Karin Lightstone

dreamer, poet, enthusiast.
another world is possible.
she/her

[Karin Lightstone @karinlightstone]

@lesbolorax Look up "computer fan air purifiers" (like Clean Air Kits makes). Wayyy quieter than box fan.

[Briana Mills, LMFT ♿️🏳️‍🌈🍉 @theBrianaMills]

We're all vulnerable to disability. It doesn't matter how many vitamins you take, if you eat a raw diet, if you add ginger to everything, or whatever wellness grift you try, disability will happen by either accident, illness, or age. Everyone benefits from disability justice.

[Karin Lightstone @karinlightstone]

@suchnerve so true. it is exhausting

[Matthew Todd 🌏🔥 @MrMatthewTodd]

There should be a line in economic text books that explains you can’t have a booming economy if you give everyone a disabling virus and set fire to the planet.

[heather 💫 @_hxneyglow]

everything is being made worse and worse on purpose to crush our souls and make us give up i am going to love things more and believe more firmly that a better future is not only possible but inevitable and do whatever small things i can to manifest it instead because fuck you

[David It Up! @Dave_it_up]

Six Years and Six Winters Without Getting Sick

I haven’t been sick since 2018.

No flu. No colds. No COVID. Nothing.

Same for my wife. Same for my son. Six winters. Six holiday seasons. While people around us got hammered by one infection after another, we stayed healthy.

There’s no fucking secret.

We wore masks, everywhere.

Not those useless blue surgical masks that leave gaps the size of freight trains around your cheeks. Not the limp cloth things that might as well be made of tissue paper. Real respirators. N95s and KN95s that actually seal to your face and filter the goddamn air you breathe.

Here’s what they don’t tell most: There’s a significant difference between a mask and a respirator. A surgical mask is just fancy fabric that catches, well, spit. An N95 has an electrostatic charge that grabs particles and holds them. Think about rubbing a balloon on your head and watching your hair stick to it. That’s the science working to keep viruses out of your lungs when you breath, instead of letting them waltz right in.

I know a nurse. Seventy-three years old. She worked in a busy family practice through the worst of the pandemic. Small exam rooms. Sick patients all day long. She wore an N95 every single shift until she retired last year.

Guess what? She never caught COVID.

People want this to be complicated. They want it to be about genetics or expensive supplements or some elaborate wellness routine they can sell you. Most of the time, it’s not complicated at all. If a virus spreads through the air, the air you breathe is where the battle happens. A properly fitted respirator changes everything. Can’t take vaccines? Mask up. Immune system issues, well now you have an option, for many viruses.

Once I found masks that actually fit my face (Dräger X-plore 1950 for me
), the discomfort I’d imagined just wasn’t there. I can talk, walk, shop, and travel without constantly fiddling with straps. Half the time I forget I’m wearing one until I catch my reflection somewhere.

But here’s the real reason I keep doing it.

Millions of people are living with Long COVID right now. They’re carrying damage to their hearts, blood vessels, brains, and immune systems. For them, another infection isn’t just a shitty week in bed. It’s another step toward disability. More pain. Another organ system pushed past its breaking point.

They can’t afford to get hit again.

When I put on a mask, I’m not just protecting my family. I’m breaking transmission chains that could lead straight to someone whose body is already hanging by a thread. The cashier at the grocery store. My neighbor. The person standing behind me in line whose immune system can’t take another round.

We’ve normalized getting sick. People shrug and say everyone’s down with something this month. Everyone caught the latest bug going around. That’s one way to live, I guess.

Another way is to admit we have tools that work. Simple tools. Effective tools. Tools that can cut your risk of infection dramatically.

My family chose the second way.

It’s not heroic. It’s not perfect. It’s just looking at what repeated infections do to people and deciding that wearing a piece of filtered material over my face in crowded spaces is worth it.

You want to know how we’ve gone six winters without getting sick?

That’s the answer. We wore real masks for ourselves and for all the people who can’t survive another hit.

The science works. The question is whether you’re going to use it.

[Alex Blechman @AlexBlechman]

Sci-Fi Author: In my book I invented the Torment Nexus as a cautionary tale

Tech Company: At long last, we have created the Torment Nexus from classic sci-fi novel Don't Create The Torment Nexus

[Karin Lightstone @karinlightstone]

@made_in_cosmos What song is this?

[no @amplebreasthavr]

alice wong introduced me to the 10 principles of disability justice and i think they are vital to the continued existence of the human race so i am sharing them

[Karin Lightstone @karinlightstone]

@vigneshr4m You could try Palomino/ the Backyard?

[Britt @Walling_B]

I am so, SO, fucking tired of living in this capitalistic hell scape. Are people really content with having our entire existence revolve around money & power & status & greed? We can do SO MUCH BETTER FOR EVERYONE

[Karin Lightstone @karinlightstone]

@StinkRatsCharms Feel this for sure. So many cool, considerate folks - would be so rad for more of us to be together.

[Leah McElrath @leahmcelrath]

All we have is each other.

(Art by @NoBonzo)

[Matthew Todd 🌏🔥 @MrMatthewTodd]

I feel sick that we are all just meant to passively accept a world with more deadly summers, less defined seasons, more wildfires and floods, more suffering of animals and humans - all because of the greed of the richest people in the world.

[SUPPORT MUTUAL AID/DIRECT ACTION 🏴 Ⓐ @tigerfoos]

Stuff you can do right now to help fight fascism

- wear a mask and get vaccinated to prevent the spread of COVID

- support mutual aid and CF campaigns. Including unhoused neighbors

- stop using AI

- talk about politics with friends and family, fight misinformation

[Briana Mills, LMFT ♿️🏳️‍🌈🍉 @theBrianaMills]

I will never stop talking about COVID. It’s a labor rights issue, it’s a disability rights issue, it’s an LGBTQ issue, it’s a BIPOC issue, it’s an immigrant issue, it’s a woman’s issue, it’s a children issue. It’s a human issue.

[SUPPORT MUTUAL AID/DIRECT ACTION 🏴 Ⓐ @tigerfoos]

Anticapitalist praxis is by far the most effective agitprop in my experience. Especially mutual aid. We gotta show people there are alternatives. That communities can come together to care for each other. That the accumulation of wealth is not the greatest human motivation