Ben McDaniel

every site needs a version of somethingawful's "we can just ban you" policy to use against bad actors who make a game of ruining the site while making sure to always stay 1% shy of violating the rules as-written

It was a targeted hit. It wasn't a surprise to at least one person in that room.

It's wildly unhealthy and inhumane for a society to expect its people to have "rational" and emotional-less conversations about genocide.

The ongoing genocide in Gaza has resulted in nearly 100,000 individuals sustaining life-altering injuries and disabilities.

One. Hundred. Thousand.

Your weekend Umlaut:
Straight and narrow.

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The richest people on earth believe they can create so much hatred and disgust for trans folks that it can be used to roll back women's rights, queer rights, privacy rights, rights to public education, rights to free assembly.

It's all the same fight. I wish more of y'all saw that.

a little late to catch up on the reading, man

Books with Characters of Color Beautiful Books with Characters of Color^ **Magic or superhero or ghosts or other imaginative fun ^^Early chapter books **Mia Mayhem (series)-Kara West Planet Omar (series)-Zanib Mian-Audio Sadiq (s...

I made this list as an alternative to her trash: Beautiful Books with Characters of Color.

Magic or superhero or ghosts or other imaginative fun starred
docs.google.com/document/d/1...

The problem with pieces like this, which are countless, is the prevailing media assumption that left-of-center Americans need constant corrective instruction about how to be in and engage with the world, whereas right-of-center Americans are simply to be observed in awe, like rainbows or mountains.

Louder for those in the back.

Plus, it inevitably reproduces every kind of social bias, leading students to parrot racist and sexist tropes.

Everyone who analyzes elections needs to understand this: Self-reported financial condition is no longer an independent variable.

For many people, it no longer explains voting decisions. It *reflects* voting decisions.

1994: internet is ephemeral

2004: internet is forever

2014: only internet is forever. Print pubs and owning physical media are for idiots

2024: your favorite shows have been removed for tax breaks and private equity firms bought up the websites you worked for and deleted your entire life's work

This cannot be stressed enough. Policing trans women’s bodies & movement thru society necessitates policing cis women’s as well. Policing who & how “woman” is to be defined for these purposes means enforcing strict visible social codes & identities on all women. And so much more.

I try to be an objective professional reporter guy but trans rights are a civil rights issue. Respecting and welcoming trans people is simply the moral thing to
do.

Transphobia isn’t a distraction. It’s an attack on one of the most vulnerable populations and a reinforcement of biological essentialism, a pillar of patriarchal control that trans identity rightfully threatens

Power comes from knitting together our different struggles. There is no power in ‘what polls best.’

The US has once again issued the only vote (a veto) against a UN Security Council resolution for a ceasefire in Gaza.

I am old enough to remember when the ruling class tried to convince us people hated America for “our freedom.”

Politician pleads guilty in sexual assault case after being elected to Hancock County Council HANCOCK COUNTY, Ind. — A current central Indiana county commissioner has pleaded guilty in a Nevada sexual assault case, days after being elected to his local County Council. John D. Jessup – a cur…

A Trump supporting, anti-trans, anti-gay Republican was elected commissioner of the county where I grew up. He won despite being in jail on election night for a sexual assault in Vegas.

It’s now come out that the woman he assaulted was his daughter.

fox59.com/news/indycri...

Black folks know more than any of us what’s ahead and what’s needed.

Things I've been told are more important than a genocide:
1) an American election
2) Feelings of college students
3) Feelings of the dudes doing genocide
4) Feelings of actors, comedians, and singers
5) Feelings of settlers
6) Drinking mid coffee
7) eating horrible burgers

Screenshot of tweet from Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett @RepJasmine If @HouseGOP really wanted to protect women, they'd release the Ethics Committee report on Matt Gaetz' alleged sex trafficking - not try to ban their colleagues from using the bathroom. Stop the bigotry and release the report. 11:45 AM · Nov 19, 2024 · 624 Views"

Rep Jasmine Crockett bringing the fire.

I spent a decade on Twitter telling everyone Roe was in danger only to be told time and again that it wasn't.

Then came Dobbs. And now they are using Dobbs to strip away every right that isn't rooted in history and tradition. They're citing it in Skrmetti (the trans rights case) for fucks sake.

Melanie Zanona @MZanona NEWS: I’m told Speaker Mike Johnson has committed to Nancy Mace that he will not allow biological men in women’s bathrooms & locker rooms in the Capitol next year, by adding a provision in the House Rules package. Mace is still reserving the right to file it as privileged resolution or amend it if that doesn’t happen though.

would be great if reporters did not simply regurgitate transphobic phrases like "biological men" that right-wing republicans pass along to them

Maybe somebody needs to tell all these "National Parks are the best idea" folks that the parks were created by stealing millions of acres of Indigenous land, all of which needs to be rematriated to Native Nations. #landback

Feels like a good morning to tell Bluesky the story about when I overdosed on my underwear, so let’s do this! 🧵

hi I'm the most annoying op-ed writer you've ever heard of in your life. I just blew in from Stupidtown and I sure hope this place won't be a left wing echo chamber! I command you gross homos to create a lively and diverse social network, like 2015 twitter