Because my comics have gone around the internet, many people have asked if I’ve “gotten better yet”. The answer is a firm NO because that’s not how post-viral illness triggered by an infection that causes organ and brain damage works. Please consider your behavior and who you are leaving behind.
Check out the People’s CDC here where they provide weekly updates on the COVID situation in the U.S.
ID in alt text and below!
i will never forgive the internet for what it did to the word “mansplain”
mansplaining is a very specific phenomonon wherein a man who is NOT qualified to talk about a topic assumed he knows better than other people who ARE qualified, purely because of sexism.
sharing a fun fact you learned isnt mansplaining. infodumping isnt mansplaining. adding your relevant personal experience to a discussion isn’t mansplaining, (as long as you remain respectful of others’ experiences as well, but that’s always true). correcting someone who is objectively wrong and spreading misinformation REALLY isn’t mansplaining.
stop telling men that all of their interests and attempts at socializing are insulting and unwanted, your gender essentialism is showing.
people in my REAL LIFE i have had to convince i like to hear them talk, really:
people who AREN’T self-conscious about this:
this is making the rounds again and the amount of people in the notes accusing me of being a man is hilarious. like no i just dont like being mean to people and alienating my friends, sorry.
I would like to add men of colour talking about their oppression.
[Plain text: I would like to add men of colour talking about their oppression.]
Quotes from the Everything Everywhere All At Once Directors’ commentary, part 1 of 2
I feel like we always see parents who are 100% super supportive allies, or parents who are horrible and cruel. At least in media or in the most popular stories. But I feel like that ignores just how many people have parents where you just have no idea? And even if you think they’ll accept you on a surface level, you don’t know if they have a breaking point. Especially if you need to go on hrt, or request they change the way they think about and refer to you. Sure they’re liberal and all, or centrists, or “tolerant”, but how far does that stretch?
I think most closeted LGBT+ kids live like this, wading around in the grey area. I’d like it of more of us knew that was normal, I’d like if we talked about it more.
We really, really don’t acknowledge the banal, disappointing reactions, and what those can do. When my husband came out to my MIL, her reaction was “Can I take some time to think about this?” and then she never, ever spoke about it again.
My MIL is not an awful person. She’s a loving mother who carries emotional scars from having been in an abusive relationship with her minister husband for a long time, which has left her with a disabling preoccupation with “What might the neighbours say” in her life, and that often means she makes poor choices without realising it. She loves my husband no less; she didn’t withdraw love and affection from him, didn’t cut him off.
But she chose to pretend it wasn’t happening, and that sent him into a hefty shame spiral we had to work through. A few months later, a stand up routine he did about being bisexual was doing the rounds on Facebook, and despite normally sharing every single routine of his, she rang him to tell him she wouldn’t be sharing that one because “Your brother’s wedding is coming up, and I don’t want it overshadowed by people talking about you and your news.”
And again, this is not because she rejects him. That’s an easy narrative, and certainly the one you’d assume from the outside. But that, in her own way, was her attempt to protect both her children from negative scrutiny - she truly thought that people would care, and would care enough to make a scene at the wedding, and that would hurt the two of them.
Everyone already knew. He’s a celebrity in his culture. No one cared. But, that was my MIL’s fear.
And the message it sent, intentionally or not, was “This is something shameful.”
She’s come to terms with it now. But she totally missed her “I love and support you no matter who you are” chance, and left him with a lingering issue. And that’s the sort of story we never see in queer media.
WOW.
I could write a whole essay, a whole book about this experience in my family, but I won’t. It feels ungrateful to criticize the actions of people who still say they love you, and have never hurt you and will never hurt you in the big dramatic ways we see in the media. But in my case, and I think in many, it isn’t a clean, decisive cut.
It’s a love that feels lesser. An acceptance with strings attached. And that hurts in a quieter way, but it still leaves marks.
A report on transgender women athletes in elite sport has found that if UCI [Union Cycliste Internationale] rules are adhered to, there is currently no substantial evidence of any biological advantages for trans women competing in elite women’s sport.
It found there was little evidence that biomedical factors related to male puberty such as lung size, bone density and hip-to-knee joint angle predict an unfair advantage. But some evidence that social factors like nutrition, training and access to equipment do.
These are just some of the key findings listed in an 86-page report titled Transgender Women Athletes and Elite Sport: A Scientific Review, which was published in late 2022 and commissioned by the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES), an ethical sport advocacy non-profit with a vision of fair, safe, accessible, and inclusive sport for everyone.
The inclusion of trans women in elite women’s sport has been a hot button issue of late with high profile instances such as Emily Bridges’ attempt to compete in the UK sparking concern and upset on all sides. While the inclusion of trans women has led to protests by those who worry that cis women (the term for women born anatomically female) are at a competitive disadvantage at some U.S. races.
However, the report concluded that “the fears that cis women need be protected from trans women in elite sport are unsubstantiated and misplaced.
“What threatens women’s elite sport, for cis and trans women, is not trans women, but is rather misogyny in the form of underfunding, non-parity in participation and leadership, inequitable sport space allocation/access, and a range of sporting opportunities not afforded to women (cis women and trans women) in equitable ways.”
“Wait if I sheath my sword will he not attac-DID THIS TWINK JUST SLAP ME?!”
Thanks @niksfake
Reblogging again. Firefox is an excellent, safe and fast browser and everyone should consider using it.
Don’t just consider it. If you have the ability to switch to Firefox, this is your official notice to do it.
Stop everything you’re doing and go download and install Firefox.
If you’re saying, “well, I need Chrome because I need such-and-such extension for my job”, the computer will not explode if you install another browser. Use Chrome ONLY for work tasks and use Firefox for everything else. If you’re concerned about losing your bookmarks, Firefox can import your Chrome bookmarks.
[ID: Firefox Library window. The “Import and Backup” panel is expanded, displaying the option, “Import Data from Another Browser”, which is also circled with a red MS Paint ellipse. ID end.]
And, don’t forget to install uBlock Origin while you’re at it.
Forgot a thing. Subscribe to Mozilla VPN for bonus points. It’s basically the only truly secure VPN service in the world right now.
For $5 a month, you can completely conceal your online activities from your ISP in a manner that isn’t just immediately monetised or turned over to the cops. No, it’s not free, it does cost money, but the money doesn’t go to line a billionaire’s pockets.
I wonder how much of this is because of work/school from home forcing people to use Chrome so all their stupid monitoring softwares and platforms can work.
This is also your reminder that you don't have to use just one browser. You can use chrome for all the monitoring bullshit your office wants you to run and use firefox for everything else.
Be sure to add the multi account containers extension to your firefox, which allows you to be logged in to multiple accounts on the same website at the same time in the same window but in different tabs.
look on my five open tumblr accounts (not sideblogs, accounts!) ye mighty and despair.
Firefox is super good, folks. It's good in a general "google shouldn't own everything in the entire fucking world" sense AND in a "this is an actual good product that does lots of cool shit" sense.
ALSO make sure to add the Ublock origin extension on Firefox - I haven't seen a youtube ad in five years and you don't have to either.
While you're at it, why not add the Wayback Machine extension so that if you go looking for a page that has been taken down the wayback machine will automatically offer you an archived version instead; also handy for documenting people's shitty takes and winning arguments after they delete the original post!
Worried that Firefox is going to slow down your computer? In benchmarks, modern versions of chrome and firefox are pretty much the same speed but you can still install the auto tab discard extension ANYWAY so that it will snooze unused tabs in order to keep your computer running faster. Set it to sleep, discard, close, and store tags at your discretion!
And while you're at it: install Firefox as your mobile browser for android and add those extensions to your mobile browser! Mobile adblock is here, baybee, save your data and enjoy a better mobile experience! And install it on iOS! iOS can't add extensions, but at least it's better than safari, and if you want a somewhat more private iOS browsing experience try firefox focus for iOS (which is also available on android but you can accomplish the same thing with extensions).
Anyway, firefox is good.
Also: in January 2023, Chrome is making some changes to plugin architecture that effectively neutering adblockers. If you want good adblocking, you won’t have it in Chrome. Use Firefox
(In fairness, some Chrome-derived browsers like Vivaldi and Opera have openly parted ways with Chrome about this, and more power to them, but Firefox is the way to go.)
Longtime Firefox advocate here. @ms-demeanor has extremely solid add-on recommendations, including a few I've never heard of but will be trying out immediately (particularly auto tab discard; I'm a tab hoarder and my poor computer's memory suffers dearly for it). Dear readers, Ublock Origin is a MUST.
I would also like to suggest Unpaywall if you're an academic-type. I know we all love sci-hub but this is quicker and cleaner in most cases!
And yes, while Firefox on iOS does not have add-on support (yet), it's still better than Safari or Chrome! If you make your Mozilla account and log in on all your devices you can even pass tabs between them. Terribly convenient.
hey instead of bullying or scaring you into switching to firefox, let me tell you why i LOVE firefox and how my online life has improved significantly since installing it
- the setup process is easy, and even fun! if you’re using tumblr rn, you can handle it, and if you’re the kind of tumblr user who likes customizing your blog or tinkering with xkit, you can have a lot of fun personalizing really granular settings and picking themes and extensions and everything, it’s very customizable and i happily spent like 2 hours getting everything perfect.
- you can use a command line entry tool to change specific settings right from the search bar! i did this to make firefox stop auto filling my email information since i use a different password locker (which you should too! try bitwarden!), and it was easier than digging through a bunch of submenus for a setting i wasn’t sure existed. you can just turn shit off!
- there’s a preset theme called aurora that’s purple and VERY pretty
- once you get ublock origin and as many other blockers as you’d like set up, no ads, anywhere, ever! streaming sites, youtube, all the basics, totally no stress and no compatibility issues for me
- in browser screenshot and picture in picture functions!! holy shit i use these every day, the PiP is especially helpful, it replaced an extension i used to use on chrome and it’s leagues better and works on all video content pretty much
- overall better downloads management imo, it’s a lot easier to get to your downloads and find them later
- better bookmark system, with the ability to organize your bookmarks with searchable tags and assign them a shortcut you can type into the search bar to go to
- containers! you can have two accounts to the same website open in two different tabs and switch between them without having to switch accounts. also gives firefox the ability to contain facebook and their trackers, so you can click that party invite link without feeling like you just let mark zuckerberg into your house
these were just off the top of my head, i love firefox a lot and actively enjoy using it, which i never felt with chrome! please download firefox!! you will not regret it!!! where’s your fucking rage!!!!!! go!!!!!!!!!
adding on my extensions starter pack! these are BASICS, there is a whole wide beautiful world of extensions that do useful and silly things. i can save a page im looking at to the wayback machine w a right click! (here)
and if you read through this whole list and still somehow havent yet
