and which are nonpolar. I have a sensitivty to the dipole moment. And thats why I avoid big magnets. Because I can feel them twisting around. Its the same with resonance structures except I can hear rather than feel them. Which is why I understand the speech of the veins and the stomach. Because of the carbonate and hydrochloric acid respectively.