Speaking from experience, this culture is just as common outside the US, and outside Christianity too.

People with even halfway decent parents don’t realise how lucky they are.

cuuuute

you’re WRONG!!! and here are some reasons why you’re wrong:

• you’ve had the strength to survive this long, despite the obvious hell you’ve been through. there is beauty in that, and if even i can see it, then you will see it one day
• despite all the pain, you’ve been kind and encouraging and caring in your interactions with people here. the right wants to rob us of our basic empathy and decency, and here you are defying them
• i love you, god damn it. you might think that’s meaningless because i don’t really know you, you may think i wouldn’t love you if i knew you. you’d be wrong. believe it or not, every second you survive is precious to me

so stop being ur own hater!!!
<spritzes you with water like the silly lil kitten u are>

Hi Una! I’m also a sad trans girl stuck in a transphobic environment, just fighting what feels like a losing battle to keep myself going somehow until I can hopefully see a future for myself one day.

With that unsolicited trauma dump out of the way - I don’t log in that often, but know that I’ll be rooting for you <3

<spritzes you with water like a bitey kitten>

“propaganda”?

no antidepressants or therapists have ever been enough to heal the damage of a fucked up life

I feel this… been through several at this point, didn’t really do much for me. I’d keep trying anyway, but I don’t have access right now, so I’m just trying a bunch of stuff to see what will stick.

Right now I’m giving tonglen a shot. The hard part is getting myself to do it (hello, executive dysfunction!), but so far it seems to be helping a bit. (I recommend checking out that book either way, some interesting ideas in there)

So they could have replaced it with, like, email verification or something, but they instead stuck to the design that lets governments identify all users?

<Insert rampant and unfounded speculation about FBI compromise here>

^^

This is what tonglen feels like when you’re able to really get going

That last line hits like a truck.

The first half of this describes my entire presence on this site pretty much exactly.

I stay around under the pretense/hope that it doesn’t have to be a bad thing.

Those who can’t do, try to teach - because when you fail over and over, you learn things worth sharing. Those who can’t feel, try to touch, because you’ve learnt how badly we need it.

And one day, I pray, can’t will be couldn’t.

Dear lord. This man’s brain is something else.

:O

congratulations on finishing this!

i’ll hold off on posting my thoughts until i get around to actually watching the thing. (i wonder if you’ll ever see my reply 2 years from now…)

Hi just wanted to say that this is ab very good transceiption wdjks

Those of us who survive this hell will show this to our children, when they’re old enough.

Not many people with empathy are left on Xitter, I suppose.

If you hate your mental health, you can use Nitter to read the replies to that post. Just the most sickening shit imaginable.

Hmmm are there? massive? I mean I know we all use that word lightly but “massive” they are not

34,000 people for Sanders in Denver. Tell me with a straight face that this is a small number of people. “But relatively speaking-” hush. Big number is big.

…but yeah, pretty small compared to the number of people at, say, the Women’s March in 2017. I guess a lot of people learned a thing or two about what peaceful demonstrations can meaningfully accomplish against a police state. Still, nothing to sneeze at.

Yes, Americans love rallies… that is not a protest

Absolutely valid point here. The thing is, both Sanders and AOC have built their entire political careers on grassroots organizing, which is happening quietly alongside all the big speeches. Cory Doctorow has a good overview of this.

Sure, I’d much prefer to see spontaneous uprisings, but we’ve been in this hell for nearly a decade at this point. People are fucking burnt out. If AOC/Sanders is what it takes to bring in fresh blood, then so be it.

have been asking for evidence of these protests myself for the last few weeks and I have not seen anything more than a couple dozen people by the doors of a Gov building… not even big enough for Police to be around

Consider that sharing footage of a protest can put attendees in danger. Lots of emboldened brownshirt types would love to rat you out to the cops or your boss. Lemmy users are probably aware of this, which might be why you the only pics you see are from corporate media - those are already out there and a little traffic on Lemmy won’t make it much worse. See my original point about corporate media not covering the protests.

On that note: the people who showed up in 2017 and 2020 probably learnt this too. Maybe they’re now taking part in less visible/public actions that would be too dangerous to share indiscriminately? Who knows.

Fair enough. You can probably tell that I mostly wrote that reply to work through my own despair and apathy.

I’m just personally done with Orwellian imagery. As a faraway threat, the fear it inspires used to motivate me. Now it’s no longer a faraway threat - it’s right here. Now, after learning about ever-worsening mass surveillance, after seeing popular movements crushed, after years of burnout and despair, I find it only makes me want to curl up and die.

In general, I see a lot of people react this way to what’s happening right now. So I try to share what little hope and strength I can muster. Maybe it’ll help someone.

There are massive protests all over the US. AOC/Bernie drawing huge crowds. Republicans chanting “tax the rich”.

Corporate media won’t give it the coverage it deserves, and mainstream social media will bury it with their algorithms. Because they’re all owned by the billionaires bowing to Trump.

They want you to feel like nobody’s doing anything. Remember that.