I got a really interesting question from someone who was raised religious but doesn't believe in her religion anymore:
How can I instill morality in my kid without giving them religion as a scaffolding for it?
In today's advice column, I offer an answer: https://t.co/cOuiokn75Y
...but if they idea of being different from the norm (sexuality or otherwise) freaks you the fuck out, then you most certainly have a problem on your hands.
it's not weirdness per se, it's that they are freaked out by any & all forms of difference. that's the point.
There Was A Time
It’s hard to believe there was a time when I didn’t know what a child’s insides look like.
That I didn’t know how limp babies’ limbs go when they are dead,
when they are missing parts of their body,
missing their head,
limbs dangling lifeless as parents hold them in front of the camera,
screaming, crying, pleading, desperate.
There was a time when I didn’t know how it feels to watch a man scream “Free Palestine” while burning alive,
until there was nothing left to scream with and he lost his voice forever,
but still by some power remained standing long after his voice was gone.
I didn’t used to know just how sadistic people can be,
how hateful they can be,
how apathetic they can be toward the suffering of human beings,
or how heroic others can be in times of great need.
I didn’t used to know. Now I do.
And now I sit here, head heavy like lead, tongue limp like a baby’s corpse,
hands feeling older than the stars,
and I don’t know what to do.
There is nothing I can say to make this okay.
There is nothing I can say to make any of this make sense.
This is the civilization we were born into.
This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal,
as the airman said before he burned.
I lift my ancient hands to my sore heart
and say a prayer to the great Whatever
in a desperate plea
for a better world.
This is why I’m saying we need to confront the mundane nature of evil.
It’s not about a handful of extreme people, it’s about the entirety of western white society being built upon genocide & racism that everyday ppl willfully ignore
Every child killed in Gaza today would be alive if we had a cease-fire yesterday. These are the stakes. This is our failing. You can retweet this everyday until a cease-fire happens because it remains true. How high does the pile of bodies have to get?
@EddieKlink I've been saying this a lot but just so folks know: the law doesn't include book bans in prisons and jails, which are just one part of multiple ways that those places are massive sites of censorship (and affect children and adults.)
the whole "women should do laundry" or "men should put furniture together" is so tired anyway because your gender agnostic goblin/catboy/lizard submissive should be doing both of those things for you
R.I.P. Ahmad Jamal, July 2, 1930 - April 16, 2023. Here he is performing “Ahmad’s Blues” with Israel Crosby on bass and Vernel Fournier on drums in 1959.
Day of Remembrance - on this day in 1942 FDR signed Exec Order 9066, sending 120k Japanese and Japanese Americans to camps without trial or charge.
https://t.co/iwcK0LuqrW