I'm not sure people really appreciate how brief life is. For some folks, this brevity is realized in a form of nihilism, that we have an awareness between two forms of oblivion and thus nothing matters. For others, this briefness is like a temporary stay while eternity awaits after.

I don't know why, in the brief time we have, people decide it's best to be cruel to others. To upset them, to make them cry, to get them to kill themselves. I don't know why people support laws that hurt other people, that marginalize groups, or that ensure an adult woman must die giving birth. I don't know why, when someone says they are observing a day of mourning the first thing that comes into someone's head is 'that's nice, but let me butt in on this and upset you even more--it's not about me enough'.

We do not know what the last thing we will say or do will be, but I hope whatever mine is, is an act of kindness and not cruelty.

A heartless person does not care about anyone, not even themselves. This is how our country has become. People no longer care about the safety and well being of others or even themselves. Instead they will say they have a right to disobey doctors and flout any restrictions. As a result people are suffering and have died, including children. Not just from COVID but normally treatable things.

Why Cruelty? Because allowing someone to suffer when you have the ability to stop their suffering is cruel.

Why Capitalist? Because capitalism focuses on the free market and individual ownership. Most importantly, it means that people can do things like raise the price of life-saving drugs and be justified with "the market will self-correct" despite it taking years to make generic versions or even if the original was sold for a dollar so that people could benefit from it. Such a person is obviously not the correct type of capitalist since they put the benefit of others before making money for themselves.

Why Christianity? Because enough people who do the following say how they are "God-fearing Christians" or similar and how they go to Church and so on.

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Capitalist Christianity is a variety of Christianity wherein the God worshiped is made of gold. The emphasis is that if a person has God's favor then they will naturally have many blessings and if they do not, God will punish them with poverty, disease, and so on. It allows for a myriad of things to happen, and those following it are quite willing to sacrifice a better future for themselves and their decedents so long as some group they hate suffers even more.

Under Capitalist Christianity worth and price are synonyms so that one gets things like a person "worth an estimated [insert price] And if one cannot state this then one is worthless.

Anyone suggesting that the homeless be given homes, the hungry be fed, or similar charitable thoughts is thoroughly argued against with things like "but first they'll need treatment for their drug/mental issues" or "why should they get something for free that I had to work to pay for?!" This also applies to insurances and student loans and similar because while everyone would benefit from lower costs, some groups will benefit more and this deeply disturbs the Capitalist Christian who firmly believes Everyone Has Their Place, and some groups must always be under them socially.

This can go further, even applying to children when schools will not allow them to eat a lunch, or force them to toss a lunch they took, because they cannot pay for it. People will justify this by saying children need to know the value of things or something similar. Such people will never feel the argument "but they're children and should be fed" as a good enough reason to actually feed them, instead using arguments about how them being hungry while in class is somehow a good thing or how forcing them to clean up the lunch room in front of all their classmates teaches them a good work ethic and is not at all a form of humiliation.

I've already asked a friend, but I figured I'd put this out there to see who else might be interested in helping me with some world building. It involves a world called Rani I started on when I was a teenager.

Rani has Earth-like temperatures and environs but is populated by anthros. It has five continents: Aldania, Beringia, Candorin, Datal, and Enard.

Aldania and Beringia are the largest continents and both roughly the size of Eurasia. They are located opposite one another (on an Earth map Aldania would be where Eurasia is and Beringia would be where South America is). Datal and Enard are about the size of North America. Datal is north of Beringia and Enard is south of Aldania. Candorin is a "lost continent" located about midway between the other four and is considered to be the place where everyone came from.

What kind of help am I looking for? To be honest I'm not sure. It's a world that keeps coming into my mind and I honestly don't know what to do with it. Part of my problem is that I like older places like Neopets, but that's really problematic from cultural perspectives. I mean, I like the idea of something like Neopets, but I'd want it to be more than just lifting Earth cultures and putting it in fantasy.

Any thoughts?

People looking at Texas and other states where folks are displaying overt racism seem to be shocked it's still going on. Racism never left the US, it just waited until conditions were right for it to be fully out in the open again.

The word treason gets tossed around a lot, and it can refer to many things, but in the US the Constitution has a specific definition for treason:

Article III
Section 3
Clause 1
Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.

As one might expect, this definition is rather hard to meet and protests do not qualify since they are protected by the First Amendment (Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.). For similar reasons, no amount of hateful words against the government or its officials qualify as treason either, even if people will say that certain statements are treasonous.

There are two examples I am aware of when the definition of treason was met and the punishment (Clause 2: The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted.) could be enacted. The first, of course, is the Civil War. All Confederates would be guilty of treason.

The second, of course, is January 6th of 2021.

I doubt that any charges of treason will be enacted, but it's pretty interesting that people who claim to love their country performed the ultimate act of treason against it.

People will celebrate today, but they should not only remember those who have sacrificed to ensure the freedoms that we in the US enjoy; they should also remember that there are those here in the US who are still marginalized because of the long shadow of our history. It is necessary to remember the past atrocities committed so that they are not repeated.

With the recent horror discovered in British Colombia, I felt the need to address this.

It's hard to know where to start, but I think having the definition of genocide will be helpful:

gen·o·cide
/ˈjenəˌsīd/
noun
noun: genocide; plural noun: genocides
the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group
-Oxford English Dictionary

geno·​cide | \ ˈje-nə-ˌsīd \
Definition of genocide
: the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group
-Merriam-Webster Dictionary

This is the definition I am using here. The examples, such as this Vox article, will follow this as closely as possible. If you wish to ask questions about or add to the conversation on genocide, feel welcome. If you wish to 'debate' genocide, stay away. This is not a topic for debate. I am also not going to debate the existence of genocide before the word was coined in the 1940's. If it meets the definition of genocide, it is a genocide, even if the word for it did not exist at the time.

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I am not in the mood for "bothsideism". If you're going to come here and say 'well Natives killed one another too' you can just keep that to yourself. All that sort of thing does is victim blame. It's the equivalent of saying that what Hitler did to the Jews was no worse than what Jews did historically to their neighbors.

I will not be portraying Europeans in a favorable light. They are the invaders. They are the ones who came across the ocean to colonize and to seize the lands through any means. The Natives retaliating against an invading force can only be seen in terms of self-defense.

Finally, if you have any issues with any of my sources, feel free to look up the information provided for yourself and verify it through whatever sources you consider reliable. I have a feeling this won't happen much, given the lengths to which this is hidden from US history, but I'm tired of people questioning my sources and not bothering to research on their own to see if it's actually true.

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The history of genocide is long. Practically from the first time colonizers came to the Americas, bringing with them not only diseases but also a greed for land and resources that could not be sated. This is often portrayed as high-minded ideals like freedom of religion, but ultimately it ended up being the land and its resources that were desired, and the Natives stood in the way.

Small Pox Blankets

16,000 Native Americans were killed in California.

Governments making scalping Natives a business.

The destruction of buffalo to starve Natives especially with the Transcontinental Railroad.

Missionary schools were used for cultural destruction and assimilation.

The Trail of Tears, which forcefully and unlawfully removed Natives. This can be paired with the Long Walk of the Navajo.

The overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy. This is recognized as genocide under international law.

Sand Creek Massacre

The Dakota 38

Wounded Knee Massacre

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The recent pipeline "debate" is simply an extension of this. It runs through Native lands that are supposed to be protected by various treaties. Never once has the US honored a treaty with the Natives in full.

Going back on their promises, doing nothing, trying to work with Republicans who've literally said their whole thing is going to be obstructing everything whether it's good policy or no. Because, obviously, it's more important to stick it to the Dems than do what's right for the country over all.

I really wonder if there's a point in voting. Most Republicans have become the Cult of Trump, and Fearless Leader can do no wrong in their eyes. Most Democrats are quite happy with the status quo, promising the moon and delivering dirt. They don't work for the people who voted for them either. But, of course, that's where they get you. It's vote for them or let the Fascists in control. Some choice.

One of the most exhausting thing about bothsidism is that the Bully in a situation wins. This is extremely tiring to see, and it works out thus: a Bully hits or picks on someone, to the point that the person finally hits back. The person who was tormented is then blamed as being equally bad to the Bully that started it.

People who think otherwise ought to consider the types of stories they enjoy. Do you like ones where a Hero defeats a Villain? Well, I'm sorry, the Hero is just as bad as the Villain for fighting back. That's where this bothsidism goes. There's neither Right nor Wrong, nor Truth of any kind, only a relativism that encourages the worst types of human behavior because we cannot, dare not, say that people have a right to defend themselves or fight back against oppression.

Both  heavensteed and  longtom have made remarks that have gotten them suspended. The public nature of it, unfortunately, has gotten a mob of angry furries posting nasty things on their pages.

If we're criticizing people for their behaviors when it comes to acting hatefully towards non-cisgender/non-heterosexual people, can we actually claim any moral high ground if our own response is more or less the same thing? If it also results in suicide, can anyone really say they can live with knowing they've caused another human's death, even indirectly?

If we vilify people who say nasty things to teens or vulnerable people that cause them to kill themselves, how are we any better if we do the same? Because it's a Nazi? Is that moral justification?

Right now I'm dealing with a friend who's afraid that what he says to me will end up on a public forum somewhere. I have another who fears he'll lose his job if one thing he says is remotely construed in the wrong way. Their worries about freedom of speech are along the lines that any dissenting or perceived to be dissenting thoughts will be met with severe punishment. And they're not far off, given the censoring of Mark Twain.

And we still have attacks on people whose accounts are now suspended and cannot reply nor delete the remarks.

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I'm going to be not around a while. I feel very sick over this whole thing. It's always so darkly ironic that when one wants to do the right thing it can also end up causing unintentional harm.

It seems like, for some people, equality is always just too much to ask. Every single time any marginalized group has wanted equal rights, they've always had to fight for them. People can say that this is Racial Conflict Theory in action, but it doesn't make it less tiring or sad.

Here in the US it is especially egregious because of our long history of genocide and slavery and various rights violations. People will refuse to admit such happened or, worse, they'll say any history written is simply Left bias or rewriting of history.

White people seem to like viewing ourselves as distinct, as above all others, as the light of Civilization in a dark, barbaric world. To maintain this useful bit of propaganda, our history books and classes are all tailored around this lie. Other cultures, other countries, other civilizations--if they're talked about at all--are summarily dismissed. If anyone asks why, they'll get an answer of "there's not enough time to cover all history", but if a school wants to teach more on them, conservatives will block it with vengeance.

So, really, there's a desire to keep the truth of the bravery and accomplishments of non-cis/het folks hidden. It could be taught but will not be because it disrupts the narrative of White Superiority.

It starts here.

One of the reasons I tend to feel so hopeless about the future is because it seems like nothing I do will actually change the course of events that seem destined to play themselves out.

Besides the various environmental disasters caused by about 100 businesses and crypto users, former democracies seemed destined to turn into authoritarian regimes. There just doesn't seem to be much hope of reversing it.

We're not safe here in the US. 70% of Republicans still don't believe Biden won the presidency freely and fairly. If the election were as fraudulent as thought, the Democrats would have won hands down on all levels, but outside the presidency there weren't that many Democratic wins. But, sure, let's overturn results in states where Republicans won seats in the House and Senate...oh, no, wait, they only want Trump to be president. Why I don't know as I found him foulsome.

So there are increasingly repressive voting laws that aren't designed to protect the integrity of the voting system so much as make it nearly impossible for people who'd vote Democrat to vote at all. Republicans who break ranks and turn on Trump are being ousted.

Likely what's next will be authoritarian rule. Republicans in office will devise ways to stay in office and continue to hurt dissenters by making protesting illegal (never mind the First Amendment). When they've done this to the point peaceful protest is no longer possible, they'll next label people terrorists for taking up arms and probably pass restrictive gun control measures (never mind the Second Amendment).

So, yeah, a great future of environmental collapse and societal collapse await.

Has anyone else been getting submission notifications without any actual submissions appearing? Like I can nuke the (apparently) non-existing submissions but check all won't work.

https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/br.....-20210418.html

I can already guess who's likely to side with the police in this, should they decide to respond. They won't care a church was blocked either because to them the police can do no wrong.

Oh my! It seems the peaceful protests against the military coup in Myanmar have turned violent! We had best condemn such actions and side with the military, right? /s

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God I can't express my absolute loathing of people who continue to defend police actions against civilians or who condemn people when riots break out against authoritarians. You don't care about freedom, you care about control! You want a society where everyone and everything is neatly in its place and blame people who are the victims of violence when they finally have had enough and strike back! You'll even go so far as to use private stores attacked because it's easier to blame people for rioting and pillaging than to agree that the reason they're doing so--the attack on their communities, the death of their loved ones, the sheer racism that's always been present in the US has any sort of legitimacy at all.

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Don't believe me?

Here's the Declaration of Independence highlighted for your convenience:

In Congress, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Apparently Biden is seizing more land along the border, including from a family that was there from before there was a border.

It's not news he's also failed to stop the Pipeline either.

I get so sick of my choices in the US. I can vote for the Republicans who want to see me stuffed into a closet (or worse), or the Democrats who promise a lot but never do anything or, worse, renege on their promises.

An important note at the start of this. I am not, in fact, feeling particularly suicidal, just very worn down from recent events and want to get this stuff somewhere other than in my head.

One of the worst problems with having despair in my head is that I always end up wondering if it's worth going on. This is only increased every time some new and horrifyingly repressive bill is made into law by some state.

I often question the sanity of continuing in a life where things inevitably will go down hill. Where the bright patches of happiness and hope will become fewer and fewer until all that's left is the drudgery of continuation until death inevitably occurs anyway.

I can't even count on most people in my faith to back me up and no one considers how terribly lonely that can make people feel. Everyone just seems to assume you can love anyone you want, and I'm sure quite a number of "good Christians" would be happy to regale me with tales of homosexual friends and family members who went celibate or "converted" successfully or married and are "happy" in a "normal marriage".

As for the anti-porn bills, these same faithful would probably argue the importance of them, not caring that ruling by religious law makes them the same as any of the various states that impose strict and harsh punishments based on religious beliefs. It's always interesting how many fear Sharia but never worry about the Christian version of it amounting to the same thing.

With more and more authoritarian governments around the world, it's hard to find anything to hope for, except an early death. It's hard to feel like life will be worth living ten years from now, when I can look forward to being hated by the government for being gay, possibly jailed or even killed. Assuming the world isn't on fire thanks to climate change.

What do I have to look forward to? The death of my parents and siblings and friends? My own gradual decay? A society increasingly authoritarian to the point that we lose our democracy? A world increasingly authoritarian to the point of no democracies? A future filled with increasing natural disasters and the extinction of beloved species thanks to climate change?

No matter how much I try to read up on good news, it always seems too little too late or too small a candle against the waves of greed and control desiring to snuff it out forever.

Grown ups find the idea of respecting children to be strange, to say the least. Children, I think they'd argue, are young and do not know much, and so should listen to their elders. Grown ups, on the other hand, feel they have no obligation to listen to children.

This leads to all sorts of problems, not the least of which is child abuse of various sorts since the kids quickly learn they'll just be dismissed out of hand.

This goes in other matters too. A child might not like their given name and so adopts a nickname which they prefer to be called by. Perhaps all their friends and most of their family call them by (or know them by) the nickname. But, of course, you will have the grown ups that won't. Relatives that refuse to or, worse, teachers.

In the case of relatives, there's not much to be done. If they're being particularly nasty you just stop having them over. In the case of teachers it's a bigger issue. A teacher has all sorts of power over children and isn't easily eluded. If the teacher refuses to use a nickname in favor of a given name, all they are showing is that they do not care at all for how the child feels. If they cared about the well-being of the child, they'd use the name the child chooses to be called by, not force them to endure day in and day out a name they don't like. Particularly they should never have the right to humiliate a child just because they can.

Children should not be forced to endure humiliation. They should not be forced to hug or kiss relatives either, since all this teaches them is that grown ups can, at will, force themselves bodily onto a child. They should not be told that their thoughts and feelings are of little or no value.

They will be anyway, with many grown ups approving and some calling for even more horrendous things to be done to kids because they, themselves, suffered it.

For your viewing displeasure.

I'm so sick of this stuff. What's the problem with letting folks be who they are? How fragile is your world view that your response to handling this is basically "burn it to the ground"?

My previous journal. I think we've reached the point where a cop could kill a baby in a crib and people would say the cop was justified.

No matter how young, I think a cop could easily murder someone in this country and any and all people protesting it would be met with "why didn't they obey orders" even if it was obvious that the orders were contradictory. Any and all points about racism would be dismissed out of hand.

My strongly held opinion is that if you're a cop who says people ought to be afraid of you, you should not be a cop. You're supposed to be a protector not a thug. This is in reference to this.

If you're going to make any arguments on the sides of the cops, please don't. If you do anyway, I'm going to block you because I am utterly fed up with that sort of behavior being justified in any way, shape or form and I am not at all in the mood to put up with Gestapo sympathizers.

As more Republican-controlled states pass more restrictive voting laws (based on no evidence of wrong-doing other than someone not-Republican winning), I fully expect a violent overthrow of the government to occur. Not because I support violence but because, once peaceful transfers of power have been eliminated, once any other party even winning has been eliminated, and the only party in power intends to keep it as long as possible, then there's no other recourse but violence.

Another anti-LGBT+ Bill: denial of medical services.

I seriously wonder why I even identify as Catholic or Christian anymore. It's quite obvious the people claiming it have no compassion for others at all.

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And, oh look, more cake nonsense.

It's so much fun being a Christian with these fellows in Christ, let me tell you! It's such a joy to watch them do this sort of thing and make everyone in the world see Christians as stuck-up anti-LGBT+ everyone not part of their little group!

I am completely done with this! What is even the point of being Christian if your values are going to be pissing on other people because you somehow feel it's against your religion to serve them? What are you even standing up for?

Aren't paying much attention.