I HATE this insistence that we have a moral obligation to worsen our health for the "greater good!!"

"Don't ignore politics-"

STOP. STOP IT. If that's what it takes for you to survive, do it.

There's a reason in the mental hospital they block the news channels! It fucks people up! People find the world so damaged, future so hopeless, and situations so overwhelming they literally kill themselves!

Yes, yes, the activism guilt-tripping is supposed to be for those who simply don't care, but the disabled people who do care are the ones who wind up feeling guilty!

"It's a privilege to be able to ignore politics-"

No, it's a privilege to be able to pay attention to politics without having to be literally hospitalized.

Do. What. It. Takes. To. Survive.

"I need ALL of you to start paying attention-"

Wrong. You need all of us who are ABLE to start paying attention.

They are asking you to join in a 70-mile hike up a mountain, where in order to win, as many people as possible must reach the top as quickly as possible! But you are in excruciating pain and have no legs! There is no accessible way up the mountain! In trying to climb the mountain, you will cause yourself irreparable harm and likely death! You feel bad, you're letting everyone down, you can't keep up, you're about to fall, but your friend is saying "hey, I get it, sometimes my legs get super sore, but you have to keep climbing! It's our duty! Keep going! The only way to save everyone is if we do this together!"

They DON'T get it. Even if they say "well I know so-and-so who also has no legs and he just uses his arm-strength and he's at the top already, what if I carry you for a few steps until you have your strength back?" You're not him! He's clearly aquired tools and strengthened muscles you have not, and might never be able to! Only YOU know what you can handle. Do not fall to your death because you feel guilty!

Survive.

Survive.

Right now the current presidency is actively going out of its way to emotionally and mentally tire people out so they don’t pay attention to all the things they are messing up.

That being said everything In moderation, as long as we’re all working together it s possible to take breaks from the news and come back when your ready and catch up on what you need to know so others can take their turn to rest.

The majority of people who voted for trump didn’t care to pay attention, and were willfully ignorant. Yes take your time to recover, but beating us down until we stop looking at the problem is exactly what they want.

The answer isn’t shutting down so they can run free without anyone holding them accountable, it’s moderation and working together so we can all make each other’s lives easier and better.

Ignorance isn’t bliss if you never come back from “resting” , take your rest but you need to come back to pay attention to so you can be educated on how you can make a difference.

This is an example of the friend saying, "Hey, I get it, sometimes my legs get sore, but we have to keep climbing together! What if I carry you until you get your strength back?"

They don't get it.

"Take time to recover-"

Some people can recover! Some people CANNOT. Some disabilities are PERMANENT.

Some people can take a break and keep climbing, and that's fantastic! I would say a lot of people operate in such a way, even!

But as a fact, some people can't, and some people have literally died because they couldn't.

"Educate yourself on how to make a difference-"

You make a difference just by surviving.

That’s easy to say when all minorities don’t have the choice not to pay attention,instead of shoving your head in the dirt we need to help each other out.

No one is saying people who have physical disabilities have to suddenly stand up and March, the point is to be EDUCATED so people can’t take advantage of you,

Poor education is what got us in this situation

Okay, alright, I'll level with you because we're really on the same side, y'know.

All of us can't ignore what's happening, obviously. That would be devastating. We can't all turn away. Of course, there's power in education and in being informed.

But! This is not about everyone in the whole world or country. And, likely, this is not about those with significant political power or financial power. In comparison, it's about a relatively small group of people, those who can't be activists without doing considerable harm to their health. These people from my experience are usually already well-informed and very much so want to help!

Mental health is as important as physical health. I think we can all agree our brain is pretty important, right? Mental disabilities such as severe mood disorders, can be debilitating and deadly. We've already seen suicides hotlines increase more than double since last November. Some people have mental health issues so severe they just can't fully participate in activism like they want to do, and as a result feel like they're failing or that they're bad people or otherwise letting down their communities. This post is for them. It's telling them, "Hey, it's not fair that you're made to feel guilty when you don't currently have the capacity to handle this information like others might be able to. Please survive. Please focus on keeping yourself safe."

The people who are feeling guilty and sacrificing their health often are the minorities in question, which is a BIG problem because those groups are at higher risk of trauma and suicide. The people who need to pull away and keep safe the MOST are often minority groups.

Since November, especially since mid-January, I've been on the front lines handling these mental health crisis situations. Every single suicidal kid I've talked off the ledge these past few months is part of a minority and have been becoming increasingly suicidal because they felt too ashamed to pull away from the onslaught of politics. And I'm telling Tumblr what I told them- if keeping updated isn't something you're able to do without it being detrimental to your health, then your job is just to survive. That's it. Survive to see another day, survive to thrive in a better future.

It's SO HARD for people accept this in themselves, even as they agree with me, that they need to step away from politics, even as they're on the brink of killing themselves, because there's so much ethical obligation to stay informed, so much shame, so much peer pressure. And I've been there! I've pushed myself until literal hospitalization!

I used to say I would rather be dead and informed than alive and ignorant. Then, I realized the dead can't be informed or uninformed. They're dead.

Immediate survival MUST come first. There's no point in activism or fighting for a better future if the people we're fighting for aren't here to see it.

I don't want to say, "Hey, it's okay if you need a break, though really try not to because it's all hands on deck -" I am shouting:

"Hey. It's more important you live. You hear me, motherfuckers? Don't you DARE take risks to your health. Informed in the short term is not as important as you being here in the longterm. I know you're doing your best. You are not a bad person. I see you and I am begging you to take care of yourself."

I’ve seen the original post a couple of times and it really rubbed me the wrong way, but I wasn’t sure how to articulate why. It reminded me of some of the posts I saw back in late 2023 when the genocide in Palestine started - there was a post that was similar to the one above, saying that it’s okay to look away and that anyone telling you otherwise is ableist. The gist is: this person wanted to look away, and went onto tumblr to get validation for that decision.

I think this last reblog is a good addition to this post and I think better articulates what OP was trying to get at, but here’s the thing:

As individuals, we have to acknowledge that we can’t be effective or helpful to causes that we care about if we’re not in the right headspace or life situation, but at the same time, acknowledge that these problems are not going to go away if we continue to ignore them.

I’m new to activism, only getting involved in the past year or so, and here’s something I’ve picked up:

It’s acknowledged in activist circles that not everybody can put 100% of their effort in 100% of the time. People can and do take steps back when they need to, and it’s encouraged and supported by other people involved. It’s acknowledged that we can’t get any work done if people aren’t in a healthy headspace or able to take care of themselves.

Things happening in this country and around the world are absolutely terrible, and they can and will have negative mental health effects on everybody. We have to take care of ourselves, we have to get help and do what we can so we can work through this grief and fear, and turn it into action.

That action will look different for different people. For some people, it means getting on the streets and marching, for others, it means existing out in public as a visible trans person, loud and proud. It can be an art project, or a teach-in, or reading a book, or even just talking to a coworker about it. These are all forms of action, and all are equally important.

OP is right that this period where you need to take a step back might take a while, it might take years for some people. But the world goes on anyway, and stuff is going to happen, whether you’re paying attention or not. The best thing you can be is informed. The worst thing we can do is create a culture encouraging inaction - activism should be as accessible as possible.

That being said, here’s some things for everyone to remember:

Stop doomscrolling. It doesn’t help anyone or anything, and is usually full of misinformation.

Remember that for every backwards policy or action made by the people in charge, there’s hundreds to thousands of people fighting back against it. The people stand with what’s right.

Yes!!! All the halftime show posts I’ve seen are all about Not Like Us and Kendrick dragging Drake…we’re missing the point of what the performance was about. Please talk about this, please spread the message, Kendrick had one of the biggest platforms last night and he used it to send an important message through art…don’t let that message be lost

Democrats: why do we keep loosing?

People: why don’t you try appealing to your base?

Democrats: we need to start appealing to republicans

Democrats: *loose*

Democrats: hmmmmm.

Democrats: What went wrong here?

People: maybe you drove your base away by appealing to republicans and abandoning the working class and minorities who needed your help

Democrats: hmmmmmm

Democrats: it doesn’t make any sense

Hey you know what sucks is predatory companies that make you enter your email address so that they can harass and advertise to you to access resources you might need to keep track of expenses after a disaster. So, uh, fuck them.

If you need to track the cost of things like hotel stays, pet kenneling, medical care, etc. after a disaster you can use this worksheet.

If you need to create an inventory of your home for an insurance claim (and if you'd like to do this to keep someplace safe before a disaster) you can use this worksheet (two pages, instructions on the first page, worksheet on the second).

And here's a FEMA document with numbers for disaster relief groups and a checklist of documents that you may need to have replaced as well as a description of what to do if you had cash in your home that was destroyed and can possibly be replaced.

Bringing this back because there are a ton of people who are going to need it. A lot of stupid bullshit disaster recovery companies will be reaching out to people whose homes burned down. A lot of people whose homes burned down will be searching for resources that come from websites that require them to give up personal details in order to get worksheets and tools.

These are free documents you can download to keep track of disaster recovery expenses or make a list for insurance claims.

I know people are exhausted and frightened and not thinking about stuff but start a folder in your email for receipts for things you're paying for right now so that you can fill out these forms later.

Don't enter your info on a random website or you're going to start getting calls from scammy companies.

And here's a story from the LA Times with advice for people who lost homes or businesses during the fire; one of the primary pieces of advice is DON'T RUSH. Take your time to make decisions and look over any paperwork that anyone wants you to sign.

If you need to send people a link to these documents that isn't a tumblr post they're collected here on my website with links to archive.org instead of gdocs.

I updated the page with specific links to resources for these fire, all of which are included below; again, if you want to send someone a link but you don't want to send them a tumblr post, here's a direct link to my site, which I will be updating with resources as I find them.

Since there have now been two mistaken emergency evacuation alerts sent out, you can go to the LA County Emergency site to check current evacuations; it doesn't load a map, but it will show a list of evacuation zones for each fire that you can expand, with a link to a map so that you can identify your zone.

So let's say you're in Temple City near Las Tunas and Baldwin and you got an evacuation alert; you know that you're closest to the Eaton fire so you scroll down to the evacuations and go to the Eaton evacuation:

That's the list of active evacuation zones and warnings; the blue link at the top is the map where you can check your area.

Las Tunas and Baldwin is not an evacuation zone; even if you got the alert you do not have an evacuation warning to worry about.

FANTASTIC list of resources here!

if you care about trans folks please take a few minutes to read through this post and share.

They are not even trying to hide their true intentions with KOSA...

"Top of the agenda is to go after providers of gender affirming care, including for adults. The FTC could also go after online platforms for displaying LGBTQ content which would be supercharged under KOSA."

This is catastrophically bad.

There is a HUGE push to pass KOSA rn at the end of the year.

Real quick summary: Blumenthal and Blackburn "rewrote" KOSA to appeal to the right more. They worked with ELON MUSK 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♂️ to push this bill "protecting kids". Tomorrow, many orgs are bringing groups of parents to speak to congress. This is coming at a time when FTC commissioner admitted their agenda is straight transphobia:

There are two ways KOSA can be passed right now. Either from the House or attaching it to an end of year spending bill. They will try both.

Republican leadership (Scalise and Johnson) are surprisingly what is stopping thia from going through. They wont admit it out loud but they dont like the bill.

WE NEED TO PUSH BACK NOW!! Tomorrow those phones need to be ringing OFF THE HOOK while they meet with parents.

PLEASE SPREAD THIS EVERYWHERE!! ADD THESE LINKS TO TWITTER, REDDIT, INSTA, TIKTOK!!

USE THESE CALLING TOOLS AND SCRIPTS TODAY AND TOMORROW ALL DAY!!!

SCRIPTS:

🔴 If your rep is GOP:

"I am urging you to VOTE NO on KOSA, the Kid’s Online Safety Act. This is a dangerous bill that will harm children.

Many news organizations have reported that this bill actively harms kids by exposing their private data to strangers under the guise of protecting them.

We need to hold Big Tech accountable, but KOSA is not the solution.

The bill let any state attorney general and the FTC to sue any website for “harmful” content. Do we really want blue state lawyers deciding what can and can’t be allowed online?

Big Tech is already censoring us. That’s why they support KOSA. This is massive government overreach. We need a bill that actually protects children by creating better security measures instead of bringing about more censorship.

Multiple experts agree this bill pushes age verification, even with the new language.

KOSA hands more private data of children to third party companies, which would put them in further danger. How is this protecting children’s privacy?

What parent would want their child’s private data in the hands of strangers like this? KOSA is actively putting kids in danger.

Do NOT support this bill. Thank you."

Also,to note, Biden supports KOSA: You could try asking your GOP rep why they would support a bill that has Biden's support,and that he could use it to his advantage somehow (we know GOP does not like Biden,so it should be utilized somehow). We need to ensure the bill doesnt pass at all.

🔵 if your rep is DEM:

"I am urging you to VOTE NO on KOSA. Nearly 200 human rights and LGBT organizations total came out in an open letter opposing it. The ACLU is against it. Hundreds of thousands of Gen Z, who actually live online, are against it.

We know the harms of social media, and we know this is not the solution. The new language does NOT meet any concerns brought up, in fact many organizations were ignored.

Major news have reported that this bill actively harms kids. We do not want this. The rewritten bill would still allow any state attorney general, and now the FTC, to sue any website for “harmful” content. When you have Republicans calling anything LGBT “sexual exploitation” or anything about race “CRT” to successfully ban books and teachers, then they will use any justification to censor the internet.

The Missouri attorney general used “mental health” successfully to ban gender-affirming care with backed up research. Suicide rates will skyrocket for marginalized youth with this bill restricting content. Multiple experts agree this bill pushes age verification, even with the new language.

KOSA hands more private data of children to third party companies. Furthermore, updated language threatens encryption the same way the Earn It Act does.

How is this protecting children’s privacy? KOSA actively harms kids. Do NOT support this bill. Thank you."

Tell them you'll vote for your reps if they vote no on KOSA, anything goes. But most importantly it's crucial that KOSA is not being brought at all for any vote.

Thank you, remember to stay calm and stay strong. We've got this!! ♡

This feels like a good time to say that we do not know for sure if Luigi Mangione actually did it. He’s a suspect and person of interest, but that’s all he is at this point. (I, personally, am kind of skeptical).

Keeping that in mind, remember that this guy is potentially completely uninvolved, but is now having every single aspect of his life scrutinized and torn apart by the entire country. People are looking at his medical history, his social media, his education, even his goodreads. I understand that we want to know more about this, but we could be doing more harm than good to this individual, regardless of whether or not he did it.

Just please make sure not to use language that refers to him factually as the killer, when we don’t know for sure yet. And please keep in mind that this is a human being, and scrutinizing every aspect of his life like the way people have been doing could be doing harm.

Also, stop with the liberal purity talk. If you’re a person that’s going to write him off (if he did do it) because of his expressed beliefs, consider the idea that maybe that actually helps nothing and no one. No one human being is perfect, and this is a guy that shot a man in the open. Obviously, he’s not going to be your ideal liberal leftist with all the “correct opinions”. This man may have saved actual lives by doing what he did, and could have ruined his life in doing it.

The media is going to try to use this to drive us apart, after we were so united for the first time ever. Do not fall for it. Do not be a tool. We’re done with the pearl-clutching.

It might not be him tbf. He's a rich kid that went to a 30k a year private school so could afford medical bills. He lived in luxury. Ethically he might know healthcare is wrong but equally so is the property empire that paid for his immense privilege and opportunities. Maybe he's unaware of this, a lot of rich kids are. Maybe he's not and wanted to do a good act for the majority. If he did it it'd be rich on rich crime as much as anything else.

The fun thing about the American Healthcare system is that even if you’re well-off, insurance companies still drain you of every single cent you have if you run into serious health issues. I remember hearing from one of my neighbors of a married couple who are both doctors, both extremely well-off, but one of the couple was diagnosed with cancer. Within a year, every single one of their funds was gone, and it still wasn’t enough to cover care.

I promise you, even rich kids that grew up in luxury are still screwed over by the healthcare system. Everyone is screwed over by the healthcare system, except the Uber rich. This is why so many people are in agreement here. Democrats and republicans, people in poverty or well-off families, health insurance has destroyed them all.

You’re right that it might not be him, but I promise you, whoever he is, he knows the problems with the system. If it is Luigi Mangione that did it, he knows personally.

Howdy folks, the Senate will be considering the first ever resolution blocking arms to Israel. This is huge and historic; it would block government contracting and about $20 billion in arms and support. This is an uphill battle, PLEASE urge your senators to support S.J.Res114-115. This is maybe the most important piece of legislation relating to Palestine that we have ever gotten and we must seize this opportunity.

This doc has information on the resolutions and their process, as well as sample messages and a phone script you can use. Please, use this moment to hear witness for your neighbors.