you have a much higher chance of being killed or seriously harmed by your own infrastructure than by a terrorist attack in the united states of america, but which one do you think we invest the most money in? counter-terrorism or infrastructure? … i’ll give you a hint, it’s not infrastructure.
You also have a much greater chance of dying from lack of healthcare.
Cop 1: Hey chief, we just threw Leroy in the drunk tank again.
Chief: PHOTOGRAPH ALL HIS POSSESSIONS AND TELL THE WORLD OF OUR GLORIOUS WORK
How could they know how long it took him to collect the money? That could be his adult life savings.
Cops aren’t shit!!!
That’s one thing that actually keeps surprising me, dealing with my partner. He’s so much better with the “soft can’ts” than I am.
“Wait! Don’t do that, you’re going to hurt yourself!!!”
Yeah, I’m not so used to that being much of a consideration. Especially if it’s something that wouldn’t be a problem for someone with less shitty connective tissue, no history of certain injuries, etc.
It’s not just things as blatant as direct physical harm, of course, though that is one example that really has me going wtf whenever I think about it. Avoiding overload, rationing energy, and other “softer” considerations get treated as totally legit too.
I’ve kept feeling guiltier as the list of “soft can’ts” has grown, and still keep bracing myself for the snarking and sniping and concern trolling and pushing. Hasn’t happened yet. Even in the middle of burnouts, including lately.
That really should not be so unusual from people close to you, who are supposed to care.
It can be really hard to learn to recognize reasonable limits for yourself. But, no wonder, as much history as a lot of us have of the people around us pushing us into the burnout zone. And then acting amazed and disappointed when we sooner or later do crash spectacularly. Or get ourselves hurt in seemingly ridiculous/careless ways.
During my journey of understanding and accepting my autism, I’ve focused a lot on “can’t”.
I “can’t” go to parties. I “can’t” go to uni. I “can’t” travel or keep my flat clean.
A lot of people have, for a lot of different reasons, been upset with this, and I get it.
If they love me, it’s sad to think I’m resigning myself to a limited kind of life.
If they don’t love me, they think I’m whining and not pushing myself enough. That I’m weak. Spoiled.
And I get all that… especially when it comes from people that know me.
That’s because there’s a soft “can’t” and a hard “can’t”.
I could, technically, go a day without food or I could lift something as heavy as me.
People understand that when I say I “can’t” do that, it’s a soft “can’t”. Like, I could push myself beyond what’s healthy, and it’d suck ass, and you’re a jerk if you expect me to do this. Technically I can, but you’d understand my “can’t”.
A hard “can’t” is then an actual “can’t”. I can’t survive without food. I can’t lift a car.
So far so obvious, I guess.
But the thing is the world never accepts a soft “can’t” from disabled people.
My wife “soft can’t” do the shopping for my whole family for the weekend we’re staying with them. So my mum asks her anyway, because my wife is a sweet and giving person and I’m the only one who sees her shaking when she comes back.
I “soft can’t” hold down a nine to five job, but because me crying in the break room, shutting down during my hours off and because my wearing headphones during my lunch break instead of talking to my coworkers is just snobbery, people think I’m being lazy or spoilt when I say I “can’t” do it. Even though I’ve been fired for that kinda shit before.
If you know me you’ve seen me push through my soft “can’t"s all my life, and I was forced to so often that even I didn’t realize I “couldn’t”, because other people knew better and I was just spoiled and either people broke down just like me when I couldn’t see them, or I was just a weird, entitled, difficult child like everyone said.
But I’m realizing a soft “can’t” is still a fucking “can’t”. Because abled people aren’t denied that kind of “can’t”. We understand that if an abled person avoids physical or mental pain or exhaustion, that’s just them being sensible. People have a rough idea of what they “can’t” do, and they expect that at least part of the pain and difficulty in disabled people’s lives is just pushing through their limitations to reach the same “can” and “can’t"s as they experience and respect.
Of course the trope of the good disabled person pushing through to impress even abled people with their accomplishments has been discussed before.
But my thing right now is just about claiming or reclaiming “can’t”. I don’t have to, or shouldn’t be expected to, suffer through my soft “can’t"s any more than an abled person.
So fuck you, world! I can’t be outside in summer. I can’t handle your manipulations. I can’t perform. I can’t live on my own. I can’t have a perfect life. I’m not a spoiled brat, dad. My pain counts just as much.
And my can’ts count. I’m already pushing myself through difficulties you’ll never understand, just to stay alive. Respect my limits. I will, whether it pisses you off or not.
“But the thing is the world never accepts a soft “can’t” from disabled people.”
But a new study projects that 40 million Americans who voted last year will likely not show up at the polls for the 2018 midterms.
And that two-thirds of those “drop-off” voters will be millennials, unmarried women and people of color.
The report, just out from the Voter Participation Center and Lake Research Partners, “Comparing the Voting Electorate in 2012-2016 and Predicting 2018 Drop-off,” notes that many of those expected not to cast a ballot next year live in key battleground states like Arizona, Nevada, Florida and Ohio. Read more (7/21/17)
Young people in America, REGISTER TO VOTE AND GET TO THE POLLS NEXT YEAR
THIS MATTERS
YOUR VOTE MATTERS SO MUCH OKAY
Just look at the difference young people getting out and voting made in the UK general election this year…young voters CAN make a POSITIVE DIFFERENCE by getting out and voting
And I know this isn’t a presidential election but it is in some ways EVEN MORE IMPORTANT
Because the president can’t do anything without congress and the senate on his side…but likewise, if the Republicans get a majority it means it will be easier for that disgusting sack of stinking dog-vomit Donald Trump and his party of traitors and criminals to push through the DISGUSTING things they want to try and inflict on the country and its people
Get out and vote democrat next year and keep the Republicans from getting a blank check to try and push through their bigoted, evil bullshit
I’m pretty sure the biggest barrier to young people voting isn’t not caring, it’s not knowing.
Am I registered? Shit, who knows? I’ve moved five times in the last four years. I think I registered, but that was a year ago, did I change districts since then? Where even are the polling places in this town? What are their hours? I know I submitted a registration, but did they get it? I didn’t get a confirmation. Did they lose my form? Am I even eligible? Who knows? Oh well, I’m sure I can always register in the days leading up to the – whoops, there’s a deadline and it’s already gone by.
This is one of those civic skills that you would really think would be taught in high school, and – surprise! – it isn’t.
Of course, all of this – in the way of Tumblr, and the internet more generally – will be lost to the vagaries of cyberspace by the time November rolls around. So hey: tag it with “voting reference” and you’ll always be able to find it again.
A snippet from an article on Huffington Post about what it means to be working poor.
Pretty spot on…
I got into an argument today with someone who is a landlord, and they were outraged, outraged, to find that their evicted tenants owned an Xbox 360. Never mind that the console was ten years old and worth perhaps $50 on Craigslist, they were outraged that their evicted tenants did not sell it, along with the very clothes on their back, to pay their back rent. I tried to explain to him that when you are $1800 in back rent, $50 isn’t even a dent in that debt. Why bother? Why bother selling that $50 item if it isn’t going to get you any less evicted? If it’s not going to save you, you’ll hold on to it. Money becomes meaningless when you’ll never have enough to hold onto. You just let it flow like water through your hands. It’s all gone anyways, no matter what you do. It was gone before it ever touched you.
The other day I got very mad at someone because their justification of why a family didn’t deserve their council house was because they had decorated the front of their house with xmas lights. DO YOU REALLY KNOW WHAT ITS LIKE TO LIVE WITH NO SMALL PLEASURES AT ALL?!?!? DO YOU REALLY?!?!
This is one of the great end results of capitalism: we treat people as if the only thing they should care about are their mechanical needs but without things to nourish the soul or the capacity to talk about same, we fall apart.
We aren’t meant to be things which sit in blank boxes waiting to be used by our employers. Nothing in nature acts that way. Nothing’s meant to.
The need rich people have for poor people to constantly perform some sort of Dickensian display of abject poverty is so goddamn disgusting and proves that, yes, it is all about status markers. Rich people want visible proof that others are beneath them. It’s malicious and nauseating. And the kicker is that they’re usually too busy being impressed with their own wealth and sense of superiority to use their brains, because as already stated in the other comments, having technology or a couple of small pleasures is *not* a reliable indicator of income. This anti-poor people shit is revolting.
And it turns poor and working-class people against each other. Like I knew a guy who installed cable TV for a living and barely could make a living, and resented that some people who got cable TV were on welfare. I tried to explain that you actually have to spend a certain amount of money in order to qualify for such basic thing as Medicaid – if you save money you’ll get thrown off the system, even though you won’t magically be able to survive outside the system with the amount of money you have to save in order to be thrown off it. He didn’t care. He told me poor people should be given nothing more than food, clothing, and shelter. He grew up poorer than most poor people have ever been. All this combination of shit made me furious and still does. Not to mention the cultural ideals of being too proud to accept help of any kind and how people think this is a good thing even when it kills people.
The poorest people in the world forgo some amount of necessities for staying alive in order to have some money for recreation or things that connect them to the world. During the Depression, many people surveyed said they would rather give up their beds than their radios – radio being how people stayed connected to the outside world in the same way Internet does today. And does anyone need to bring up Rat Park again? Holy crap this stuff pisses me off.
(– Poor person who has Internet & Netflix & smartphone & other so-called luxuries. And does anyone really think the extra $100ish a month I’d get giving all that up would catapult me out of poverty and solve all my problems? Not to mention the Internet has literally saved my life before. As in, I was in the hospital being mistreated in a way that was life-threatening, and blogging allowed me and another poor person who was making decisions for me, to get other people to call the hospital and say “We’re watching you.” Other poor people get food and rent and etc. money by asking on the Internet and receiving food money through the Internet. Many people on disability supplement their income by selling art or small crafts online – how much you’re allowed to sell before they start cutting benefits depends on what part of the system you’re in, but it’s a common thing.)
god it drives me crazy when middle class and rich people don’t get that. why do you want everyone to be miserable all the time.
Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0 
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