…The study released ahead of a conference this week in the UK Parliament on misogyny and anti-Semitism found that Jewish women MPs are 15% more likely to be the targets of bile on far-right website Stormfront than their male peers.
The venom they receive is particularly noxious, too, given that it combines the hatreds of women and Jews. The likes of Dame Margaret Hodge, Luciana Berger, and Ruth Smeeth – all prominent Labour parliamentarians – are not just c**ts, they are Jewish c**ts, as their online detractors might put it.
…One of the ongoing stories of Labour’s years-long anti-Semitism crisis has been the preponderance of hate and violent rhetoric directed at the party’s Jewish women MP’s in particular.
Earlier this month, the UK police launched an investigation into violent anti-Semitic threats made against Berger, who had to attend Labour’s Party Conference this year flanked by armed police guards after receiving credible threats to her life on social media.
Parliamentary Speaker John Bercow told the Sara Conference that his own experience of anti-Semitism, “Dwindles into complete insignificance and nothingness in comparison with what female Jews have experienced and do experience.”
At a general parliamentary debate on anti-Semitism in April, Smeeth got a standing ovation after reading out her hate mail “greatest hits”. These included choice specimens like: “First job for Jeremy Corbyn tomorrow expel the Zionist Bicom smearhag bitch from the party,” and “The gallows would be a fine fitting place for this dyke piece of yid shit to swing from.”
For Jews who wish to participate in political life in the UK, abuse is “par for the course,” Smeeth said.
During the same debate, Berger described how the hate came from both far-right and far-left.
Four people from the far right have been convicted for abuse against her; after one of those convictions, Berger noted, “a far-right website in the United States initiated the #filthyjewbitch campaign, which the police said resulted in me receiving over 2,500 violent, pornographic and extreme anti-Semitic messages in just one day alone.”
She went on to point out that, “in 2018, anti-Semitism is now more commonplace, more conspicuous and more corrosive within the Labour party,” and the abuse she’s received from the left includes accusations “of having two masters. They have said that I am Tel Aviv’s servant, and called me a paid-up Israeli operative…suggesting that I am a traitor to our country. They have called me Judas, a Zionazi and an absolute parasite, and they have told me to get out of this country and go back to Israel.”
According to the research, members of Stormfront not only hate Jewish women in power, they also see feminism as a Jewish plot, adding to the litany of anti-Semitic tropes that sees the Jewish people pulling invisible levers behind a curtain and controlling the world.
This, along with the other findings, highlights the fact, often taken for granted, that women are on the front lines when it comes to society’s expressions of violence. Only in 2016, Labour MP Jo Cox was murdered by a far-right extremist. Her killer shot and stabbed her in the street in broad daylight.
Anecdotally at least, we already know what this research shows: that women who stick their heads above the parapet are on the receiving end of a horrific cocktail of abuse. This abuse interweaves their identity and perceived weakness with a hatred of women.
We saw it in the vitriol aimed at Hillary Clinton when she ran for president. We saw it in the barrage of hate U.S. Jewish journalist Julia Ioffe received after she profiled Melania Trump in 2016.
Here in the UK, we have seen it in the abuse suffered by Jewish women in Parliament and in the combination of racism and sexism aimed at women of color and minorities. Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott, the first black woman to become an MP in the UK, received more abuse in the run-up to the general election in June last year than any other woman parliamentarian, according to Amnesty International…
Of course, there is a difference between anti-Semitic and (or) misogynistic trolling and physical abuse, but both are part of the same spectrum of violence. The Pittsburgh shooting only this month and Jo Cox’s murder are just two pieces of evidence, if anyone actually needed it, that violent rhetoric can and does end in bloodshed…
“um OP don’t you know you’re supposed to have blankets on your bed that you never come into physical contact with” I’m sorry that you live in Actual Real Hell my friend but here in the world of the living I like to be able to rest comfortably without worrying that shifting in my sleep will cause my skin to explode by coming into contact with the Blanket of Forbidden Texture
See this is the kind of thing I was wondering about when posting about why making the bed could take so long. What are you people doing with your beds? I tried to Google this, but it still makes no sense.
Do US people not use those sheets that go on fully around the blanket? And why not? Is the top sheet supposed to function like those sheets, only fifty times worse because there is nothing holding it in place?
Sheets that go fully around the blankets? What the heck are you talking about.
With me you got your fitted sheet (or top sheet that gets tucked in), 5 Soft Blankets and then a comforter.
Do people even use top sheets anymore? I have only seen them at h/motels. Maybe in a very hot climate it would be better to use them versus a blanket? Anyway I have only seen them in-between the fitted sheet and the blankets?
What kavesinisukka means is a sheet that’s like a pillow case for your comforter.
Here we have the sheet that covers the mattress, then you, then a comforter that’s in a comdforter-sized pillow case and that’s it. That’s all the blankets and sheets you need.
You can get an extra blanket on top if you’re Cold but out comforters are designed to keep you warm all through icy winter.
So it’s basically a giant sleeping bag for your comforter? Do you crawl in with it or do you just go under the comforter and comforter case thing???
Huh i just learned a new thing
Heh I suppose that description works. A very thin sleeping bag made of sheet for your comforter. You don’t get into the bag yourself. The sheet is there as a protective and decorative casing around your comforter, protecting it both from dust but also from you, so that you can take it off and wash it every few weeks, because the comforter itself is not supposed to be washed.
This strikes me as something rich people do that needlessly complicates things. I barely have time to make my bed after changing the sheets, you’re telling me people spend time wrestling a giant bulky blanket into a sleeping bag sleeve every so often? It’s hard enough getting the fitted sheet on the mattress!
Why on earth would I own something I use daily that I can’t wash.
But… it’s the opposite… the sheet stays on the blanket/comforter the whole time. When you wash your linens, you only wash the sheet and you just put a new one on the blanket. It’s less work, not more
How I make my bed: mattress cover, fitted sheet, flat sheet, blankets stacked on top depending on the season.
How I think you make your bed, after reading this thread: mattress cover, fitted sheet, flat sheet, stuffing a blanket inside a sleeping-bag wrapper for some reason.
And you never wash this blanket, you just wash the wrapper? Why don’t you have blankets that can be washed? What are these non-washable blankets made of?
After wrestling the fitted sheet on, all I gotta do is stack blankets on over the flat sheet. I don’t have to stuff a blanket inside a special wrapper. If I had to stuff one of my blankets into a special blanket wrapper, that sounds like more work to me.
Hold up, I think they’re using a Duvet cover? When I do my linens, I tend to use a duvet cover so I can air out my down blanket and then wash the cover. It’s also hella warm, so I only use it in the cold seasons, but it’s a way to let my blankets get washed without needing a full wash because they’re heavy and I always worry they won’t dry or fluff up properly. So it goes: Fitted Sheet, Flat Sheet, (layer thin but plush blankets if needed for ++ warm), and then down comforter inside of a duvet cover.
what fresh hell is going on here
….
Apparently Americans as a group don’t know what a doona (or duvet) cover is.
And that’s terrible.
Yes. They’re so much easier to wash than a whole duvet.
Possibly gross: I use a comforter cover because allergies mean I sneeze very often. If I didn’t cover my comforter with something it would be rather covered with sneeze residue in pretty short order, which would be difficult to remove because you’re not supposed to wash comforters.
I’m continually baffled when tumblr acts like (thing some people do or use because they need it to more easily solve problem x) is “a rich people thing”
Like, I’m bougie because… I sneeze a lot?
Tumblr has this horrifying strain of incuriosity that I find really troubling. Like, no one can know everything, and if you’ve never used a duvet cover then you’ve never used one, but “I’ve never heard of it, so it must be a stupid rich people indulgence with no purpose” is a deeply flawed line of reasoning that I see on this website all the time.
Yeah, I mean, apparently I’m bougie because I do my own laundry.
The whole point of a duvet cover is that they’re easily washable…
Hang on, are these people actually just sleeping under thick fluffy comforters that have actually never been washed!
….I think OP may have been talking about something like this:
my late grandma used to make blankets like this for all her grandbabies at every major life event. it was a very sweet and thoughtful gesture, and I still have one of the ones she made me.
the trouble is… especially if you use cheap yarn to make them… these things feel like concentrated death. they’re scratchy. they’re full of holes, so they’re not really warm unless you’ve got at least another sheet under there. it’s hard to get comfortable under one without stretching the blanket out to the point it might unravel.
so they’re really more for decoration than anything else. I suspect OP was complaining about blankets like these.
Looking at that example and imagining certain yarns, I’m kind of glad my family has tended more toward gift quilts 😕
The OP was referring back to another post about sensory issues with a specific type of (not so decorative) hotel blanket–and people feeling a need to wade into notes with comments like “you just don’t know how to properly use a blanket”.
I remembered that series of posts, mainly because I’ve had about the same reaction to those scratchy blankets to the point of phantom itches looking at them. A normal top sheet usually isn’t enough to keep the horrible blanket material totally away from your skin all night. A duvet cover might actually do it, as long as you got someone less bothered by the texture to wrestle it into the cover.
OTOH, a lot of Europeans don’t use layers of top sheets and blankets at all, just duvets with the easily washable huge pillowcase type covers. Sometimes with a separate top sheet too as mentioned here, sometimes not since you do effectively have one built in. (Source: I married one of them.) Across socioeconomic groups, as far as I am aware with not knowing anyone who is wealthy.
I personally burn completely up without adjustable lighter layers, thanks to some other sensory issues, so we keep separate covers. I’ve actually dragged some less horrible-textured blankets back from US to get the kind I wanted. But, if you do like comforters? The washable covers are a great way to go, and it’s a shame they’re not more common back home.
Coming from the US, I wasn’t aware how common the duvet approach was until I moved where that is How To Do Bedcovers. So, I can totally understand some confusion about what people are even talking about on both sides there. The leap to “a rich people thing” is what really confuses me, though.
So a while ago I made my first Twitter/Mastodon bot, a very simple little bot called TheSingalongBot. It came out of a chance conversation at the XOXO conference with Kate Compton and Gretchen McCullough, and all it does is toot/tweet/twoot the first line of a song. Humans can sing along if they want. (To date, SingalongBot followers have finished the ABC song, A British Tar is a Soaring Soul, When Will My Life Begin, and, heroically, The Saga Begins. They are also about 80% through 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall).
To build up a suitable list of first lines for the bot, I started with a list of billboard top hits from the last 50 years. And then, because I was worried that the top hits might exclude some of the best songs, I asked people to submit the catchiest songs they knew. I got over 1,500 suggestions. Once I removed duplicates (”I threw a wish in the well” was submitted 14 times, followed closely by “Is this the real life?”) and combined with the billboard hits, I had 3,847 songs. The bot is going strong, and meanwhile I have this dataset.
Here’s how well it did at imitating the song lines after it had seen all 3,847 lines just once in training (that is, at the end of Epoch 1).
All I was a light the goont dood and och go dread I want the stars a gind was the stord I can’t a live the sake you hee I want you ging you sand the rook on the shook The sharly goold the bodey
By the end of Epoch 2 it could at least spell a bit better, though it made no actual sense.
I can a got a baby I can day more to make you make you a pan I was a little time it make a love a friend When I don’t got a love I see up a bearsting Well I was a pan and I ever mise You can a baby, down Here you one and you are now
By Epoch 3 it has settled on the strategy of using “baby” in pretty much every song.
I don’t know the baby We’re the baby baby I’m gonna get up and love is to the sea The baby all the trains You see you wanna take the something We’re not on your road I don’t know when I’m gone and thing My baby but this baby love your eyes Looking down the baby for you
Epoch 4: experimenting a bit more with new words, including some that don’t actually exist. Grammar: questionable.
You can see your face I don’t want to be a room You think a beautiful saids There all the true of the horse You don’t never think the street You can dang the be sunshine You love me funny things I don’t never love you You never good the darn tonight You know you want you I was air, the end is the light The time, I was a train There’s a tring at the boom I’m not my bright on the brains the feeling on my heart
Fast-forwarding a bit to Epoch 7, the neural net’s progress is a bit less obvious. At least we can mostly figure out what it is trying to say. Mostly.
I was a little beautiful star I was a funny life with a little sing Hearing about a brain I was so long to be a little baby I got my love, I got a put you in my heart I want you to the thing I got a single and the world so lonely You took my heart and shipportow I can’t get up in love When I was a strangle, day Spinnarduachy nobody man whiskey, die where it come Staps the phone Yo babe, very where you are frow You shazry waiting and I’m girlin’
We arrive now at the end of the training, in Epoch 15 (so chosen because progress had pretty much stopped). The neural net has learned quite a bit, really.
It has learned to do love songs.
I see you standing in the hair I can dance if you want my life Oh no, my name is in the sky Oh, I’m in love with your head in my eyes You look at me like there’s a strungle I see you and I’m home, and I see your face for me I’m so tired of being so hearts Yeah I’m always love you
And dance tunes.
Love, love my eyes rollin’ Ive got to Seem sexy Hello when I came home from ass Oh, baby, do you make her bass? Welp, a-sunshane’ said, doot doot doot dam i gim. dumber
And folk songs.
When i get up in the mirror This is the world that you’re a burning here I can’t explain my window Welp, the lack of the sunshine You are my eyes are the boot I see you standin’ on the mind I said it up, the year was 1778
And whatever the heck these are.
The lights in the eventoot, heaven me I had a peanut, ooooonce colod me back at the sing Look down! Couse Rider schoode After all waits that you’re feelinged Fingertippolming Muskrat, pen up forever for me Hush, you’re funny time I was childrentin’
Look out, songwriters! AI is coming for your jobs!
I also collected some songs generated by the most highly-trained algorithm, but at a higher creativity level so they’re really really weird. To get the list (and optionally bonus material every time I post), sign up here.
I really don’t like posting on her blog myself but I’m in a situation that warrants it. Me and my girlfriend were kicked out by our roommates a couple of weeks ago, so I drove to Los Angeles with her to try and find a programming job there. However, we don’t have the money to last us much longer, so I’m posting here to ask for help.
My paypal is mraof@mraof.com, if you could donate there I would greatly appreciate it. I also have a patreon at https://www.patreon.com/mraof, but as I have a more immediate need for money I would prefer donations to my paypal.
Me and my girlfriend Ashley also need temporary housing, we are both trans women and both have cars.
If you have any leads for programming jobs in the LA area (or remotely), contact me at mraof@mraof.com. Other than sbnkalny, I’ve written the Minecraft mod Minestuck and various other mods and small projects, you can check out the source of a lot of what I’ve done (including sbnkalny) at https://github.com/mraof/
If anyone is feeling generous this thanksgiving, my fur son Jiji is back to being unwell. I wrote a post a few months back about it, but unfortunately, his symptoms have returned and we’ve needed to go back to the vet. For me, this means paying for Ubers and the vet with no insurance, and I make just over $600/month with more than half of that going to my rent before bills.
My rent payment is already late, and I’ve tested my landlord’s patience in the past with late payments so I’m really scared of being evicted right now. My internet provider and hydro bills are also overdue and the net provider in particular is threatening to cut off service soon. Jiji’s vet also wants to run more tests that I just can’t afford, so I’m playing with his health, my housing and both of our well being. My cupboard has a box of pasta, some rice and potatoes. I can’t afford much beyond microwave dinners right now.
I hate begging strangers. I can’t stand it. It makes me feel ashamed as an adult that I don’t have people in my life who I can ask for help, so if there’s anyone out there willing to help out a stranger, my Paypal is paypal.me/victoriatb. Absolutely anything would be a blessing right now. If you can’t help financially, just a quick reblog would mean the world 💕 Thank you so much and hugs to all.
-V
Jiji’s vet called today to see if I wanted to book an appointment to check on the conditions of his kidneys, but I’m not able to afford this yet. If anyone can spare any change, absolutely anything would help. -V
I am incredibly close to being able to cover Jiji’s next visit to the vet. 👏🏻 he also wishes to thank everyone for all of their incredible kindness.
-V
We are around $100 away from being able to pay for Jiji’s next visit. 🤞🏻 so many thanks to everyone who has helped out and shared!
Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0 
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