[the-kryomancer]

i love naddpod because sometimes i burst into laughter on a crowded train from a straight face and sometimes i am holding back tears while eating a muffin

[your-resident-boat-person]

I have trouble taking care of my teeth because everything that involves doing that is a sensory nightmare. I decide to do some research to see if there's anything I can do about this. The results?

"How to make your autistic child brush their teeth"

"Autistic Children and Sensory issues relating to tooth brushing"

"How to get your little shit to brush his fucking teeth"

Like, yeah Google, thanks, that really helps. And like, even if I was a child, some of the advice seemed... unhelpful. Like, doing a dance and singing a song while brushing your teeth? Even for a kid, I don't think that would help distract from a sensory experience as intense as brushing your teeth. Like, the extremely intense and unpleasant flavor, the intense feeling of the brush against your teeth scraping across it, even mouthwash has such an intense and disgusting flavor that I have difficulty keeping it in my mouth for more than a few seconds. I wish there was SOMETHING that could be done.

[phoenixiancrystallist]

I actually did research on how to keep your teeth clean if you don't have access to a toothbrush or toothpaste! I needed the info for a story, but thankfully it also has real world applications. Maybe something here will help:

• If the bristles are a sensory nightmare, try a soft cloth instead. Cloth was one of the methods used before toothbrushes were invented, although they used shit like burlap. Don't do burlap. Cotton or linen should do fine.
• You can also buy natural toothbrushes made with bamboo and boar hair. I've never tried them so I'm not sure how different they'd feel compared to synthetic bristles, but they're pretty cheap on Amazon if you want to give them a shot
• If even the "extra soft" bristles are too stiff, you could try soaking them overnight in some mouthwash to soften them further. This is what we did when I was growing up, and it worked like a charm. Bonus points that the alcohol in the mouthwash kills any germs stuck on the brush
• If the toothpaste flavor is horrendous, make a paste with baking soda and water, then flavor it however you want with a sugar-free extract. Heck, look for recipes to make your own toothpaste, and experiment until you get something you can stand to use.
• If the texture of the toothpaste is bad, the baking soda method might work better for you, or you could try scrubbing salt or activated charcoal on your teeth instead—that's what they used before toothpaste was invented. Personally, I'd recommend the baking soda or making your own toothpaste.
• Different brands often have different textures, and some even have different flavors (this is especially true of kids toothpastes, which work just as well for adults), so swapping brands might help, too. I can't stand Crest, it makes my mouth feel all filmy no matter how well I rinse, but Colgate doesn't leave a weird feeling in my mouth. Also Colgate is the only brand my grocery store carries that has cinnamon flavored toothpaste as an option, and I'm a whore for cinnamon
• You're probably using too much toothpaste anyway. Most people do. You really only need a dollop about the size of a pea. I smush it out across the bristles so I don't have to deal with a glob of it in one spot.
• Floss if you can. That's going to do more to stop your teeth from rotting than brushing will. Standard dental floss is obviously an option, but if you're like me and you can't stand putting your hands in your mouth, try disposable floss picks or investing in a water flosser. I still hate the feeling of the floss between my teeth, but it's manageable since I don't have my fingers in my mouth on top of it. Haven't tried the water flosser since the picks work well enough for me
• Try chewing sugarless gum, especially right after you've eaten. It's not perfect, but it'll help. Also it comes in a billion flavors so hopefully there's something you like in there
• If absolutely none of that is helpful, rinsing with water is still better than nothing. You can mix in salt to help kill bacteria if you can handle it, but bare minimum try to do a rinse and spit.

Obviously not all of that is from my pre-modern teeth cleaning research—some is from personal experience! But hopefully something in there is useful to you

It's absolute bullshit that we have to approach these problems sideways because the people actually making "helpful" articles about it are all ableist :| Maybe some day soon we as a society can get over that.

[your-resident-boat-person]

Oh my God you are my hero thank you so much

[inbredfawn]

If you are unable to afford donating, this link allows you to click a button every 24 hours in order help donate to Palestine.

American mutuals, I seriously urge you to tell Congress and Biden to stand with Palestine, and do not stop sending this message. You can also donate here.

This is not a war; what Israel is doing to Palestine is genocide. Do not sit idly by and do not stay quiet. Now more than ever is the most important time to not look away.

[inbredfawn]

More links to help Palestine:

Gaza Emergency Appeal

UN Relief for Palestine Refugees

Support Gaza Hospitals

Islamic Relief Palestine Emergency Appeal (UK)

Medical Aid for Palestinians

UN Crisis Relief

Humanitarian aid

Palestine Red Crescent Society

There are more links in this thread.

[marta-bee]

The Abortion Absolutist

Warren Hern has been performing late abortions for half a century. After Roe, he is as busy with patients as ever.

The Atlantic

This was an interesting read. Surprisingly nonpreachy given the subject; and well worth the time.

[the-truth-within-the-lie]

This is oaywalled but it made me weep with relief to see an honest recounting for once, so I’ve saved some good bits:

[the-truth-within-the-lie]

[genderpunks]

the reason intersex people need to be visible and at the forefront of every queer's activism is because we are completely devoid of autonomy when it comes to identifying ourselves. no matter how hard we try to speak up on how we are treated, how we are dehumanized, how we are refused our right to say who we are, it falls through the cracks because of how many people continue to diminish our issues, and espouse intersexist beliefs.

when i speak up about being transfemme, and a trans girl, it's not because i'm trying to step on people's toes or speak about something i don't understand. i speak up about it because this is the life i've lived. it doesn't matter if strangers see me this way or not, this is how i've been my entire life. whether or not someone knows i was technically born AMAB and then had my gender "corrected" shouldn't matter.

trans people do not only come in binary sexes- just like gender, physical sex is also not a binary. i am an intersex trans girl , even if my agab didn't stay AMAB forever. I would be an intersex trans girl regardless of whether or not they assigned me male at birth, because my experience with womanhood and femininity is that they've always been held away from me, way farther than it would ever be possible for me to reach.

i've had to take estrogen & progesterone HRT in the past in order to "correct" my masculine features in order to look like and be a girl "correctly". the subject of my body and my gender has never been something i've been able to control. my whole live i've just been told that i'm a girl wrong, and that i need to "Fix" it.

boyhood or manhood weren't options either, that was held away from me with a 10 foot pole as well. i've had to transition into gender, itself, because i was forbidden to be a boy or a girl. i was always too sensitive or soft to be a real boy. gender as a concept has been a source of control and degredation for me. i had to transition into both manhood and womanhood in order to have control over how i identify. even now when i talk about manhood and being a man, people tell me that i'm not a trans man because of how i look. i'm routinely denied manhood, I "have" to be a trans woman only to some.

due to my intersex condition, i'm a trans man and a trans woman, transfemme and transmasc, but people struggle to accept this. there's no reason for people to give me hell about these parts of myself, and yet people still do. intersex awareness matters because we fight to be seen as the people we are. we struggle to have our identities be addressed correctly. we are in the same fight as trans individuals, and we owe it to intersex trans men, women, and people to help people understand that trans folks come in all different types of bodies, and that biological sex is not a binary, either.

we have to fight for each other's autonomy. for all of us. together we are stronger, louder, and braver.

[nosebleedclub]

Tell me a soft memory

[inkskinned]

we would find out later i had burned off my entire cornea - about 65% of my eye. my doctor told me it is the organ with the highest concentration of nerve endings - i was in an amount of pain that can't be spoken.

and i was blind. for the first time in my life, i was totally blind. i kept thinking about reading, about writing. weirdly, just once, about driving. we had no idea if i would ever see again. just like that - my entire life was different.

it is a strange place to reference for a soft memory, to begin here.

my siblings were taking excellent care of me, but there was a moment in the hospital where, just through bad luck and timing - both of them had to step away for a moment. i was crying at that point; not emotionally. for 3 days after this i would still be crying, my tears, like a mermaid's, a frothy pink with blood.

my brother worried about leaving me. he had another, just-as-bad emergency.

"i got her," someone said. "don't worry."

a soft hand held mine, and then she started talking.

her name was jess. she has a wife named clyde. they live a few blocks up the street. clyde fell down, but the x-rays seem to be coming back better than expected. jess says she's got long dark hair and "more wrinkles than an elephant". jess describes every chair in the room and every person. she talks about her two kids and her cats and her favorite memories from college.

a doctor came. i had to switch to a different waiting room. i tried to stand up to follow the voice - i found jess's hand, following me. she didn't let go. she kept talking the whole way: lamp to your left, just a few more steps, okay to your right is the ugliest painting, good, now a little more walking straight, you got it baby

in the new silence of the next room she sat me down and called my brother for me, telling him where we'd gone to. and she stayed there for a bit, just chatting, her voice echoing in the eerie quiet. gently describing the room to me. and then someone was rude. from the sound of the voice, a kid, i think.

"why is she crying?"

"she just lost her vision," jess said. "she can't see."

"oh." said the kid. "that's scary."

the kid tells me he is here because he has peas stuck up his nose. that makes me laugh, his mom (?) groans. she tells me about the kid (he's 6, he likes paw patrol and eating cheese), about herself, about moving from cali.

jess says she's sorry, but she has to leave now, she's gotta go check on her wife.

"don't worry," says the mom. "i got her." and then i felt her hand press into mine.

for hours like that: i am taken care of by strangers. each person just talking with whatever comes to their head - not for any reward or celebrity or real reason, i guess. just because i am scared and alone and in the hospital and blinded and need to be distracted. not everyone even got told the story - they would just pick up in the silence with - oh by the way the television is playing HGTV - do you like that kind of a thing? yeah, me too, but could never quite get into those open-floor plans, i'll tell you -

by the time my brother is able to come back, the room is buzzing. we talk to each other like old friends, laughing, cracking jokes about if you don't like hospital food wait until you get on an airplane and can't believe i'm up past two in the morning what a party animal i'm becoming. i am holding the hands of someone named drew, who likes my crow tattoo and making crochet snails.

there are many dark moments full of pain in this world. this - in the low of absolute-dark, absolute-pain: people find a way to paint in it anyway. the color splash of their voices: this triumphant, radiating kindness of - let's be here together, let me help you, let's keep going.

i never saw their faces. i can't remember many of their names. but i think about them often, and the way we all took a deep breath - and did something gentle amongst the pain.

[fdelopera]

Yo Gentiles! Looks like I'm going to need to give some of you a crash course on what antisemitic language looks like, because I've been seeing entirely too much of it from some of you here on Tumblr.

A few things before we dive in, to give you some context:

1. I am a Jew.

2. I do NOT support the Israeli government, or its war crimes, or its occupation of Palestinian lands — I fucking despise the Israeli government, as do many Jews, and I support the Palestinian people. I support a free Palestine.

3. I do NOT owe you that opinion, and you should NOT go harassing random Jews online for their opinion on the Israeli government. I am choosing to share this information so that you know where I am coming from in this post.

4. I also do NOT support the murder of Jewish civilians, or a mass deportation or mass murder of Jews. Whatever we do, we need to avoid another mass extermination of Jewish people. And throughout history, mass killings of Jews tend to happen like clockwork every 70-100 years or so. And the Holocaust was about 80 years ago.

Now, I think it's time for a Jewish history lesson, because I've been seeing way too many Nazi-related conspiracy theories going around. If you hear contradictions to the basic information that I am about to share (i.e., if you hear someone saying that the Jewish people are "a race that originated in Europe"), it is likely that you are hearing a white supremacist, anti-Jewish conspiracy theory.

So, here's the basics of Jewish history. Jews are indigenous to the Levant have been there for thousands of years. The Semitic people that Jews descended from have been in that area of the Levant since the Bronze Age. Jews as a distinct people have been there since the Iron Age. Before it was Palestine it was Judah, then Judea, and then Judaea, and that is literally where we are from. The word Jew means "a person from the Kingdom of Judah." The Romans renamed the area Syria-Palaestina (which they borrowed from the Greek name Palestina) in the 2nd century CE after destroying the Second Temple in Jerusalem and leading another campaign to try to eradicate the Jewish people (guess what, we're still here, motherfuckers).

And even after the Romans tried to annihilate us, even after they scattered many of us into European diaspora, many Jews came back, again and again over the ages, and there have nearly always been Jewish communities in the region throughout history.

And if you come for me or try to dispute any of this history with white supremacist bullshit, I am a Jew who has studied way more Jewish history than you. And as politely as possible, you can take your white supremacist conspiracy theories and fuck off into the sun.

Okay, with all that out of the way, let's get into it!

Gloves are coming off, because this is just a sampling of the Nazi dogwhistles I've been seeing here on Tumblr about the Jewish civilians who were tortured, murdered, and worse:

- If you say shit like, "The Jews got what they deserved"...

GUESS WHAT? You're talking like a white supremacist, and you need to fucking check yourself.

- And if, on the other hand, you say shit like, "The reports were probably overblown. I think those were paid actors. I don't think those Jews were murdered. No Jewish children were killed. No Jewish bodies were desecrated" blahblahblah...

GUESS WHAT? You get to sit with the Nazis at their table for lunch.

- If you tell Jews "go back to Europe where you came from"...

GUESS WHAT? Not only are you telling the descendants of Jewish refugees to go back to the Spanish Inquisition, the Russian pogroms, and the Nazi gas chambers, as I explained in this post, but you are also repeating a white supremacist conspiracy theory about the origins of European Jews.

Jews are a Semitic people from the Middle East. While there was some emigration to Europe during the late Roman Republic and the early days of the Roman Empire, the first mass migration of Jews to Europe was a forced migration. Gentiles from the Roman Empire dragged us there as captives after 70 CE, the year Rome destroyed the Second Temple.

- And if you're telling yourself that there are "good Jews" and "bad Jews," and those Jewish civilians were "bad Jews," so they deserved to be tortured and killed...

GUESS WHAT? You're spouting white supremacist ideology.

Antisemitism takes a long time to deprogram.

A lot of gentiles grow up with anti-Jewish ideology that they have never questioned.

And a lot of Christians are kept ignorant about Jewish history because preachers and priests fear it would make Christians question the many inaccuracies in the Bible.

But the first step in noticing antisemitic beliefs is to notice when you start singling people out *because* they are Jewish.

And I have been seeing some of you gleefully celebrating the murder of Jewish civilians *because* they are Jewish.

And that is antisemitism.

That is one step closer to the next generation of Jews getting shoved into the gas chambers. And there are only 16 million of us left in the entire world. We're 0.2% of the world's population. And we cannot afford another Holocaust.

And if your response to me saying that is, "Well, those Jews deserve it."

Guess what. You are making it easier for Nazis and white supremacists to spread hatred and commit acts of violence against Jewish people. And you will have to live with that blood on your conscience.

So...

If you are a gentile, and you see other gentiles repeating these kinds of white supremacist dogwhistles about Jewish people, here's how you can help:

1. MOST IMPORTANTLY: Help them direct their focus away from attacking random Jewish people online and towards helping Palestinians.

Actions that people can take right now are contributing to verified charities and relief organizations that help the people of Gaza. Some organizations that are verified by CharityNavigator.org and CharityWatch.org are:

Anera (92% rating on Charity Navigator)

Palestine Children's Relief Fund (97% rating on Charity Navigator)

Doctors Without Borders (98% on Charity Navigator)

2. Call that shit out. Tell people that they're being antisemitic, and explain that Jew-hatred is dangerous to Jewish people. Antisemitism gets Jews attacked and it gets Jews killed. In the US, many synagogues require round the clock security to protect against white supremacists who want to murder Jews. In Pittsburgh, my old home town, a group of Nazis from north of the city planned the murder of Jewish congregants at Tree of Life Synagogue, and so far only one of them (the gunman) has been arrested and convicted of the murders. The others are still at large.

3. Encourage people to condemn Netanyahu and the Israeli government. It is *essential* that we all collectively protest against the Israeli government and hold it accountable for its war crimes. AND explain them that it is antisemitic to celebrate someone's death *because* they're Jewish. ALSO, it is antisemitic to blame a random Jewish person for the actions of the Israeli government, and saying that Jews as a people are responsible for the war crimes of Netanyahu is also antisemitic.

4. Explain to people that they're not going to solve this conflict by posting antisemitic statements and memes online. All they will do is alienate the Jewish people in their lives and make those Jews feel scared and unsafe. And they will contribute to this current wave of antisemitism.

Antisemitic hatred doesn't help Palestinians. All it does is put Jewish people around the world in danger.

[bioethicists]

i'm just thinking abt how many providers i've had who heard my story abt psychiatric abuse + immediately individualized it. "oh, you're so smart + kind+ obviously sane! you didn't deserve that! i can't believe they gave you that diagnosis when you're obviously not like that! they shouldn't have treated u like that when all you did was xyz! they shouldn't have assumed you were crazy like that!"

there is always a third person haunting this interaction- the patient who does deserve that, who is "actually" that evilscary diagnosis, who did Have To be treated like that. if i want to soak up the affirmations of these providers, i must be careful to never become this third person. i must affirm myself by setting myself apart from her- i did not deserve to be treated like that because i am not like that.

i reject this. not only was i like that, she + everyone else like that deserve everything i deserve. they are my siblings + my friends + my lovers. i do not need to cut them out of me to believe i deserved better. i refuse to comfort myself through the lens of someone else's dehumanization. the tragedy is not that psychiatric violence was applied to someone who not insane enough to warrant it. the tragedy is the violence.

[walker-scobell]

[short-wooloo]

DIE TERF WIZARD FRANCHISE DIE

[adamswbrown]

I’m either incredibly un observant or as dense as mince, but I could not for one second tell that the actress playing Dr Barbie was trans.

[britcision]

It’s not a good thing or a bad thing that you couldn’t tell, it’s just a thing that happens, but it is something to remember the next time anyone tries to tell you they can “tell”

Plenty of trans, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming people can pass, and you’ll probably never know for most of the ones you pass in the street

Dr Barbie was played by a woman, just like the rest of the Barbies, and them not drawing attention to Hari’s gender is the correct way to go about it; it doesn’t matter to the story even a tiny bit, so it never came up

If you’re not seeing someone naked, it’s best not to make assumptions about their genitals, including whether or not you think they’re cis

[beaft]

by the way if you add q slur to my posts i'll block you. this may sound harsh but also it's my blog and i can do what i want.

[beaft]

i've made this decision after 3 different people reblogged my original posts and tagged them with "q slur". when i went to those people's blogs, i found gems like "dni if you think transandrophobia is real", "i wish all people who use the phrase 'bi lesbians' a very Die", posts detailing the ways in which "proshippers" should kill themselves, and a frankly startling amount of acephobic and closet-TERF rhetoric.

i used to be pretty easy-breezy on this topic, but at this point i'm pretty solidly convinced that people from the "queer is a slur" camp do not have my interests at heart, or indeed the interests of queer people full stop. until you give me a reason to think otherwise, i don't trust you and i don't want you on my blog.

[beaft]

also of note: put "q-slur" into the tumblr search bar if you want a free blocklist. the vast majority of the posts criticising the word "queer" are made by loud-and-proud TERFs.

[kafus]

genuinely frustrated and upset about how much using neocities as a filehosting service is being spread everywhere. they disable hotlinking for non-html files for free accounts so it won’t even work properly for those purposes and even supporter accounts are asked not to be used as a file dump host directly by the website. neocities offers a service that no other website provides and that i think is extremely important, but they sure don’t make a ton of money doing it. please, please, do not use neocities as a filehost, they don’t want you to and i don’t want you to either. there is a reason they ask users not to

[scallioncreamcheesebagel]

i've been using postimages.org as a filehost for a DECADE and it has always been super reliable. postimages has never let me down. it is a website designed to do one thing, host image files, and it does it well. highly recommend it!

[muzinabu]

[jennegatron]

dungeons and dragons is a magical game where you can be anything you want, like a submissive gummy bear man who gets pounded into oblivion by a big buff chocolate lady, or you can play a frog man whose wife has left him or you can play a cringefail goth dork who loves swords and jeff hardy or a 70 year old grandfather who solves crimes with his overly doting son and his balding 22 year old grandson

[batmanego]

mannnnn until we all get okay with the idea of people needing other people to get them water/food/etc like. idk we’re just never gonna make it

[batmanego]

yes you have autistic in your bio but are you rude to people who need carers and assistance with basic tasks? do you call me lazy for a text post where i ask my father to bring me water? yes you have adhd and post constantly about executive dysfunction but if a schizophrenic person who needs but doesn’t have have a carer hasn’t showered or worn clean clothes in months exists, how are you going to react to that?

[batmanego]

yeah yeah you’re all for disability rights but if someone is campaigning for adult changing tables in disabled stall bathrooms because they have incontinence and have to wear a diaper are you going to think they’re weird? if a person has a visible colostomy bag are you going to think it’s gross? what about feeding tubes? how does your opinion on these issues change if the person in question is fat, or homeless, or a person of color?