That’s it, that’s the post.
https://bsky.app/profile/kenjennings.bsky.social/post/3mbuedepurs2x
No doom.
Go to bed, Emily.
Call your Senators tomorrow.
Incrementalism
A few weeks ago, a friend of mine described herself as “incrementalist.” I think that’s a very good word.
Today, I saw this skeet. I’m going to copy the text here in case it gets deleted.
The way I’ve heard it explained is that there are people who are
1) actively against you
2) passively against you
3) don’t care
4) passively support you
5) actively support you
You’ll never get from 1 to 5 in one jump, so you want to move each person 1 notch more supportive. 1→2, 3→4, 4→5, etc
And that’s a very good explanation of how I view political discussions.
Reposting someone else’s thoughts on Skrmetti today
My friend shared this (itself a copy of another post), and I wanted to signal-boost it, because I think it’s important.
Skrmetti just came down and obviously it didn’t go our way, but listen to me. Listen.
I am not a parent but I have parents in my life and one thing I have learned from them is that young people will take their cue from you on how freaked out to be about things. If a young person falls down the best response is not to go “oh no oh my god you’re hurt,” because then they go “oh no oh my god I’m hurt” and it makes everything worse — the best response is to go “sick wipeout dude totally tubular” and high five them.
And the non-profit industrial complex invariably describes gender-affirming care for young people as “life-saving” because the subtext is “if trans young people can’t get puberty blockers they WILL kill themselves.”
Not having access to gender affirming care before puberty is not a death sentence BUT if we all uncritically repeat the fear that it is, the young people will take their cue from us on how freaked out to be, and they will believe that all they can do in response to Skrmetti is die.
It is really important right now that we make sure our trans young people hear other stories than that. They hear “there is a future for you” and “there is community for you” and “you don’t have to pass to be loved” and “not having access to gender affirming care before puberty IS NOT A DEATH SENTENCE.”
That we show them that we are trans adults and we almost invariably didn’t have gender affirming care before puberty and we are loved and beautiful and happy. The story of trans joy and trans beloved community NEEDS to be louder than the story of trans suicidality today.
Our kids are depending on us to tell them the story they need to hear. Don’t let your panic override that responsibility.
There is a future for you. Your Elders survived this. Yes, it will suck more this way. But: this, too, shall pass; even if it does so like a motherfucking kidney stone.
Or, for the Cosmere fans in the audience: You will be warm again.
This Blue sky post may be the source:
https://bsky.app/profile/andyeyeballs.bsky.social/post/3lrvbrowlds2z
Word of the day: Hypernormalization
I found this article on the Guardian to be a helpful framing of the current, well, Everything.
The menswear guy explains tariffs
This Bluesky thread was really excellent.
I wear a lot of Actually Rather Expensive clothing, that I bought ten years ago, because I do try to buy and wear American…when I can.
But again: it’s expensive.
We can’t “just” move manufacturing here. There is no “just.”
Every child, a world
This post is about the Israel/Hamas war.
This post by Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg is extremely powerful. Read the full thing before making comment.
https://www.lifeisasacredtext.com/on-hostages-and-broken-hearts/
And try not to have a scarcity mindset around empathy.
Dystopia Creep, the Torment Nexus, and Repo Man
Today I saw this skeet and thought I would share it.
Petition to call this Dystopia Creep. Torment Nexus is when media illiterate techbros make something from fiction and completely miss the point that the cool thing is bad. Dystopia Creep should be when late stage capitalism gets more evil than writers thought possible.
— Deny Defend Decrow (@corbinbelasco.bsky.social) 2024-12-22T02:59:38.890Z
I don’t believe I can embed Bluesky posts yet, so here’s the text:
Petition to call this Dystopia Creep. Torment Nexus is when media illiterate techbros make something from fiction and completely miss the point that the cool thing is bad. Dystopia Creep should be when late stage capitalism gets more evil than writers thought possible.
Here is the origin of the term Torment Nexus.
Exceptions
This Instagram video about “exceptions” to an abortion ban is surprisingly effective at getting its point across.
It is less effective to ban-with-exceptions than it is to just leave the decision up to the pregnant person and their doctor.
The wellness to whackjob pipeline
Just wanted to share this Reddit post with some links about how some influencers on seemingly innocuous topics like homesteading etc. can wind up in an alt-right pipeline.
Not saying no
A friend recently reminded me of this frustratingly evergreen Pratchett quote:
“Down there,” he said, “are people who will follow any dragon, worship any god, ignore any iniquity. All out of a kind of humdrum, everyday badness. Not the really high, creative loathesomeness of the great sinners, but a sort of mass-produced darkness of the soul. Sin, you might say, without a trace of originality. They accept evil not because they say yes, but because they don’t say no.” (Guards! Guards!)
This pretty much sums up my feelings about people who don’t vote. A lack of vote, in our zero sum system, is a vote for whoever wins.
Emilybook 